What do we call the center of Charlotte?

[poplife88]

I like (uptown) cause it's different. 

And there is a term for "the psuedo-diva posh attitude of "i'm better than you because i'm wearing d&g"".  I think the term is "Myers Park Housewife".  You know the ones.  They don't work, but they don't stay home with the kids, either.  The au pair does that.  The housekeeper keeps things tidy.  The gardner or lawn service takes care of the yard.  The Myers Park Housewife goes to the Club, shops for shoes, and drives around in a giant SUV talking on the mobile phone.

If a working woman wants to be flashy with her clothes (and they happen to be D&G), fine by me.  At least she is paying for it with money she earned by being employed.

Now don't take this the wrong way.  The VAST majority of housewives in this city work hard, take care of children, put food on the table, mow grass, help with homework, etc.  They are in a league above us all.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You are so cool MC. You're my favorite forumer.

[monsoon]

Myers Park Housewife = Trophy Wife up here at the Lake. Having one will cost you a new Mercedes (and I don't mean a cheap one like I drive), some credit cards, lots of bills from the plastic surgeon, and some furs. Not so sure why they call it trophy as the sun beating down on skin for 40 years turns it into leather.

[krazeeboi]

I think I smell burning collagen...

[sonofaque86]

I'm not from Charlotte and I know they call downtown "Uptown" but why?

[dubone]

read through the early pages of the thread. the way i have heard it, downtowns in this area on typically on hills, so it is common for town centers to be called 'uptown' in the carolinas. same goes for charlotte. The more standard "downtown" was used for a while, but at some point 20 years ago the politicians switched to "uptown" as part of rebranding efforts.

historically, though, both uptown and downtown have been used.

[Miesian Corners]

^ Well done, dub.

[graydog]

as a man i'm ALL for woman celebrating anything having to do with sexuality. it's the psuedo-diva posh attitude of "i'm better than you because i'm wearing d&g" that gets annoying.

yuppie usually means over privileged born into tons of money and never worked a day in your life to me

The first 2 seasons of Sex were good because it was actually about sex. Then they started focusing relationships. They lost me but they gained my wife.

[NcSc74]

My grandmother who lives in the small town of Clinton(30 miles east of Fayetteville) calls their downtown uptown. So yeah I think it might be a Carolinas thing. I haven't heard it anywhere else. My wife from north Jersey doesn't use downtown at all. She would always say Main St. Or the city. I think downtown is on main street in Orange NJ and the city is you guessed it NYC.

[krazeeboi]

While passing through Gaffney, SC on I-85 on my way back to Rock Hill from Atlanta recently, a billboard was promoting "historic uptown Gaffney." I guess it is a Carolinas thing. The only other SC city that I know of that calls its downtown "uptown" is Greenwood. Perhaps this trend is more popular among upstate SC cities, as I know of no cities/towns in other areas of the state that use the "uptown" designation.

[Dylan]

Like he said...downtown is downtown. It's easier to say, and makes more sense.

[DigitalSky]

I variate.. sometimes CC, DT, UT

after saying this, i realize i use 'uptown' more than anything

[Dylan]

after saying this, i realize i use 'uptown' more than anything

You do.

[graydog]

Another viewpoint I found while searching for photos of City Fair:

You may wonder why it called "Uptown" Charlotte instead of "Downtown" Charlotte. The "Uptown" name is a marketing ploy. One of the city's strategic marketing moves was to call its downtown area Uptown in the belief that it is a more distinctive description. Geographically, you must travel uphill to get to Uptown, so Uptown is what most local folks called it until after World War II. With the influx of residents from northern states in the 1950s, however, Downtown became the word of choice. With the exodus to suburban communities, business leaders decided they did not want the city's nucleus to die. One way to help the image was to call it Uptown again. In 1974, Mayor John Belk officially designated the business district "Uptown" with the backing of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce".

Source: Scott Brumley, http://www.he.net/~brumley/tour/uptown.htm

I think the highway signs that read Downtown are meant for the out-of-towners who wouldn't know Uptown is downtown. The people who put up those signs have no sense of humor!

[Southernyank]

I personally prefer "Uptown" just because "Downtown" seems so ordinary and humdrum while "Center City" seems to be too much to say and type.

