Pittsburgh's Feature on Charlotte

[jednc]

I read all three articles in the Pitt paper. I just don't see how any of them could be construed as negative toward Charlotte. Sure, that woman they quote may not have glowing things to say about the city...but the fact she has moved back says A LOT! Besides, she misses her family and where she grew up...that's understandable. If you leave her out of it, what else was said that could be taken in any way negatively? I don't think the failure to mention NUCOR, Duke Energy, or any other Charlotte Institutions (read Family Dollar) was meant as an affront to the city. I think it was an article on how Charlotte has surpassed Pitt as a banking town and what that financial-industry growth has meant to the city in terms of wealth and lifestyle. WOW...be happy they are writing about us...they envy us. The Linsenmayer chick just misses seeing the darn pierogi races at PNC Park...

[voyager12]

Pittsburgh may have its faults but their educational institutions are fully integrated into civic life not swallowed and ignored by suburbia. Charlotte could learn a lot in that regard. And I love how the rivers bisect the city. I wish Charlotte was centered along waterways, they add so much character and context to cities.

[krazeeboi]

Pittsburgh's setting can't be beat. The city also has great density and a more mature urban core. Those are things that will come in time with Charlotte.

[jednc]

Pitt does integrate the arts...I mentioned the pierogi racing already! I totally agree about the rivers. Charlotte was unfortunately not blessed with one downtown. I guess we could divert the Catawba, but then I'm sure someone would claim Tryon is a private road and try to deny access...so it's just as well we don't.

[voyager12]

On a positive note, Charlotte is proactive in protecting the tree canopy that makes our city so aesthetically pleasing. Its great the new developments such as The Metropolitan are integrating the greenway into their selling points. We need to encourage green friendly buildings. Educationally, I am glad that UNCC is opening a satellite in Uptown. That will help to cohere the educational and economic sectors. Old cities like Pittsburgh will always have a leg up when it comes to urban cores but Charlotte's should and will improve eventually.

[crispin]

I'm surprised no one hear has commented on the first paragraph of the series, which claims the Bank of America Corporate Center is "the tallest manmade structure in the southeast."

Hello? What about the Bank of America Plaza in Atlanta?

And there's more factual errors throughout...

[AuLukey]

I'm surprised no one hear has commented on the first paragraph of the series, which claims the Bank of America Corporate Center is "the tallest manmade structure in the southeast."

Hello? What about the Bank of America Plaza in Atlanta?

And there's more factual errors throughout...

The "tallest manmade structure" I believe was referring to back in 1992 when it was built, not present day.

[krazeeboi]

Both structures were completed in 1992. I don't think BOA Charlotte ever held the title of "tallest manmade structure in the Southeast."

[AuLukey]

Both structures were completed in 1992. I don't think BOA Charlotte ever held the title of "tallest manmade structure in the Southeast."

I thought CLT's was finished first, but that's kind of irrelevant.

Nevertheless, that journalist needs to do a little more research before publishing fact about a city.

[redjeep77]

^ It was finished first, and it still is the highest occupiable floor. maybe that's what mcoll said, and the reporter thought it meant otherwise

[monsoon]

I think we have all concluded here the "feature" is mostly trite rubbish.

Forgetting that McColl has been gone for 5 years and the city is still growing in leaps and bounds, it gives way too much credit for McColl's contributions to downtown Charlotte. It was NCNB and First Union that was responsible for much of the really bad redevelopment that has occured from Trade Street South. They destroyed many many street front businesses and historic buildings to build monumental towers that killed street life. The only thing positive that I think that BofA did in regards to downtown Charlotte when McColl was still there was to build Gateway Village.

[Charlotte_native]

The only thing positive that I think that BofA did in regards to downtown Charlotte when McColl was still there was to build Gateway Village.

Hugh did lead the way through BofA in its former names to jump start Fourth Ward's resurgence back in te 80's and seemed to be the first to take a financial step to encouraging center city development. They also bought the burnt out Church on Tryon to create an artist community <-- not exactly the highest and best use from a financial or real estate standpoint but a GREAT compliment to some diverse life and development uptown. I think this showed a respect for the community over taking that site for higher development -- against Charlotte's traditional "tear down our history for progress" attitude.

