General News

The big picture may have gotten buried Tuesday as Charlotte City Council members chewed – and chewed and chewed – on different alternative revenue strategies that might enable the city to build the second leg of its proposed streetcar. Most of the discussion was about finding ways to pay for the streetcar project that weren’t […]

Are people who are unemployed or financially distressed more likely to vote than those who have jobs or are financially sound? According to data going back to the 1992 general election, they are not. Time will tell whether the job losses and damaged personal finances of the Great Recession featured in this election campaign will […]

When the Democratic National Convention finished its activities in Charlotte, from most reports visitors found Charlotte an exemplary host city. We saw comments such as “retail oriented,” “pedestrian-friendly,” even “lively.” What a difference a couple of decades can make! Recall that in 1994, when Charlotte hosted the NCAA Final Four tournament, Tryon Street was so […]

Cemeteries are popping up in yards across our region. Ghosts and skeletons dangle from nearby trees. Zombies claw their way back to the surface of the earth, refusing to rest in peace. My sister and her kids place their graveyard, Eerie Acres, in a low spot along the driveway where fog often settles in fall. […]

Many people are surprised to learn that agriculture is the No. 1 industry in the state. However, North Carolina is losing farmland faster than any other state – and the number of dairy farms is down dramatically. Agriculture is estimated to be worth more than $70 billion annually to North Carolina’s economy. Agriculture and agribusiness […]

When Allen Nelson moved to Charlotte’s Commonwealth-Morningside neighborhood in 2007, he was drawn to the area’s bungalow-style homes, the graceful, mature shade trees and the tucked-away location so close to downtown. But in Nelson’s view, Commonwealth has some of the same problems of many Charlotte neighborhoods – overflowing trash bins, energy-leaking older homes, a scattershot […]

Read more about report This is the fourth State of the Environment report article. Others examine water quality, air quality and land preservation. Recycling rates are rising, and per capita disposal rates in landfills are down substantially, according to Mecklenburg County’s 2012 State of the Environment Report. The report rates all four indicators in the […]

Remember the Y2K or “Millenium Bug” that was supposed to hit on Jan. 1, 2000? Planes were going to fall from the sky, banks would close and we’d never be the same, because none of our computers would boot up that morning. Health care faces its own Y2K milestone moment. Jan. 1, 2014, is coming, […]

In any other time, the request might not have been so hard. But a nonprofit developer’s plea last week to use $2.3 million in city money from federal grants to help repair Charlotte’s historic Mecklenburg Mill came after a recession and a brutal, lingering downturn. It also came after the City of Charlotte had already […]

With three of the four indicators rated “fair,” Mecklenburg County’s land resources have room for improvement, according to the county’s latest State of the Environment Report. The 2012 report rates four categories of environmental Indicators for land resources: climate change and wildlife, nature preserves, greenways and facility planning. The report did rate climate change and […]