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Perception of Charlotte Nationwide


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So, despite being so close, and having passed through a couple times by plane and car/bus, I actually visited Atlanta for the first time this weekend, and I will say, I don't hate it. I do see how people compare it to Charlotte though, and the other way around. I went to the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coca Cola, both great facilities. On a slightly unrelated note, does anyone know if the World of Coca Cola was designed by the same architect as the NASCAR Hall of Fame? They seem similar in layout and design.  Secondly, why doesn't Charlotte have a Hard Rock Cafe? There's lots of cities that aren't "tourist destinations" in the traditional sense that have them, and I think the space where Buffalo Wild Wings is would be perfect for a Hard Rock. They serve tourists and business travelers, a lot of collectors will purchase goods in their gift shop (my friend's dad included) when they travel, and I think Charlotte has enough visitors from a convention, business, and to an extent, tourist standpoint to support a location. 

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3 hours ago, nakers2 said:

So, despite being so close, and having passed through a couple times by plane and car/bus, I actually visited Atlanta for the first time this weekend, and I will say, I don't hate it. I do see how people compare it to Charlotte though, and the other way around. I went to the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coca Cola, both great facilities. On a slightly unrelated note, does anyone know if the World of Coca Cola was designed by the same architect as the NASCAR Hall of Fame? They seem similar in layout and design.  Secondly, why doesn't Charlotte have a Hard Rock Cafe? There's lots of cities that aren't "tourist destinations" in the traditional sense that have them, and I think the space where Buffalo Wild Wings is would be perfect for a Hard Rock. They serve tourists and business travelers, a lot of collectors will purchase goods in their gift shop (my friend's dad included) when they travel, and I think Charlotte has enough visitors from a convention, business, and to an extent, tourist standpoint to support a location. 

It's been a while since I visited downtown Atlanta (aka Centennial Park/CNN area), and even though I'm in metro ATL at least twice a year, I avoid going into the city as much as possible.  Traffic is the plain old problem.  When you have to add an extra 30-40 minutes to get anywhere, I don't have a problem staying VERY local around my friends house, which is in NW Cobb County.  I was at the Hard Rock Atlanta years ago, and back then it still had its cache so to speak.  When they started putting them basically everywhere, it lost something.  I was completely surprised when they put one in my hometown of Pittsburgh, since we really didn't have much music history to tout, so to speak.  For me personally, going to a Hard Rock is kind of like going to Applebee's or Chili's.  Not much excitement, overpriced food and its basically a tourist trap.  For Charlotte, I would kind of lean towards this city not having much music background to fill all the walls of the entire restaurant.  But for any of the locals on the board here, please prove me wrong!!  I'm sure I'm missing a lot of the blues and such that had influenced Elvis.

World of Coke was interesting, but for me, it was a one and done.  Underground also had its coolness, but from what I understand that has kind of waned.  We would spend more time walking around Buckhead and the bars there.  But even that has become so dense and crowded with people, it is like NoDa on crack!  

Charlotte could use something interesting as a tourist attraction that is not NASCAR related a little closer to center city.  I love the Whitewater Center and appreciate being so close to it here in Gaston County.  I'm not sure what we could come up with to have that "WOW" attraction here though.  Maybe a banking museum?  :tw_lol:

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Actually we have 2 banking museums the Wells Fargo museum which is interesting and even more so is the Bank of America Heritage center inside Founders Hall.  A letter from Walt Disney talking about this movie he was trying to finance and kept getting turned down until BofA.  That movie was Cinderella.  Stop by and its free so it is for me. 

Downtown ATL has the World of Coke and the GA Aquarium and the College football of fame but no art museums downtown.  (they are up in midtown and so forth) We have history museum, a kids science museum, and 3 art museums all uptown or downtown in ATL speak.  

My friends also in NW Cobb never go to downtown ATL unless for a concert when they spend the night due to traffic LOL.  I was telling her about Krog St Market never heard of it LOL,  As my friends say I would go downtown uptown more if it was closer and not such a hassle to get to and they like I how I live in the suburbs and go uptown all the time.   My other friends only go downtown ATL for a Hawks or Falcons game but nothing else.  

