Thanks to volunteers, Hall House will soon provide shelter for 100 homeless families

The historic Hall House, built in 1940 on Tryon Street as a luxury hotel, sat vacant and in a state of disrepair until just recently. Several charities and government organizations came together to renovate the Charlotte Housing Authority property in order to provide temporary housing for some of the city’s 2,000-plus homeless children and their mothers.

Volunteers showed up by the hundreds January 2nd and 3rd to work on the old structure and prepare it for occupancy. Six floors, each with twenty 600-square-foot units, had to be thoroughly cleaned, painted, have repairs made, and have furniture and beds delivered. Many parents who volunteered brought along their children to help. Three generations of the one family I spoke with showed up Saturday to help with preparations.

Due to fire regulations, all the old stoves had to be removed. Each kitchen will have a working refrigerator and sink, and every floor will have a microwave.  A volunteer stated that the bunk beds were built by local Boy Scouts, and that all bedding such as pillowcases, sheets, and blankets have to be new and unused due to health regulations. Many sets of blankets, sporting numbers and bright logos of race car drivers, were donated by NASCAR. Much of the furniture, such as chairs and nightstands, were donated by a local hotel.

Twenty children and their mothers are expected to begin moving in later this week, with 20 more each following week until the Hall House is home to 100 families. The Hall House is planned to be only a temporary shelter, and volunteers hope to find many of the residents permanent housing by July.

The Hall House is still in need of donations and supplies such as bedding material. If you would like to help, please contact A Child’s Place.

More pictures after the jump.
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Charlotte Rings in the New Year with First Night 2009

Thousands of Charlotte residents crowded uptown to celebrate the new year with First Night 2009. This was the first time First Night has be held in over a decade, and police were out in force to keep the event safe. First Night featured live bands, cultural performances, ice sculptures, and plenty of food vendors. Bars were packed all around uptown, and while there were no major incidents, police made several arrests.

Read on for a ton of photos from the event.
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Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

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photo credit: Justin Ruckman

Happy Holidays from the entire CLT Blog Crew. Hope everyone is having a merry Christmas and has a happy New Year. We would love to hear your holiday stories, so feel free to share them in the comments. Also any sweet holiday pictures, we would love to see them too.

Now that Christmas is here, what is going on in Charlotte for New Year’s?

Check out Christmas pictures from around Charlotte on Flickr.

UNC Charlotte flash mob rave redux

More video and a couple awesome pics from the flash mob rave at UNC Charlotte last night.

video credit: Josh Yates, watch on Vimeo

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photo credit: Alex Krohn

Video from last night’s flash mob rave @ UNC Charlotte

Another Merrie Kinninnik, a Christmas compilation

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Check out Charlotte-based Kinninnik Records‘ Christmas 2008 Christmas compilation: Another Merrie Kinninnik. Features local acts such as Yardwork; Andy the Door Bum; Calabi Yau; George Brazil; Black Congo, NC; and Jail Sucks.

You can download it from MediaFire here. Hat tip to @CharlotteMusic and Shufflezine.tv for the good word. If you have problems, let us know — we can host a mirror.

The album is 77 minutes long with 20 tracks:

01 - Javier “Jingle Bells”
02 - Buschovski “Merry Christmastime”
03 - Yardwork “Tricker Treating”
04 - Human Pippi Armstrong “Snowman Mail Your Message”
05 - Marie Byrd Land and Uncle Own Aunt Beru “All Out Of Darkness”
06 - Andy the Door Bum “It’s Getting Cold”
07 - Bob Fields “Christmas psst.”
08 - Calabi Yau “Don’t Touch My Ho Ho, Cause That’s A No No”
09 - George Brazil “The Number One Song In Heaven”
10 - Foxchase “December 26th”
11 - Tenspeed “Xmas song(s)”
12 – Robby Owen Hale “1989″
13 - Black Congo, NC “James Brown Day Parade”
14 - Lani And Her Button Collection “Winter Threads”
15 - Sonic Death Rabbit “WHAM! LastXmas”
16 - Coma League “Into The New Year”
17 - Ultimate Optimist “Russ”
18 - Uncle Own Aunt Beru “Swarming Hearts Around Christmas Lights”
19 - Peace In “The Good Night”
20 - Unsolved Mysteries “Blood”
21 - Javier “Little Drummer Boy”
22 - Jail Sucks “Mike Watt, Christmas Valentine”

In their own words:

“We can’t describe how proud we are of how this compilation turned out. It is amazing, definitely warrants repeated listening, and every track is solid. 77 minutes may sound a bit daunting, but throw it own when you’re hanging around the house this season. You will feel it.

