General News

Envisioning a walkable Monroe Road

Categories: General News

PlanCharlotte.org is asking readers to nominate spots in the Charlotte region that need a design makeover. (See our first installment in this series here and last week’s installment here.) Urban designers Keihly Moore and Alex Borisenko have launched a website, www.completeblocks.com, where they’re proposing a series of urban design retrofits, many of them nominated by […]

Why you can’t toss these into your recycling bin

Shredded paper Paper is a popular recycling item so it may seem a bit puzzling that shredded paper is on the do-not-toss list for your curbside recycling bin. It’s just too small for the sorting machines used at Mecklenburg’s recycling processing facility. It can be composted, put in the recycling container at your grocery store […]

Youth Services Catalog

As part of the 2009 youth needs assessment, the institute inventoried youth workforce development programs in Mecklenburg County. The resulting Youth Services Catalog includes all organizations that provide workforce development services for at-risk and disconnected youth in the Charlotte area. It contains a range of information on each program/organization, including basic contact information, whom it […]

David Walters, a voice for urbanism, retires from teaching

When David Walters moved to Charlotte in 1990, you could pretty much fit all the people here who understood urbanism into one room. And when that happened – for instance, at the loosely organized Charlotte Urban Forum breakfast group – Walters was generally right in the thick of it. He’s been in the thick of […]

Mobile market plan meets zoning obstacle

Categories: General News

Back in 2012, Chef Barry Francois had an idea for a new business – a mobile farmers market that would take fresh fruits and vegetables to Charlotte neighborhoods without grocery stores. The idea, pitched as a way to encourage entrepreneurship while providing fresh produce to “food deserts” and other economically distressed areas, won him $12,500 […]

David Walters, on N.C. planning challenges

Categories: General News

We asked UNC Charlotte professor David Walters, who is retiring, what three major planning breakthroughs would he want to see made in North Carolina? “I’d work my first miracle at home. For Charlotte we would have a funded transit system with the associated private development, the tens of thousands of homes and new jobs.” “I’d […]

She’s no lady

“Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen,” noted revered conservationist Aldo Leopold. The trained ecologist, on the other hand, “lives alone in world of wounds.” She takes no pleasure in evergreen thickets of Chinese privet on a dreary winter day. She cringes at patches of lush Japanese stilt grass. She […]

Love your neighborhood? Show it off with a Jane’s Walk

From Hyde Park to Sheffield Park to Madison Park, plenty of Charlotte-area neighborhoods are filled with people who love where they live. Now, they have an opportunity to show the world what’s remarkable about their neighborhoods. Learn more Want to lead a walk? Some tips Read about previous years’ walks: In Jane Jacobs’ footsteps, exploring […]

Imagine Charlotte places, remade: Week 4

In honor of our second anniversary, PlanCharlotte.org is asking readers to nominate spots in the Charlotte region that need a design makeover. (See our first installment in this series here and our second installment here. Urban designers Keihly Moore and Alex Borisenko have launched a website, www.completeblocks.com, where they’re proposing a series of urban design […]

Land trust to host second Uwharrie Naturalist Weekend

The LandTrust for Central North Carolina and staff from the North Carolina Museum of Sciences will host the second annual Uwharrie Naturalist Weekend on May 10 and 11, 2014. This naturalist weekend is the only one of its kind in the area and showcases the 1,300-acre Low Water Bridge Preserve on the Uwharrie River. The […]