Newsletter 8/12: A curveball for Madison Central Park

Good morning! Today is Wednesday, August 12, 2026. You’re reading The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with local business-y news and insights for Charlotte, N.C.

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Hi readers, Lindsey here. Today, we’re kicking it off — or should I say batting it off? Throwing the first pitch? You get the idea — with a follow-up to a story we published last Monday about a local sports league’s plans to build baseball fields at Pinewood Elementary in the Madison Park neighborhood. We have since learned that there’s a group of neighbors who have organized opposition to the project, and we wanted to share their perspective and the updates that have been made to the initial proposal.

by Lindsey Banks

Plans to build youth baseball fields at Madison Central Park in south Charlotte are getting some pushback from neighbors who worry the project could change a green space they’ve used and enjoyed for years. 

Dilworth Youth Sports Association says the fields, which would be on Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools property, would help address a significant shortage of places for young children to play baseball and softball. But some Madison Park residents argue the proposal could solve one community’s problem by creating another. 

The opposition group, called Save Madison Park, says more than 80 households have signed up to receive updates on the project, with concerns about potential traffic, noise, safety and the loss of flexible green space that attracted many of them to buy a house in the area. 

DYSA President Chris Pineno says the league is listening and has already scaled back its plans from its original proposal. 

Save Madison Park members say they feel differently. 

Bank of America, one of Charlotte’s largest employers, is slowly tightening its work-from-home rules.

In a move designed to improve workplace collaboration and to better use its real estate, the bank told employees last week that it is placing new restrictions on the days employees can work from outside the office and is clarifying what constitutes an in-office day.

Since peaking in 2022 at 37,877 total crashes, yearly traffic accidents in Charlotte have declined by nearly a third.

In 2023, crashes in the Charlotte area dropped to 34,748, according to city data analyzed by The Ledger. By 2024, they were down to 29,970, and in 2025, they decreased to 26,225. That’s a 30.8% drop in traffic accidents from 2022 to 2025.

But as of the end of June, total crashes so far in 2026 were at 17,843. If crashes continue to occur at the same pace as the first half of the year through the end of 2026, total crashes would outnumber recent years.

The Charlotte Ledger was founded in 2019 on the belief that people in the Charlotte area deserve reliable information about the world around them.

Today, I’m happy to report one of the ways we are making good on advancing that belief. The Charlotte Ledger, along with two other media organizations, has taken the unusual step of going to court to request that a public agency do what we believe state law requires – being transparent about its operations and how it spends public money. At stake is your right to know how your government operates.

Since 2023, The Ledger has been almost alone in covering the odd case of a UNC Chapel Hill student from Morganton, who was kicked out of school after a campus disciplinary panel found him guilty of sexual misconduct. Alleging irregularities in how a campus tribunal handled his case, he sued, using a pseudonym – which is also unusual, although a federal judge allowed it. The Ledger broke the story of the lawsuit because we regularly check court filings.

We followed the case as it wound its way through the federal court in Asheville, where it was filed. The case wasn’t trying to determine the student’s guilt or innocence but hinged on how UNC conducted its investigation and hearing, which the student said unfairly led to his expulsion and revocation of his prestigious Morehead-Cain full scholarship.

This spring, UNC and the student reached a settlement of the suit, according to court documents filed by the two sides. But they didn’t disclose how the suit was resolved. Did UNC pay the student off, and with how much money? Did they allow him to reenroll? Did they acknowledge that they erred and apologize? We, and the public, have no idea.

This is one of those cases where neither side benefits from publicity. The student wants to go about his life without being linked to sexual misconduct when someone Googles his name. UNC would prefer to avoid headlines about how it bungled the adjudication of a disciplinary case and perhaps how it agreed to readmit someone to campus who a panel found guilty of forcing himself on women without their consent.

State law doesn’t allow state agencies like UNC to “enter into any settlement of any such suit, arbitration or proceeding if the settlement provides that its terms and conditions shall be confidential,” except for medical malpractice cases against hospitals. 

Yet the two sides agreed to keep the terms of the settlement under wraps anyway, and federal Judge Martin Reidinger agreed to order it sealed. Although there are plenty of details of the allegations in publicly available court filings, Reidinger found that releasing the terms of the settlement agreement would jeopardize the privacy of the student and his accusers.

Last month, The Ledger, the UNC student newspaper The Daily Tar Heel and the John Locke Foundation’s Carolina Journal asked the judge to reconsider and to disclose the terms of the settlement. (We’re not seeking the disclosure of the student’s name.) UNC’s lawyers, as lawyers do, have thrown up all kinds of objections about why it’s ill-advised, improper and illegal to do what all other state and local agencies routinely do, which is share the terms of settlements with the public.

The judge will rule at some point. The outcome will have no material financial effect on The Ledger either way. Contrary to a popular anti-media talking point, getting “clicks” on headlines doesn’t pay the bills (at least not ours). And we have plenty of other things to write about and to focus our attention on.

But it will have an effect on your understanding of the world we live in – on this one case in particular, of course, but also potentially the next time a government agency wants to shield information from the public by using questionable legal interpretations.

The Ledger and other local media run into roadblocks in trying to get information all the time, from the city of Charlotte refusing to release records on properties it considers public nuisances (saying they are confidential police records even though the City Council has discussed the issue) to the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles telling us it’s nigh impossible to release an anonymized database of vehicle registrations, even though they gave us the exact same database without objection six years ago (outdated computers, they say). It’s a frustrating part of our job, and the only recourse we typically have is to start involving lawyers. 

On this issue, we’re contesting UNC’s self-serving inclination toward secrecy. We think that matters. The public deserves to know what its government is up to. –Tony Mecia

Related Ledger articles:

You can read about The Ledger’s court filing in the Carolina Journal, as well as UNC’s response.

Events submitted by readers to The Ledger’s events board:

THURSDAY, AUGUST 13: “Town Hall with Council Member Watlington,” 6-8 p.m., at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center, Room 267, 600 E. Fourth St. Join Council Member Victoria Watlington and professionals from the architecture, engineering, construction and healthcare industries for a hands-on working session tackling the real infrastructure conflicts created by Charlotte's data center growth — labor pipelines, grid capacity, supply chains and community impact. Registration recommended. Free.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 16: “Silent Book Club,” 9:30-11 a.m., at That’s Novel Books, 330 Camp Road. Come by and join That’s Novel Books for its Silent Book Club, where you get the opportunity to quietly read with other Charlotte bookworms. Bring your chairs, bring your friends, bring your dogs, but most importantly bring your books in whatever format you’re reading. Free.

AUGUST 19: “‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’ with David McGee,” 6:30-9 p.m., at the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, 420 S. Tryon St. Celebrate the closing week of “David McGee: The Griot and the Nightingale,” on view through Sunday, August 23, with a special screening of “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” Presented in partnership with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation and Independent Picture House, the film will be followed by a talkback with artist David McGee. Registration requested. Free.

➡️ List your event on the Ledger events board.