North Carolina primary election results 2012

Here are live election results for Mecklenburg County from the Mecklenburg Board of Elections, with results Tuesday night. These numbers include primary results for tthe Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners, at large and district races.

Beware: Results listed there for congressional races may be only partial results, for Mecklenburg County only (I'm unsure). Check the full North Carolina results at the next link for races that stretch over more than one county.

Here are live election results from the North Carolina Board of Elections, with results Tuesday night. These results include votes on the North Carolina constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, as well as primary results for the governor's race, lieutenant governor and council of state.

Charlotte mayor, council and school board elections for 2011: results and research

You can get direct election results from the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections from today's mayor, council and school board races later tonight. Polls close at 7:30 p.m. and results will start showing up almost immediately.

Figuring out who to vote for in the 2011 elections is a little harder. You can check endorsements at The Charlotte Observer. The League of Women Voters has an extensive PDF voter guide that includes candidates for towns in Mecklenburg County.

Try getting your sample ballot from the board of elections before you hit the polls.

Here's a list of more places you can research candidates in the Charlotte elections:
NCvoterGuide.org, from UNC-TV and the N.C. Center for Voter Education.
Charlotte Observer school board candidate profiles.
Charlotte Observer city council candidate profiles and positions.
Charlotte Observer mayoral candidate profiles and positions.

For the Charlotte Mecklenburg School Board race, Lisa Hundley has withdrawn for health reasons, but her name will still appear on the ballot.

2011 Charlotte early voting for city council and school board

Early voting is open in Mecklenburg County.

You can vote in downtown Charlotte at the Hal Marshall Annex or at various libraries around Charlotte. Merry Oaks voters have choices for Charlotte City Council at large and Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board.

Hours
Hal Marshall is open today, Oct. 29, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 30, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Final early voting day at that location is Nov. 5 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. On weekdays, the annex is open for voting from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Nov. 4. Other locations are open weekdays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and today from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Oct. 30 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and Nov. 5, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Other locations:

• Beatties Ford Road Library,
2412 Beatties Ford Rd., Charlotte

• Hayes Building (Ballantyne),
11405 N. Community House Rd., Charlotte

• Independence Regional Library,
6000 Conference Dr., Charlotte

• Main Branch Library (Downtown),
310 N. Tryon St., Charlotte

• Matthews Branch Library,
230 Matthews Station St., Matthews

• Morrison Regional Library,
7015 Morrison Blvd., Charlotte

• Mountain Island Library,
4420 Hoyt Galvin Way, Charlotte

• North County Regional Library,
16500 Holly Crest Ln., Huntersville

• South County Regional Library,
5801 Rea Rd., Charlotte

• Steele Creek Library,
13620 Steele Creek Rd., Charlotte

• University City Regional Library,
301 E. W.T. Harris Blvd., Charlotte

• West Boulevard Library,
2157 West Blvd., Charlotte

Candidates' backgrounds
The Charlotte Observer has background about the candidates for Charlotte City Council and Charlotte Mecklenburg School Board. Research here.

Charlotte election 2011: Charlotte mayor and city council candidates' forum

From an email from our friends in Coventry Woods, here are the details about Thursday night's candidate forum at Amity Presbyterian Church:

WHAT: Charlotte’s mayoral and at-large City Council candidates in the general election will field questions before the leaders of 17 or more East Charlotte neighborhood and civic organizations.

WHEN: 7-9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

WHERE: Johnson Hall, at Amity Presbyterian Church. The church is on the corner of Pierson Drive and North Sharon Amity Road – on North Sharon Amity between Independence Boulevard and Albemarle Road. The church is easy to spot. Johnson Hall is on Pierson Drive, the side street there. There is ample parking.


ABOUT THE EVENT: The East Charlotte Forum – also held in 2005, 2007 and 2009 – is the prime opportunity for citywide candidates in the general election to answer questions before the leadership and key members of neighborhood groups and other civic associations in East Charlotte. They are among the most influential voters in East Charlotte.