This thing is FREE! We will try to keep a steady stream of these on the counter at Lunchbox Records, the coolest spot in town. They’re going fast, and as of now there are only 200 color copies. Because of cost, subsequent copies will be black and white. The art work KILLS. We will post the entire comp through a sharing site. In the next day or so. Feel free to download and share if you’re unable to get a physical copy. If you have any questions or special requests for copies, please message us here.

Merrie Kinnikinnik,

-B & E”

Charlotte radio prepares to get authentic

The surrounding airwaves are filled with little more than top 40 pop, rock, hip-hop and country. Queen City music lovers frequently lament the lack of radio options available. Is there any hope for local genuine music on the radios of Charlotte?

Much like Uptown, Charlotte radio has been dominated by corporate entities for far too long. As our banks grew bigger, gobbling up smaller independent banks, our radio stations followed suit. Now FM options are relegated to nothing but popular music streamed straight from the programmers at Clear Channel. Aside from occasional breaths of fresh air from NPR stations 90.7 WFAE and 89.9 WDAV along with classic rock  from 95.7 THE RIDE, the city needs a radio station that embraces local roots.

Enter the re-emerging WNCW based at Isothermal Community College in Rutherford County. Broadcasting from Clingman’s Peak, one of the highest points east of the Mississipi at 6,499 feet, this little station with only twelve full time staff members is prepared to shake up the radio offerings in Charlotte. Already covering much of Western NC, from west of Waynesville to SC’s upstate in Spartanburg and Greenville, WNCW is finalizing expansion plans for a Charlotte broadcast frequency.

Starting early next year, WNCW will become Charlotte’s home for local NC music. From americana to bluegrass and the independent music of NPR’s World Café, Charlotteans will finally have some non-corporate radio options.

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Uptown ice skating

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photo credit: @sleuth

open until: January 4th, 2009
when: 11am – 10pm
where: The Green Uptown
Price: $7 admission; $3 skate rental

WB’s Holiday on Ice is one of my personal favorite things to do during the holidays. I have already have had the chance to go this year, and it was pretty great, minus a few falls. It is located at the the Green Uptown right across from the Convention center; which means direct LYNX access. Don’t worry if you need skates, they have skate rentals there, but they only have hockey skates though. You can also get a season pass for $45 that include skate rentals, or $35 if you have your own. Oh yea remember to bring cash they don’t take debit.

When I went a couple weeks ago there were quite a few people, and the employees there said it would only get busier. There was a handbell choir, and a surprise solo from a trumpet player from his townhouse next to the skating rink. It all really put me into the holiday spirit, and something you do not want to miss. Also you can hit up Fuel Pizza after you are done skating because it is only a few steps away. Skating + Fuel Pizza = Awesome Night!

To get more into check out the Holiday on Ice site.

Also, check out what is going on there by watching their webcam.

Coca-Cola and Charlotte working together for recycling

“Put a Coca-Cola sticker on your recycling bin next year, make sure you follow city recycling rules, and you could win $50.

That’s the gist of a yearlong promotion the Charlotte-based Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated is hoping to start in February. It’s aimed at increasing recycling, and advocates applaud the effort as a simple, fun way to encourage residents to care about the environment. (…)

Coca-Cola’s Spartanburg plant makes new soda bottles out of old ones, which is cheaper than using “virgin” plastic resin, said Boo Hayes, chief financial officer at United Resource Recovery Corp., a co-owner of the plant. By 2010, it is expected to be the world’s biggest “bottle-to-bottle” recycling facility in the world. By January, it will be able to produce 55 million pounds of recycled plastic each year. (…)

Coke Consolidated plans to spend $200,000 on the promotion in Charlotte, the closest large city to Spartanburg. It will create educational materials with the help of the city and Keep Mecklenburg Beautiful, a county organization.”

Read more by Julia Oliver at the Observer. Does Charlotte have what it takes to be an example in green technology and social programs?

McCrory will not seek re-election as mayor

Watch the video he released today, making his announcement.

However, he is still considering future political activity:

“Although I will not seek re-election as mayor, this will hopefully not be my last position in an elected office. I will explore and strongly consider running for other elected office at either the state or federal level. I still have the desire to serve and believe there is a calling for me in public service.”