Laurel to organizers of and participants in recent downtown cruise-ins for bringing some energy to the city’s core in an unprecedented time.

On Friday and Saturday nights, visitors to downtown Salisbury can count on seeing dozens of classic cars, hot rods and sports cars parked on North Main Street. There are friendly faces ready to talk about their vehicles and a much-needed sense of energy in downtown during a time when events are otherwise few and far between because of the pandemic.

It’s particularly good to see that organizers of the events and the police department were able to come to an understanding about what’s allowed under city code and state laws.

While it’s not time yet for large events to resume, it’s nice that more intimate ones that respect social distancing rules — including the cruise-in events — have popped up.

Laurel to the anecdotal and hard evidence that the home-buying business is booming in Rowan County. Homes are selling faster and for more money than they have in recent years.

“We’re seeing homes going up and under contract quickly, sometimes with multiple offers,” businessman Victor Wallace, of Wallace Realty, told reporter Ben Stansell in a story published on Tuesday, Sept. 15 (“Pandemic accompanied by fever for home buying”).

That trend is potentially a result of people looking to move to less populated areas because of the pandemic and get more space for their money. But it’s also the result of long-expected growth from Charlotte.

To date, that growth has been sparse and mostly in the southern part of the county. In spite of the pandemic, more recent developments have come at a faster pace and been scattered across the county.

The role of local elected officials now is to ensure they incentivize more growth while also serving as a check on developers by enforcing land use plans and protecting the environment.

Laurel to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services for putting local news first in buying print and online advertisements for a statewide campaign to “get behind the mask.”

The department on Monday said it will buy advertisements in 21 community-based print and online publications across the state and put “and intentional focus on reaching historically marginalized communities most impacted by the pandemic.

The print advertisements will feature North Carolina people, places and lives and run from September through December. Public officials in Raleigh can encourage mask-wearing as much as they like, but it’s a good move to put faces to the COVID-19 pandemic and do so in publications delivering vital news to communities in the state.