Last week, we gave a presentation to some members of the Mecklenburg County Board of County Commissioners about the importance of greenways. Earlier this month, at our Grow Smart CLT event, we heard from residents who are mobilizing their neighbors to advocate for more parks and greenways.

We wanted to share why greenways are so important and provide some recommendations for expanding the greenway network.

We were thrilled to see the level of enthusiasm for parks and greenways that was demonstrated at our recent Grow Smart CLT event.

We are so thrilled to have been able to participate in two events for the 2019 National Night Out initiative, which encourages communities to come together to reduce crime by hosting neighborhood events and keeping their porch lights on later than normal.

The City of Charlotte’s Planning Department started hosting stakeholder meetings in March with the goal of updating its Tree Ordinance, and invited Sustain Charlotte to be a part of them. We participated in each of the four meetings, providing our knowledge and insight into how important trees are to our Urban Neighborhoods.

We're thrilled to see that Charlotte's City Manager has included full funding for the Cross-Charlotte Trail in his proposed FY20 budget. Below is the letter we sent to the City Council on May 7 (the day after the manager's budget was made public) in support of the proposed funding allocation.