Charlotte Center City Streetcar Network

[15895]

It's a huge long shot. But I hope this works out magically for us.

[tozmervo]

HOT INFRASTRUCTURE CONSTRUCTION ACTION.

 

zzz.

[ajfunder]

When I was biking Trade this weekend I notice the cement rings along both sides of the street with construction barrels placed on top. I assume these the foundations for the OCS system. Also,the city website seems to indicate this utility work should end by the end of the month. We should start to see track installation fairly soon, that photo above with the trench between paved areas makes me think that might be the case.

Alex

[modernurbanity]

Hello? I am new and wondering what happened to this place? It used to be so BUSY when I used to read it several years back. Now it's almost like a ghost town. Where is everyone? I know this isn't the place for this kind of post, but I posted in the Introduce Yourself forum to no response.

 

In any case, I look forward to another transit option for Charlotte. Will it be a "modern" streetcar similar to light rail? It's my understanding that Charlotte already has a trolley.

[nowensone]

^ We lost Monsoon, big big factor.  

[15895]

Charlotte has no Trolley (it was used on the first few miles of the blue line and the same will be true for the Gold Line - and then yes, it will be a modern streetcar/tram)

It will be busier once more projects come on line; Westin Hotel office tower (Portman), hotel tower on Stonewall across from NASCAR, two towers on BB&T stadium, hotel behind Trademark, Crescents 2 towers, 210 Trade, Blie Line extension & streetcar starter line. The two lines obviously are under construction but until it's more visible or close to completion.

As of now it's really all just "rumor" (or inside knowledge - or connecting the dots - tid bits of public announcements)

[Guest]

^ We lost Monsoon, big big factor.  

It's more like monsoon drove everyone off, and we are all slowly tricking back in.

[modernurbanity]

OK, I just read on the internet that it has virtually ceased operation with the coming of LYNX. I wasn't meaning just the Charlotte forum, the ENTIRE site seems way, way quieter that when I used to lurk here. The Atlanta forums in particular are virtually dead. This saddens me.

[HopHead]

It's more like monsoon drove everyone off, and we are all slowly tricking back in.

 

If he didn't drive them off, he suspended half of the users for not agreeing with him too. 

[Eastman]

I check UrbanPlanet everyday several times, but I quit posting years ago.   For the reason mentioned above.

[Neo]

^ We lost Monsoon, big big factor.  

 

 

It's more like monsoon drove everyone off, and we are all slowly tricking back in.

 

Keep in mind, I don't like hijacking threads, but I do feel I need to comment on this one.

When Monsoon "left" it was actually me asking him to step down from his administrator position. This was a decision I made after MANY MANY months of questioning myself on what would be better for the site. Monsoon had GREAT conversation starters, deep knowledge of the area (and urban issues in general), etc, but I personally wanted this site to be more open for users to share their opinions without worry of backlash. Note that we still have the same rules and they are enforced, but I think I made the best choice by allowing folks to give their opinion and make posts without having to worry if their post would be deleted without question or receive some sort of insinuating breaking of the rules.

 

Unfortunately the economy turned sour about the time I did this so we got a double whammy. Analytics show that the site is slowly growing, but not like it was when we had the construction boom before the economy turned sour.

 

I still think that we have the best darn urban discussion forum on the Internet, but I'm a little biased obviously. We may never get back some of the users who left but we've gotten a lot of new GREAT users over the last couple of years that I'm unsure would have stuck around had I not made the decision that I did.

 

Hindsight is 20/20 and you have to do what you believe is in the best interest at the time. Do or die.

 

FWIW, I wanted Monsoon to stay and be an active contributor to the site as he was well established, I just didn't want him assisting in any further rule enforcements. I hate we lost his insight but it is what it is.

[Neo]

OK, I just read on the internet that it has virtually ceased operation with the coming of LYNX. I wasn't meaning just the Charlotte forum, the ENTIRE site seems way, way quieter that when I used to lurk here. The Atlanta forums in particular are virtually dead. This saddens me.

 You are correct, but that would have happened anyway. We lost our Atlanta moderators due to factors outside of my control and no one has really stepped up to take over. Unfortunately I don't have the knowledge to lead a remote forum like Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco, etc. I rely on locals to do this in all of the forums here as that gives a much better insight as to what is going on. We have awesome Charlotte mods, I really couldn't ask for any better...but we just don't have the traffic to ramp things up elsewhere.

 

Forums are unfortunately on their way out in the form we've always been used to and I'm still trying to figure out how to handle that going forward.

