rockhilljames

Getting back to the subject at hand, I'm skeptical of this not due to any recession, but because of how long such private/public projects take. Gateway, Brooklyn, Hal Marshal, Spirit Square-Library no shovels in the ground or indications that anything is imminent.

Question for soccer fans: why are so many teams named "Real" and "United"? Does that mean anything specific?

How great would it be if all these towns were connected by rail? I remember taking the train from Harrisburg to Philadelphia and going through these really neat towns between them.

Open air market! On a more serious note, does anyone know the history of the shotgun house on that lot? It looks pretty old.

It was in response to a post above that suggested the bakery complex needs to go.

I could not disagree with you more. What Charlotte needs more of is human scaled buildings that promote street level interactions. Most of that stock was destroyed downtown, and it suffers for it. DFA is a gorgeous building, but I view it as a net loss because of what it replaced. South End has the potential to be a true urban core, but if we level it and replace it with block after block of podium parking it will become sterile and unwelcoming, regardless of how well it looks from afar.

Is this the beginning of a Phoenix style skyline with two separate clusters of buildings?

That's some hot crane action.

Tru-ish

Man, that library was gorgeous. Dang.

Granted, but we're not the only city to have freeways running through downtown. My comment was more about the mental perception people seem to have between the two areas rather than the physical barrier that 277 presents. I do wish we could cap it the way Columbus did to unify downtown and Short North, but that's another discussion.

Well if we can ever let go of the artificial separation we've created in our minds between Uptown and South End we would realize that we are developing a shopping district downtown.

I wasn't quite sure where to put this, but I remember a discussion about the lack of a large urban park downtown and potential locations. Most people focused on Memorial Stadium as a good contender. i've always thought that the rail yard north of downtown would make a great park. It is over 200 acres, right on the light rail, next to NoDa, and would dramatically accelerate development along N Tryon. I had heard that the intermodal yard at the airport was supposed to replace this one. Anyone know what the long term plans for this site are?

Please be BB&T so that LH doesn't get them.