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Most Recently Answered Questions
Questions 1 - 10 of 330 (Page 1 of 33)Submitted by Rick Thames from Charlotte
Q:A question from the editor to our readers: You may have noticed that our staff is looking for new ways to be of help as your pocketbook is being squeezed by the higher price of gas and other goods and services. We are publishing many more stories on how to save money at home and at work. Are these stories helpful to you? What other kinds of stories would be of help as you cope with your present economic circumstances?
A: I'm eager to hear from you.
Submitted by Brian Willard from Charlotte, NC
Q:Rick -How about a performing arts blog? The Observer has jettisoned it's full-time Theatre Critic and it's historic anemic arts coverage has now hit an all-time low, being relegated to one or two reviews a month (normally touring mega-musicals appearing at The Blumenthal that have zero do to local theatre)written by your movie critic. There are shows opening in Charlotte every week, can't you at the very least have an arts blog? I would think it's as at least important as other blogs devoted to Fantasy baseball(??) and video games for crying out loud. In fact, you have no less than nine blogs devoted to sports. Charlotte wants to be a world class city and it's only newspaper seems to frown upon the arts, ignoring Charlotte's performing arts community with a dead-eyed corporate apathy offering it little or no support. What say you?
A: Brian, the Observer hardly ignores Charlotte's arts community, and I think you know that. But I can appreciate your hunger for more arts coverage. It was very important to us to maintain staff-produced coverage of local theater when our former theater critic, Julie York Coppens, left the Observer. We believe we found a solution in Lawrence Toppman, who now covers the theater and movies for us. Lawrence is imminently qualified to do both. Also, as far as I can tell, we are the only media organization in the state that has staff-written coverage and criticism of theater, dance, classical music, art, books, architecture and movies. Our coverage far exceeds most newspapers of our size. That said, I'd love to have even more coverage. And as Charlotte's arts community grows, I hope our capacity will, too. Our Features editor, Mike Weinstein, said to tell you that there will be more online arts coverage -- and perhaps even that blog you suggest -- with the introduction of a new design for our Web site. The new design debuts Thursday, July 31. Read more about the site in Sunday's (July 27) editions.
Submitted by Elizabeh from Holden Beach
Q:What determines who get the "Featured Guest Book" status in the obituaries?
A: Elizabeth, this answer is provided by our advertising division, which oversees the death notices. Legacy, the company that partners with the Observer to provide the notices online, offers families the use of a "guest book" for an additional charge.
Submitted by Greg Flynn from Raleigh NC
Q:Rick, What did you mean when at the NC Press Association convention in Asheville you "introduced the seven-time Charlotte mayor by saying, “Pat McCrory has been the right choice for a long time.”"? Was this a political endorsement?
A: Greg, you may have heard by now that this is not what I said. And, no, I did not endorse anyone. First, some background. I was invited last Friday to introduce Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory at an event in Asheville sponsored by the North Carolina Press Association. I'm the association's incoming president. The group had invited both Mayor McCrory and Beverly Perdue to address the association as candidates for governor. My introductory remarks were inaccurately reported by an online newspaper, and the inaccuracy then was repeated in a political blog. Greg, I assume you saw the inaccurate quote in one of those places. Here is what I actually said. "I should know better than most that there is a long list of things that Charlotteans don’t agree on. But it’s clear that they do agree on this: Pat McCrory is the right choice for Charlotte. Last November, voters awarded Pat McCrory an unprecedented seventh term as the city’s mayor. No Charlotte mayor before him had served more than four." As I said earlier, it wasn't an endorsement. Just a statement of fact that voters in Charlotte have repeatedly returned Pat McCrory to office.
Submitted by Karl Bergstrom from Charlotte, NC
Q:Hi Rick! I've seen the following headline, or some variation of it, several times on the Charlotte.com home page lately: "Nicole Kidman births baby girl". Maybe I'm being overly sensitive about this, but using the verb "births" makes it sound like the mother is a horse or a cow or some other form of livestock. Could you maybe start using more friendly terms like "gives birth to" or "has" (as in, "has a baby girl") or even "It's a girl for Nicole Kidman"?
