Mary is a lifelong newspaper journalist who spent several decades at The Charlotte Observer as an editorial board member and columnist, concentrating on Charlotte regional urban and suburban growth, planning, urban design, transportation and land preservation. She left the Observer and joined the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute in June 2011, where she works on strategic community and university partnerships and oversees the institute’s online communications. She had a year-long Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University and was a Knight Fellow in Community Building at the University of Miami.
A.B. Journalism UNC Chapel Hill
Urban and suburban issues, Charlotte region and North Carolina politics and government, writing, editing and journalism.
MOST RECENT POSTINGS
Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - 12:44
Changing times, changing city growth
Published To: plancharlotte.org --
Published To: plancharlotte.org --
Monday, May 13, 2013 - 20:55
New name, new money plan for streetcar
Published To: plancharlotte.org --
Published To: plancharlotte.org --
Will a new name, a new tie-in to the county’s overall transit plan, and a new funding scheme using no property tax money mean a new outcome that puts an expanded streetcar project into the “yes” column with the Charlotte City...
Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - 14:43
Can Charlotte growth policies get smarter?
Published To: ui.uncc.edu --
Published To: ui.uncc.edu --
- How can the city of Charlotte boost both the value of its neighborhoods and their quality of life?
- What national trends should developers, planners and neighborhood residents be aware of?
- How do different...
Monday, May 6, 2013 - 15:03
Jane Jacobs walkers explored Charlotte’s trendy, and not-so-trendy areas
Published To: plancharlotte.org --
Published To: plancharlotte.org --
From Philadelphia to San Francisco, from Hinesburg, Vt., to Morrilton, Ark., on Saturday, May 4, people around the country were getting together to explore parts of...
Monday, April 29, 2013 - 08:56
Resilience: Many cities, many meanings
Published To: plancharlotte.org --
Published To: plancharlotte.org --
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – On the day much of the Boston area stayed indoors for the manhunt of a Boston marathon bombing suspect, I was in town for a conference on “The Resilient City.”
Like almost everyone in Boston, most...
Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - 14:54
Contest-winning photos evoke sense of place
Published To: ui.uncc.edu --
Published To: ui.uncc.edu --
When PlanCharlotte.org decided to hold a photo contest to celebrate our first birthday, we expected we’d receive plenty of snapshot-caliber photos. We were delighted to be wrong. Among a number of strong photos evoking a powerful sense of...
Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - 14:14
Beloved places in the Piedmont
Published To: ui.uncc.edu --
Published To: ui.uncc.edu --
A moody night-time shot of a more than 200-year-old house outside Huntersville, and a sliver of a moon over uptown Charlotte. Those photos, by Kevin J. Beaty, were what took the top honors in PlanCharlotte.org's one-year anniversary photo...
Wednesday, April 17, 2013 - 11:57
Regional cooperation at risk?
Published To: ui.uncc.edu --
Published To: ui.uncc.edu --
The implied threat Monday from Charlotte City Council members, to withdraw support for the proposed Monroe Bypass, is more fallout from an increasingly fractious local political battle over control of Charlotte’s airport. And now,...
Wednesday, April 10, 2013 - 12:51
Celebrate Jane Jacobs with 2 neighborhood walks
Published To: plancharlotte.org --
Published To: plancharlotte.org --
If you know who Jane Jacobs was and understand the role her work has played in revolutionizing thinking about cities and planning since the 1960s, you'll understand why her birthday is a time to encourage city-dwellers to get to know their...
Tuesday, April 2, 2013 - 17:18
The measure of a metro
Published To: ui.uncc.edu --
Published To: ui.uncc.edu --
In January, Charlotte had 1.8 million people. Today it has 2.3 million people. And no, there was no airlift of half a million residents from the Rust Belt or anywhere else. How can a city gain a half-million people almost overnight? How can a...
