MARY NEWSOM
Charlotte, North Carolina

AFFILIATION: Associate editor, The Charlotte Observer

 AREA OF EXPERTISE: Newspaper journalism, news and opinion writing on planning, growth, and urban design issues

BACKGROUND & EXPERIENCE: Mary has been a daily newspaper journalist for 30 years, the last 27 of them at The Charlotte Observer. After a variety of reporting and editing jobs – including supervising the investigative reporters – Mary joined the editorial board in 1994. Since then she has carved out a locally prominent area of coverage: growth, urban design, planning and the occasional lack thereof in Charlotte and the surrounding region.

 RESEARCH: Mary’s research title is “Track Record: Which U.S. cities have met the land use challenges of transit systems, and what can Charlotte learn from them?” Charlotte is one of the nation’s fastest-growing urban areas and is simultaneously spending millions to build a mass transit system and millions to build an outer loop highway, which Mary calls “civic schizophreniz.” She proposes to study what other cities have done with land use planning, incentives, and public works projects to successfully support transit. She intends to produce a series of articles that will address these issues and also offer workshops on her findings for reporters and editors at her paper.

 E-MAIL: mnewsom@charlotteobserver.com