Perception of Charlotte Nationwide

[Nick2]

Affirmative action (aka reverse discrimination) is also wrong. If people want equality then they should have equality not preference. I wonder if they could make it illegal to ask for an applicants race/ethnicity on applications. Base hiring practices on whether or not that person is qualified for the position, not their race, gender, sex, orientation, nationality, etc. One of the big problems is the government is pushing for these discriminatory practices. Universities lose funding if they don't match their state's demographic. There was a stink about this at both UNC Chapel Hill and down here at USC in recent years since neither are even close to having a representative % of african americans. 

And to be fair, they are starting to get on HBSC's cases about having diversity. I know someone who got a "white scholarship" to go to Benedict College.

[Nick2]

How about some positive recognition for a local university? Sadly, they had to add North Carolina after Charlotte...

They're working on new ways to improve graduation rate for the at risk (for dropping out) students.

Johnson C Smith

[kermit]

From an excellent article on the ugly political opposition to light rail in Virginia Beach:

"Debate attendees laughed at the mention of a network of light-rail lines. One man yelled for young people to “move to Charlotte.”"

I know there is a regional component to this, but I love that we managed to eclipse Denver and Portland in the category of "going to hell in a handbasket transit loving town"

Bonus points for not adding the  "NC"

http://pilotonline.com/news/local/transportation/how-did-the-light-rail-debate-in-virginia-beach-become/article_33431c0f-8e2d-5f63-a9b6-d70a331b8f2c.html

Edited April 4, 2016 by kermit

[ah59396]

4 hours ago, kermit said:

From an excellent article on the ugly political opposition to light rail in Virginia Beach:

"Debate attendees laughed at the mention of a network of light-rail lines. One man yelled for young people to “move to Charlotte.”"

I know there is a regional component to this, but I love that we managed to eclipse Denver and Portland in the category of "going to hell in a handbasket transit loving town"

Bonus points for not adding the  "NC"

http://pilotonline.com/news/local/transportation/how-did-the-light-rail-debate-in-virginia-beach-become/article_33431c0f-8e2d-5f63-a9b6-d70a331b8f2c.html

That's what you call street-cred.

The Tide has a pretty strong opposition though.  And to some extent, for good reason.  Their ridership figures are brutally low, about 1,000/mile less than our system (we do about 1800/mile last I saw).  This is for a metro that is roughly the same size as Greensboro and only growing at 1.75%.

While I applaud their early adoption, I do wonder the practicality of a system in a regional metro with low/stagnant growth.  And now they are proposing an expansion?  Good luck.

[Nick2]

I had some friends who visited Charlotte this past weekend. They're from mostly northern states: Ohio, New York, Maryland, and some from South Carolina. They were stunned by how clean the city was and absolutely loved uptown and south park. They were surprised by the lack of homeless people uptown and how walkable the streets are. They said they also didn't realize how big uptown Charlotte is because they had only ever flown into the airport and driven or taken a connecting flight to Columbia. 

That's the general consensus from people in South Carolina too. They consider Charlotte the "big city" like they would Atlanta as compared to Greenville or Columbia. 

[ScottCLT]

That is usually the general conesus when my company has conferences here - nothing but compliments, and on the survey after conference, about 90% of people said they didn't want it to move to another city (the remainder wanted us to move it Vancouver BC and combine it with another conference with one of our business partners). My customers, for the most part LOVE Charlotte. Sometime some of the attendees love it a bit too much and end up showing up a couple hours late to our annual meeting the next morning. There was a guy named Tomas from Montreal that once said went to many bars downtown, and then ended up at xyz at Aloft for a couple hours. Nevertheless, he said was Charlotte was too much of a party for him to handle.  I can't say that agree honestly...he must have hit some random spots that were crazy, but to get that reaction from a Montreal citizien meant a lot to me.

[Silicon Dogwoods]

I've hosted friends and colleagues from New York and San Francisco in Charlotte and they all thought it was great.

Because it is.

