Charlotte has an outer belt highway called I - 485. It circumnavigates the city and has made it really easy to get around. It connects all of the major survace streets that act like spokes on a wheel in Charlotte. It also connects the major interstates which connect Charlotte to the rest of the state and country. 

The governor has committed the funds to finish the project starting construction this year, the Charlotte Observer said.

Charlotte and the south is known for its churches. If that's what you're looking for, then this is a great place to come and find it. I've seen a statistic that says that Charlotte has 700 churches in Charlotte and its surrounding areas. I can't tell if that is a big number or a small number. I am not actually positive that it is right. 

Here's a great american tradition for you. The Harlem Globetrotters have made their way to the Time Warner Cable Arena on their tour arount the world. I guess they just tour to show everyone how good at basketball they are. Their basketball tricks have become world famous. They put on a show that's great for kids. Some Globetrotters have even become NBA Players.

It's official, the Jonas Brothers have announced their tour dates for the next few monts as they embark on their three continent tour. They've chosen June 15 to stop in Charlotte, their only tour stop in North Carolina. The Jonas brothers have already seen fit to make a stop in Charlotte a few months ago, when they promoted their new movie by showing up at Regal Theaters at Stonecrest in South Charlotte, near Ballanytyne Real Estate.

The Jonas Brothers have become one of the biggest pop groups in the nation over the past couple of years. They come from the Disney inventors who have made stars out of kids for years. 

Charlotte NC has a ton of different things to do and different people with different interests.

Creative Loafing is the free paper that serves the community. The idea is to create a publication that serves readers who don't necessarily care about the stuff that goes on at the city council meetings. 

The paper is aimed at younger people who go out to bars and art shows. The paper doesn't mind being edgy and doesn't censor much. They print curse words and go after subjects that would never make it in the Charlotte Observer, the daily paper.

I'm not endorsing it. But with the newspaper industry the way it is, there have been many opportunities for people with a bunch of extra money in their pocket to start a paper and print whatever they feel like printing. 

Call it free speech or what you will, but there are a lot of people with a lot of different opinions and the fact that the big newspapers are falling by the wayside means that the opportunity to be heard have increased and will continue to increase. The Charlotte Observer has been laying off people in droves over the past few years. It is the way of the world, I guess.

Since Charlotte NC has experience such amazing growth in the past 20 years, the city has expanded to the size of the county almost. There are several towns outside of Charlotte, but inside of Mecklenburg county. Many departments of city and county government have merged to provide better services to these communities and the county as a whole.

The Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department is one of the department. I really don't know all the ins and outs of the policing in Charlotte. But there are Mecklenburg county Sheriffs. I have no idea what they do though. If the city and county police are the same thing, then where do the county sheriffs patrol?

Maybe they just take care of the county jail or something. You really don't see many sheriff's cars around in Charlotte. 

The schools are another department that has seen a merger between county and city. It really has been that way for a long time. I can't remember when the city schools weren't part of the county system. Their pooled resources probably caused a stir when they merged, but it may have made the city and county schools better as a result. Or it may have caused problems, who knows.

Charlotte and Mecklenburg county have come together to issue the Fit City Challenge in Charlotte NC.

Its basic mission is to try to make people walk 5 miles a week and eat 5 fruits and vegetables a day. The idea is to get as many people moving and eating healthy so that the city's medical bills start going down instead of up.

I don't think that there are very many ways that you can slice it that this is a bad thing. Encouraging people to be fit is a great way to build community and to help people become healthy.
The more you read and think about it, the more difficult it is to be sure that you are eating healthy and doing the right things to be healthy. It's even more difficult to muster the energy and drive to get up and excercise everyday.

Many people need a little encouragement to either start or continue their exercise routine. Encouragement is also important in maintianing a healthy diet. 

This looks like it is another way that Charlotte and Mecklenburg have teamed up and pooled their resources to provide services to their residents. I'll keep my eye out on this one to see if it works.

The Mecklenburg Aquatic Center is the downtown pool for the county. There are some high schools with olympic sized swimming pools already in them in Charlotte, but this serves the high schools with no pool as well as holds tournaments for big events.

It is a great pool, cool enough that the men's olympic decided to do their training there as they ran up to the Beijing Olympics. The word on the street is that Michael Phelps and the rest of the relay team trained at this complex in uptown Charlotte.

The pool is massive and is home to many of the big swim meets. I think they are a lot like high school track meets. There are a ton of people at them and they don't happen very often. The other thing is that seems like the only people who know about track meets or swim meets are the people who do the swimming themselves. 

There is another big stadium pool in Charlotte at Providence High School in South Charlotte. I've never been to that one and really don't know much about it. But I think it is the only other pool that they use for swimming events in the city of Charlotte.

ImaginOn is a building in uptown Charlotte on 7th street that hosts shared events for young people. There were two competing service groups who came together to share this facility to teach children.

The public library and the childrens theater of Charlotte joined together to make this happen.

I've already posted about an event going on at the venue, but I wanted to write about what the space is all about. 

It is named after Joe and Joan Martin, two people who gave to their community. Joe was an author who published two books.

The building was finally completed in 2005 after the idea was originally floated in 1997. It works on the principal that children learn in many different ways. Some can hear something and remember it, others like to act it out. Either way, it is designed to engage young children so that they can find out a way to learn that works for them.
It is probably one of the reasons that they have a workshop designed to shoot myspace photographs for kids. They try to do things that kids will like in order to get them in the building and then teach them something once they get there. It's the old bait and switch.

There was a bit fundraiser recently at the Quail Hollow Country Club in Charlotte NC for Dessert First, a fundraiser for the V Foundation - a foundation that supports cancer research. 
The foundation is named for Jim Valvano, a coach at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. He took N C State to the championship and won if I'm not mistaken.

He was also struck down by cancer later.

Dick Vitale, the college basketball announcer always mentions it several times a broadcast. He supports the program by getting the name of the program out to the college basketball audience.

Dessert First, served dessert first. Then they had a silent auction of stuff, probably sports memorabilia or something and then everyone went home. 

Nick Valvano, Jim's older brother was on hand to meet people and to make a speech at the program. 

The Charlotte Observer posted photos of the black tie event on their website. They either sent a photographer down there or they had someone at the party take pictures and send them to them. They have posted photos of people at black tie events regularly on their website. 

It is an interesting way to see who is out in the community doing what.