[15895]

(by far above & beyond the best forum for urban discussion. All the others are very childish, uninformative and no better than reading the Charlotte Observer comments)

[modernurbanity]

Ohhhh I do hate to hear all of this. This forum used to buzz with activity. I am sorry for posting off-topic here but I wasn't sure anyone would EVER read my introduction. I presume everyone must be at city-data.com as that's the only other major forum I can find. I guess I'll wait a while and see if it can rebuild. Even though I live in N.C., Atlanta is my primary interest. I plan to buy a second home there. Thank you ALL for answering me and for letting me know the situation (sad though it is). It would never have been answered anywhere else as this was one of the few active forums I could find.

 

Back to the stated topic, I think it's really neat that Charlotte is really trying hard to make way for urban transit systems in it's plans. I hope I will see innovative ways to move people in Charlotte. Expansion of LYNX, this new streetcar, and more advanced highways (rather than just wider) will help it shake it's suburban character. Atlanta did not take the bull by the horns quick enough as it grew and paid the price with traffic jams. Now if only we could get some highrises up in SouthEnd....

[DEnd]

Forums are unfortunately on their way out in the form we've always been used to and I'm still trying to figure out how to handle that going forward.

I disagree they are on their way out, they just need better integration with the tweetercube.

[ah59396]

Ohhhh I do hate to hear all of this. This forum used to buzz with activity. I am sorry for posting off-topic here but I wasn't sure anyone would EVER read my introduction. I presume everyone must be at city-data.com as that's the only other major forum I can find. I guess I'll wait a while and see if it can rebuild. Even though I live in N.C., Atlanta is my primary interest. I plan to buy a second home there. Thank you ALL for answering me and for letting me know the situation (sad though it is). It would never have been answered anywhere else as this was one of the few active forums I could find.

 

Back to the stated topic, I think it's really neat that Charlotte is really trying hard to make way for urban transit systems in it's plans. I hope I will see innovative ways to move people in Charlotte. Expansion of LYNX, this new streetcar, and more advanced highways (rather than just wider) will help it shake it's suburban character. Atlanta did not take the bull by the horns quick enough as it grew and paid the price with traffic jams. Now if only we could get some highrises up in SouthEnd....

 

To be fair, I feel that the smaller pool of members here actually results in far superior information (as opposed to other forums).  I find more substance on this site, than I ever would on city-data or even skyscrapercity.

[JFerreira91]

To be fair, I feel that the smaller pool of members here actually results in far superior information (as opposed to other forums).  I find more substance on this site, than I ever would on city-data or even skyscrapercity.

 

I always read the posts here on UrbanPlanet charlotte's section, but i never write here. I usually write on Skyscrapercity because there are information about my city and country (Caracas, Venezuela) ... But there is a lack on information about Charlotte, NC, however, here are the best information i ever found about Charlotte's constructions.

 

Maybe you can ask why i am interested about charlotte if i even live in US, because i lived there for 6 months (2009) and now i want to live there when i finish my university here in my country.

 

Regards and keep posting news and pictures about this city!!

[nowensone]

Keep in mind, I don't like hijacking threads, but I do feel I need to comment on this one.

When Monsoon "left" it was actually me asking him to step down from his administrator position. This was a decision I made after MANY MANY months of questioning myself on what would be better for the site. Monsoon had GREAT conversation starters, deep knowledge of the area (and urban issues in general), etc, but I personally wanted this site to be more open for users to share their opinions without worry of backlash. Note that we still have the same rules and they are enforced, but I think I made the best choice by allowing folks to give their opinion and make posts without having to worry if their post would be deleted without question or receive some sort of insinuating breaking of the rules.

 

Unfortunately the economy turned sour about the time I did this so we got a double whammy. Analytics show that the site is slowly growing, but not like it was when we had the construction boom before the economy turned sour.

 

I still think that we have the best darn urban discussion forum on the Internet, but I'm a little biased obviously. We may never get back some of the users who left but we've gotten a lot of new GREAT users over the last couple of years that I'm unsure would have stuck around had I not made the decision that I did.

 

Hindsight is 20/20 and you have to do what you believe is in the best interest at the time. Do or die.

 

FWIW, I wanted Monsoon to stay and be an active contributor to the site as he was well established, I just didn't want him assisting in any further rule enforcements. I hate we lost his insight but it is what it is.

 

Ultimately he did create/enhance discussion, so that was of course a good thing, and he made people argue their points well, and probably educated many by doing so.  No need to comment on the other aspect of things.

