Perception of Charlotte Nationwide

[deleted]

Speaking of police shootings:

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article138640208.html

 

 

[kermit]

Nashville (barely) makes this list but Charlotte does not. Lots of implications here:

 

[KJHburg]

Not sure if this is the place to put this but I have been in Texas the past week in various cities like San Antonio and Houston. And went to both cities downtowns and they offer some good examples for Charlotte and some not so good. For example downtown San Antonio has a great street presence and the Riverwalk and lots of retails and restaurants and hotels. What is lacking is newer office buildings and lots of office employment. In fact their first new high rise office tower is now under way the new Frost Bank tower 23 stories the first one in 29 years! Think of all the new office buildings built in that time in Charlotte.

Houston on the other hand has a fantastic skyline with interesting buildings but the street presence is terrible lots of blank walls and very little street side retail. They are trying to improve it and both these Texas cities are way behind Charlotte is housing options downtown. Houston is even opening a new 48 story office tower now even though the office vacancy rate downtown is close to 20%. (it got started before oil prices crashed) I uploaded lots of photos of both Houston and San Antonio in their urbanplanet sites and in that they are behind us too LOL  Here is a link if you are interested. 3-4 sets of photos in Houston and a couple in San Antonio (notice their apartment complexes not beige in Texas esp. San Antonio) In general the multifamily developments in both these Texas cities are more interesting than ours. The new Houston Marriott Marquis hotel is great new convention hotel with a TX shaped lazy river on a 6th floor pool deck. 

And historic preservation is fantastic of course they tear nothing down in San Antonio and even Houston has preserved quite a few downtown buildings. 

Houston  and San Antonio photo galleries 

 

Edited March 28, 2017 by KJHburg

[deleted]

51 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

Not sure if this is the place to put this but I have been in Texas the past week in various cities like San Antonio and Houston. And went to both cities downtowns and they offer some good examples for Charlotte and some not so good. For example downtown San Antonio has a great street presence and the Riverwalk and lots of retails and restaurants and hotels. What is lacking is newer office buildings and lots of office employment. In fact their first new high rise office tower is now under way the new Frost Bank tower 23 stories the first one in 29 years! Think of all the new office buildings built in that time in Charlotte.

Houston on the other hand has a fantastic skyline with interesting buildings but the street presence is terrible lots of blank walls and very little street side retail. They are trying to improve it and both these Texas cities are way behind Charlotte is housing options downtown. Houston is even opening a new 48 story office tower now even though the office vacancy rate downtown is close to 20%. (it got started before oil prices crashed) I uploaded lots of photos of both Houston and San Antonio in their urbanplanet sites and in that they are behind us too LOL  Here is a link if you are interested. 3-4 sets of photos in Houston and a couple in San Antonio (notice their apartment complexes not beige in Texas esp. San Antonio) In general the multifamily developments in both these Texas cities are more interesting than ours. The new Houston Marriott Marquis hotel is great new convention hotel with a TX shaped lazy river on a 6th floor pool deck. 

And historic preservation is fantastic of course they tear nothing down in San Antonio and even Houston has preserved quite a few downtown buildings. 

Houston  and San Antonio photo galleries 

 

I was in Houston recently and I was surprisingly underwhelmed.  Charlotte is much nicer in my opinion and despite the city size downtown didn't feel much bigger to me (I'm sure it has to be though).  There are a lot of empty lots and dilapidated buildings also.  I did enjoy seeing the Skyhouse twins!  Bizarre seeing the exact same buildings (and know you can see them elsewhere also).  I've never been to SA but suspect I would like it more than Houston...

[Vitamin_N]

It's interesting hearing the comments about Houston--I was extremely underwhelmed by downtown Dallas when I was there last spring. The street presence of buildings is terrible and despite the presence of hotels and condos/apartments, pedestrians were a rarity. I don't know if it's a Texas thing, or because of these cities experiencing a lot of growth in the 50s/60s/70s, or what. I know people here complain about various aspects of Charlotte's urban environment (which is good, I think we should have high standards for the buildings around us) but things could certainly be a lot worse.

[DMann]

Doesn't Dallas have a version of the over street mall, except under ground?

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, Vitamin_N said:

It's interesting hearing the comments about Houston--I was extremely underwhelmed by downtown Dallas when I was there last spring. The street presence of buildings is terrible and despite the presence of hotels and condos/apartments, pedestrians were a rarity. I don't know if it's a Texas thing, or because of these cities experiencing a lot of growth in the 50s/60s/70s, or what. I know people here complain about various aspects of Charlotte's urban environment (which is good, I think we should have high standards for the buildings around us) but things could certainly be a lot worse.

I think climate has a lot to do with crappy pedestrian scale. Think about Charlottes new big massive patios, how many months a year are you actually comfortable sitting on them? 2 months? I remember freezing half to death at night in Mid September at Sycamore, and sweating my face off at Triple C in May. Being outdoors in the South ain't always comfortable. 

