RTP area vs Charlotte for relocation for Professio

[skylinedrive]

Every year the Charlotte Observer puts out a special section called Living Here. I found it to be very helpful when I moved to Charlotte a couple years ago. Hopefully you will find it useful too. I think the one they have on the web is about a year old, but should be updated by the end of this month.

http://newspaperads.charlotte.com/Sections.aspx?sec=9692

[appatone]

I wanted to address each of your questions specifically, first Charlotte has experienced a tremendous boom in African-American middle/upper-middle class growth over the last decade but especially during the last five years. Charlotte consistently stays toward the top of Black Enterprise Magazine's top places for African Americans list. There are some great articles in Charlotte's papers on the subject, both the following articles talk about this trend and have interviews with several families that have made the move to Charlotte that you are considering. Both are well worth the read. For the record the last numbers (for what numbers are worth) showed that African Americans made up 22.5% of Charlotte's overall middle class.

Creative Loafing's The New Great Migration

Charlotte Business Journal's An Emerging Middle Class

What I really wanted to post about was the cultural aspect of the city. Since I think this is where you will see Charlotte shine. Charlotte's cultural opportunities are great for both Adults and children. I will include several links for you through out the body of this post.

Theatre:

Charlotte boast a pretty decent theatre scene and I certainly can't list every company but Actor's Theatre is a great professional theatre. Blumenthal attracts all the top touring shows in addition to producing their own professional shows. Charlotte boasts several "fringe theatre" companies and plenty of quality community theatres. Charlotte is the only city in NC to have a professional permanent show (Menopause The Musical). We also have a professional Children's Theatre located in the new Imaginon Children's Learning Center. Imaginon is the coming together of the Children's library and the children's theatre. The Afro-American Cultural Center has its own theatre group (their current production is about Louis Armstrong, a great way to combine your love of jazz and theatre ) and its own children's theatre. We also have professional summer stock companies. Believe it or not the community college here actually runs its own professional summer stock and auditions actor's from all over the nation and pays and houses them during the summer season. The community college recently opened its own brand new 1000 seat performing arts center. Charlotte is home to several large theatres with Blumenthal (which has multiple houses), Oven's, Wachovia's upcoming center, Spirit Square, and more. The large publications in town have full time theatre writers and Charlotte also has its own monthly theatre magazine highlighting all of the shows during that month. If you enjoy improv comedy CHarlotte also has a few improv groups that perform several shows weekly.

Classical Music:

The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra has 115 performances per season. They also have FREE pops concerts in the park on Sunday evenings in June. These are big in Charlotte; everyone brings picnic blankets and baskets. Their main shows take place in the Belk Auditorium in the Blumenthal. We also have a few other smaller classical groups.

Dance Theatre:

The NC Dance Theatre Company moved from Raleigh to Charlotte several years ago. They are the official state dance company and produce some great stuff. We also have a professional group called Moving Poets Theatre of Dance which is a more avant-garde and contemporary dance company that often includes theatre and multi-media and other unique art forms in their production.

Opera:

Opera Carolina is the largest professional opera company in the Carolinas and it is located in the heart of Charlotte, Toni Morrison is scheduled to lecture prior to their upcoming production of Margaret Garner. In addition, they rehearse in the base of Bank of America's corp. headquarters and you can sometimes cruise by the windows and watch them rehearse from the sidewalk. The community college I mentioned earlier also operates its own opera company.

Jazz:

I can only think of two Jazz Clubs off the top of my head since I'm more of a rock guy myself. Those would be House of Jazz Uptown and Wine-Up in NODA (NODA is the North Davidson Arts District). I think both are fairly upscale but neither is stuffy.

Hope this helps a little.

[krazeeboi]

There's also the Jazz Cafe in Arysley Town Center.

[chocoholic]

Appatone,

I read the articles that you gave links to. They were excellent. I felt as though the people that they quoted in the articles were reading my mind.

I just came back from Charlotte; the city is impressive. I will be in Raleigh after the next couple of weeks.

Thanks again to all who have replied to my original question-this is a wonderful forum.