Charlotte Region

This is the second part in a three-part series. Read Part 1: Turning to musical heritage to fuel the future to catch up on the story. You can find Part 3: ‘A 38-year overnight success story’ online as well. What happened in Shelby played out across the Carolinas, where textiles were once the driver of […]

This is the first part in a three-part series. Read Part 2: ‘We needed to do something bold’ and Part 3: ‘A 38-year overnight success story’ for the next parts of the story. Thirteen years later, Brownie Plaster is still bemused by the chorus of laughs that rose one May afternoon in 2006. At the […]

Thanks to a brutal early fall heat wave, much of September felt more like July. As a result, I have not spent as much time outside as I would have liked. Last Friday, however, I was able to break away and spend the morning at Morrow Mountain State Park. A friend and myself hiked the […]

Can philanthropy foster greater regional connection? Yes, according to our research for the Carolinas Urban-Rural Connection project. But it’s not just the movement of money that matters, say local leaders: it’s the regional exchange of ideas about how to put that money to work that seems to make a difference. Community foundations, by definition, have […]

Charitable giving is an invisible thread binding people and communities together across the 32-county Carolinas Urban-Rural Connection study region — but how much people give, and what resources are available, varies from place to place. The Carolinas Urban-Rural ConnectionA special project from the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute Read about the project here Introduction: Strengthening ties […]

Are rural leaders different than their urban counterparts? And how can programs that develop leaders bridge the gap between them, if indeed there is one? With leadership emerging as a key issue in research for the Carolinas Urban-Rural Connections project, we asked several leadership programs in the Carolinas about their experiences working with leaders from […]

Think of an important waterway: You’re probably picturing a rushing river, a huge lake or a roaring waterfall. But what about the humble creek running through the woods near your house? That’s where most of our waterways start, and if those creeks aren’t healthy, our larger waterways won’t be healthy either. Creek Week is a […]

The city of Charlotte has a long reach. While this is certainly not a surprise, we don’t really know much about how Charlotte influences its surroundings and how far this reach extends. We do have some conventions to help us understand the extent to which our region is connected. Metropolitan areas are commonly used to […]

[Read the full report here] It was a cold January day in 2018 when eight researchers from UNC Charlotte’s Urban Institute stepped out into the brisk air in Hamlet, a small town in Richmond County, N.C. A dusting of snow from a surprise storm the previous day still covered the railroad tracks adjacent to the […]

After visiting a city with a waterfront, maybe stopping for a drink and a bite to eat along whichever river or ocean it’s built along, I’m usually left with one overriding thought: “Wow, Charlotte could really use some of this.” Water plays a prominent role in the design and history of most cities, whether it be a river, bay or ocean. And Charlotte’s skyline and downtown sit tantalizingly close-but-yet-so-far from a major river and lake system. So, the question looms: Why isn’t Charlotte built on the water?