Groups participating include the Coventry Woods, Winterfield, Country Club Heights, Grove Park, Marlwood, Birnam Woods, Windsor Park, Merry Oaks, Brandywine, Shamrock Hills, Eastwood Acres, Idlewild Farms, Ravenwood and Plaza Eastway Partners neighborhood associations; Charlotte East Community Partners (CECP), Eastland Area Strategies Team (EAST) and Eastside Political Action Committee (E-PAC). Additional co-sponsors will be added in follow-up press releases.

This forum offers candidates the opportunity to answer questions of paramount interest to the eastern quarter of the city. The forum, with mayoral and at-large City Council candidates, begins at 7 p.m. sharp. It will last no later than 9 p.m.

At the forum, candidates will be asked identical questions and given an allotted time in which to respond.

The mayoral candidates will be be first. At-large candidates will field questions after the mayoral segment of the evening.

NEW THIS YEAR: This year, an optional after-forum event has been added: At 9 p.m., candidates and those in attendance are invited to continue their meet-and-greet and discussions at Steamer’s Bar & Grill, a family-friendly restaurant and pub several doors down Pierson, between North Sharon Amity and Albemarle. Steamer’s is providing complementary hors d’oeuvres for all who come.

Visual ties to the past for the new Harris Teeter store in Plaza Midwood

The cropped photo at the top by the legendary Jeep Hunter shows the old Plaza movie theater on Central Avenue. It stood next to the First Union bank, now Wachovia, and in its place is a parking lot.

The next image is part of an architect’s rendering of the primary sign at the new Harris Teeter at Central Avenue and the Plaza.

The old photo is likely from about 1986. By that time, the theater was showing second-run movies at cheap prices, aimed at kids during the day and older audiences, let’s say, in the evenings. The strategy didn’t work too well.

Architects for the new Harris Teeter grocery store have used the similar marquee styling, and the main sign at the Teeter is one of the details that requires a rezoning exemption from pedestrian overlay classification. Art deco curving details are also part of the store’s exterior design, emphasizing the sometimes-hidden deco details of Plaza Midwood.

At a neighborhood meeting in June, those architects seemed to think the theater was torn down in the 1970s. I’m sharing here just to correct a bit of history and capture the visual details.

The photo comes from the on-site print archives at The Charlotte Observer. The photo is stamped, “Property of Knight Publishing Company.” Jeep Hunter, the photographer, was inducted into the N.C. Hall of Fame for his photojournalism in 2004. His work spans 60 years, and he is a two-time recipient of the prestigious "Southern Photographer of the Year” award, among others.

I believe much of his work is held by the University of North Carolina, and some is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Baltimore Museum of Art.

The uncropped old photo is here too.

(Intent is to further work on neighborhood design and to preserve some history. If anyone would like me to unpublish Jeep’s photo, please let me know.)

More background on the planned new Harris Teeter grocery store.

Harris Teeter Store No. 1 in Plaza Midwood: Details of the makeover

Architects for the makeover of the Harris Teeter at 1704 Central Avenue met Tuesday with a small group of neighbors at Green Memorial Baptist Church

The meeting was one of several community outreach efforts by Harris Teeter as the grocery chain seeks a rezoning of the store property at The Plaza and Central Avenue. The area has a pedestrian overlay zoning classification, and Harris Teeter seeks exemptions from some of those rules.

The store is the first Harris Teeter in Charlotte, opening in 1951 after the Harris Food Store moved from about half a block west, in the heart of old Plaza Midwood. Plans for the new store on the property include a display that tells about the site’s history.

A few random facts from the meeting:

Size: The current store is 28,200 square feet. The new store will be about 51,000 square feet. By comparison, the Cotswold Harris Teeter is 53,000 square feet.

Energy: Inside the store, refrigerated products like butter and cheese will be behind glass doors, rather than in refrigerated tubs, to save energy.