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3 hours ago, JRNYP2C said:

It's been a while since I visited downtown Atlanta (aka Centennial Park/CNN area), and even though I'm in metro ATL at least twice a year, I avoid going into the city as much as possible.  Traffic is the plain old problem.  When you have to add an extra 30-40 minutes to get anywhere, I don't have a problem staying VERY local around my friends house, which is in NW Cobb County.  I was at the Hard Rock Atlanta years ago, and back then it still had its cache so to speak.  When they started putting them basically everywhere, it lost something.  I was completely surprised when they put one in my hometown of Pittsburgh, since we really didn't have much music history to tout, so to speak.  For me personally, going to a Hard Rock is kind of like going to Applebee's or Chili's.  Not much excitement, overpriced food and its basically a tourist trap.  For Charlotte, I would kind of lean towards this city not having much music background to fill all the walls of the entire restaurant.  But for any of the locals on the board here, please prove me wrong!!  I'm sure I'm missing a lot of the blues and such that had influenced Elvis.

World of Coke was interesting, but for me, it was a one and done.  Underground also had its coolness, but from what I understand that has kind of waned.  We would spend more time walking around Buckhead and the bars there.  But even that has become so dense and crowded with people, it is like NoDa on crack!  

Charlotte could use something interesting as a tourist attraction that is not NASCAR related a little closer to center city.  I love the Whitewater Center and appreciate being so close to it here in Gaston County.  I'm not sure what we could come up with to have that "WOW" attraction here though.  Maybe a banking museum?  :tw_lol:

I know it's not rock, but Charlotte is arguably one of the fist cities where country established itself as a popular genre thanks to WBT Radio, not to mention many bands got their start here, REM recorded their first album where The Gibson apartments now sit. Whitney Houston, Huey Lewis, and many others have recorded or performed here. Elivs played the ONLY live performance of "Moody Blue" at Bojangles Coliseum, he wanted to show the fans "something new" but the band hadn't practiced enough, the second night they nailed it though and the album was released shortly thereafter. Even today our music scene is healthy, rock, blues, indie, country, including the Grand Ole Opry's latest inductee, Luke Combs (he's more often associated with Asheville and Boone, but has his roots in the QC.) Randy Travis grew up in nearby Marshville (and was also arrested for DUI naked.) I'm sure there's much more, this is literally all I can think of the top of my head with minimal effort. Not to mention that they don't fill their walls with exclusively stuff from the city they're in. They sprinkle it among other memorabilia. If Oklahoma City can have one, Charlotte can. 

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https://www.cntraveler.com/destinations/charlotte-nc

 

Not sure if this guide was just released, but it’s a pretty comprehensive and current guide to the QC. It includes statements like “world-class food scene” and “world-class art institutions.” While those statements are probably a bit of a stretch, it’s very positive coverage. 

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On 6/23/2019 at 7:55 AM, kickazzz2000 said:

Was on the run and didn’t want to forget to post.

next time I guess I’ll add some nonsense like  “really nice to see a write up in the Washington Post” for it to count as commentary 

Don't take my question personally. Honestly, there are many times it has happened from other posters and I've been meaning to ask. It is nice to have some sort of idea what the link is before clicking though, so in theory, I support the rule.

EDit: the article you linked to was great. Thanks for posting.

Edited by jednc
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  • 3 weeks later...

My experience in LA LA Land is that most people have never ever been to Charlotte and maybe heard of  the Hornets maybe the Panthers but as mentioned above a reference to Sacramento or Reno or some other western city would have been  a better reference.    Oh and yes LA and Hollyweird in particular have so much charm and I have been ALL OVER the Southland from San Pedro to the SF Valley to Venice to Hollywood all apart of the city of Angels. 

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13 hours ago, KJHburg said:

My experience in LA LA Land is that most people have never ever been to Charlotte and maybe heard of  the Hornets maybe the Panthers but as mentioned above a reference to Sacramento or Reno or some other western city would have been  a better reference.    Oh and yes LA and Hollyweird in particular have so much charm and I have been ALL OVER the Southland from San Pedro to the SF Valley to Venice to Hollywood all apart of the city of Angels. 

