General News
Local business leaders’ positive outlook continues
The second quarter 2012 Charlotte Business Confidence Index report, released April 2, shows Mecklenburg County business leaders’ optimism about economic prospects in the second quarter improved compared to their expectations for the first quarter 2012. The overall index value of 58.8, an increase of 4.2 points compared to the first quarter, continues an upswing of […]
Water towers of the Charlotte region
Photos by Nancy Pierce Brad Satterwhite wrote this article while interning at the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute in 2012. Although some municipalities use their water towers to make a visual splash – such as the beloved Peachoid in Gaffney, S.C., and the baseball water tower in Fort Mill, S.C. – many others are more subtle, […]
UNC Charlotte’s Institute for Social Capital and Urban Institute to merge
Two of UNC Charlotte’s most visible institutes are merging to create a combined center with unparalleled research capacity to address social issues in the Charlotte region. On March 8, the Institute for Social Capital (ISC) board of directors and UNC Charlotte agreed to merge the ISC staff and operations into the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute, […]
Gastonia, New York, Jane Jacobs and me
New York City and Gastonia don’t, at first glance, appear to have much in common. Yet both Manhattan and the much smaller city in the Piedmont of North Carolina can offer an example of “urbanism.” And both have suffered grave harm from well-intentioned “progress.” Charlotte architect Terry Shook, speaking last month at the showing of […]
Stick to basics in affordable housing strategy
As Charlotte’s real estate market continues to recover from one of the worst economic downturns in modern times, it might be easy to assume that housing affordability is no longer an issue of great concern. But in south Charlotte and other highly desirable parts of Mecklenburg County, home prices continue to remain out of reach […]
Hum’s the word
One of my fondest childhood memories is sitting on the front porch of my grandparents’ house, gentle breeze blowing, sweet tea in hand, listening to the buzz and flight of hummingbirds as they gracefully sipped sugar water from bright red feeders. Sometimes there’d be more than a dozen of them, dancing acrobatically in the air, […]
Charlotte rolls toward N.C.’s first bike-share system
Proponents of bicycle sharing are striving to launch the state’s first system in and near uptown Charlotte as soon as this summer. The system would give paying members access to a fleet of 200 high-tech bikes secured at a network of 20 stations in and around uptown. Bike sharing began in Europe in the 1960s, […]
Transit station futures: Gloomy or bright?
Is it prescient and forward-thinking for the city to encourage subsidized housing at rapid transit stations in coming decades? Or would that be the nail in the coffin, killing any near-term chance to halt a pattern of sinking property values near some of those stations, especially in troubled parts of east and northeast Charlotte? Two […]
Two secrets to city success: Trust and explore
Smart cities around the world use two secret weapons to form leadership and stay ahead of the pack in planning and economic development. One mechanism is internal, an informal, diverse but cohesive planning elite. Another is external, an outward-looking and systematic search for new knowledge, often by visiting other cities. I use “planning” in a […]
CMS: Mapping measures of progress and pain
Data on schools and school districts are abundant. Both the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) and North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s websites hold a wealth of data at both levels. But with a district as large as CMS, it is painstaking work to analyze school-level data in a meaningful way. The MeckEd partner page contains data […]