City of Charlotte sprinkling 100 rocking chairs across the city — here’s why

The goal is to have residents relax in the rocking chairs and share ideas about transforming underutilized public spaces into vibrant useful spots.

“We chose rocking chairs as a symbol of the city’s charm, encouraging people to stop and take in the environment, and celebrate their public spaces,” said Monica Holmes, placemaking manager for the city’s Urban Design Center. “We want build on the city’s welcoming reputation while encouraging Charlotteans to explore the possibilities of shaping our community together.”

Each of the 100 rocking chairs will display the web address for the City of Charlotte Placemaking Program: charlottenc.gov/placemaking. This site serves as a digital hub in which residents, neighborhoods and businesses can view funding opportunities, artist opportunities (more murals!) and tools to implement these public space projects.

Find a rocking chair: The Placemaking Program’s website will feature rocking chair locations. The chairs will remain sprinkled across the city until the end of 2019. They’re encouraging people to share ideas using the hashtag #RockWithCLT.

Why it matters: It’s cool to see the the City of Charlotte’s Placemaking Program, which launched in 2018, engage our city’s 860,000 residents in an effort to trigger their imagination. Given our city’s booming population and booming development, creating community through useful urban public space matters, a lot. If not, our urban public space will continue to be breweries.