Today’s top local issues — school boundaries, affordable housing, gentrification — are often shaped by Charlotte’s neighborhood geography. How did Charlotte develop its current ”wedge and crescent” pattern of wealth in the south, less prosperity across the center of the county? Community historian Dr. Tom Hanchett returns to explore that sometimes surprising story, based on the 2020 second edition of his history of Charlotte, Sorting Out the New South City.

Educated at Cornell, University of Chicago and UNC Chapel Hill, Dr. Hanchett is a popular speaker on our city’s past and present. Charlotte Magazine calls him “Charlotte’s Dr. History” and named him a 2015 Charlottean of the Year. Find his wide-ranging writings — neighborhood walking tours, “recorded in Charlotte” music history, immigrant restaurant profiles and more.