Triangle,Triad, Metrolina?

[monsoon]

..... In my opinion, Metrolina was just a bad idea created by the Expo.

Except that you would be wrong. The flea market did not come up with that name.

[monsoon]

.. Charlotte has a population near 600k. The next three largest cities don't even break 100k a peice: Gastonia (68k,) Concord (56k,) and Rock Hill (50k) combined can't compete with Charlotte.

uhhh. Who said these places were competing against Charlotte? Take them away and Charlotte becomes just a 600K city that consists of a set of skyscrapers and a bunch of suburbs. These places add a lot of distinctiveness to the area and I would not be so quick to dismiss them. Metrolina was coined by local officials to encourage regional thinking and as such, is a very good idea.

[dubone]

I definitely think the name "Metrolina" is too hokey for regular people to use. People will never use "Metrolina" as they would "Triad" or "Triangle" in everyday conversation. I think the natural parallel is "Charlotte Metro", but I agree that we shouldn't dismiss those other towns.

They really aren't suburbs of Charlotte, and we shouldn't ever hope for them to be suburbs of Charlotte. They should be towns that have growth in their own right, drawing on the growth in the region, but not as purely bedroom communities. Distant bedroom communities wreak havoc on the transportation infrastructure and tend to choke the central city/county. The more those towns grow in an urban fashion, with their own sense of place, the less the whole region will be known by placeless suburban sprawl.

[Charlotte_native]

I definitely think the name "Metrolina" is too hokey for regular people to use. People will never use "Metrolina" as they would "Triad" or "Triangle" in everyday conversation. I think the natural parallel is "Charlotte Metro", but I agree that we shouldn't dismiss those other towns.

They really aren't suburbs of Charlotte, and we shouldn't ever hope for them to be suburbs of Charlotte. They should be towns that have growth in their own right, drawing on the growth in the region, but not as purely bedroom communities. Distant bedroom communities wreak havoc on the transportation infrastructure and tend to choke in central city/county. The more those towns grow in an urban fashion, with their own sense of place, the less the whole region will be known by placeless suburban sprawl.

[voyager12]

Well, the topograhic (is that a word?)name for our area is the Piedmont, which sounds so dull and boring IMHO. At least the NC side of "Charlotte" is. Cross the border and the SC area of "Charlotte" is the Midlands. Can't you tell? Pineville and Rock Hill look so different The "Upstate" and the "Midlands" and "Piedmont"seem very similar to me.Also,there is probably a very logical and obvious answer to this question...but what area does the "Unifour" denote? I have always wondered where that was when I hear the weather on the radio.

[monsoon]

Well, the topograhic (is that a word?)name for our area is the Piedmont, ....;Cross the border and the SC area of "Charlotte" is the Midlands.

Not exactly,

The Piedmont covers a much much larger area than the Charlotte metro. Basically it is the region between the

Appalachin mountain chain and the coastal plain on the East coast of the USA. It runs from Alabama to New Jersey and includes Rock Hill, Columbia and for that matter Greensboro and Raleigh. It's not something that could be used to describe Charlotte.

Sometimes this area is referred to as the "Southern Piedmont" but even that would include vast parts of NC & SC.

[voyager12]

Oh:unsure: well consider me corrected! What does "The Unifour" mean?

[monsoon]

Oh:unsure: well consider me corrected! What does "The Unifour" mean?

It covers the region just west of the Charlotte metro comprised of Catawba, Caldwell, Burke, and Alexander counties. (Hickory, Morganton, Lenor, upper corner of West Lake Norman)

[voyager12]

Ah. I see now. Thanks!

[AuLukey]

uhhh. Who said these places were competing against Charlotte? Take them away and Charlotte becomes just a 600K city that consists of a set of skyscrapers and a bunch of suburbs. These places add a lot of distinctiveness to the area and I would not be so quick to dismiss them. Metrolina was coined by local officials to encourage regional thinking and as such, is a very good idea.

get off it metro. I was being sarcastic about the expo. And no, these cities are not competing with Charlotte, but I was using them as a comparison to the Triad and Triangle situations where there are several cities whose sizes are more compariable. Charlotte should just be called Charlotte because it is the true center of a sprawling metro. Just like Atlanta (only scaled down.) Friends of mine that live in and around Atlanta tell me that they live in Atlanta, or just outside of Atlanta. I love the idea of Regional thinking; but it is by far way off from reality as you can see from the support of the LRT and rail lines. It is better than in the past, but still has a ways to go. I just think that calling the Charlotte area just that, it will be just as inclusive as calling it Metro-whine-a. I have never even heard the uttering of the word "Metrolina" by a person outside of the newscast, the expo and car adds.