Green roof: The roof the the building will have a large “clear story,” or pop-up area with windows to let in light.
The green roof cover will primarily consist of plants in the sedum family, made up of fleshy, low-growing plants that require little water, withstand heat and sun, and bloom frequently in yellow. The roof will require watering, particularly June through August.
Green roofs help control temperatures in the building and are a bit fire-retardant. The Ritz Hotel in uptown Charlotte has a similar roof.

Coffee: A small coffee shop is planned near the store entrance at the corner of the Plaza and Central Avenue.

Design: The art deco elements of the new store are designed to reflect quite a bit of historical art deco near Plaza Midwood among historical buildings and some that still stand. The store sign will be lit and is one of the elements that requires rezoning approval.

Nearby Teeters: The overlap of customers between the Plaza Midwood Harris Teeter and the “tiny Teeter” at the corner of Providence Road and Queens Road, at 1015 Providence Road, is 36%, said one of the architects who designed the exterior of the Plaza Midwood store. Store leaders are planning to remake the tiny Teeter as well, staggering its renovating with the Plaza Midwood store.

Timing: The expansion will require the removal of some gas tanks at the corner of the Plaza and Central Avenue. Therefore, the earliest that demolition is likely to happen is June 2012, with completion in 2013, but those dates most likely would slide about a year to coordinate with the tiny Teeter’s makeover.

Background on the rezoning request.

Photo: Historic image from Groceteria, edited.

Harris Teeter plans community meeting Tuesday for new Plaza Midwood store

A community meeting about the proposed new Harris Teeter at The Plaza and Central Avenue is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 28, at Green Memorial Baptist Church, 1324 The Plaza.

Harris Teeter has filed a rezoning request for the property to rebuild the existing store as a two-story building with a green roof and parking behind the building.

The public hearing on the rezoning is scheduled for July 18. Based on the city’s rezoning schedule, any site plan revisions would be due July 22, with a zoning committee work session on July 27 and a decision on the rezoning from the Charlotte City Council on Sept. 19.

Demolition is expected in 2012 with an opening in 2013. A Harris Teeter has been at the location for 60 years.
Background here.

Rating Charlotte neighborhoods: Measurements are changing

The city of Charlotte and partners at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte are changing the way they rate neighborhoods.
They're drawing new lines, including all of Mecklenburg County and adding more data that can help neighborhoods determine how environmentally sensitive they are, among other things.

The new survey is scheduled to be published in December 2012. In the mean time, researchers are holding meetings to share their plans with neighborhood leaders and to ask for feedback.

The survey also drops the neighborhood labels of "stable," "challenged" and "transitional."

The next two meetings are Tuesday, for the northwest slice of Charlotte, and Thursday, for the southwest slice.

The changes will likely mean eventual changes in Charlotte's housing locational policy that sites low-income housing.
"It might cause us to adjust some of the policies we have," said Tom Warshauser, community and commerce manager for the city of Charlotte, during a meeting for the southeast slice of Charlotte.

The survey also will include a "green assessment tool" that will measure factors like water usage and frequency of recycling.

Most neighborhoods, like Merry Oaks, will fall into smaller boundaries, with data that will more truly reflect the neighborhoods. The researchers hope to provide tools to the public to allow people to slice and dice the data to look at broader geographic areas.

The current survey lists Merry Oaks as "stable," with a property crime rate below the city average and access to public transportation above average. Access to basic retail, however, was way below the city average at 4.9 percent versus a city average of 17.4 percent (based on numbers a couple of years old.)

For questions or feedback, email the researchers.

For an interactive map of the current data, visit here.

Next forums:
Northwest School of the Arts, for the northwest district: Tuesday, 6:30 p.m.
415 Beatties Ford Rd, Charlotte, NC 28216
Southview Recreational Center, for the southwest district: Thursday, 6 p.m.
1720 Vilma St., Charlotte, NC, 28208

Background:
From the Charlotte Observer