Jump to content

Summer Night in Charlotte Center City

graydog

By graydog
in Photos & Videos

Recommended Posts


  • Replies 15
  • Created
  • Last Reply
Seven Cities Whistle-Stop

Seven Cities

Posted
Posted

Charlotte? Boring? Its hard to even put those two words in the same sentence. I was in Charlotte about 6 weeks ago. I stayed at the Hilton right in the heart of the action. From what I could see there was a lot of activity taking place all day and well into the night. There was something there for everyone. I even found this nice jazz club in uptown. Charlotte is a great city.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
TennBear Hamlet

TennBear

Posted
Posted

I do not use boring to describe Charlotte, but I do use Sterile. To use the classic quote from Gertrude Stein, "There is no there there." (The line refers to Oakland, CA by the way) It is very pretty and clean. It just has no soul. I like a little bit of grit in my cities to keep them real. As I always say, "That is why the world is round." What I mean by that is that we do not all like the same things and that is what makes everything interesting. It would be bad if we all wanted to live at the beach or all wanted the same things. If you like your city and recognize what makes it unique and special to you, that is what is important. It doesn't matter if someone else finds it boring. Not everyone wants New York or Los Angeles or where ever.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
graydog Hamlet

graydog

Posted
  • Author
Posted

good pics...what was going on at spirit square that night?

The dancing was at West Trade & South Tryon in the little concrete park. It was a jam party. Half a dozen people banging all types of drums. Everybody else was either dancing or people watching. Never saw anything like that in Charlotte. Charlotte had soul there and then for sure. Check out the snippet attached.

http://gregandbretynn.com/videos/MVI_0786.AVI

Link to comment
Share on other sites
EastSideResider Whistle-Stop

EastSideResider

Posted
Posted

I do not use boring to describe Charlotte, but I do use Sterile. To use the classic quote from Gertrude Stein, "There is no there there." (The line refers to Oakland, CA by the way) It is very pretty and clean. It just has no soul. I like a little bit of grit in my cities to keep them real. As I always say, "That is why the world is round." What I mean by that is that we do not all like the same things and that is what makes everything interesting. It would be bad if we all wanted to live at the beach or all wanted the same things. If you like your city and recognize what makes it unique and special to you, that is what is important. It doesn't matter if someone else finds it boring. Not everyone wants New York or Los Angeles or where ever.

^^It's in the south, we're all about soul. Anywhere in the south (I mean south by LA, AL, MS, TN, GA, SC, NC, VA) has soul, a different type of soul that northeastern and western (and midwestern) cities don't have... We have family reunions every other day, our family has about 200 members and they all visit at the same time, we love R&B music, we live at Churches Chicken, isn't ain't in our vocabulary, we have our southern accents and say ohhh honey chiiiiild all the time, our icon is Aretha Franklin or Sister Sledge, we never leave a scrap of food on our plate, when it hits 70 degrees we put on 3 jackets and our longjohns, we're obsessed with hot sauce, we like "The Jeffersons", and "Andy Griffith", and our perfect meal is fried chicken, okra, cornbread & green beans. It's that type of soul.... :D

(you've never met a group of more laidback people either)

**If you can think of any more add 'em!**

Link to comment
Share on other sites
HighRiseHillbilly Whistle-Stop

HighRiseHillbilly

Posted
Posted

Nice pictures!

Those random street jam things pop up frequently. I had a boyfriend one time that was asked to play in one. I've never been fortunate enough to be down there when one has happening though.

And yes we've got soul and "a" soul. It may not be in the buildings but it's in the way that everyone knows where to go and when. Like hundreds of thousands of people descending upon one Greek Orthodox church one week out of the year and hundreds of thousands of people gettin' real ill when there ain't no Springfest! :angry:

We got it, but we're not gonna give it up to just anybody. That just wouldn't be proper. :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites
TennBear Hamlet

TennBear

Posted
Posted

^^It's in the south, we're all about soul. Anywhere in the south (I mean south by LA, AL, MS, TN, GA, SC, NC, VA) has soul, a different type of soul that northeastern and western (and midwestern) cities don't have... We have family reunions every other day, our family has about 200 members and they all visit at the same time, we love R&B music, we live at Churches Chicken, isn't ain't in our vocabulary, we have our southern accents and say ohhh honey chiiiiild all the time, our icon is Aretha Franklin or Sister Sledge, we never leave a scrap of food on our plate, when it hits 70 degrees we put on 3 jackets and our longjohns, we're obsessed with hot sauce, we like "The Jeffersons", and "Andy Griffith", and our perfect meal is fried chicken, okra, cornbread & green beans. It's that type of soul.... :D

(you've never met a group of more laidback people either)

**If you can think of any more add 'em!**

I can't say that I understand your response at all. You are bringing up the very types of things that I think that Charlotte has cleaned out of their city. I don't know what Charlotte being in the south has to do with with inherently having those things. I think that I know a little about Soul, R&B, and Soul Food. I also don't know what "The Jeffersons" would have to do with being Southern. Undless it's moving on up to the East Side.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
TennBear Hamlet

TennBear

Posted
Posted

Like I say, that's why the world is round. We don't all see things the same way or react to them in the same way.

