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Boring Charlotte

King_of_queen

By King_of_queen
in Charlotte Coffee House

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dubone Megalopolis

dubone

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I love the notion that people have that uptown is "white bread and sterile". Just stand on Cedar St, Davidson St, and Graham St (the 3 main streets through the residential wards) for a while. You will see anything but white bread and sterile. I mean, dozens of homeless with brown-bag phodies, or others on their jazzies, others talking to their imaginary pal, others passed out drunk, others with their stolen shopping carts full of stuff. To me, when a place is teaming with homeless and shady millers-around, it is anything but sterile and white bread.

I'm usually very up on central Charlotte, so I don't often refer to it. But in a thread wishing for grit, I've gotta say most of uptown is not the sterile place most of Trade St and Tryon St is.

I don't even want the grit. Let's build the nice shiny stuff for ourselves now and let the people 30 years from now have the grit. But if you like, I could stop cleaning up the hundreds of pieces of litter those beotchs throw on my lawn throughout the week. :)

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voyager12 Town

voyager12

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There seems to be a misunderstanding by some people regarding the need for a city that does not resemble Dilbert on steroids. Having a mixture of architecture that does not mimic Class A office space nationwide and a wide variety of activities going on is not the same thing as bums everywhere. Hopefully the upcoming museums will change this a bit. But overall Uptown is sterile and lacking in flavor. That's Charlotte: a business focused town where making money is the common denominator and not free expression. This has positive and negative aspects and its just the way it is.

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krazeeboi Gigalopolis

krazeeboi

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We have only been discussing this topic for a few days and poof! Mary's new topic for her Naked City Blog @ The Observer is about Charlotte trying to be "gritty". What a coincidence Hi Mary :lol:

Manufacturing grit? You've gotta be kidding me. Sometimes I think Charlotte tries way too hard. The comment about image vs. civic duties/responsibilities was interesting as well.

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dubone Megalopolis

dubone

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Having a mixture of architecture that does not mimic Class A office space nationwide and a wide variety of activities going on is not the same thing as bums everywhere.

Fair enough. I agree with you about unique and interesting architecture, and spots to see.

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voyager12 Town

voyager12

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It's all the more frustrating in some ways because from what I can tell by looking at past history and old pictures, Charlotte had urban flavor and a "gritty" district filled with a wide range of stores and restaurants catering to an economic mix, the thriving Brooklyn neighborhood. And the powers that be or whoever was in charge back then allowed for this city's heart and soul to be ripped out and demolished. It's going to take a long time to build it back in.

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dubone Megalopolis

dubone

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Having grit downtown doesn't mean bums. It means you have things like coin laundries, cheap barbershops, pool halls, cheap good food, dollar stores, and places where people can satisify their desires to commit varoius sins. Things you don't find in disneyland.

I generally agree with you. The trouble, though, is that human beings tend NOT to be moderate in their sinning. They tend to take it too far, and do things that start to eat away at society.

There some of those things downtown, like dirty convenience stores, shady barbershops, and such. Those end up creating crime and loiterers.

By the way, the bum comment was really specific to the grit comment, it was about being downtown 'white bread' and sterile. Having lots of bums, I believe, does show that Charlotte's downtown is not entirely boring, rich, and disney-like.

I agree that Charlotte should have more grit, but I also think most of that comes to places when they have old buildings and less of an economy. It would be crazy to think we should create that artificially.

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AlabamaGuy2007 Hamlet

AlabamaGuy2007

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I generally agree with you. The trouble, though, is that human beings tend to be moderate in their sinning. They tend to take it too far, and do things that start to eat away at society.

There some of those things downtown, like dirty convenience stores, shady barbershops, and such. Those end up creating crime and loiterers.

By the way, the bum comment was really specific to the grit comment, it was about being downtown 'white bread' and sterile. Having lots of bums, I believe, does show that Charlotte's downtown is not entirely boring, rich, and disney-like.

I agree that Charlotte should have more grit, but I also think most of that comes to places when they have old buildings and less of an economy. It would be crazy to think we should create that artificially.

Well, having old building doesn't really mean you have less of an economy. I know that you weren't trying to put it that way.

I also agree that cities shouldn't be, "perfect". That does make them boring. If everything is,"Just so", it makes it predictable, like, the man that is about to rob that store with suddenly be overtaken by a seizure and the world will be "right" again. A certain level of grit can be nice. Take Birmingham, the main part of the CBD is sorta gritty, it's clean, but you can tell it's not perfect. So, you feel like you're in a much larger town than a 230,000 city.

Plus, grit gives a city attitude, and a look of culture. It's a good thing when stuff in cities clash, like colors, and people. It's keeps a city from being, "boring".

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Charlotte_native City

Charlotte_native

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Well I would counter their claims of Charlotte being "plastic" with this:

http://www.weirdcharlotte.com

It's easy to pigeonhole any place if you don't see all of it. Lots of Charlotte is plastic and boring (or EIFS and boring), but most isn't. I bet those they say this didn't visit Eastland Mall, Freedom Drive, Wilkinson Blvd, Coffee Cup, Thomas Street, Central Avenue, North Tryon Street, Sugar Creek Road, Derita, Belmont, J.C. Smith area...the list is enormous. If you just drive downtown you will get only an impression of downtown -- same for Southpark which is precisly what lots of poeple do -- come visit the city, go downtown, shop at Southpark -- YAWN.

