Lake Norman Leaders Hope ‘Silicon Shores’ Could Bring In Over $1 Billion In New Development

Charlotte Stories
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Lake Norman Leaders Hope ‘Silicon Shores’ Could Bring In Over $1 Billion In New Development

The City of Mooresville has just announced plans to rebrand a major new 400-acre mixed-use development off Exit 31, which they anticipate could bring over $1 billion in corporate investments.

The new project is now being called ‘Silicon Shores’, as area economic development officials hope it will become a technology hub for the region. It is sandwiched between Lake Norman, I-77, Langtree Road, and N.C. 115 in Mooresville;

According to a recent press release, Russ Rogerson, president and CEO of the Iredell County Economic Development Corp., the new project was compared to LangTree Lake Norman, only much larger, and with much greater potential.

“We believe $1 billion in development is a very realistic estimate,” he noted.

The project will include residential communities, office complexes, national headquarters, and a wide variety of new retail offerings.

Construction on 2 new six-story hotels has already started on a 4-acre site just off exit 31, which will now be included in the ‘Silicon Shores’ project.

What do you think about the new project?

Bigfoot Festival Is Coming To North Carolina

Katherine Miele
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Bigfoot Festival Is Coming To North Carolina

bigfoot-911-festival-in-marionThe small town of Marion, NC (about 50 miles North West of Charlotte) will be hosting our region’s biggest ever Bigfoot Festival next month. It will be held in September 8th, from 12-6 pm.

The event will be sponsored by the Marion Downtown Business Association, the McDowell Chamber of Commerce, and the Facebook group ‘Bigfoot 911’.

John E. Bruner, who started Bigfoot 911, noted that the Bigfoot Festival will be something unique for not only North Carolina but this part of the country as well – it will be the only event of its kind on the East Coast.

He recently announced it via the popular North Carolina Bigfoot Facebook group, Bigfoot 911 (now with over 7,000 members):

“OK Everybody I promised a major announcement here it is. Last Monday we had a meeting with the Marion Downtown Business Association and the McDowell Chamber of Commerce and we jointly decided that there will be a BIGFOOT festival held in downtown Marion in September 2018, we are gonna do it big and do it right. We will keep you posted.” 

Organizers are now planning on having a wide variety of craft and food vendors, with a heavy emphasis on Sasquatch-themed items. There will also be book signings, lectures, and live demonstrations about how to hunt for the mysterious creature.

Several booths will be set up for Bigfoot hunters to present their photographs and plaster casts from expeditions into the woods.

The Facebook group ‘Bigfoot 911’ was first started in 2014 after a group of local investigators decided to share tips, stories, and photos from the McDowell County area.

Last year, the group received national and international attention after they reported a shockingly detailed sighting of Bigfoot near Lake James.

Charlotte Instagram Celebrity Featured in The New York Times Article on Age-Positivity

Charlotte Stories
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Charlotte Instagram Celebrity Featured in The New York Times Article on Age-Positivity

When Jan Correll first dreamed of making a positive mark on her fellow fifty-plus females, she had no idea her influence would reach all the way to The New York Times.

In an article published on June 20th, 2018, “The Glamorous Grandmas of Instagram,” Jan, along with her blog Silver is the New Blonde™, was featured as one of seven age-embracing Instagram influencers making both a statement and a difference in the over-sixty community.

Correll and her husband have lived in the greater Charlotte area for almost forty years. A corporate veteran with more than thirty years in the technology sales industry, Correll said her natural transition to silver hair was not met with open arms in the workplace sparking a desire to start her blog: “When I naturally transitioned to silver at age fifty, I received backlash from some colleagues. It made me more determined to embrace my natural style and I felt a calling to help more women feel that way.”

Correll now has over 20,000 visits per month to her blog and over 27,300 followers on Instagram.

