CLT Blog

I knowed their wuz sumpin rong wit dis soon as I seed it. Wunder if the City of Charlotte knoes yet? Looky the other pickture in the gallery up thare for comparison’s sake. They jus put up all them fancy new Wayfindin signs but i gess Independence just ain’t gettin no luv anymoar. Saw thissun [...]

Selling your first place in Charlotte? Then HGTV is looking for you! My First Sale, the popular HGTV show, is looking for first-time home sellers (and their real estate agents!) in the Charlotte, NC area. We are looking for fun, high-energy first-time home sellers who are just starting the process of selling their first place!  [...]

New 96-gallon green bins collected once every other week Which week are you? Check this handy map produced by The Observer to see if you’re in an orange or green pickup zone (or search your address on GeoPortal, then refer to the calendar above Which day are you? Check out this PDF map of zones [...]

watch this video in HD on YouTube We’re wrapping up our series on the Mecklenburg County budget with County Commissioner Jennifer Roberts. Questions indexed below for easy reference. Just last week, you and the Board of Commissioners approved the final Mecklenburg County budget for the 2011 fiscal year. How do you feel now? (0:19) How [...]

photo: Kevin Womack “The Duke Energy Center has earned platinum-level LEED certification under the sustainable standards established by the U.S. Green Building Council. (…) Work began in 2006 on the uptown tower, which was originally designed for LEED Gold, the third-highest of four levels. (BofA’s new uptown office tower adjacent to The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte is [...]

image credit: The AARoads Blog “Gov. Bev Perdue made it official Thursday morning, signing a contract with Blythe Construction Inc. to finish the I-485 beltway. Perdue, standing in front of a backhoe and a dump truck at the local offices of the state transportation department, called the controversial design-build-finance plan ‘a new chapter’ in how [...]

watch this video in HD on YouTube We took questions earlier this week via the blog, Facebook and Twitter; as well as assembled some questions of our own. On Tuesday, we sat down with County Manager Harry Jones and asked the following: What do you do as County Manager? How did we get here? Why [...]

Bottom line: $350-400 million will get us a Blue Line extension past NoDa to Sugar Creek, on a shorter timeframe than waiting for the whole line to be built all the way to UNC Charlotte and 485. This, to me, makes the future of light rail reaching UNC Charlotte extremely uncertain. At least in the [...]

view this image on Flickr It appears this is for internal government use; read: not for home. Still cool to see traction made though. Via @minifail. “The grants and awards available in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act are attractive, but competition is fierce. In late January 2010, 1,400 stimulus grant applicants received rejection letters [...]

photo credit: James Willamor “Residents in Plaza Midwood say their east side corner of central Charlotte is becoming an urban district with enough appeal to draw visitors from other parts of the city. Those visitors are willing to leave their cars behind to stroll on sidewalks lined with a small, eclectic collection of local businesses [...]

The news of the final plans being revealed for the last stretch of I-485 are big enough. But these 3D video renderings are amazing. The first video flies over the undeveloped final leg as 485 and all its bridges and exits fill in behind you. The second video shows in detail the massive 485-85 interchange. [...]

“We’re creating infrastructure for human beings, rather than automobiles,” says Michael Smith, CEO of Center City Partners in Charlotte, a group of business leaders that has helped lead a revival of the city’s downtown. Creating a new infrastructure means new rules, experts say. What’s on the way out: sprawling interstates, suburban living, long car commutes. [...]