Articles

The first recipient of a faculty research grant from the Institute for Social Capital, Inc. (ISC) will be Dr. Mason Haber, assistant professor in the UNC Charlotte Department of Psychology. The ISC this fall announced the creation of its first ISC Faculty Research Grant. The purpose of the grant is to provide funding to UNC […]

People move to Charlotte from all over the United States (and around the world). This trend has continued for several decades and shows no sign of slowing. What has been changing is where those people are moving from. And, believe it or not, Mecklenburg County loses more people to some locations than it gains. Recently […]

ISC out and about UNC Charlotte Urban Institute / Institute for Social Capital graduate assistants Charles Warner-Hillard and Alyssa Brown present a poster about ISC at the UNC Charlotte fall 2014 University Business Partner and Faculty reception co-hosted by CRI and the Charlotte Regional Partnership. Amy Hawn Nelson, director of ISC and director of research […]

The Uwharrie National Forest sprawls across three counties with numerous access points, but actually getting out on the trails can be intimidating for locals and visitors alike. Many entrances consist of nothing more than a forbidding yellow gate. The U.S. Forest Service might claim foot traffic is welcome, but without additional signage to indicate where […]

In cities and counties surrounding Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, tensions are swirling over the rate of new residential development, what it should look like and – especially – how to pay for it. Those aren’t new challenges in a metro area that’s been one of the nation’s fastest growing in recent decades. But many communities, […]

Weaving baskets from natural materials. Gathering wild forest plants to create remedies. Whispering an incantation over a skin burn to take away the pain. Those all might sound like traditions from a forgotten age, but they’re activities that are still alive or were recently practiced in North Carolina’s Uwharrie Mountain region, a recent report says. […]

The past year has been a tough one for Charlotteans. We witnessed the public firing of our county manager, the incarceration of our mayor, and the forced resignation of our public school superintendent. We’ve experienced leadership transitions at every level of government and in many of the nonprofits that serve the most vulnerable residents of […]

The 115 ideas for creating a more livable Mecklenburg range from protecting more historic buildings to better training the local workforce to rethinking local residents’ reliance on fescue lawns. They’re all part of the latest draft of the Mecklenburg Livable Communities Plan, unveiled to the public last week. The plan, which is being shown to […]

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to spend a day in the field with two luminaries from the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences. Ornithologist John Gerwin has studied the special population of black-throated green warblers that breeds on forested peaks in the Uwharries, and he was eager to spend some time in our grasslands. […]

Last month PlanCharlotte reported on events that bode well for an evolving local biking culture. (See “To create a bike culture, Charlotte needs …”) Perhaps the capstone came Nov. 4, when the Charlotte voters approved by a whopping 70.2 percent majority allocating $5 million in planning funds for a $35-million cross-county bike-pedestrian trail. Many of […]

Charlotte’s transportation department is launching – again – an initiative to highlight pedestrian needs and improve policies for walkability. The new energy comes after the city landed on some not-so-flattering lists in the past year. In May, the Dangerous by Design report from the National Complete Streets Coalition and Smart Growth America ranked the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia […]

You have probably heard of a number of “Friends” groups, such as “Friends of State Parks,” or “Friends of the Library,” or any of a number of other groups. These groups are typically nonprofit organizations formed to help support the work of a local, state or federal government agency. These groups don’t have to be […]