An uneven year for hair care businesses (free version)
Plus: CMS adds in-person days and addresses plans for fall; Well-known Dilworth salon closes; How Covid relief bill affects your pocketbook; February rezonings; 24 Hours of Booty goes in-person
Good morning! Today is Wednesday, March 10, 2021. You’re reading The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with local business-y news and insights for Charlotte, N.C.
Editor’s note: This is a shorter, free version of The Charlotte Ledger sent to people on our free sign-up list. The complete version for paying subscribers went out 15 minutes ago. It included:
The latest on last night’s Board of Education meeting — including details of plans for accelerating students’ return to the classroom starting next week — and Superintendent Earnest Winston’s forecast of what the fall semester will look like for students and families.
The full article on how barbershops and salons have had to keep adapting during the last year, as they weathered shutdowns and changing Covid rules.
The scoop on a Dilworth hair salon that is closing after 20 years — and why.
The latest installment in our reader development Q&A series, in which we answer a question about the status of a planned hotel.
A summary of the measures in a federal Covid relief bill that are most likely to affect your pocketbook.
Access to the full list of February’s rezoning petitions in Charlotte — including details on a 1950s Myers Park church that could become townhomes and what’s envisioned for a mixed-use development on Central Avenue in Plaza-Midwood.
Look, we do things differently than other media in town. We’re primarily a newsletter. We tell you things you don’t know and won’t find elsewhere. We have writers that know Charlotte because we’ve lived here for 20 years. We like a good story, but we don’t traffic in clickbait or overemphasize food news. We’re trying to deliver news that matters to your life, in an interesting way. We like Charlotte — and we believe that Charlotte is served by giving its residents responsible and honest journalism.
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Hair salons and barbershops cope with lost income and new protocols as they try to make customers feel safe; some juggle 7am start times and rethink cancellation fees
Business at No Grease! Barbershop in Northlake Mall has grown during the pandemic. After being forced to close for several weeks last spring, the barbershop reopened with safety protocols like increased cape sanitation, air filtration and a mask requirement. (Photo courtesy of No Grease! Barbershop Northlake Mall)
By Kayla Berenson
Edmund Washington opened the No Grease! Barbershop’s Northlake Mall location in the summer of 2019. Less than a year later, the shop was forced to close its doors as the state tried to slow the spread of Covid-19.
When it opened back up in May, Washington had to oversee a big transformation: instituting a mask requirement, increasing chair and cape sanitation, adding a Plexiglas barrier around the receptionist desk and installing a new air filtration system.
But 8 months after reopening, Washington reported the best week of sales No Grease! had seen since the shutdown — proof that resiliency was paying off.
For barbershops and hair salons, staying afloat during the pandemic has involved added pressures, as clients weigh their desire for dyed roots or polished looks with the fear of being exposed to the virus during a cut or color.
At some salons and barber shops, it has meant changing hours and adding house calls, while for others has involved changing layouts and rethinking cancellation fees.
CMS passes new in-person learning schedule that adds days in the classroom — plans for fall semester
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has reworked its in-person learning plan to increase the number of days and the frequency in which students will attend class inside school buildings.
And Superintendent Earnest Winston disclosed for the first time plans for the fall semester, which starts in August.
The new plan, passed Tuesday night by the district’s Board of Education, looks like this:
T.Reid & Co., a 20-year fixture in Charlotte’s salon scene, will close April 2
Dilworth hair salon T.Reid & Co., known by many for the grape-colored house it has inhabited on East Boulevard in Dilworth for the last 15 years, is closing April 2 after two decades in business.
Owner Tonya Reid told The Ledger that
Covid relief money expected to start flowing — details on stimulus checks and child tax credits
The U.S. House is expected to pass the final version of a $1.9 trillion Covid relief plan this morning, and President Biden is expected to sign it.
Some of the key provisions:
You Ask, We Answer: Hotel plans in Dilworth
Welcome to the latest installment of “You Ask, We Answer,” The Ledger’s attempt to help satisfy your burning🔥 development questions behind bulldozed blocks or stalled construction plans.
We recently invited readers to send us questions, and many of you did. (And you’re welcome to send more; see below.)