I spent a good portion of /my life living in Concord, so I am aware of the effect suburbs have on Charlotte (ie NASCAR/CMills.) If they really want to come up with a name of the area including Iredell, Rowan, etc counties, it should at least be a little better than Metrolina. It almost has a generic sound to it.

[monsoon]

....I love the idea of Regional thinking; but it is by far way off from reality as you can see from the support of the LRT and rail lines. It is better than in the past, but still has a ways to go. I just think that calling the Charlotte area just that, it will be just as inclusive as calling it Metro-whine-a. I have never even heard the uttering of the word "Metrolina" by a person outside of the newscast, the expo and car adds......

Maybe you missed the fact that Huntersville, Davidson and Cornelius are the biggest supporters of the rail system and have been even more progressive in supporting the system than many of the politicians on the Charlotte city council. Residents of those cities are paying taxes to build the line in the south of Charlotte. If that isn't regional cooperation, I am not sure what is.

I have heard Metrolina used quite often over the years I have lived here in Charlotte. In fact, until recently it was used as part of the description for the Charlotte forum on UrbanPlanet.org.

[AuLukey]

Maybe you missed the fact that Huntersville, Davidson and Cornelius are the biggest supporters of the rail system and have been even more progressive in supporting the system than many of the politicians on the Charlotte city council. Residents of those cities are paying taxes to build the line in the south of Charlotte. If that isn't regional cooperation, I am not sure what is.

They are also in the same county and, thus, the same county tax base (don't correct me about city taxes as I'm not talking about that.) I'm talking about the surrounding counties support. In my opinion, cornelius, davidson, huntersville, pineville, and matthews (forgive me I left anybody out) are just extensions of Charlotte.

[monsoon]

(don't correct me about city taxes as I'm not talking about that.)

The mass transit tax that I am referring to is the 1/2 sales tax imposed on purchases in Mecklenburg. This is a special tax and has the special provision that any municiaplity in Mecklenburg can opt out of collecting the tax, or using the tax for its own purposes and not particpate in the MTC. At the moment all 6 towns in Mecklenburg have chosen to continue to send their portion of the tax to CATS to pay for the South LRT which basically only serves Charlotte. This is regional thinking and cooperation.

In regards to Iredell, they are still discussing the station at Mt. Mourne. York county in SC is very active in getting funding to studying extending the Charlotte system to Rock Hill.

Your comment that Huntersville, Davidson, Cornelius, Mint Hill, Pineville, and Matthews are "just extensions of Charlotte" demonstrates a lack of understanding of the importance of regional thinking.

[AuLukey]

Your comment that Huntersville, Davidson, Cornelius, Mint Hill, Pineville, and Matthews are "just extensions of Charlotte" demonstrates a lack of understanding of the importance of regional thinking.

I guess so as you are always right. A lot of the areas surrounding Charlotte would not be there were it not for Charlotte being there first. The Concord Mills area is a prime example as it is basically an extension of University. I consider Matthews and Pineville as much a part of Charlotte as University and South Park.

[monsoon]

I guess so as you are always right. A lot of the areas surrounding Charlotte would not be there were it not for Charlotte being there first. The Concord Mills area is a prime example as it is basically an extension of University. I consider Matthews and Pineville as much a part of Charlotte as University and South Park.

Since you have sifted the conversation back to Concord. I will point out that the first significant development in that area was the construction of the Lowes Motor Speedway in 1959. You will note this is Cabarrus county. It was there before the University area came into being, before even the University, before anything having to do with the Charlotte side of the line as it was all woods then.

Because of this speedway in Cabarrus county, Charlotte can now be considered the capital of NASCAR racing and NASCAR is building a multi hundred million facility in downtown Charlotte. Charlotte got all of this because of what happened in Cabarrus county. Quite opposite of what you are claim that everything is an extension of CLT.

Concord Mills was built in that location as the owners wanted to take advantage of being near the speedway and even had the road named Speedway Blvd.

[AuLukey]

Since you have sifted the conversation back to Concord. I will point out that the first significant development in that area was the construction of the Lowes Motor Speedway in 1959. You will note this is Cabarrus county. It was there before the University area came into being, before even the University, before anything having to do with the Charlotte side of the line as it was all woods then.

Because of this speedway in Cabarrus county, Charlotte can now be considered the capital of NASCAR racing and NASCAR is building a multi hundred million facility in downtown Charlotte. Charlotte got all of this because of what happened in Cabarrus county. Quite opposite of what you are claim that everything is an extension of CLT.