[kermit]

The Virginia Beach area continues to crush on Charlotte's transit prowess. This article from the Hampton Roads Business Joirnal discusses the succss that we (and Minneapolis) have had wih TOD along new LRT lines. You won't learn anything new from the article, but it is exhibit #148 that shows that outsiders really think we are the transit city of the South.

http://pilotonline.com/inside-business/fast-track-for-development-a-look-at-light-rail-s/article_1801a439-f57f-5a56-bc1c-c2a211389276.html

[caterpillar2]

On ‎4‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 0:33 AM, ScottCLT said:

That is usually the general conesus when my company has conferences here - nothing but compliments, and on the survey after conference, about 90% of people said they didn't want it to move to another city (the remainder wanted us to move it Vancouver BC and combine it with another conference with one of our business partners). My customers, for the most part LOVE Charlotte. Sometime some of the attendees love it a bit too much and end up showing up a couple hours late to our annual meeting the next morning. There was a guy named Tomas from Montreal that once said went to many bars downtown, and then ended up at xyz at Aloft for a couple hours. Nevertheless, he said was Charlotte was too much of a party for him to handle.  I can't say that agree honestly...he must have hit some random spots that were crazy, but to get that reaction from a Montreal citizien meant a lot to me.

I am in Montreal fairly often. I love the place much more than Toronto. I must admit that I find it just as easy to party in Charlotte as Montreal. Montreal has a bit more activity in a closer proximity, but if you add the NCMF and Montford, they don't have much on us. The advantage there is that they have a Chinatown. Not meaning to take away from Montreal as it is a great city in my opinion, but we should be proud and it will only get better. On the topic, my friends and relatives from the U.K. invested in condos in south Charlotte so they can spend a few months here every year. The love the exciting growth, cheap costs of steaks compared to London, and the proximity to the mountains and the coast.

[cha]

Originally from Charlotte but live in Boston now.  Took my girlfriend (She's from France) to Charlotte and while she much preferred the people in the south, the food and weather, her biggest complaint about Charlotte in particular was "Where are all the stores??"  There is nowhere to shop and stroll.  Beating a dead horse I know, but it is suchhh a huge thing that needs to happen downtown.  

[Nick2]

This is a little old but I laughed when reading this onion article. It paints Charlotte in a very favorable light though.

http://www.theonion.com/article/horrified-man-suddenly-realizes-hes-putting-down-r-35102

[caterpillar2]

On ‎5‎/‎19‎/‎2016 at 9:31 PM, cha said:

Originally from Charlotte but live in Boston now.  Took my girlfriend (She's from France) to Charlotte and while she much preferred the people in the south, the food and weather, her biggest complaint about Charlotte in particular was "Where are all the stores??"  There is nowhere to shop and stroll.  Beating a dead horse I know, but it is suchhh a huge thing that needs to happen downtown.  

Take her to Southpark. She will find all she wants there as well as a good stroll. There are some shops uptown but unfortunately they are located inside of buildings and need to be found.  Large department stores left center city in the 60s and 70s when it center city changed because of crime issues, etc. Now that things are bouncing back, there will be a rebirth of retail eventually. I have family and friends from Europe visiting regularly and make do with shopping in places like Southpark that truly does have great shops found in the best downtowns. No complaints from them and they are mostly from London. The learned that uptown Charlotte was a center for entertainment and business, not shopping at this point.

Edited May 28, 2016 by caterpillar2

[kermit]

Much to my surprise Charlotte ranks as the 12th most walkable of the 30 largest US metros based on a new report from Smart Growth America. I am shocked by this, but also quite skeptical since Atlanta ranks 11th.  I have not had time to dig into the methodology of the report.

http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/documents/foot-traffic-ahead-2016.pdf

Edited June 14, 2016 by kermit

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, kermit said:

Much to my surprise Charlotte ranks as the 12th most walkable of the 30 largest US metros based on a new report from Smart Growth America. I am shocked by this, but also quite skeptical since Atlanta ranks 11th.  I have not had time to dig into the methodology of the report.

http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/documents/foot-traffic-ahead-2016.pdf

Whens the last time we had a Metro area of 1.3 million??

