By Deon Roberts, editor
Published: August 2,2012
When we move to a new city, we look into the public school system. We inquire about crime rates. We ask about taxes, housing costs, gasoline prices and the availability of public parks. The information in the zoning ordinance seems just as important as anything else you could know about a community. But who reads manuals?
By Deon Roberts, editor
Published: January 27,2012
In 2005 and 2006, companies were expanding left and right in Charlotte. Building permits were skyrocketing, and if you were in the construction industry, times were good. Really good.
By Deon Roberts, editor
Published: January 22,2012
My 4-year-old son is sort of obsessed with David Bowie. When he was 3, he wanted, for Halloween, to wear the pirate costume that Bowie dons in the video for “Rebel Rebel.” Much to my wife’s relief, my son settled for a Jack Skellington (as in “The Nightmare Before Christmas” movie) costume versus a glam [...]
By Deon Roberts, editor
Published: January 16,2012
Winter isn’t feeling very wintery in much of the U.S., and the warm temperatures are putting people in a panic. For example, in Ohio, up around Lake Erie, the ice fishing industry is still waiting for some ice and, in the meantime, losing money.
By Deon Roberts, editor
Published: January 6,2012
Over in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Department, there have been talks about what to do with all the vacant and underused lots scattered across the city.
By Deon Roberts, editor
Published: December 16,2011
As if things weren’t bad enough, NAR has another reason to reach for bottles sealed with cotton (or corks). In a revelation that could make some question the trustworthiness of NAR’s figures and sully its reputation forever – OK, maybe that’s going a bit too far – the association this week announced that its home sales data going back about five years might be too high.
By Deon Roberts, editor
Published: December 10,2011
At first, it was known as the Charlotte Region Commercial Property Exchange. A mouthful of a name, it became shortened to CRCPE, still a beast among acronyms. So everyone just started calling it CPE. But to the Charlotte Region Commercial Board of Realtors, which owns CPE — a database of commercial properties for sale in [...]
By Deon Roberts, editor
Published: December 2,2011
The dollars signs are already in property owners’ eyes, even though the Democratic National Convention isn’t until September. That a lot of convention-goers will be in need of a place to crash near Time Warner Cable Arena has some Uptown residents, in particular, hoping to cash in. A little Googling this week brought me to [...]
By Deon Roberts, editor
Published: November 26,2011
In January, the U.S. government released a report on what caused the financial meltdown of 2008. Of course, every American has already read it, front to back, perhaps even multiple times, and to their children, so there’s no need for me to go into too many details about its findings. By the way, it made [...]
By Deon Roberts, editor
Published: November 18,2011
Michael Williams, the CEO of Fannie Mae, won me over this week when, while testifying on Capitol Hill about big fat Fannie executive bonuses and multimillion-dollar salaries, he said this: “These are challenging jobs under challenging circumstances and we need to pay and reward the people who are doing the jobs.” The “challenging jobs under [...]
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