Concord Mills was built in that location as the owners wanted to take advantage of being near the speedway and even had the road named Speedway Blvd.

If you weren't being critical of me, I would have to agree with every point you made. UNCC opened in 1946 near uptown Charlotte, the campus was built in 1961. The speedway opened in 1960. So you are right about that. However, the speedway was only recently (in its overall history) annexed by Concord. I agree that the NASCAR part of Charlotte had a lot to do with its landing the HoF (obviously) but its not because of Concord that it was built. If that were the case, it would have been called Concord Motor Speedway instead of Charlotte Motor Speedway. It was built to be a part of Charlotte, hence the name.

CMills was built on its current land to be as close to Charlotte without actually being in Mecklenburg County (hence the loop road bordering the county line.) Cabarrus County gave them the best deal and location. It could have very well been Gastonia Mills or Mint/Rock Hill Mills (and fed off of tourism at Carowinds.)

I am actually amazed that the Whitewater Center is in Mecklenburg County.

Anywho, back to my original point before the "conversation" between metro and myself began. I believe this area should be called Charlotte not Metrolina. And that's my opinion.

[MR-2]

Piedmont: Metromont

or

Charlotte: Metrolotte or Chartto perhaps

or you could follow the pattern and have some geometric shape

the unangle

the unad sounds bad though

[AuLukey]

You know, I've put a lot of thought into the whole shape thing. Maybe we should be called the asterisk (you know, the one with five points, not six) to represent the different corridors of Charlotte.

[NcSc74]

I had an idea the other night. How about including Empire in the name. Carolina Empire, Piedmont Empire, Qeens Empire etc etc...

[AuLukey]

I had an idea the other night. How about including Empire in the name. Carolina Empire, Piedmont Empire, Qeens Empire etc etc...

Because Raleigh would get jealous

[atownrocks]

Because Raleigh would get jealous

WELL THEY CAN GET OVER IT. Look at Atlanta there known as the Empire of the South. Charlotte does not get jelous. Charlotte is the Empire of the Carolina's. It has the most people. The most Fortune 500 companies. It has the biggest airport. The best public transportation. The best looking downtown. Charlotte has all the major league sports teams. And the best nightlife. Must I say more?

[redjeep77]

^ yeah what's the deal with that! Check out the posts in the carolina hurricanes section under the triangle coffee house. I briefly mentioned the idea of the canes playing a couple of games in charlotte to further their exposure/fan base, but I ran into a pack of wolves or something. They are very defensive about their town (even more so than charlotte formers). Maybe it's like some us in the ATL/CLT threads, but people shouldn't show so much anamosity towards each other over trite situations.

^ raleigh actually has the hockey team, but other than that you pretty much summed it up.

In quick: RAL<<<CLT<<<ATL

[atownrocks]

^ yeah what's the deal with that! Check out the posts in the carolina hurricanes section under the triangle coffee house. I briefly mentioned the idea of the canes playing a couple of games in charlotte to further their exposure/fan base, but I ran into a pack of wolves or something. They are very defensive about their town (even more so than charlotte formers). Maybe it's like some us in the ATL/CLT threads, but people shouldn't show so much anamosity towards each other over trite situations.

^ raleigh actually has the hockey team, but other than that you pretty much summed it up.

In quick: RAL<<<CLT<<<ATL

Thank you redjeep77. Someone finally agrees with me. And as far as having a Hockey team so what. Thats like one sport. Raleigh needs to wake up and get into reality. Charlotte will always be bigger. It will always have more. Maybe Raleigh should be cheering Charlotte on, after all Charlotte is really changing the way people see the Carolina's and the South.

[monsoon]

Thank you redjeep77. Someone finally agrees with me. And as far as having a Hockey team so what. Thats like one sport. Raleigh needs to wake up and get into reality. Charlotte will always be bigger. It will always have more. Maybe Raleigh should be cheering Charlotte on, after all Charlotte is really changing the way people see the Carolina's and the South.

We have suspended people from here for posts like this as it is nothing but silly boosterism and has no place on UrbanPlanet. I suggest that you go read our rules.

Many many people including myself don't measure the quality of city life based on the number of ML sports played there. If that were the case a number of rust bucket cities would not be losing so many people. The Raleigh Durham area is in fact growing faster than Charlotte and IMO does offer a higher quality of life in many areas. It would be in Charlotte's best interest to go look at why this is instead of the individuals here arrogantly assuming that "we are better". There is already too much of this attitude here and one of the reasons this forum exists is to get beyond this.

[discoverdilworth]

Metrolina sounds invented, "Charlotte Metro" is simpler and more elegant in my opinion.