Silver is the New Blonde™️ Read about “Of course you may” on the blog today, {linkinbio} and how it applies to all of us… not only my grands! 💙💙💙❤️ And learn more about the #hhi #boutique where I found this special #silver outfit! 🌟 I look forward to your comments after reading the blog!!! 📖 // to shop the silver pumps you can shop your screenshot of this pic with @liketoknow.it http://liketk.it/2wE3i #liketkit #ad . . . . #sunsets #charlotteknights #birdiejames #charlotte #merchantandtrade #fashionblogger #mystyle #styleblogger #fashion #ootd #summer #wiw #instastyle #summerfashion #stylemyway #wiwt #styleinspiration #fashionista #agelessstyle #stylish #silveristhenewblonde #perennial #style

A post shared by Jan Correll (@silver_isthenewblonde) on

She decided to use the interview as yet another medium to positively impact women across the country and across the globe. Correll said “I wanted to portray to women of all ages, that you have the freedom to do anything you want at any age. Just don’t give up.”

  • The New York Times featured Jan Correll’s blog Silver is the New Blonde™ as one of seven noteworthy, over-sixty Instagram influencers in a June 20th article titled “The Glamorous Grandmas of Instagram”
  • Correll’s blog Silver is the New Blonde™ now has hundreds of subscribers and her Instagram following has amassed to over 27,300

Wells Fargo Foundation Donates $200,000 to Charlotte Communities In Schools

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Wells Fargo Foundation Donates $200,000 to Charlotte Communities In Schools

Communities In Schools of Charlotte-Mecklenburg (CIS-Charlotte) is pleased to announce that Wells Fargo Bank has donated $200,000 to the organization, a significant increase for this year. The Wells Fargo Foundation grant is primarily intended to help CIS-Charlotte continue to strengthen and deliver its wrap-around services to students in 46 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ sites through its enhanced differentiated services programming model in its second year of implementation.

The differentiated services model for delivering case-management and Integrated Student Supports (ISS) to students consists of four levels of intensity delivered by specialized CIS Site Coordinators who address specific needs with evidence and research-based interventions through a developmental relationship:

· addressing chronic, crisis-ridden student and family situations;

· addressing chronic absenteeism and other barriers to learning;

· ensuring attendance, academic and behavior support and stabilization;

· and providing academic/cultural enrichment, life skills coaching, social capital and exposure as well as post-secondary planning and options.

Molly Shaw, CIS-Charlotte’s president and CEO, said this enhanced service delivery approach will benefit students through more targeted intervention and support based on individualized student needs.

“Simply put, differentiated services will allow us to provide students with the right kind of support, in the right amount, at the right time,” said Shaw. “Wells Fargo’s longstanding support and generous increased gift this year will help us fill critical gaps in schools where high concentrations of poverty exist and provide additional training and specialized skill development for program staff.”

Wells Fargo has been a longtime major supporter of Communities In Schools and was one of the original corporations (then First Union National Bank) that helped initiate Communities In Schools in Charlotte in 1985. Jay Everette, Senior Community Relations Manager with Wells Fargo Social Responsibility Group, says the company is proud to support CIS and its mission to provide thousands of local students with the resources they need to be successful in school and in life.

“Wells Fargo believes that CIS-Charlotte has the vision and a strong plan to help students and their families make life-changing progress,” said Everette. “On a broader level, we believe that CIS-Charlotte’s differentiated services approach will not only support improved outcomes for students and their families in the short-term, but can ultimately lead to more systemic change for future generations. This is one of the anticipated outcomes we are most excited about.”

CIS of Charlotte-Mecklenburg is an affiliate of the national Communities In Schools network and is dedicated to keeping kids in school and helping them succeed in life. Locally, CIS-Charlotte provides case management services to 6,400+ students annually in 46 Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools. An additional 27,000 students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg are supported by CIS each year through school-wide programming and volunteer-resource coordination at those same schools.

Charlotte Was Ranked The #1 Most Up-And-Coming City in America

Steve
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Charlotte Was Ranked The #1 Most Up-And-Coming City in America

Time Magazine and Yelp recently released a study that analyzed the best cities in America for economic opportunity – where small businesses have the best chance of success.