There is no right and no wrong. It is no different than all the quizes in which you say you like X better than Y. I don't say anything against Charlotte. It is a very pretty city. It just leaves me cold. I have thought of several ways to describe it. One would be like a new pair of jeans vs. an old worn in pair. They both work as pants. The new one looks better, but it just dowsn't feel right. It needs time to be worn in to get to where it is comfortable. Ex. The Botanical Garden in Charlotte is very pretty and it certainly has plans to be very magnificent and if all the planned portions get bought it will be very impressive. But you feel as if it is just that an impressive vision. You go through fields that are planned for the future to get there and that makes it seem contrived and not a natural growth. The downtown in Charlotte is very clean. It has bright, big new buildings. You look for the few older buildings for a break from the hospital sterility of the whole. It feels to me as they came through with a giant bulldozer and cleared away everything that could tie the city to its past. This is just one opinion and certainly one that is in the minority. I'm certain that I will go back in thirty years and like that old pair of jeans that it will feel right and feel comfortable. I'm sure that the botanical gradens will have filled in and seem to be a part of the area around it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
Raleighsfinest Whistle-Stop

Raleighsfinest

Posted
Posted

Like I say, that's why the world is round. We don't all see things the same way or react to them in the same way.

There is no right and no wrong. It is no different than all the quizes in which you say you like X better than Y. I don't say anything against Charlotte. It is a very pretty city. It just leaves me cold. I have thought of several ways to describe it. One would be like a new pair of jeans vs. an old worn in pair. They both work as pants. The new one looks better, but it just dowsn't feel right. It needs time to be worn in to get to where it is comfortable. Ex. The Botanical Garden in Charlotte is very pretty and it certainly has plans to be very magnificent and if all the planned portions get bought it will be very impressive. But you feel as if it is just that an impressive vision. You go through fields that are planned for the future to get there and that makes it seem contrived and not a natural growth. The downtown in Charlotte is very clean. It has bright, big new buildings. You look for the few older buildings for a break from the hospital sterility of the whole. It feels to me as they came through with a giant bulldozer and cleared away everything that could tie the city to its past. This is just one opinion and certainly one that is in the minority. I'm certain that I will go back in thirty years and like that old pair of jeans that it will feel right and feel comfortable. I'm sure that the botanical gradens will have filled in and seem to be a part of the area around it.

Very true indeed. :thumbsup: Most of the buildings in uptown have been demolished. but I never thought about it like the analogy, you contrived. Maybe thirty years from now Queen city will have more funk. :yahoo:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
go_vertical Burg

go_vertical

Posted
Posted

One would be like a new pair of jeans vs. an old worn in pair. They both work as pants. The new one looks better, but it just dowsn't feel right. It needs time to be worn in to get to where it is comfortable.

As a former Charlotte resident I feel I have to chime in here. I completely understand what TennBear is trying to say. The "pair of jeans" description hit the nail right on the head. Most of uptown Charlotte was developed within the last 15 to 20 years. During that unfortunate time when building/street interaction was at the bottom of the priority list. Thankfully things have turned around, but I think uptown has a little ways to go before there is a constant, steady buzz wandering the streets.

To say Charlotte has no soul is entirely wrong. A city's residents is it's soul. As long as you have people who truly love their neighborhoods or cheer on their sports teams or can look at a photo of the skyline lit up at night and proudly say "that's my city" then you have soul. And Charlotte has an abundance of those people.

Now, one thing I can say about uptown is that it does feel sterile. First and foremost Charlotte is hands down the cleanest city I have ever lived in. Not too many large cities can boast streets as clean as Charlotte's. It's just that with the city being such a banking behemoth all of the buildings have that upstanding, financial feel to them. And by that I mean grey stone, marble, steel, and glass. Not the most inviting to a visitor. Also, when you walk down Tryon on any weekday the sight of nearly everyone wearing practically the same suit in three different shades of grey and black is a little hard to get used to. (I hope I didn't offend anyone that works at any of the banking establishments there. That certainly wasn't my intention.)

What I'm trying to say is that Charlotte is an amazing city. It just has to get "worn in" so to speak. Once more foot traffic pounds the pavement after all of these new condo towers open that will certainly happen. The soul is there, it's just taking a little while finding it's way into uptown. Sorry for the long rant guys, I just couldn't stop myself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.