Alcoa and the Yadkin River: What’s next?

Last week, the Appellate Court for the District of Columbia ruled against Alcoa’s petition requesting that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) proceed with issuing the company a new license to continue operating its dams along the Yadkin River. This ruling was not the final determination concerning who will own and operate Alcoa’s dams and reservoirs in the future, but rather just the... Read more

Census 2010: cities and towns in the Charlotte region

On Wednesday, March 2^nd, the first set of data from the 2010 Census was released for North Carolina counties, cities, towns, etc., providing the first hard population counts for these areas since 2000.   We know that the Charlotte region as a whole has grown rapidly in the last decade, but how has that growth been distributed among the individual cities and towns in the...

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Measuring the Return on Investment

Today’s public libraries are expected to deliver traditional services in a rapidly changing technological environment . As libraries struggle to maintain high quality programs that are financially sustainable, the impact of the recent recession and the consequent decline in financial support further challenges libraries to find ways to survive while continuing to deliver essential services. Read more

Mapping de facto segregation in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools

After boasting one of the nation’s most successful mandatory busing plans to desegregate the district’s schools, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) has once again become increasingly segregated.   This shift has been documented meticulously through numerous recent studies and disseminated to the public through coverage in the local media.  In partnership with...

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