This is the seventh article in our 8-part series of weekly blog posts called "The Good, the Bad, the Possibilities". For this series, we are asking local experts three questions to give you a quick overview of recent local trends and solutions with respect to a range of important issues that affect our community's sustainability. This week’s topic is local food, and our featured expert is Erin Hostetler, Board Member for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Food Policy Council. Continue reading

You may be familiar with your local farmers market, or try to buy locally grown foods when you grocery shop. But do you know how our Charlotte-regional food economy stacks up against other peer regions? On September 12th, over 100 people joined us at The Barrel Room at Catawba Brewing to learn about local foods and how they can make a difference. We were excited to have representatives from Carolina Farm Trust, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Food Policy Council, and Rivendell Farms in the room to talk to people about the work they’re doing, in addition to our presenter, Tom Warshauer, Assistant Director of Community Engagement for the City of Charlotte. Continue reading

At their September 10th meeting, the Charlotte City Council Environment Committee received an update on the Strategic Energy Action Plan (SEAP) that outlined the timeline and stakeholder engagement process. Continue reading

Many senior adults in Charlotte struggle to maintain their mobility as they age, often resulting in social isolation and inability to meet daily needs. The gaps in Charlotte’s transportation network and barriers to mobility for seniors, particularly for those seniors who rarely leave their homes, are not fully understood. Thanks to the generous support of Southminster, Sustain Charlotte partnered with residents in four neighborhoods to evaluate a wide variety of factors that may limit senior mobility including health, safety, infrastructure, personal finances, knowledge of transportation options, comfort level using various transportation modes, and desire to maintain personal mobility. The goal was to not only identify specific mobility challenges that prevent Charlotte seniors from traveling to their desired daily destinations, but to also envision how the mobility needs of senior residents could be addressed. In this way, this is both a research and an action project with the project’s approach and outcomes being replicable in other Charlotte neighborhoods in the future. Sustain Charlotte worked with residents in Lincoln Heights, Hidden Valley, Washington Heights, University Park, and the West Blvd corridor, hosting workshops and conducting door-to-door surveying to identify specific senior mobility challenges. Continue reading

Charlotte City Council’s Transportation and Planning Committee resumed their usual schedule of monthly meetings on Monday, August 27th.  The committee received updates on the Comprehensive Plan and the Transit Oriented Development Districts. Planning Director Taiwo Jaiyeoba introduced Garet Johnson, Planning Department, as the project manager for the Comprehensive Plan. Continue reading

Ready for faster, more direct bus service with new opportunities to transfer between routes outside of Uptown? Big changes are coming in less than a month!  At their August meeting, the Metropolitan Transit Commission (MTC) board members unanimously approved changes to 21 bus routes. The changes will take effect on October 1st.  After decades with no changes, Route 8 will be streamlined and extended to better serve more riders. Continue reading

Thanks to you, we had the biggest turn out to date for a Shifting Gears workshop! On Thursday, August 23rd, close to 70 people come out to Birdsong Brewing for an evening of bikes and fun! The goal for every Shifting Gears public action workshop is for each attendee to leave with one action that they can undertake to help advance biking in Charlotte and one community contact to help them along the way.  These actions can be anything from biking to work regularly, trying dockless bikeshare for the first time, or volunteering. Whether interested in biking but haven’t yet started, a weekend warrior, or a daily bike commuter -- everyone has a part to play in helping realize our City’s new vision for bicycling in Charlotte. Continue reading

Sustain Charlotte has joined dozens of organizations based in North Carolina in submitting a letter to the federal Council on Environmental Quality in opposition to a proposed overhaul of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations. Continue reading

This is the sixth article in our 8-part series of weekly blog posts called "The Good, the Bad, the Possibilities". For this series, we are asking local experts three questions to give you a quick overview of recent local trends and solutions with respect to a range of important issues that affect our community's sustainability. This week’s topic is energy, and our featured experts are Mike Davis, Director of Membership for the NC Sustainable Energy Association, and Joel Olsen, CEO of O2 emc.  Continue reading

Most people who ride transit for daily transportation reach their stops by walking. But how safe is that walk (or bike ride) to and from transit? And how many people who might want to ride transit choose not to because they can't reach stops safely? In this latest blog post on transit equity, we explore how Charlotte is using a Vision Zero approach to work towards eliminating traffic-related deaths and severe injuries. Pedestrians and cyclists are the most vulnerable users of streets. (image: CDOT) Continue reading