The study uses Yelp’s deep data stores to rank the 50 biggest cities in the country by “economic opportunity”, which is defined by Yelp as “the chance businesses have to stay open, and for new businesses to thrive.” They looked at dozens of data points for each business in every city, comparing their ratings, page visits, search frequency, number of times the business has been mapped, and how long each business has been open.

According to Time Magazine, “the data indicates that Charlotte, N.C. is the highest growth area, driven by success in restaurants and also the wider food industry — grocery stores, bakeries and the like — as well as home services.” The #1 ranked Queen City is followed by Jacksonville, FL at #2, Omaha, NE at #3, Orlando, FL at #4, and Charleston, SC at #5.

Time Magazine also lists out 10 subcategories that made up the overall ranking, including;

Shopping – Charlotte ranked #3

Restaurants – Charlotte ranked #6

Nightlife – Charlotte ranked #19

Food – Charlotte ranked #1

Automotive – Charlotte ranked #3

Event Planning and Services – Charlotte ranked #14

Health and Medical – Charlotte ranked #4

Active Life – Charlotte ranked #6

Home Services – Charlotte ranked #2

Beauty and Spas – Charlotte ranked #5

The results of this new study are even more encouraging for Charlotte, given that many experts are now saying that crowd-sourced data from sites like Yelp are more accurate reflections of economic health than governmental data.

A recent Harvard study notes that “government datasets from agencies such as the U.S. Census Bureau have long been the gold standard for measuring economic activity at the local level. However, these statistics typically appear only after multi-year lags, and the public-facing versions are aggregated to the county or ZIP code level. In contrast, crowdsourced data from online platforms such as Yelp are often contemporaneous and geographically finer than official government statistics.”

Keep up the good work Charlotte! 

Suspicious Package Shuts Down Traffic To South Park Mall

Steve
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Suspicious Package Shuts Down Traffic To South Park Mall

This evening at about 5pm, a suspicious package was discovered at the SouthPark mall and police quickly shut down traffic to the popular shopping center.

Bomb-sniffing K9 united were dispatched to Nordstrom to investigate the package.

Police released a series of tweets warning the public to stay away from the area and to not be alarmed if a loud noise is heard;

About an hour ago, the police noted that the package was rendered safe and was still investigating.

The police just released a final tweet stated the owners of the package have been found and said it was nothing more than a cooler with a metal pot inside;

Mecklenburg County Issues ‘No Swim Advisory’ For Lake Wylie Due To Sewage Spill

Charlotte Stories
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Mecklenburg County Issues ‘No Swim Advisory’ For Lake Wylie Due To Sewage Spill

Mecklenburg County has just issued a ‘No Swimming Advisory’ for the Paw Creek Cove section of Lake Wylie after a large discharge of raw sewage was detected in the area.

According to Charlotte Water officials, the discharge was caused by sanitary sewer lines that backed up in the West Bloomfield Mobile Home Park. The lines are privately owned.

Cam Coley with Charlotte Water issued a statement about the spill, urging residents to watch what they put down the drain; “A majority of wastewater overflows can be prevented with your help. Anything put in plumbing or a manhole can cause wastewater overflows, spilling raw sewage into your street, your creek or even inside your own home. Even products labeled as ‘flushable’ do not break down in the sewer system and can contribute to clogging.”

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services will keep sampling the water until results fall within safe levels, and will lift the swimming ban at that time.

If you live in the area and you are on a well, officials recommend checking to see if your water was contaminated by using a field testing kit, and consider installing a reverse osmosis filter on any faucet used for drinking water.

North Carolina Zoo Announces Name of Baby Rhino Chosen Through Public Poll

Steve
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North Carolina Zoo Announces Name of Baby Rhino Chosen Through Public Poll

Last week we asked ya’ll to help pick the name of North Carolina’s newest baby rhino through an online poll.

The North Carolina Zoo is now excited to announce the name of the female southern white rhino calf born at the Zoo on July 2, 2018 has officially been chosen – “Nandi” (Nahn-dee) is now the first rhino born at the Zoo in 41 years, born to mother Linda and father Stormy.

