General News

If “superstar” cities rationalize their land-use policies, what does it mean for the Charlotte region? As the global economy increasingly rewards technological innovation, the gains from productivity enhancements have not been distributed evenly across cities and regions. The residents of so-called “superstar” cities–including Boston, New York, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle–have captured a disproportionate […]

Michael Gallis is a longtime planner with a big idea for Charlotte: Throw out the city’s transit expansion plans and start from scratch. Gallis — who’s been involved in some of the big plans guiding Charlotte’s future, including the original five-corridor transit plan developed before the Blue Line light rail — doesn’t hold back when […]

If there’s one constant in Charlotte, it’s change. And while the pace of new building and construction might make you think Charlotte doesn’t have much history (at least, not much left), there’s plenty to explore in the city’s past. The rebranding and upcoming changes to the Epicentre got me thinking about the ephemeral nature of […]

Charlotte loves its trees. But are we willing to do all that we can to save them? That’s the paradoxical question confronting Jane Singleton Myers, executive director of TreesCharlotte. The city’s iconic tree canopy has shrunk from 49% to 45% coverage as of 2017, and likely more in the five years since the last comprehensive […]

Our first Schul conversation this fall focused on gentrification and displacement – a conversation that’s necessary and often difficult. The discussion featured three panelists: one of our Gambrell Faculty Fellows, Dr. Kendra Jason; Charlotte attorney and community housing advocate, Ismaail Qaiyim; research economist at the US Census Bureau, Dr. Kate Pennington; and our Director of […]

Charlotte’s transit plan is dead — long live the Charlotte region’s transit plan? It’s been almost two years since the $13.5 billion Charlotte MOVES plan was unveiled, and there have been weeks of hints that changes are coming to the city’s plan for expanded rail, bus and other transportation options. Now, the shape and scope […]

No local issue has been bigger than housing in Charlotte for the past few years — specifically, how much it costs to find a place to live. The soaring cost of housing dominates local news, local government meetings and local conversations. Talk to anyone in Charlotte, and it won’t be long before you hear some […]

The 1986 animated film An American Tail celebrates America’s story of immigration in the late 1800s and early 1900s–using mice as stand-ins for the humans who came to these shores from Eastern and Southern Europe. The anthropomorphic rodents’ unrealistic hopes for their new home were best expressed in the song “There Are No Cats in […]

From seemingly endless heat waves in the west to catastrophic floods from Kentucky to Pakistan, a drumbeat of extreme weather has dominated the news this summer. In Charlotte, it can feel like we’re not on the front lines of climate change — we’re not on the coast watching sea levels creep up, or out west […]

I love playing matchmaker in my garden. I introduce plants that will be compatible in terms of color, texture and form. As with humans, the best relationships achieve a balance of contrast and harmony. For example, I paired little bluestem and rattlesnake master because they share the same blue foliage, but one is coarse and […]