Pittsburgh's Feature on Charlotte

[redjeep77]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06176/701039-28.stm

I saw this in on a skyscraper city thread, and thought it would be interesting to see here. Sounds like they are going to do a whole series on charlotte this week.

The last line of the article has to be my favorite. The South has risen again indeed my friends.

[eastsider]

Nice article, looking forward to the rest of the series.

[monsoon]

I agree, it is an interesting story.

What it missed was that NCNB gained a lot of size quickly when it took advantage of the failed Savings and Loan debacles of the 1980s, mainly in Texas. The FDIC and Feds closed a huge number of S&Ls there and NCNB was there waiting to take over these places for pennies on the dollar. The large NE banks were too self important to worry about failed financial institutions in Texas and by the time they figured it out, it was too late. Texans were appaled and shocked their banks were to be operated out of NC, but it became a reoccuring theme for the next 15 years as NCNB took over rivals and other failed institutions. Many of the leading banks of other states got gobbled up by NCNB, C&S of Georgia, Barnette of Florida, Sovan of Virginia and the biggest fish, BankAmerica of California. (NCNB, which had become NationsBank by that time, took over the older trademark of BankAmerica, Bank of America, which the bank had unwisely abandoned for the more trendy name.)

It was a remarkable rise.

[turbocraig]

The rise of banking in CLT has fascinated me since I relocated here. I had no idea about any of it when I lived in the Northeast. The books 'The Story of NationsBank' and 'McColl: The Man with America's Money' are very good reads if you're interested in the subject.

[Nostyle]

Isn't that something...1 in 5 Charlotteans works in the financing industry.

Before moving here from Buffalo I knew Charlotte had that banking reputation, but I never thought I'd be a part of it. I came down here with a BA in Psychology and, wouldn't you know, I ended up an account manager for a mortgage lender.

[A2]

Isn't that something...1 in 5 Charlotteans works in the financing industry.

Before moving here from Buffalo I knew Charlotte had that banking reputation, but I never thought I'd be a part of it. I came down here with a BA in Psychology and, wouldn't you know, I ended up an account manager for a mortgage lender.

What's more mind-blowing is that BofA has some type of financial relationship (e Checking, Savings, Brokerage, Insurance, Loans etc) with one out of every four people in the US.

A2

[redjeep77]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06178/701358-28.stm

here's tuesday's article. I am impressed of how nicely the pittsburgh columnist displays charlotte. You'd think that this is paradise. We'll come to think of it, i kinda think he's right:)

[AuLukey]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06178/701358-28.stm

here's tuesday's article. I am impressed of how nicely the pittsburgh columnist displays charlotte. You'd think that this is paradise. We'll come to think of it, i kinda think he's right:)

All that great talk finished up by saying "It's too small a town." That caught me a little off guard.

I do like however that they implied that 210/Epicentre is already complete and is already established.

another oddity in it is that they claim the new Wachovia tower will be 40 stories. I hope they made that number up.

[garrepi]

I'm a Carnegie Mellon student from the Carolinas, and I can tell you that Pittsburgh is TERRIFIED of Charlotte. Everyone here does their internships in NYC and Charlotte, and no one sticks around to work at PNC when they graduate. I'm baffled that the Gazette is running these praising articles instead of trying to scare students into staying in Pittsburgh... maybe then the city could afford to plow my street.

[Nostyle]

I'm a Carnegie Mellon student from the Carolinas, and I can tell you that Pittsburgh is TERRIFIED of Charlotte.

Buffalo isn't so much terrified of Charlotte. It's more like Buffalo has accepted its fate.

Funny story...one time I was back up in Buffalo visiting family and that same weekend a radio sports talkshow guy named Kevin Sylvester was moving back from Charlotte to Buffalo. In Charlotte he had a dinky position but in Buffalo he was being offered a co-host position, so he made the big move back. I was listening to the radio while leaving town on the highway and Sylvester's future co-host, nicknamed the Bulldog, said "it's kinda weird to see Kevin moving back up here...if I went out on the roof right now I'd actually see all the cars on the highway heading to Charlotte..."

...and there I was, laughing in my car, heading back to Charlotte.

But I digress. I've seen articles like this in the Buffalo paper too, and I agree, they're gutsy, because you'd almost think the 'locals' would want to keep Charlotte under wraps rather than publicize it. But hey, that's not the job of the media. They want to sell papers, and they feel they have a story to tell. It's up to Pittsburgh as a city to work harder to be a place that the locals feel they simply can't leave. Until then, the grass will be greener in North Carolina, and people will find it, with or without the help of the Pittsburgh press.

[monsoon]

I did not realize that you banking boyz, in your "blue open-collared shirts, flat-front pants and cell-phone headsets" had divided up downtown into your turf and their turf and woe to one who makes the mistake of crossing into the other hood wearing the wrong badge.

