A new study has just been released ranking the top U.S. cities for women working in STEM, with the Queen City ranking among the top in the nation and the 4th in the South.

For this ranking, the commercial real estate research site CommercialCafe analyzed 123 U.S. cities, using a methodology that was refined to focus on tracking local STEM employment and the levels and evolution of income for women relative to the overall sector in the local economy.

Here are some of the key highlights from the new study:

• Of the six North Carolina cities included in the study, Charlotte was the only one to rank among the top 20 best U.S. cities for women in STEM. With a total score of 10.34 points, the city ranked 14^th, ahead of Atlanta, Ga., and just behind Portland, Ore.
• On a regional level, Charlotte ranked 4^th among the best Southern U.S. cities for women working in STEM, behind Arlington, Va., Washington, D.C., and Austin, Texas.
• In Charlotte, women working in STEM occupations accounted for 34% of the local sector, which was the 4^th-highest degree of representation among the top 10 Southern U.S. cities we compared, and was roughly on par with Atlanta.
• With a total of 14,324 female STEM workers, Charlotte was home to the 4^th-largest number of women working in STEM among the 48 Southern U.S. cities we analyzed, behind Washington, D.C. (19,530 women STEM workers), Houston, Texas (21,600), and Austin, Texas (21,626).
• The STEM sector in Charlotte saw a 10.5 percentage point increase in the share of women STEM workers, from 2017 through 2021 — the largest percentage point increase in representation, among the top 10-scoring Southern U.S. cities we compared.
• In 2021, there were nearly 7,000 more women working in STEM occupations in Charlotte than there were in 2017 — the second-most women STEM workers added, among the top 10 Southern U.S. cities we compared. In this respect, Charlotte ranked only behind Austin, where the STEM sector added roughly 7,850 women workers during that same time.
• Southern U.S. cities accounted for 48 out of 123 locations included in our current ranking, making it the largest regional group in the mix.

See how Charlotte ranked among other U.S. cities and read about the methodology in the full report here – https://www.commercialcafe.com/blog/best-u-s-cities-for-women-stem/

If you’ve never heard of it before, Disc Golf is a rapidly growing sport that has similar rules to regular golf, but with discs (hard frisbees) instead of balls and clubs, and baskets instead of holes.

Over the past decade, Charlotte has become the nation’s biggest hubs for the new sport. Users on both Reddit’s Disc Golf Sub and DGCourseReview.com widely consider Charlotte to be the best city for the sport. The Charlotte region is also home to the United States Disc Golf Championship, the final disc golf major of the year (think PGA Championship).

The Charlotte Disc Golf Club (CDGC) currently has over 200 official members and thousands more play on a regular basis on our 17 (and growing) public courses around the city.

Dana Lewis Berry, a local high school student here in Charlotte, recently released this report about the growing disc golf scene here in Charlotte:

Have you ever played disc golf before?

What are your thoughts of the sport?

NC Wildlife officials are asking Charlotte residents to immediately report any armadillo sightings this coming Spring and Summer.

According to NCWRC, there have already been almost 900 reported armadillo sightings reported across our state over the past few years, and that number has been dramatically rising.

According to the commission, Armadillos have long been native to Central and South America but they’ve gradually expanded their range northward as temperatures continue to warm up.

“Whether armadillos continue spreading beyond their current range will be largely determined by climate,” said Colleen Olfenbuttel, the Commission’s black bear and furbearer biologist. “Mild winter temperature conditions are good for armadillos. Since they lack thick insulation and must dig for most foods, freezing conditions can cause them to starve or freeze to death.”

If you’d like to help, you can report observations to armadillo@ncwildlife.org.

The email should include:

• A photo of the armadillo
• When it was observed (date and time)
• The location where it was observed (GPS coordinates are best, but a detailed location description is acceptable)

You can find out more about North Carolina armadillos by reading the Commission’s armadillo species profile and by visiting the armadillo webpage here.

Lending Tree just released their list of the most and least expensive cities in North Carolina for housing.

The report surveyed the largest cities in North Carolina and found that, on average, renters spend 31% of their income on housing, while homeowners spend just over 18%.

The U.S. Census Bureau notes that when housing expenses exceed 30% of a household’s total income, those households are considered ‘cost burdened’. The report used that 30% mark to evaluate which cities in our state are the most and least affordable for both renters and homeowners.

The report found that the Charlotte region had some of the most affordable to rent cities in the state, including #1 Cornelius and #5 Mooresville, as well as the least affordable to own city in North Carolina;

They found that Monroe is the least affordable city for homeowners in the state due to the fact that residents spend almost 24% of the income on housing costs per year. Since their median income is about $56,000 and their average mortgage costs are $1,107 per month, they have the highest ratio of incoming to mortgage costs in our state.

In comparison, homeowners in Concord, the city with the next highest monthly costs, have a median income that’s nearly $30,000 more, giving them a much more manageable housing debt-to-income ratio.