Perception of Charlotte Nationwide

[suburban george3]

The Russians think Charlotte is in South Carolina. I guess the good news here is they didn't add NC to it.

Here is a translated page of an article about the plane crash from Channel 1 in the Russian Federation.

Well that bodes well if they ever fire a missle at Charlotte..

[caterpillar2]

The Russians think Charlotte is in South Carolina. I guess the good news here is they didn't add NC to it.

Here is a translated page of an article about the plane crash from Channel 1 in the Russian Federation.

Not a big surprise. Having lived in several overseas countries for twenty year, I found that an American city is mostly known because there is a popular television program that is based in the city. If Charlotte ever has a television program based out of the city, we will be more popular. A few movies, an international airport, banking, racing, and prosperity have helped us get were we are presently.

[Commoner]

I have noticed that, since the ML disaster, many financial industry observers have begun to jump on the incompetence of Charlotte's bankers.

One example of this is here: http://bankstocks.com/ArticleViewer.aspx?A...ArticleTypeID=2

sample quote: "Once again, the Charlotte mafia has turned temporary success into ultimate, catastrophic failure."

Not much substance there (this is a thread about perception after all) but if combine that with the comments on the WSJ on the BoA / ML articles you can detect a consistent theme of "Southern banking rubes have severely damaged our industry."

That's funny. "Charlotte Mafia" was a term that was only used w/r/t McColl and his NCNB lieutenants (including Lewis) after the BAC merger in 1998 resulted in the exodus of legacy BAC managers. This is the first time I've seen it used to describe Charlotte bank leaderhip, in general. Not good!

Edited January 20, 2009 by Commoner

[DigitalSky]

I can't find the other thread on it (has it been deleted?) but Katie Couric was in Charlotte yesterday "on assignment" again... http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4771173n ffwd to 16:35

[Guest]

Actually I'd like to correct you she was on assignment in Charlotte, NC. TWICE, in the blurb we are referred to with the darn add-on.

[DigitalSky]

Yeah well what can you do?

[fulcrumsf]

Yeah they were filming at the airport.

Edited February 4, 2009 by fulcrumsf

[DigitalSky]

Today the CBS Evening News had a report, yet again from Charlotte, North Carolina, in line for people looking for jobs at a waterpark (presumably Carowinds' water park)...

[InitialD]

Today the CBS Evening News had a report, yet again from Charlotte, North Carolina, in line for people looking for jobs at a waterpark (presumably Carowinds' water park)...

Actually, I think it was the Great Wolf lodge in Concord. They were looking to hire something like 400-500 people and the first day of the job fair they held at LMS they had over 5,000 applicants.

[fulcrumsf]

The shoot at Charlotte Douglas with Katie Couric and the Pilot from the Hudson River crash they did for 60mins, I think it airs this Sunday.

Edited February 7, 2009 by fulcrumsf

[DigitalSky]

yeah, 60 Minutes is on right now... Katie has said "Charlotte, North Carolina" about 4 times now. Never just Charlotte

[JayGee]

yeah, 60 Minutes is on right now... Katie has said "Charlotte, North Carolina" about 4 times now. Never just Charlotte

I thought I only counted three. You would think after the first one, she wouldn't feel the need to do it every time.

[dubone]

I caught this reference today. Charlotte didn't get the NC, but the article hilariously listed Indian Trail as a beautiful place.

While it's impossible to know how these towns will do during the recession, they boomed for a reason. People chose to live in these places because they were well connected or, like the Charlotte suburb of Indian Trail, N.C., or Wesley Chapel, Fla., in the Tampa Bay metro area, were located in a beautiful part of the world. People flooded into Oswego, Ill., about 50 minutes by train to Chicago, because of its convenient location, good schools and the beauty of its setting along the Fox River. That isn't likely to change. And Hoboken, N.J., located across the Hudson River from New York City and filled with young professionals who worked at Citibank, Morgan Stanley and other now-struggling Manhattan financial firms, is entering an economic slowdown. But Hoboken's easy access to the city by train, bus and ferry will always remain appealing.

[davidals]

BBC Radio has a feature - listening now (10:45PM) - on the recession's impact on Charlotte, focusing upon financial services, and (to a lesser degree) post-election expectations and economic fears. Charlotte, but no NC, throughout the feature. Not the cheeriest journalism by a long shot, and they did misidentify Wachovia as having been "founded in Charlotte," but it's otherwise one of the more credible Charlotte-centric pieces of journalism I've run into in a while. There are a number of brief "man on the street" type interviews, and they run a diverse gamut from McRorey to local small business owners to people in barbershops to someone working in a health clinic, and it does appear that (apart from the gloomy subject matter), BBC made a solid attempt at capturing as much of a cross-section as they could in a 7 minute featurette.

Edited February 10, 2009 by davidals

[caterpillar2]

yeah, 60 Minutes is on right now... Katie has said "Charlotte, North Carolina" about 4 times now. Never just Charlotte

Oh well, she is a good news reader. Who ever said she had a brain?

[monsoon]

.... and they did misidentify Wachovia as having been "founded in Charlotte," but it's otherwise one of the more credible Charlotte-centric pieces of journalism I've run into in a while. ....

Actually they got it right. Wachoiva is actually First Union which was founded in Charlotte. The Wachovia you are referring to, the one founded in Winston-Salem, ceased to exist several years ago when they were acquired by Charlotte's First Union. First Union then changed the name of the bank to Wachovia because it had a better reputation.

[queensguy06]

I figured this was the best topic to put this article in. According to an AP business writer and Yahoo! you would think Charlotte were in a much tougher spot than most other places in the country because of the banks.