As we always say, there’s no rezoning request we can’t track down; no land sale we can’t sniff out.
Here’s today’s question:
What, if anything, is going on with the property (old gas station?) at the corner of E. Worthington and Cleveland in Dilworth? There was talk of it becoming a Courtyard by Marriott. It still sits empty.
Here’s what we found out:
Do you have a question? Let us know:
Local Covid numbers keep on falling
Local Covid numbers — cases, hospitalizations, percent positive and deaths — continued falling last week, according to figures released Friday by the Mecklenburg County Health Department. The number of Covid deaths announced last week (17) hit the lowest point since early December and was down 71% from the mid-January peak. (Source: Ledger analysis of health department data)
February’s hottest rezonings 🔥 now available
You’ve probably heard the popular saying that the only two certainties in the world are death and taxes. We’ll add one more: Charlotte rezoning filings.
Global pandemic? Great Recession? It doesn’t matter … developers keep filing plans, and The Ledger delivers them to you every month before they hit the city’s main rezoning website.
If your job is in real estate, you might need to know who’s planning what and where. And no matter where you live in the city, rezonings can give early insights into what parcels of land are being developed near you.
Last month, developers filed plans to:
replace a Myers Park church built in the 1950s with townhomes.
build a mixed-use development in place of a gas station on Central Avenue in Plaza-Midwood.
build a 300-foot-tall tower on Kings Drive.
construct a lot of apartments and townhomes all over the place.
Access to the monthly rezoning list we compile is available exclusively to our community of paying subscribers.
Back on the bikes: 24 Hours of Booty date set, registration open
BOOTY CALL: The 24 Hours of Booty charity biking event is back in-person for its 20th year, and registration is now open. The event will take place July 30-31 on Myers Park’s so-called “Booty Loop” popular with cyclists. The 2.9-mile course will be closed for people to ride as much or as little as they like in 24 hours. There will also be an “UnLooped” virtual portion for people who prefer that option. Last year’s event was all-virtual. Proceeds benefit local and national cancer navigation and survivorship programs and services. Details: 24foundation.org. (Photo from 2019 courtesy of 24 Foundation)
In brief
Panthers raise ticket prices: The Carolina Panthers are raising ticket prices by an average of $3 per seat in 2021. Higher prices will hit 44% of season ticket holders, and the average price per ticket will rise to $107. The team went 5-11 last year. (Biz Journal)
Cotswold sauna: A “sauna studio” chain called Perspire plans to open its first North Carolina location in Cotswold this spring, at the corner of Sharon Amity and Providence roads. Guests have a private sauna and can “choose from an array of color light therapy colors, premium entertainment options and temperature settings.” What to wear? “Lightweight shorts and a tee-shirt are ok. Swimsuits are better. ‘Birthday Suit’ is best.”
Coffee combo: Local coffee shops Not Just Coffee and Undercurrent are teaming up to build a roastery and four new cafes — in “LoSo,” Oakhurst and two uptown. The new venture will be called “Night Swim Coffee.” (Axios Charlotte)
Signs of hope: Gov. Roy Cooper touted the state’s effectiveness in distributing the Covid vaccine and said Covid numbers continue to fall but that residents still need to wear masks and maintain social distancing. “There are more signs of hope that we are making progress toward putting this pandemic behind us,” he said.
New steel mill: Charlotte-based steel giant Nucor said it will build a $164M tube mill in the Midwest. It did not disclose the precise location. (Nucor)
Roy Williams doughnut: For the start of the ACC basketball tournament, Dunkin’ Donuts is offering the “Ol Roy” doughnut in honor of UNC basketball coach Roy Williams. It is a “chocolate frosted Boston Crème, filled with custard and laced with a Carolina-blue frosting,” the Observer reports.
Loves me some internet
Programming note: Ledger editor Tony Mecia appears as a guest on 90.7 WFAE at 6:40 a.m. and 8:40 a.m. on Thursdays for a discussion of the week’s local business news in the station’s “BizWorthy” segment. Audio and transcripts are also available online.
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Contributing editor: Tim Whitmire, CXN Advisory; Reporting intern: David Griffith