[teeg]

From the report, endnote #3. The definition of “metropolitan area” is based on the metropolitan area definitions in use by the Metropolitan Planning Organization pertaining to each metro. Exceptions include: Boston (MPAC region, plus Massachusetts towns served by the MBTA); Miami (BMPO, MDMPO, and PBMPO); New York City (Regional Plan Association region); Philadelphia (DVRPC region, less Mercer County, NJ, assigned to New York City region); Portland (Metro and RTC). Metropolitan definitions as used in this report will differ from U.S. Census definitions for Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA).

Wild guess: they include only Mecklenburg, Iredell, and Union counties, which is covered by CRTPO, which used to be MUMPO.  That's about 1.3 million.  

[CLTProductions]

Yeah this list is bogus. Cleveland being 14!?!?!? LOL

[elrodvt]

22 minutes ago, Jayvee said:

Yeah this list is bogus. Cleveland being 14!?!?!? LOL

Agreed. In my experience most of the cities below #10 are not really walkable. The top 10 seem about right though. too lazy to read through and see what strange biases made that happen but I've always seen the same random weird results in the walkscore app.

[caterpillar2]

On 6/14/2016 at 2:27 PM, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

Whens the last time we had a MetroI area of 1.3 million??

Looks like NYC, Chicago and other huge areas use their CMSA whereas Charlotte uses a metro  population from 10 years ago. In that respect, we should be around 2.4 million. I believe that we can mostly agree that Charlotte is improving tremendously in making walkable a more desirable mode of transportation. Number twelve is good for me. 

Edited June 16, 2016 by caterpillar2

[Guest]

On June 14, 2016 at 3:46 PM, elrodvt said:

Agreed. In my experience most of the cities below #10 are not really walkable. The top 10 seem about right though. too lazy to read through and see what strange biases made that happen but I've always seen the same random weird results in the walkscore app.

TL:DR for sure. 
I wrote the guy who wrote this an email. We will see what he says.

[SgtCampsalot]

Top 10 Sweatiest Cities in America

Yep, we're #1, y'all. Right above Raleigh at #2.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, SgtCampsalot said:

Top 10 Sweatiest Cities in America

Yep, we're #1, y'all. Right above Raleigh at #2.

I've seen this. I disagree. Columbia and Aiken are way worse than Charlotte and Raleigh.

[caterpillar2]

22 minutes ago, SgtCampsalot said:

Top 10 Sweatiest Cities in America

Yep, we're #1, y'all. Right above Raleigh at #2.

Oh, I thought it was sweetest cities. Sweatiest isn't good. 

[videtur quam contuor]

Four years ago I had to spend the whole summer in Bradenton, Florida. I would check weather before I left for the morning and occasionally the area had dewpoints at 80 or above. EIGHTY+ degree dewpoint! I never knew there could be such a thing. Walking out the door was having a wet wool sock around my face. For the entire summer any outdoor activity felt like a health risk. Only at the beach could a steady breeze and a bit of shade remediate the situation.

I completely understand the attraction of Florida, as long as one lives within walking distance of the Gulf/Atlantic. Past there I am totally checked out.

[HopHead]

How is only one city from Texas on this list? I spent a summer working in San Antonio several years ago. I had to be in the office by no later than 8am every day. My hotel was a few hundred yards from where I needed to be. I'd literally start sweating a few minutes after stepping outside. Miserable...

Edited June 16, 2016 by HopHead

[Guest]

Just now, HopHead said:

How is only one city from Texas on this list? I spent a summer working in San Antonio several years ago. I had to be in the office by no later than 8am every day. My hotel was a few hundred yards from where I needed to be. I'd literally start sweating a few months after stepping outside. Miserable...

Austin, TX and the Texas Hill Country should be above Charlotte too.