Stories written by Mark PellinAn award-winning journalist and former editor of The Rhinoceros Times in Charlotte, Pellin has been called everything from a misguided troglodyte to a professional agitator. He prefers the label of a realist, the guy in the crowd telling everybody that not only doesn’t the emperor have any clothes; he’s trying to steal ours.
Pellin has covered the Char-Meck scene for the better part of two decades, earning his fair share of fans and more than a few critics who wish he’d move to Nome, Alaska, and be eaten by wild bears.
When he’s not writing, he stays busy enjoying time with his wife and two kids. When he can break away for some R&R, he likes to fly fish (even if he doesn’t catch anything) and camp (even if it rains).
The joys of high-density zoning mixed with rail transit. And, oh, I see we’re getting that uptown faux farmers market. Wonderful. Should fix right into the mix. Sure, the vid below is a stretch, but just sayin’ – Central Ave. 2025?
May 13, 2011 | Posted in Char-Meck Beat,City Beat,Mark Pellin | Read More »
I think it was Albert Einstein who defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results. Fresh off a market crash triggered in large part by government-pushed home lending to people who couldn’t afford it, we appear poised for a renewed round of government-pushed home lending to people who can’t […]
May 13, 2011 | Posted in House Blends,Mark Pellin,National | Read More »
Interesting, but not entirely surprising, how the uptown paper chose to parse snippets of an e-mail exchange between Mecklenburg Commissioner Bill James and Board of Education member Trent Merchant. Even more interesting is the perspective pitched by former Mecklenburg Commissioner Dan Bishop, which wasn’t included in the uptown paper’s account. Bishop was copied on the […]
May 13, 2011 | Posted in Char-Meck Beat,CMS Beat,Mark Pellin | Read More »
While our control freak federal government has declared the traditional incandescent light bulb verboten, mandating instead that we begin flipping the switch using only the screwy, weird-looking compact florescent variety, legislatures from South of the Border are keeping a glimmer of sanity alive. This from Heritage Foundation’s The Foundry: Fed up with the federal government’s […]
May 11, 2011 | Posted in Carolinas,House Blends,Mark Pellin | Read More »
With a divisive 5-4 vote the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education on Tuesday night approved a $1.17-billion budget plan that hopes to suck $352 million from county coffers, a $50 million increase from the school system’s current take. And that was the easy vote. The battle royal came when a different five-member majority fended off an […]
May 11, 2011 | Posted in Char-Meck Beat,CMS Beat,Mark Pellin | Read More »
Nearly half of Mecklenburg homeowners, about 158,000 households, would be in line for a tax hike under the county’s proposed revenue-neutral budget plan, according to the latest numbers from the county’s budget department. Rolling with a revenue-neutral plan would dip the county property tax rate from 83.87-cents to 78.83-cents per $100 assessed value, and still […]
May 11, 2011 | Posted in Char-Meck Beat,County Beat,Mark Pellin | Read More »
I’m sure it’s wholly coincidental that Mayor Anthony Foxx gets his Democrat-controlled city council to approve a renewed push for an amped-up jobs program for youths during the same week GOP mayoral hopeful Scott Stone officially rolls out his campaign with a signature platform of job creation and hammering Foxx for failing to adequately address […]
May 11, 2011 | Posted in Char-Meck Beat,City Beat,Mark Pellin | Read More »
Timing is everything in comedy and politics (some would argue the two are one in the same), and it couldn’t get much worse for Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor and current wannabe presidential candidate is scheduled this week to deliver a healthcare speech to deflect criticism of his signature Romneycare legislation that requires nearly […]
May 10, 2011 | Posted in House Blends,Mark Pellin,National | Read More »
Three guns confiscated in two days at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, as the school board preps for tonight’s ask of an additional $55 million in county funding. Yesterday it was a student attempting to hijack a school bus, an event that yielded eight counts of kidnapping and two counts of possession of a weapon on school grounds. […]
May 10, 2011 | Posted in Char-Meck Beat,CMS Beat,Mark Pellin | Read More »
Leave it to a pretentious prince with four mansions to lecture American commoners about how our insatiable appetite for beef, of all things, is on course to reap ruin on the environment and destroy the world. This from The Telegraph UK: America’s appetite for beef is jeopardising the world’s water supply, the Prince of Wales […]
May 10, 2011 | Posted in House Blends,Mark Pellin,National | Read More »