I attended one of the Charlotte Future 2040 Planning Workshops today and was really impressed with the level of engagement and depth of panelists from various departments across the city.

Here is a link to their fancy map tool where you can share input about other projects and programs needed in your community.

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/c22dbcb0aa7e4c77b729519d8a42df9f?item=1

Attention to: Residents of Yugo and surrounding neighborhoods along the E WT Harris corridor

The problem: For those of us who don't drive by choice or otherwise and are tired of walking along the grassy shoulder of Harris to get to and from the stores that are less than a mile away yet our city has offered us no safe and dignified way of getting to safely on foot.

When: There are two Community Area Planning Workshops for NORTH Charlotte happening on 9/24 (virtual) & 9/26 (in person) link below.

Your voice matters! 💬 Together, we can create a safer, more walkable community! 🚸

Why Attend?

• Voice Your Concerns: Share your experiences and ideas to improve pedestrian safety.
• Collaborate: Work with neighbors, local officials, and safety advocates.
• Learn: Gain insights from experts on effective safety measures and strategies. (e.g. https://www.instagram.com/pedestriandignity/?hl=en)

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/community-area-planning-workshops-1781599?utm_medium=paid&utm_source=ig&utm_id=120211598202950143&utm_content=120211598203210143&utm_term=120211598203130143&utm_campaign=120211598202950143&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0BMAABppjgDQHviVarDzFoDpc3LHIfSb3Zcq-ZZbl_jtdUhOKEQ5s1z1BOrDzarw_aem_sjh8cDMiYbYOTJGXstgtMg

Hello! I'm a housing and transit advocate from the Boston area who, for family reasons, will be relocating to the Charlotte area next summer, and I'm trying to do some initial research to find options that would provide some semblance of walkable and pleasant urban neighborhood for my family. Our relatives are southeast of the city, basically past Matthews, so I'm looking in that quadrant of the region.

I guess my question is mostly: what neighborhoods should I take a deeper look at if I'm trying to get: 30ish minutes from Matthews, walking distance to some sort of park situation, ideally coffee shop/food/corner grocery in walking distance (less priority than a park, though). I'm willing to consider biking if there's some sort of infrastructure for it, but I'd be hesitant to try vehicular cycling unless there's dedicated space or it can be done entirely on very quiet streets.

We have a very transit savvy 7 year old, and while my bias is that we'll not be able to find anything with enough transit to be worth putting much daily stock into, being on some of the lines that get to the city center might be a nice bonus. If there are decent bus routes that would be a huge bonus, I've seen stories about Charlotte Urbanists doing benches for bus stops and I'd definitely love to be involved with stuff like that if we end up nearby.

Any other advice or questions I'm not thinking to ask? Appreciate the help!

Hi everyone! I don't expect anyone to know or remember me, but my name is John Holmes and I am an urban policy advocate situated here in East Charlotte, just off Lawyers Road. I've been doing a lot in the background lately ever since I started working full-time, but there's been a lot going on here in the city that I've had my hand on just so you have some brief context. I helped advocate to our City Council for more sidewalk funding (which, I want to stress, thank you to everyone who helped that become a success), we've been able to finally get some bike projects in East Charlotte (check out the Central/Kilborne intersection!), I've also helped out with some of the public engagement work for the Red Line and the Albemarle Corridor Cultural Trail.

Anyway.

I was recently contacted by a city staffer and made aware that a report came online for the public's viewing. The City of Charlotte’s Internal Audit Department recently released their own analysis and report on the City of Charlotte’s Vision Zero program, a program that had the aspirations of ensuring that traffic deaths were brought down to zero. This is a feat that other municipalities are making great strides towards, both here in the United States and abroad, but since its adoption of the plan, Charlotte has seen traffic deaths, especially for pedestrians and cyclists, continue to rise.

The report has several take-aways and looks at the interaction between Charlotte’s Department of Transportation, Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department, NC DOT, and the city's contractors, but looking at this from my own background of traffic safety advocacy and being a Strong Towns member, here are the items that stuck out to me:

1. Charlotte’s Department of Transportation has not fully implemented many key components of the Vision Zero Action Plan and does not have a designated individual, with the authority to make decisions, in place to redesign and retrofit our streets to be safer. Until the City places that authority into the hands of someone able to make these decisions, we will continue to suffer these deaths.

