The North Carolina State Lottery Commission voted unanimously to allow mobile sports betting on March 11th at noon. Governor Roy Cooper signed House Bill 347 into law last June to authorize sports betting in the Tar Heel state. During the bill signing at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte where the Charlotte Hornets play, Cooper said,...
On July 22, the day after the National Basketball Association announced it would remove Charlotte as the host for its 2017 All-Star Game, the NCAA revealed a plan requiring all future host sites for NCAA-sponsored intercollegiate athletics to verify whether they are subject to “bathroom laws” that allegedly discriminate against transgendered people. The NCAA Board...
CHARLOTTE — In the last six years, Charlotte and other nearby local governments have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in sports and recreation-based economic development projects. Far from being a slam-dunk, the projects have badly underperformed versus expectations.
Susan Burgess is currently serving her second term on the Charlotte City Council. As a Council member, Burgess has worked to balance the budget and preserve services without raising taxes. Charlotte's explosive growth has contributed to many problems for the city, including transportation and business growth. From the standpoint of transportation, Burgess is wary of mass transit's approach to traffic congestion. As business continues to grow, Burgess fears that the use of incentives will erode the public's faith in local government.
The privately-funded task force charged with studying Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools from the outside seems a little heavy on insiders with the same tired approaches.
A supposed shortage of money for city arts projects prompts a call for new taxes. Funny, that revenue used to be here.
The new uptown arena plans signs of a size and type city regulations usually forbid. But with the city paying for the building how can Charlotte regulators turn the idea down?
CHARLOTTE — Running a city of 600,000 people is a big-budget enterprise. Yet even by the standards of North Carolina’s largest city and county, Charlotte and Mecklenburg County have recently faced a large number of requests for assistance in financing high-visibility projects. Developers, local arts groups, and the city’s minor league baseball team have recently proposed a combined $160 million in public funds for various projects. The city is hardly stagnant, however, with rising land prices uptown making it unattractive for retail development. Undeterred, public officials are seeking deals with developers to bring shopping there.
CHARLOTTE — An arts group has proposed a $190 million vision for Charlotte’s cultural future. If, how, and to what degree the proposal will be accepted and built remains to be seen. Under the proposal by the Arts & Science Council, the city would spend $88 million over five years. Mecklenburg County would contribute $14 million. The remaining $88 million would be raised privately. Some local officials are asking tough questions. In other local-government news, the entire Northeastern county of Currituck may incorporate as a municipality, while Duke University and Durham officials are debating the use of impact fees.
With the Carolina Panthers headed to the 2004 Super Bowl, Charlotte-area leaders and businesses are hyping the potential economic impact far beyond the constraints of reality.
