"Shearer Road Rural Corridor" map, including Abersham, the Allison Farm and Fisher Farm. Click for a full PDF (Town of Davidson)

By DAVID BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net

Mecklenburg County commissioners will hold a closed session Tuesday night to consider the county’s proposed purchase of the 243-acre former Abersham development, off Shearer and Grey roads in Davidson. If the county goes through with the deal, it would create a more than 500-acre block of protected open space in Davidson’s northeast corner.

DavidsonNews.net reported two weeks ago that Mecklenburg County Parks & Recreation officials were in negotiations to buy the property. It’s a complex deal that would involve the town of Davidson, the Trust for Public Land, and two banks that own pieces of the former Abersham project, which they acquired via foreclosures. Continue Reading

What if we looked at bicycles as part of our transportation infrastructure and not a pesky nuisance? A different mindset produces some surprising results, or maybe  they’re surprising only to us automobile-dependent Americans. “For American cities to think outside the car would seem to require a mental sea change,” Russell Shorto wrote in The New York Times this weekend. Using observations from his time living in the Netherlands, he writes about the need for  a new mindset: Continue Reading

Here’s the back story to last week’s news that The Spirited Cyclist plans to open later this summer in a long-vacant storefront at 129 N. Main St., next to Davidson College’s Cats on Main shop. The deal to open up another unused space in the block owned by Dr. Tom Clark and Joe Poteat, was brokered by The Stewart Group, a new Davidson-based commercial real estate firm.

The Stewart Group was formed earlier this year to become “Davidson’s one-stop commercial real estate firm.” Its principals are David Stewart, Michael Orlando, and Greg Fallon.

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Based on information from the Carolina Multiple Listing Services, Inc. for the period 07/25/11 through 07/31/11 in Cornelius. Properties reported can be listed or sold by various participants in the MLS. Listings include properties in the Cornelius Zip code

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Based on information from the Carolina Multiple Listing Services, Inc. for the period 07/25/11 through 07/31/11 in Davidson. Properties reported can be listed or sold by various participants in the MLS. Listings include properties in the Davidson Zip code that may be in Iredell or Cabarrus counties.

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A Coromandel Screen from Lawrence and Scott

Recently I viewed the Coco Chanel haute couture fashion exhibit at the Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte (“Chanel: Designs for the Modern Woman,” through Dec. 31.)  It is as beautifully executed as the fashion exhibits I have seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Among the items on display was a Coromandel Screen. These screens were a favorite of designer Coco Chanel (1883-1971). In her luxurious French residences, she had a vast collection of Coromandel screens which she used as decorative elements around her rooms. Continue Reading