A: Karl, for some reason I've also associated the use of birth as a verb with domesticated animals. In checking Webster's, I find (as you might expect) that birth is first explained as a noun. But it then offers the word as a transitive verb, with the designation "chiefly regional." The definition (and the parentheses are Webster's own): "1. To deliver (a baby). 2. To bear (a child)." Is this a Southern phrase that has escaped me? Is it from some other part of the country? Maybe other readers will know.
Submitted by Ben from Matthews
Q:Is there a web page in the Observer with links to all elected local, state, and national officials? Often your stories make me want to write someone! If such a page already exists, please tell me where to find it. If not, could you create one for us? Thanks.
A: You will find a lot of those links at http://www.charlotte.com/382/story/22554.html
Submitted by Boyce Williams from High Point, NC
Q:Why has the Observer abandoned High Point? There are three vending machines that were removed this week, how will I get a Sunday paper?
A: Boyce, I regret to tell you that the cost of delivering to High Point has reached a point where we are unable to continue there. We do hope you will keep reading us on the Web. See more about that below.
Submitted by Elizabeth Weiler from Winston Salem. NC
Q:Much to my chagrain, I was told this week that the Observer is no longer available in Forsyth County, specifically Winston Salem. Your paper is very popular here, and there are many disappointed readers. I would assume that this decision was made because of the cost of transporting the paper. Surely there are other solutions........increase the cost of the OBserver to those in outlying areas, delivery by train, delivery by bus, etc. Please reconsider-I sorely miss the paper, and reading it on-line is a poor substitution for the pleasure of sitting down daily with the entire paper to peruse.
A: Elizabeth, I hope that someday, soon, our Web versions of the Charlotte Observer will become a more welcome format for readers like youself. We regret stopping delivery in areas like Winston-Salem. But the expense involved has become too great for us to continue. Specifically, we no longer deliver in Forsyth, Guilford and Davidson counties. We have studied the feasibility of price increases, but that appears to be an equally unwelcome idea for most readers affected in these areas. To date, our best alternatives are Charlotte.com or our electronic edition, available in a subscription format at Newsstand.com. The good news is that the content you enjoy in the Observer is still available. But we also acknowledge the bad news for readers who do not find electronic editions as satisfying as a printed newspaper. Readers and the newspapers they read are in transition. We'll keep producing that content and hope that the formats will continue to evolve in ways that work for most people.
Submitted by Scott from Charlotte, NC
Q:What happened to the "South Meck Neighborhood" sections on Thursdays? My wife and I have enjoyed this section since its inception. The last couple of weeks it has just been advertisements and a list of daily activities in the area (i.e. no more articles). Thanks,
A: Scott, I'm glad you are enjoying our Neighbors sections. We have restructured the sections so they now all are published on Sundays. Your section, Neighbors of Southern Mecklenburg, was among four sections (the others being in Cabarrus, Union and Lake Norman)that formerly found enough advertising support to also publish on Thursdays. Unfortunately, that support has fallen off and continues to be affected by the ongoing enconomic downturn in our region. The most popular features from Thursday have been moved to the Sunday edition. Our goal with Neighbors is to bring readers news of their own part of town, much in the tradition of a good weekly community newspaper. This works well for readers, who find faces, places and issues particularly familiar to them. It also works for advertisers who are focused on a particular area of the city, or who need rates more affordable than they would pay by advertising in the entire newspaper. We hope to keep doing a good job for both readers and advertisers with our Sunday editions.
Submitted by Bill from Charlotte, NC
Q:Has there been a lot of serious crime and no arrests recently? It seems like murders and drive by shootings everywhere. I saw vehicle descripions etc. in the news reports. Is it just me?
A: Bill, I can't speak to arrest rates, but yes, crime is rising in several categories. In a story we published June 10, Clay Barbour reported that for the first four months of 2008, reports of violent crime in Charlotte-Mecklenburg increased 11.5 percent and property crime grew 10.2 percent compared with the same period in 2007. (In comparison, the rate of violent crime in Charlotte has declined over the past decade.) In 2007, Charlotte-Mecklenburg residents saw their lowest rate of violent crime in 15 years. The rate – 960.2 violent crimes per 100,000 people – dropped 7.2 percent from 2006. Charlotte's rate of property crime per 100,000 people rose in 2007, up by 1.5 percent from 2006.