The public was invited to vote on seven names chosen by the Zoo’s rhino zookeepers. Each of the names offered – Nandi, Mamba, Diana, Boadicea, Grace O’Malley, Penelope and Wilhelmina – reflected the theme of strong, female leaders in history, both factual and mythical.

The top three names chosen in the public poll were Nandi, Mamba and Diana. As one last fatherly task, dad Stormy (male rhinos typically play no role in raising offspring) was given the three choices in African inspired custom-made poles spaced several feet apart from each other that were stuffed with Timothy hay – one of his favorite treats.

He immediately trotted over to the pole that was named “Nandi.”

Nandi, which means “a woman of high esteem,” was the Queen of the Zulus and was born in the 1760s. She died in 1827 in the area now known as South Africa. Nandi was the mother of Shaka, King of the Zulus. Shaka is considered by some as one of the greatest Zulu chiefs and African military leaders. There are accounts that his establishment of all-female regiments was influenced by his warrior-mother.

Eleven days after Nandi was born, the Zoo announced the birth of a second female baby rhino on Friday, July 13 to mom Kit and dad Stormy. The Zoo will offer details about her naming process soon.

At the beginning of the 20th century, southern white rhinos were hunted to near extinction for their horns, which some erroneously believe provide medicinal benefits. Rhino horn is constructed from keratin, which is the same material that makes up human fingernails and hair.  There are currently around 20,000 southern white rhinos left in the wild, mostly in the southern Africa region.

Today, populations in the wild still face significant threats from poaching and habitat loss. In addition to their work with the rhinos at the North Carolina Zoo, staff work on projects in several countries in Southern Africa to protect wild rhinos from poaching and save the species from extinction.

The Zoo’s herd now boasts nine rhinos which consist of Stormy and females Linda, Kit, Natalie and Abby, and the two calves. All seven are on public view at our Watani Grasslands 40-acre habitat. Two older rhinos, Stan (male) and Olivia (female) live in an off-viewing retirement habitat.

The Legendary Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams Opening Their First North Carolina Location

Steve
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The Legendary Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams Opening Their First North Carolina Location

One of America’s most legendary ice cream shops just started scooping ice cream in South End for the first time today as part of their soft opening – they’ll hold their official grand opening on Aug. 9 at 11 a.m.

According to Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams’ website, it will be their first ice cream shop in the Carolinas, “located on Camden Road in the historic South End development, Design Center of the Carolinas.”

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams was first launched in Columbus, Ohio in 2002 by Jeni Britton Bauer. Her unique ingredients and creations quickly attracted a devote social media following and even landed her a James Beard Award – a true rarity in the ice cream world.

To celebrate their first North Carolina location, they’ll be giving away free ice cream from tomorrow through their grand opening at the following locations;

If you can’t make it to one of the above events, you will still be able to try their ice cream before their grand opening by picking up a pint ($10.99 each) at Publix, Whole Foods, Reid’s, Earl’s, Dean & Deluca, Common Market, Earth Fare and Fresh Market.

Have you tried their ice cream yet?

What are your thoughts?

Video of York County Family Playing In Flooded Storm Drain Going Viral

Steve
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Video of York County Family Playing In Flooded Storm Drain Going Viral

A York County resident recently spotted a bizarre sight during Tuesday’s rainstorm – a young family playing in a flooded storm drain in a BiLo parking lot.

“I was driving down the road and happen to look over and see them frolicking in the water. So I had to pull in and see what was going on,” Krysten Jones told me.

After uploading the video to her Facebook page, it quickly spread across the internet. It has over 4,500 shares, 1,000 comments, and it’s already been viewed over 380,000 times;

 

The video was taken in the parking lot of the Bilo on Liberty Street in York, SC;

York County Public Health official noted that flooded areas after a heavy rainfall could contain high levels of bacteria, often coming from animal feces, as well as unknown chemicals and sharp objects submerged in the water – all residents should stay away from flooded areas.

A much better option would be to grab one of those $25 inflatable pools from Amazon – even if you let rainwater fill it up, at least you’ll know you won’t be swimming in animal poop.

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