As for areas losing their grittiness, life and everything in it is cyclical. Cities and towns are (look at the rust belt -- used to be the most popular cities to live in 100 years ago), so are neighborhoods within them. Residents move in, settle down, trends change, they age, homes don't get updated, the residents die, new people come in, residential roads change to commercial...etc etc etc. We should never be surprised when an area isn't static. Our new buildings downtown will be old one day (duh) -- how well they age will be seen. Everyone seems to want an area to stay just like it is when they like it -- I bet, using NoDa as an example, the blue collar, racailly mixed, low income folks weren't happy when all the artists took over. Talk about gritty, NoDa was REAL gritty 15 years ago!

I never take others views on this area (from out of town) with much attention any more than they would care about my thoughts on thier home -- especially if I didn't take the time to see the whole place and made my impressions from a couple short stops.

And truthfully Charlotte IS more of a banker and family town than other places, that is likely why many of the people that live here choose to do so -- they might not want a party town. It is dissappointing for those that do, but that is why there are choices, and those that need to party all night long can do it here in the handful of clubs we have, or move to DC, NYC, or somewhere else. That isn't a comment to say like it or leave it, but like it, leave it, or change it. Complainers who do nothing are annoying. The owner of Visulite is a good friend of mine, he and his wife were sick of bad music venues and a low level of local live music a number of years back. Instead of just b**tching about it they found a building, took all of their savings, and opened the place up. It can be done, but most poeple just wait for someone else to change things.

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dubone Megalopolis

dubone

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Well, in the category of making Charlotte weird, I have to retell what I saw today. I was out for a run today, and ran by an oversized black clown in small car. I looked at him for about 15 seconds. Then he flipped me off and drove on.

Also, we saw a man in a gorilla suit just casually shopping at the uptown Teeter.

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voyager12 Town

voyager12

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I moved here from Charleston which is a party town with an arts scene for a job that turned out..oh long story and off subject :blush: and some days I feel like a made a huge mistake. The next day I am loving it here. Most people have a love/hate relationship with their town. I don't have anything keeping me in this city but Charlotte does have a very comforting and welcoming vibe overall, its very intangible and hard to describe. Sure its not funky like Asheville or historic like Charleston but its very Charlotte :wub: I am not sure what that means, but that good feeling is what keeps me here and happy most of the time :)

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lupitachica Whistle-Stop

lupitachica

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I think many move to Charlotte (and Winston Salem & Raleigh) due the affordability of the housing - there is a trend of people (some with southern ancestry) moving south because their money goes further in terms of purchasing power for a home in comparison to other cities. And while it being a perfectly acceptable place draws new residents its also that perfectly acceptable (but not exciting, particularly unique, historical or eye opening) vibe thats increased its reputation (to some) as "boring". But this complaint doesn't seem to be just from newcomers, I've heard quite a few born & raised here that say the same kinds of thing and hoping the city gets more to it. They want Charlotte to move from being an oversized town.

I don't think the average person is into creating the clubs, bars, retail shops, etc that they would frequent. That's not abnormal to me. The void btwn the wants of the people and what exists gets filled by the individuals who who have the talents, means, ability, etc to present other options. I'm sure that these individuals will step forward with money making being a huge motivation. The squeaky wheels will get oiled eventually but its that sound that makes the oiler take notice.

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voyager12 Town

voyager12

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On Saturday there is going to be a Social Justice Rallly in Uptown on the Square. There will be a couple of bands playing all day. The main message behind the rally is to push for Uptown to be inclusive toward all people regardless of race and economic class. The event is being sponsored by the local Action Center for Justice a great organization that needs more members so join up. It's free! On the 30th there will be an Impeach Bush Rally in Freedom Park. Unfortunately that is the same day as NC Pride in Durham. This activist is torn between the two :unsure: The Charlotte events do show that this town has a side that is not always buttoned down and corporate conservative.

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  • 3 months later...
Nostyle Whistle-Stop

Nostyle

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Please do, and be specific. Describe the livelier downtowns and the reasons they are more lively (specific events, population, etc). Too much of the back and forth in this thread has been in vague terms. Give details. For example, you said that downtown Asheville is livelier than uptown Charlotte on the weekends, if you take out the NFL and NBA. Fair enough, so what is happening in Asheville and what is happening in Charlotte, for the sake of comparison? Concerts? Theater? Cultural events? Typical daily living for the populace? Please be specific.

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monsoon Gigalopolis

monsoon

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I recommend that you read through this long thread and others that I have posted here as I have already answered your question. And if you do a search you will see 4 photo threads that I have posted about Asheville that might answer your questions. If you want to see a more lively downtown that has been pointed out here, then do a search on Big Ass Beer. Charlotte has a long ways to go before it comes even close to that. (and in fact IMO, it's not even headed in that direction)

Skyscrapers do not automatically make good cities, it is what happens at the street level that does.

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Nostyle Whistle-Stop

Nostyle

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Metro, are you not capable of giving more specifics than that? Let's say that I'm an out-of-towner and I'm looking for something to do in either Asheville, Charlotte, or some other Carolina city...could you please give me a list of things to do in these cities? That's what I'm getting at here. I'm fairly familiar with the amenities offered in Uptown Charlotte, but you are obviously more familiar with what other cities offer, so please list them so that we can compare, side-by-side, what these center cities offer. I don't understand why you're so quick to express your opinion and steadfast to stick to it, yet so hesitant to back it up with supporting information.

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