SgtCampsalot

The one with the green spaceship on top I think The City Club private restaurant is up there, no?

My favorite thing, even if I don't know all the facts, is hearing people all around Uptown discuss their impression of things that are happening. A majority of the time there will be one or two minor-to-major facts that are definitely wrong. Much of the time I'll be eavesdropping on people talking to friends/family in a group talking about the newest development, or what's happening where. I'm not about to correct them.

Much love. Also, I gotta say, all I can think between your avatar and your sentiments is this line: https://youtu.be/9Gq3UEAiWio

Honestly not all of the laws make sense for electric scooters. You can't always be on the sidewalk or the street; oftentimes the safety of either the rider or the driver depend on the scooter changing locations. Then other times going against a one-way street is a negligible act. The laws need to change to accommodate this new mode... or should I say: accommode-ate

I would enjoy the Epicentre a good deal more if two of its four bounding streets - College and 4th - weren't high-speed one-way strips. It's the opposite experience around Romare Bearden: Mint, MLK, E 3rd are nice and cozy, and Church is extremely moderated by the Brevard Court crossing. While the comparison may seem arbitrary, they are both major Uptown draws that I find myself needing to walk/bike to frequently.

The owner of Sweet Lew's building also owns that large brick corner store (formerly Farrar's Grocery) you're referring to; they're the ones that bought it from the city after the city purchased the lots. They have been slowing doing things for a few months: they tore down the old brick plex building in the back corner of the parking lot and have been leveling that spot, they took out all the existing interior insulation of the store last month, they've been fixing underground utilities for a few weeks, they are replacing the roof now, and they chewed up the asphalt in the parking lot last week (they'll probably re-pave near the end). I'm told they have sub-divided the space, and the rear space has been leased to a veterinarian's office. If so that's some earnest impetus to get going on the up-fit. I'm not sure where the owner's reno ends and the tenant's upfit begins.

Gotta love the "Epic Center"

Shoulda' bought a new construction where the developer cashed out on selling the wood from any old growths. Sucka!

Townhome project. [No willpower to Google it ]

Luckily beating one's chest is a very effective deterrent

I just heard the old Farrar store building at Belmont/Harrill will be sub-divided with a veterinarian's office in the rear. No tenant yet for the main corner retail space on the corner. I know everyone is hoping for some kind of grocery or small goods store. I don't know how much space each space will have but hopefully something like that is still feasible.

What I do is go up Tryon Plaza elevator looking like I belong there and snap photos from any of the handful of vacant office spaces

When I was a kid "The Suburbs" was everything south of Uptown, extending to the newly-planned Ballantyne. My family's St Matthew's Catholic Church (who had mass in their gym, pre-amphitheater style building) had cows grazing across the street, on what is now Stonecrest shopping center. I never imagined the mire of suburban hellscape, where a teenager couldn't walk anywhere in shade, where no youth could bike anywhere comfortably or in safety, would keep expanding southward with such intensity. In my naivety I assumed we were learning our lesson and would slowly wean out this method of community building that was so cut-off from natural human needs. I also didn't think New Yorkers would keep coming here to fill up these neighborhoods, that they'd see these places and think "why are they still building this way?" Blakney, and what's happening down Lancaster Hwy, and in Waxhaw, blew my mind as I saw them happening. Even as a youth I always wondered why we kept building new instead of changing how we do it in existing areas. Kids need to bike places without their parents! But I didn't yet know about financing, land use policy, and cultural relativism. I was young and stupid, as they say.

I think even your typical middle-class person will be turned off by Siggy's prices. Obviously there are plenty of affluent people moving to the area to support her, but a huge portion of the neighborhood will walk by her restaurant and never set foot in it.

This tower is making me think it will be like the UNCC Center City building and the Lennar high rise in 1st ward had a baby.