This week Discovery Place was announced as Charlotte’s top museum and attraction for 2017 in the annual North Carolina Museums and Historic Attractions Survey.

Seeing 715,453 visitors in 2017, Discovery Place ranked as the #1 Museum and Attraction for Charlotte, #5 most popular in North Carolina, and the only Charlotte institution to make the Top 20 list in the state.

“We are honored to be continuously recognized as a top attraction in North Carolina and Charlotte, and serve as a trusted education resource in our communities,” said Discovery Place president and CEO, Catherine Wilson Horne. “I am confident that we will continue to build on these accomplishments as we strive to meet the needs of our growing communities all across the region.”

In 2017, Discovery Place was also honored by The Institute of Museum and Library Service as a finalist for the Medal of Honor. This is the nation’s highest honor given to museums and libraries in recognition of their service for making a difference in the lives of individuals, families, and communities.

Last year, Discovery Place celebrated the milestone of serving over 100,000 people across the region through its community access program, Welcome. Discovery Place Nature opened a new digital planetarium in the Museum’s original 1964 Charlotte A. Kelly Planetarium, offering both multimedia dome presentations and seasonal star shows. Discovery Place Science opened two new labs and exhibitions: the new biomedical lab Explore More Me and health science exhibition Being Me, and the new makerspace Thinker Space and Think It Up exhibition on the newly renovated Level 3.

The North Carolina Museums and Historic Attractions Survey is researched and issued by Carolina Publishing Associates of Matthews, NC. This is the 14th year of the survey.

The City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County have just launched a city-wide survey to ask resident’s about their new ‘dockless bike sharing’ program.

According to the city, “Dockless bike share is a new bike share model that allows users to rent a bike from virtually anywhere through a smartphone application, and park it when their ride ends. Dockless bike share companies are emerging in cities across the country, including the City of Charlotte. In response, the City of Charlotte has started a Bike Share Pilot Program to test the viability of dockless bike share in the Charlotte community.”

The program includes 4 separate dockless bike companies, ofo, Limebike, Mobike, and Spin. Since the program first launched this past November, Charlotte has seen over 10,000 people take over 40,000 trips on dockless bikes.

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A post shared by Charlotte Bikes (@bikesofcharlotte) on Dec 22, 2017 at 3:39pm PST

The city has asked us to help distribute their online survey to help determine if the dockless bike program will continue, and what changes should be made to it.

You can take the survey here – https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/X9MPHFP.

What are your thoughts on Charlotte’s dockless bike sharing program?

Time to start stocking up on milk and bread – it looks like the Charlotte region might be getting some snow this morning!

The National Weather Service is showing at least a 35% chance of snowfall in Charlotte until about 1pm this afternoon.

It’s now being recommended that Charlotte residents lay down some de-icing salt today in case the snow freezes through the morning, end especially tonight if the sidewalks and roads are still wet, as it will stay below 32 degrees through the night.

Even if Charlotte doesn’t get any snow this morning, the mountains of North Carolina should receive at least an inch of fresh powder throughout the day on Sunday, so if you’re into snowing or tubing, this should be a fun weekend!

The recently passed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 makes significant changes to longstanding tax benefits for homeowners. In a new report released today, Apartment List estimated the value of lost housing-related tax benefits for owners of homes valued at the 25th, 50th and 75th percentiles of their local markets.

Some highlights from the report:

• In Charlotte, it’s estimated that owners of median-priced homes will see a loss of $700 in housing-related deductions under the new tax code.
• For comparison, San Jose is the nation’s hardest hit metro. The median homeowner there will lose $5,400 in housing-related tax deductions in the first year of the new tax code.
• At the state level, there are 15 states in which the median homeowner would see a reduction in homeowner tax benefits of more than $100 per year, and these are all states that Hillary Clinton won in the 2016 election.

The new legislation hits homeowners hardest in the expensive coastal markets across California and throughout the Northeast. The five most impacted metros are all located in California, and Bay Area homeowners could lose over $100,000 in housing-related tax benefits over the course of a 30-year mortgage.The impact of the changes is felt disproportionately in left-leaning parts of the country. Across all states where the median homeowner will lose housing tax deductions, Hillary Clinton won by a margin of 20 percentage points.

The full report — including complete nationwide data at the city, county, metro, and state levels — is now available here.