Articles

Local air quality, says Brian Magi, is “a resource we should cherish and protect.” And it’s the subject of some of the more wide-ranging research he has underway. Magi is assistant professor of atmospheric sciences at UNC Charlotte in the Geography and Earth Sciences Department. He spoke about what he has learned so far about […]

When Mayor Pro Tem Vi Lyles convened the Charlotte City Council’s five-member Transportation and Planning Committee on Feb. 8, the City Council members may not have realized just how much Ed McKinney, the city’s interim planning director, was about to reveal in his progress report on a new city zoning ordinance. At the last update […]

In neighborhoods like mine in Charlotte, squirrels are generally considered a nuisance. A dearth of predators and an abundance of acorns sustain an unnaturally large population. The scoundrels raid our birdfeeders and pilfer fruits and vegetables from our tiny food plots. (I know a woman who pops them with an airsoft rifle when they perch […]

For many decades, the complex and difficult challenges of housing low-income Charlotteans have been the source of local studies, public debate, public policy formation and a variety of actions. This short paper is intended to trace the evolution of the challenges in Charlotte and the responses to them, with an eye toward the future for […]

Jim Matthews walks through the damp woods, and as he does, he pays no attention to the branches dripping with last night’s rain, the mucky path or the scolding of jays overhead. Those things don’t matter to Matthews. Not when he’s trying to explain the sex life of ferns. “This is the sterile leaf and […]

Could the SouthPark mall area of Charlotte ever grow into a collection of neighborhoods that more resemble a city than suburban developments? What would it look like? What are the possibilities? The question is timely. Already, about 2,400 new apartments, as well as office towers and mixed-use projects are proposed or in the works. Tuesday […]

[highlightrule] “ ‘Status quo,’ you know, is Latin for the mess we’re in.” — President Ronald Reagan [/highlightrule] The tension and rhetoric about whether to build toll lanes on Interstate 77 is something I’m watching with dispassionate interest. I’m familiar with North Mecklenburg after work there some years ago, but my professional stake in the […]

[highlightrule] The City of Kannapolis bought its own downtown. It’s one of dozens of towns and cities across North Carolina hoping to make their downtowns more vibrant. [/highlightrule] In Kannapolis, plans for revitalizing downtown are ambitious, the stakes are high, and, residents say, there is a chance “to create our own destiny.” Unlike any other […]

From mid-December through early-January, tens of thousands of citizen scientists across the Americas will participate in an Audubon Christmas Bird Count. This wildlife census effort began in 1900 as an alternative to the traditional Christmas “Side Hunt,” a competition that entailed killing as many birds and mammals as possible. The only formal count in the […]

We hope you’ve enjoyed our offerings this year. We have compiled the 2015 articles that attracted the most readers. If you missed them the first time around, here’s another chance. The best-read article for the year—which dwarfed all others in page visits— was published in February: “Ever wondered … why don’t Charlotte streets run north-south?” […]

The old planners’ joke is that Americans hate two things for their cities—urban sprawl and high density. The joke, of course, is that developing at low densities, such as one house per acre or half acre, spreads the same amount of housing across more acreage—in other words, sprawl. Higher-density development—typically multifamily—has been a topic of […]

We hope you’ve enjoyed our offerings this year. In case you missed them, here are some of the 2015 articles that attracted the most readers to the institute’s websites, and, farther down this page, to our PlanCharlotte.org online publication. The best-read article for the year—which dwarfed all others in page visits— was published in February […]