I think the article is a bit over the top and badly written and researched if you ask me. There were certainly more than a 1000 people living downtown 5 years ago and they are overstating the importance of the banks to the Charlotte region.

[orulz]

...they are overstating the importance of the banks to the Charlotte region.

Are you sure about that? Even if the direct impact of the banks on Charlotte isn't so huge, it's the national (no, international) reputation that they give Charlotte that is important. It's why cities like Pittsburgh are quaking with fear over the can't-stop-me growth going on in Charlotte.

This is much the same way that RTP is a relatively small chunk of the employment and local economy, but it (plus the universities - they're linked together, by the way) that gives the Triangle prestige on a national and even international level.

I would say that the impact of the high-prestige industries of banking in Charlotte and tech in the Triangle have a hard-to-quantify but unmistakably huge impact.

[dubone]

Wachovia and BofA have 2.5 times and 3.5 times the local employment numbers of the third largest private employer here. I'm not so sure one can overstate that impact, especially as the offices are in the heart of the city, their executives are major contributors to the social fabric, and their pay scale brings up the income numbers for the city.

http://www.charlottechamber.com/content.cf...content_id=1738

[monsoon]

According to that site, Wachovia and BofA provide 32,000 jobs. While this is significant we are talking about a CSA of 2.1 million people. They are important employers, but they are as not important as that article is making them out to be. There are more people in this area working in manufacturing than that, but they are not concentrated in just 2 employers.

[nyxmike]

I think what they are trying to say is that banking, not manufacturing, puts Charlotte on the map (even if there are more manufacturing related jobs). Afterall, Charlotte is the second largest banking center behind New York - thats what people take notice of.

[monsoon]

Outside of Charlotte I don't think most people know or take much notice of this fact. Both banks are very careful in other states to not give the impression they are NC based banks. In anycase I thought the paper's story was on Charlotte and not the banking industry in Charlotte. Charlotte had already grown to the largest city in the Carolinas long before the First Union and NCNB had done much growing.

[Charlotte_native]

In the very least I think anyone would agree that if either big bank pulled out we would see a HUGE impact. That makes them awfully important. Manufacturing has been coming and going here for decades. Banking brings in the money.

[voyager12]

I agree with Metro about the juvenile tone of the second article. The way he described the rivalry between the two banks one would think that BOFA and Wachovia employees are gangs that reenact a financial version of "West Side Story" every weekday at lunch hour

[MZT]

That's such a silly way of painting things. There is quite a bit of employee movement between the two banks. It's more of a college, or Army/Navy thing, than "turf" rivalries.

Oh well, the writer is probably just trying to make Charlotte sound more colorful. Would the quiet cube-dwelling reality of uptown, merit the same ink splash?

[ChiefJoJo]

Are you sure about that? Even if the direct impact of the banks on Charlotte isn't so huge, it's the national (no, international) reputation that they give Charlotte that is important. It's why cities like Pittsburgh are quaking with fear over the can't-stop-me growth going on in Charlotte.

I agree. Sure, someone reading this in Charlotte will say it's a little over the top, but it's the perception of Charlotte outside of the region that banking put Charlotte on the map (it did). A Pittsburgh paper wouldn't be writing this article otherwise.

[AuLukey]

I agree with Metro about the juvenile tone of the second article. The way he described the rivalry between the two banks one would think that BOFA and Wachovia employees are gangs that reenact a financial version of "West Side Story" every weekday at lunch hour

What? You don't notice the droves of bankers walking down the streets snapping their fingers?

I do agree that banking is Charlotte's image but doesn't encompass 1/5 of all jobs in Charlotte. 32,000 seems a little more like 1/25 of actual jobs in a metro of 2+ million. Maybe they just mean the city itself though.

[monsoon]

1/5 would say there are only 160,000 jobs inside the Charlotte city limits. That number sounds way way too low.

[AuLukey]

1/5 would say there are only 160,000 jobs inside the Charlotte city limits. That number sounds way way too low.

In a small way though, that makes sense. If 600k people live here, 160k is one in every four citizens. Compare the number of children to adults that cuts employed persons to 300k or less. Then consider the amount of housewives and unemployed. I believe 160,000 is low, but may be off by only 10k-50k.

[cltheel.sdl]

I believe I remember the number of jobs in Charlotte was roughly 360k. Don't quote me on that.

[monsoon]

In a small way though, that makes sense. If 600k people live here, 160k is one in every four citizens. Compare the number of children to adults that cuts employed persons to 300k or less. Then consider the amount of housewives and unemployed. I believe 160,000 is low, but may be off by only 10k-50k.

What about commuters?