I think there are numerous pet projects like these that would have never been considered by other corporations and/or their CEO's. I don't think BofA or Hugh should get exclusive credit for our center city, but they were the first to step up and put their $ where their mouth was. They also contributed greatly to making the 1st Ward / Earle Village project happen.

[TheGerbil]

Pittsburgher here. Just thought I'd step in and add my own thoughts. I feel that this series of articles is indicative of Pittsburgh's collective low self-esteem problem. Many people here believe the city is dying, and have an idealized view of "other cities," especially growing places like Charlotte.

But what many people, including many Pittsburghers, don't realize is that Pittsburgh is really not in bad shape. While we are still feeling the aftershocks of the steel industry collapse, things are really looking up. 50% of college grads DO stay in town, which last I heard was in keeping with the national average. The population is still shrinking, but that is because we have a high percentage of elderly people, so there are more deaths than births. It is not because people are moving away, not at all. In fact I keep hearing about people moving here from California to take advantage of the low cost of living.

Furthermore Pittsburgh may not be booming, but it does have steady job growth and a diversified economy. It's becoming a center for robotics, computer security, medicine, and other things.

Judging by your comments, these articles contained some factual errors about Charlotte. I think they were just as misleading about Pittsburgh. Just an irresponsible journalist writing what 'everyone knows' and not doing thorough research

With all tha said, I have never been to Charlotte but it sounds like a lovely place. Congrats on your success.

[Charlotte_native]

Sounds like this article was as well researched as those in Creative Loafing.

[atlrvr]

BofA made the low interest loans available for the Garden District. They developed Sycamore Green and 1st Ward Place. They co-developed 400 N Church St. (the first new construction building since the 80's), and added about 8,000 new jobs to Uptown.

They also donated the Montaldo building to the Mint Museum, commissioned a wide variety of public art, allowed free parking in their 7th St. station deck, and contributed a LOT of money to the Blumenthal performing arts center, and were involved in some way to every major Uptown capital campaign.

All of this occurred under Uncle Hugh.

[monsoon]

To be fair, a lot of those projects would not have happened without substantial city involvement and direct. The Garden district for example included a lot of subsidized housing to replace that when the city owned Earle Village was demolished. Hugh was never one to turn down governmental money.

[turbocraig]

Public/Private partnerships is what gets things going in this town a lot of the time. Often, one without the other just can't get off the ground. While BofA may have taken advantage of government subsidy/assistance for any given number of projects, the fact is if they hadn't, we'd still have Earle Village and a lot of empty fields in First Ward, no Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, etc. It's not as though hundreds of companies were beating down the doors at city hall clamoring for the opportunity to invest in our downtown. I'm just thankful is all.

[mjcatl2]

Pittsburgher here. Just thought I'd step in and add my own thoughts. I feel that this series of articles is indicative of Pittsburgh's collective low self-esteem problem. Many people here believe the city is dying, and have an idealized view of "other cities," especially growing places like Charlotte.

I don't think so. I think that it was a newspaper trying to do an angle on a city that has become a banking power and then compared it to Pittsburgh which has been a decent size banking/financial city. However Pittsburgh wasn't a top 5 banking city (not that I'm aware of) and it (according to the article) currently ranks 10th (certainly nothing to complain about). So the premise to me was interesting, but off. The fall of steel in 80s created a problem that took years to overcome. The gap created in the 80s has had ripple effects in Pittsburgh. So since the 80s, many Pittsburghers have gone to areas where there has been high job growth. Charlotte apparently is one of them, but Maryland would be the leader by far (followed by other Northeastern cities).

I don't think that there is a self esteem problem, it's just that Pittsburgh does have job growth, but the effects the 80s left a relatively older population. The oldest are dying or moving to Florida, and that overshadows who moves into town.

As the Post-Gazette story progressed, I really got frustrated with it - it was like reading a bad thread here - treating a few opinions as indicative of fact - putting so narrow a focus - and treating it as a general picture of each city.

[TheGerbil]

I don't think so. I think that it was a newspaper trying to do an angle on a city that has become a banking power and then compared it to Pittsburgh which has been a decent size banking/financial city.

Oh sure. but I think the way it was done is in some ways indicative of the city's self esteem problem. And I do think it exists. But that is something to talk about back on the Pittsburgh board

As the Post-Gazette story progressed, I really got frustrated with it - it was like reading a bad thread here - treating a few opinions as indicative of fact - putting so narrow a focus - and treating it as a general picture of each city.

Yep.