 

I am intrigued by your comment that forums are on their way out, in most cases I see your point, though this one seems unique, not sure you'd need to worry about that, unless you are also referring to the business end of it, ie financially.

 

Apologies for the continued off-topicing.

[Urbanity]

There's something delicious about the broad discussions of the history and viability of these forums on a thread about streetcars

[Spartan]

Ohhhh I do hate to hear all of this. This forum used to buzz with activity. I am sorry for posting off-topic here but I wasn't sure anyone would EVER read my introduction. I presume everyone must be at city-data.com as that's the only other major forum I can find. I guess I'll wait a while and see if it can rebuild. Even though I live in N.C., Atlanta is my primary interest. I plan to buy a second home there. Thank you ALL for answering me and for letting me know the situation (sad though it is). It would never have been answered anywhere else as this was one of the few active forums I could find.

 

Back to the stated topic, I think it's really neat that Charlotte is really trying hard to make way for urban transit systems in it's plans. I hope I will see innovative ways to move people in Charlotte. Expansion of LYNX, this new streetcar, and more advanced highways (rather than just wider) will help it shake it's suburban character. Atlanta did not take the bull by the horns quick enough as it grew and paid the price with traffic jams. Now if only we could get some highrises up in SouthEnd....

 

IMO, the quantity of posts may be down, but I think the quality and currentness is still above what you'll find on any other site. We still have the larger problem of there being less "new stuff" going on that there was a few years ago and therefore less to talk about.

[kermit]

Its all speculation at this point but it appears that the Cincinatti streetcar project could be cancelled depending on their mayoral election results. If so, $41 million in federal Urban Circulator and TIGER funds would become available for reallocation. Its possible that they would want to push those funds to another streetcar project (like ours).

 

Its still a long shot but it appears that the anti-streetcar candidate in Cincinnati will win. Our streetcar supportive (outside of 'property taxes') candidate was elected.

 

Just sayin.

[dubone]

That would be really awesome if TIGER money could come our way from a city that is too short-sighted to build infrastructure.  

 

I just wish there was more of a standard small building-block approach to this, but may that is more for after the core is there.  We don't have big discussions about building out a street network or even about building sidewalks in a massive part of the city, instead we piece it together with small chunks that are affordable each year.

[Urbanity]

Out of curiosity and based on a dream that we get the money what would $41million do for our streetcar based on what is already constructed and what is planned?

 

My last understanding was that the extending of the line to JCSU in the West and along Hawthorne in the East would require $63m in Reserve Funds and $63million in Federal Tiger Grant (Source).

 

So my question (again this is just playing dream that we get the whole of $41m if it comes available) is what would it get us?  Is the Reserve fund still at play here?   Would they simply shorten the extension to go from Johnson and Wales in the West to its current starter line terminus?

Edited November 6, 2013 by Urbanity

[southslider]

Cut out Sunnyside, which requires retrofitting the Hawthorne bridge, and $41m may reach JCSU. Or at least the classic entrance at Five Points.

 

And I think the lesson from Cincy is don't brand your streetcar as a center city circulator.  Charlotte's combined funded Phase-I and Federally-rejected Phase-II is actually less than Cincy's starter project.  Still, marketing the project as a future, full ten-mile "Gold Line" likely provides broader support, especially beyond "Uptown interests."

Edited November 6, 2013 by southslider

[kermit]

Out of curiosity and based on a dream that we get the money what would $41million do for our streetcar based on what is already constructed and what is planned?

 

My last understanding was that the extending of the line to JCSU in the West and along Hawthorne in the East would require $63m in Reserve Funds and $63million in Federal Tiger Grant (Source).

 

So my question (again this is just playing dream that we get the whole of $41m if it comes available) is what would it get us?  Is the Reserve fund still at play here?   Would they simply shorten the extension to go from Johnson and Wales in the West to its current starter line terminus?

 

I assume (since I have not heard otherwise) the reserve funds are still earmarked for the streetcar phase 2 and waiting to match federal funds. My second assumption is that Cincinnati's urban circulator funds ($25 million I believe) will be reallocated to another streetcar project, preferably one that is 'shovel ready.' The 'dream' is that Charlotte would get a second shot to get its 2014 TIGER grant funded thanks to the reallocated Cincinnati money.

Charlotte does have its rejected TIGER grant application (and the discussed, but not yet released new starts application for the streetcar) to support a request for funding