So about perception, present company (in this topic) not included because clearly we are superior in every way . . .  I've found most people are very provincial. When I lived in Seattle, for those who were from the West Coast, the world to the east, except for New York and Orlando (more specifically "Disney World" or "Florida") ended at the Rocky Mountains. Denver was about as far east as many could conceptualize. "Oh, North Carolina, is that near New York?"  I wonder what percentage could place Washington D.C. on a map within a hundred miles? As I understand it, there's joke in New York that the known world ends at the Hudson (and it well might). I think it's impressive she's even heard of our humble burgh (enough to add the still seemingly ever present and unshakable N.C.) My cousins from Pennsylvania expressed delight when we in backwater Central Florida had hot dogs and pretzels (apparently those are rare delicacies  in their corner of the world along with scrapple, meh they can keep that one). I can only imagine the conversation that led to that belief.

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  • 3 weeks later...

https://www.cbs17.com/news/north-carolina-news/pack-of-atvs-swarms-nc-town-dirt-bike-rider-dies-in-crash/

Check out this story from the Triangle area CBS affiliate. I was doing a little research on those "gangs" of dirt bikers an ATV riders as I've seen them in other cities too and stumbled across this article referring to us as an "NC Town" is this some Raleigh/Charlotte beef? Of just an inept reporter? Reminds me of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution article that said (paraphrasing here) "there's not much reason for a company to want to move to Charlotte other than economic motive" 

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19 hours ago, nakers2 said:

https://www.cbs17.com/news/north-carolina-news/pack-of-atvs-swarms-nc-town-dirt-bike-rider-dies-in-crash/

Check out this story from the Triangle area CBS affiliate. I was doing a little research on those "gangs" of dirt bikers an ATV riders as I've seen them in other cities too and stumbled across this article referring to us as an "NC Town" is this some Raleigh/Charlotte beef? Of just an inept reporter? Reminds me of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution article that said (paraphrasing here) "there's not much reason for a company to want to move to Charlotte other than economic motive" 

I think its just a dumb strategy to try to generate more clicks.  A swarm of dirt bikers and ATV riders descending on a "Town" is used intentionally to conjure up images of hoodlums attacking a small innocent town.  They are trying to scare people into clicking on the article.   If they put "Major City" in the headline, most people lose their sympathy towards the situation.

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34 minutes ago, CTiger said:

I think its just a dumb strategy to try to generate more clicks.  A swarm of dirt bikers and ATV riders descending on a "Town" is used intentionally to conjure up images of hoodlums attacking a small innocent town.  They are trying to scare people into clicking on the article.   If they put "Major City" in the headline, most people lose their sympathy towards the situation.

True, though I've been surrounded by that group on Tryon as guys were doing wheelies a foot away from my car while going 35 mph and weaving in and out of traffic. Its more than a little unnerving. Luckily they just blow through the red lights, so it was fairly short lived, though they just move on to the next group of motorists. I'm surprised there haven't been more accidents. 

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Well, according to the local news a few nights ago one of these guys was killed while trying to flee police. Lost control and hit a barrier if I remember correctly. According to the piece there have been countless reports to law enforcement about this behavior so expect to see a crackdown in the area. 

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First, I'm not a police officer so don't hold me to this but...

I'm pretty sure they're not allowed to pursue  dirt bikes/4 wheelers/etc. UNLESS said person was witnessed or suspected of serious crimes. The bad part is the people on bikes and the like know this and will blatantly ride in front of officers doing wheelies and such.  Now the above case the person was suspected of assualt (serious crime) hence the pursuit. But in cases where the people are riding and are not suspected of or are witness to serious crime they may not be able to initiate pursuit. They have to weigh the pursuit vs the risk to the public if they do pursue. 

TL;DR: I'm not sure how much crack down will happen if it doesn't involve serious crime. 

See CMPD's Interactive Directive Guide 600-22

Should be first result if you Google "CMPD pursuit policy".

I hope this helps anybody with questions. 

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