2. The CIty of Charlotte’s staff, contracts, and police force do not understand the dangers of blocking sidewalks and bike lanes, even though the city has a standing policy against this.

3. Working Vision Zero programs will see a traffic death occur and examine the variables in order to mitigate them and create a safer environment. If you see that someone was hit in a crosswalk at a lethal speed, you decide to narrow the crossing lane and also raise the crosswalk so that vehicles are forced by default to slow down. Our Vision Zero program does not create projects in response to deaths.

4. We are equating law enforcement being involved with traffic stops as an effective means of reducing traffic deaths - there is not a single successful Vision Zero program that has succeeded because of traffic stops. The issue is, and has always been, that our roadways are dangerously designed and place people in situations where they are induced into driving at high speeds. We can pull people over for speeding on North Tryon’s four-lane roads past its 45 MPH speed limit and pat ourselves on the back for that, but we don’t realize that:

   A) That legal speed limit of 45 MPH is 80% likely to outright kill any pedestrians or cyclists;

   B) People do not speed on roads that are smaller and tightly designed - the fatalities we see on North Tryon are not found at the same frequency on the cramped streetscapes of NoDa or SouthEnd.

5. The City of Charlotte is at odds with North Carolina DOT when it comes to its priorities for transportation. In 2021, rezoning request RZP-2021-015 was filed to rezone a parcel off West Boulevard to accommodate more density in the form of townhomes. Charlotte’d DOT staff sent it back to the developer, making the request to add in bike lanes, extend the sidewalk connections, and a bus shelter. The developer agreed to do this and cover the cost -- only for NCDOT to step in and remove the bike lane, sidewalk extension, and bus shelter from the stop without explanation.

That’s all I have for now - I hope everyone finds some value in this, reaches out to their respective representatives to encourage them to seek out solutions for these issues (such as restructuring Charlotte DOT to have that needed authority figure and getting to the root of why NCDOT is at odds with the City), and (most importantly) stays safe. Have a wonderful start to your week.

Warmest regards,

John E. Holmes III

I walked around plaza today and all I could notice is cars parked illegally everywhere. Cars parked on sidewalks, cars parking in grassy areas, cars parked in the middle of streets. This doesn’t even cover the number of curb cuts we have given to driveways. I felt like I was going to be run over walking around on the sidewalk in the business district. Feels very inhospitable.

Question prompted by this post over at r/urbanplanning . Curious what everyone thinks -- I'm certain we've got some major ones but I'm a transplant from Virginia Beach since 2016 and nowhere near educated enough on the city's history to even take a guess.

I know this issue was raised several days ago and dismissed as rumor, but I’m concerned that we are overlooking a critical detail due to semantics.

Joe Bruno reported that there will “100% be a path”, but my response to this is that the existence of a path is not in dispute.

The CLTDevelopment account argues that land can’t be considered private it it’s leased from the city… but can you walk into the stadium at any time or without a ticket?

In the rezoning documents, the current tunnel beneath the train tracks adjacent to the stadium is now marked with the word “PRIVATE”. The zoning documents also say the connector “Shall not be considered a frontage and may be closed for events.”

For years, West Charlotte residents have experienced Tepper closing off the tunnel during practices, landscaping maintenance and before prepping for concerts. This is without a permit, when he had no right to do so.

There is no reason in the scope of the practice field expansion to grant an unreliable character the exclusive right to close the tunnel. West Charlotte was already seriously harmed by I77 when it cut off safe access to uptown. This is the last safe pedestrian and cyclist route from the west side into the city, and none of us want to be out on Morehead risking our lives to get to work or an event.

TLDR: yes we know a path will stay, but giving Tepper control to close it at any time will burden west Charlotte, cyclists and pedestrians. Is a blocked path still a path?

The community is circulating a petitionand engaging with community leaders.