[MZT]

Highway signs in AZ read "Uptown Phoenix"... They could be changed.

Saying uptown, sounded strange to me for a while. But I made myself adapt to local the phrasing and it seems almost familiar now. I think what got me to accept it, was rationalizing that Charlotte has the tallest buildings in N.C., and you have to look UP when you're in the center of town.

NODA still sounds goofy and concocted, though.

[Unifour]

Believe it or not, Charlotte started a trend with that Uptown thing. I think I've read that Salt Lake City and perhaps Denver call thier CBD Uptown instead of downtown. There are other cities around the nation who do it, just because Charlotte has become so famous for doing so. I like it, but I'm afraid that it will never catch on fully as some others will always see it as silly and pretentious.

[Norm2]

Charlotte started something original for a change? WOW!

[Unifour]

Several things, actually! The school system broke new ground as well. I believe it was called satellite schools, right? Also, Charlotte is credited with being the first city to place cameras at traffic lights for catching light runners.

[Norm2]

Interesting interesting lol.

[go_vertical]

Personally I prefer uptown because I recall hearing that more often from locals when I lived in Charlotte for a few short years. I guess I just got used to that. I feel that the giant asphalt river that is 277 really prevents the creation of two different "towns" since everone sees that as one area. For some reason I just can't see the inner loop split into uptown on one side and downtown on the other. And I agree with many of the other posters in this thread in that nearly every city has a downtown. Calling it uptown makes the area seem a little more distinguished and makes it different from most other cities IMO.

Here in Orlando we have always had downtown (roughly 12 blocks south of Colonial Dr.) and uptown (about 6-7 blocks north of Colonial). Recently someone suggested squeezing in a midtown by stealing about four blocks from downtown. If this catches on we'll have uptown, midtown, and downtown covering all of about 18-19 blocks. More than a little ridiculous if you ask me.

[Hotlanta]

I find it better if cities let citizens create the own name of areas. For example ATL has Fairlie-Poplar and Five Points and Buckhead. Charlotte has...........(don't know of any). Downtown, Midtown, and Uptown sound too original if you gave all three put together. As someone mentioned, Uptown sounds more distinguished than any other city I've encountered, except NYC.

[Charlotteman]

I was born in 1954 in Hickory and as far back as I can remember it was ALWAYS Uptown Hickory, Uptown Charlotte, etc.

This is no pretense whatsoever. Just a local tradition it seems. Keep Uptown! I like it.

[Charlotteman]

btw when I moved to Jacksonville, Florida in 1979 it took a lot of getting used to saying "downtown". Downtown is what center city Jacksonville is called:)

Uptown sounds unique, and yes quirky to outsiders. I say keep it.

[dubone]

I was born in 1954 in Hickory and as far back as I can remember it was ALWAYS Uptown Hickory, Uptown Charlotte, etc.

This is no pretense whatsoever. Just a local tradition it seems. Keep Uptown! I like it.

That, and all of the other personal examples of people using "uptown Charlotte" for a century, or clear evidence that it wasn't concocted. It is common for many Carolina towns that were built on a hill, like Charlotte, to be called "uptown". That is the same logic that leads to the western part of South Carolina, which is in the foothills of the Appalachians, to be called the "upstate". It refers to topography.

The problem is, oftentimes, that "official" stuff often ignores local tradition or quirk or language. Many times, they just want to do it like every other city does it. I think that is what lead to predominant use of "downtown" officially until they finally decided to use the local version "uptown" in 1974.

There are always local traditions for place names, especially in pronunciations. For example, it is MONroe here, not MonROE. And all the placenames ending in "ville" are pronounced "vull".

[Charlotteman]

Yes that's true. When I lived in Hickory, it was pronounced Jackson-vull. But I distinctly remember calling it mon-ROE and not MON-roe. In fact MON-roe reminds me of hickish Jacksonville where there is the Ribault River. Locals literally pronounced it REE-BALT, whereas the correct pronounciation is Re-BO, a lovely French name.

And in Jacksonville, the entire city says La-NOID, instead of Lee-O-nid! (Leonid Ave) hee hee