Charlotte in same predicament as Wall Street

While it has stated the obvious about the current job outlooks and bank troubles, it goes one step further by implying that Charlotte is hurting worse than most. Some of the 'signs' of this that the article mentions is a slow down in consumer shopping at SouthPark, a 'recent happy hour' at Capital Grille wasn't busy, and two retail closings - Morton's and Home Depot Design Center.

It does show that Charlotte is potentially facing some tougher times with the uncertainty of BoA and in what form Wells Fargo will remain, but I feel it goes a little overboard. At the very end it does briefly mention the possibility of Stanley Morgan and GMAC moving to Charlotte.

[dxartist]

I figured this was the best topic to put this article in. According to an AP business writer and Yahoo! you would think Charlotte were in a much tougher spot than most other places in the country because of the banks.

Charlotte in same predicament as Wall Street

While it has stated the obvious about the current job outlooks and bank troubles, it goes one step further by implying that Charlotte is hurting worse than most. Some of the 'signs' of this that the article mentions is a slow down in consumer shopping at SouthPark, a 'recent happy hour' at Capital Grille wasn't busy, and two retail closings - Morton's and Home Depot Design Center.

The article is obviously written around the our banking culture. So it's not surprising that it was written in that context. I took it with a grain of salt since the AP reporter writes for the San Francisco Chronicle and doesn't live here anyway. Sure, the happy hour and the Morton bit are facts, but I doubt he has the real "pulse" of the Charlotte like us here at UP. This city maybe hurting, but it's definitely not hurting more than most.

It does show that Charlotte is potentially facing some tougher times with the uncertainty of BoA and in what form Wells Fargo will remain, but I feel it goes a little overboard. At the very end it does briefly mention the possibility of Stanley Morgan and GMAC moving to Charlotte.

Yeah, I think the worse looks like is yet to come, but praying it doesn't. By the way, it's Morgan Stanley, not Stanley Morgan.

[JayGee]

I figured this was the best topic to put this article in. According to an AP business writer and Yahoo! you would think Charlotte were in a much tougher spot than most other places in the country because of the banks.

Charlotte in same predicament as Wall Street

While it has stated the obvious about the current job outlooks and bank troubles, it goes one step further by implying that Charlotte is hurting worse than most. Some of the 'signs' of this that the article mentions is a slow down in consumer shopping at SouthPark, a 'recent happy hour' at Capital Grille wasn't busy, and two retail closings - Morton's and Home Depot Design Center.

It does show that Charlotte is potentially facing some tougher times with the uncertainty of BoA and in what form Wells Fargo will remain, but I feel it goes a little overboard. At the very end it does briefly mention the possibility of Stanley Morgan and GMAC moving to Charlotte.

Typical media. They always have everything figured out.

Morton's at Southpark faced some very stiff competition, Palm and Ruths Chris to be specific. Apparently it never did do well, but it wasn't necessarily due to the banking crisis.

And we all know that Home Depot shut down that whole concept.

And by the way they already know the cause of the Continental crash.

[monsoon]

There are a lot of people on this forum that have argued that Charlotte's prosperity is due to the banks. This came up when I have said this metro's economy isn't that dependent upon what happens at the banks, it will go on. So depending upon who you might believe you can take from this article what you want. I didn't see anything in it that was inherently wrong with the article but it was obviously an article that had a pre-determined outcome in where the author then went to find some anecdotes that might back it up. Happens all too often in the media now.

Obviously the failure of the banks is going to hit certain parts of Charlotte a lot more than other parts of the metro and I suspect this is mainly the area around the center city, Southpark, Elizabeth, Dillworth, Plaza/Midwood & Ballentyne. Other parts, maybe not as much. It's not only the direct hit to jobs, but it's also the loss in stock value of these banks. There are a huge number of people who had long term money invested in both institutions, a lot of it inherited, and 90% of that money has disappeared from the face of the earth. A huge hit. This is where an objective investigation might occur. Not on if a chain store has closed.

[voyager12]

What rankled me the most was our "leaders" refusal to think beyond the financial sector. You would think this disaster would encourage plans to diversify our base but Morgan and McCrory think Morgan Stanley and GMAC can make everything better. Maybe as part of a much larger package with other industries. But they just want to go back in time like nothing has happened. Well Charlotte won't rebound if the vision is still only about the financial industry. Their blind boosterism in the article was embarassing and myopic.

[atlrvr]

I don't think GMAC and MS will be cure-alls, but if there is 3,000 unemployed bankers, its not like recruiting another manufacturing plant is going to do them a lot of good. They need to do what it takes to get jobs for the people hurting most or these people will leave the area, and given their relatively high incomes, that will have a big effect of service and retail providers along with construction.

Also, the city is targeting 3 industries in specific, renewable energy, biotech/bioinformatics, and military/defense.

[voyager12]

I agree, what concerns me is too heavy of a residual attraction to the financial sector. The other industries you mentioned are less exposed to brutal market cycles. What Charlotte can't afford to do AGAIN is throw everything in with the banks and their ancillary counterparts. If we do that it again it's the same old story. Boom and Bust. Back to square one a decade from now. Sorry about going a little

[tozmervo]

Hey! Charlotte is finally getting that international attention we've always wanted. We made the BBC.

This one focuses more on CLT opinion of the stimulus/expectations for the future. Its an article that could have been about any city, but the financial sector is what brought the story here.

[monsoon]

The funny thing about GMAC and MS is that nobody is talking about it except the people here in CLT. I guess I will believe it when I see it, but I think it is a bad idea to put a lot of hopes in a car finance company and an investment bank pretending to be something else. The former has got a tough road to travel because nobody wants to finance a car now, and the latter reminds me of when the "new" AT&T 2 decades ago said it was going to dominate the computer business. i.e. they were clueless outside their elements.