Edited March 29, 2017 by Guest

[KJHburg]

Believe me I think Charlotte's streetscape and overall feel of uptown is far superior to all the major Texas cities except for Austin. Charlotte and Austin would be about equal in my books.  Houston has the underground tunnel network because of such a hot humid climate and of course lack of zoning allows huge blank walls. Dallas downtown boomed in the 1970/80s and most new  office growth has been slightly north of downtown in Uptown (and yes they have both) San Antonio has the retail and hotels but no significant office employment downtown and like I said they are just now building a new office high rise first in 29 years! Austin has the whole deal office employment, lots of residential, some retail, larger hotels and lots of construction like Charlotte. I have been to all 4 of these cities in the last 6 months.  Historic preservation in San Antonio is off the charts and even downtown Houston with no zoning there are plenty of older buildings turned into apartments like the Texaco Star building and the Post Rice apartments and many older office buildings have been converted to hotels. We need to do some of that in Charlotte.  It is easy to wish lots more progress for uptown Charlotte and we all get anxious but looking around at some of Sunbelt rivals we are leading the pack.  Pictured below is the Star in Houston new apartment redevelopment of the old Texaco office building. 

[elrodvt]

I think the sunbelt is equally cursed by how it grew back after being destroyed in the civil war, the advent of AC, and after cars came about. But I have nothing to back that up.

Regarding climate I look at my hometown of Burlington, VT and it's awesome downtown (for a city that size), and doubt they get any more use out of all the patios. Closing down the main street to cars is what turned a desolate downtown around. Plus a strong design review process which preserved most of the existing stock. Oh and Bernie Sanders as mayor. ;-)

Edited March 29, 2017 by elrodvt

[nonillogical]

I spent the last week in Boston and various small north shore towns, and although everyone knew where Charlotte was without any NC clarification, opinions ranged from those who had visited once in the 90's and (probably rightfully) regarded it as a ghost town at the time, those who referred to it as "the country" and were shocked to hear we even had a skyline, and those who were familiar with Raleigh but not Charlotte, outside of knowing about the Hornets (some didn't know the Panthers played here). I didn't find anyone who had been and had a particularly positive opinion, although they were receptive to information about the city and genuinely interested that there was more to it than they thought. Anyway, had a great time there and everyone was very nice, it was just interesting that it was such a blank spot on the map to them, considering how well known we are to New Yorkers in my experience. 

[cha]

Being from Charlotte but living in Boston my experiences range from of course mixing it up with Charleston, although that one is rarest, to the I fly through there, and then I'd say actually the most common is, "I have family there, IT IS SO CLEAN"  , and the food is generally loved.  A lot of people I've met have told me unsolicited they would like to move to North Carolina, didn't specifically mention Charlotte though.  

[JahLove]

As strange as it sounds, I am hoping now for the tarheels to at least get to the championship (Duke fan) as I assume that there will be banter by the commentators about this. It will help spread the word as we can get as much help with discussion as possible since HB2's stench will not simply dissipate from perceptions of NC.

[Dale]

Charlotte has finally grown up. Is no longer the largest city in America commonly confused for Charleston, SC.

Another note: I do not inhabit an urban bubble. I'm just a guy who appreciates the built environment. In my business and personal rounds, I've met literally hundreds of newcomers to the city. I'd guess that most of these are Northeastern transplants, an amazing percentage of them from Upstate NY.

And among all these newcomers, not once has mention been made of HB2.

 

 

[kermit]

3 hours ago, Dale said:

And among all these newcomers, not once has mention been made of HB2.

Were they over 40?

[Dale]

12 minutes ago, kermit said:

Were they over 40?

All ages, millennials to boomers. I have to come to this particular forum to get my dose of sound and fury.

Edited April 3, 2017 by Dale

[kermit]

No fury, it's an interesting observation. 

Help me understand the "HB2 wasn't / isnt that bad for the econony" perspective.

[deleted]

2 minutes ago, kermit said:

No fury, it's an interesting observation. 

Help me understand the "HB2 wasn't / isnt that bad for the econony" perspective.

Personally, I do think many exaggerated the economic impact on the city, even though it was inarguably significant and the damage completely unnecessary.  It certainly wasn't the economic Armageddon that many predicted.  EVERY out of town visitor I interacted with (some evangelical conservatives, the rest California insurance executives) commented on HB2...some positively, some not (you can figure out the breakdown, though some from the former group pragmatically agreed that it accomplished nothing and was overall a negative).

[Dale]

17 minutes ago, kermit said:

No fury, it's an interesting observation. 

Help me understand the "HB2 wasn't / isnt that bad for the econony" perspective.

Aside from a few notable, high-profiled defections, where is the evidence that it's moved the dial ? But I would consider financial loss worth the fight to preserve what little freedoms private businesses have left. So, I'm happy with the way things are at the moment.

[KJHburg]

Who do they survey for these Jack a$$ surveys? Charlotte named as one of the cities with the ugliest people?! http://www.wcnc.com/news/features/survey-charlotteans-among-americas-ugliest-people/432590121

[HopHead]

1 hour ago, KJHburg said:

Who do they survey for these Jack a$$ surveys? Charlotte named as one of the cities with the ugliest people?! http://www.wcnc.com/news/features/survey-charlotteans-among-americas-ugliest-people/432590121

No idea where they got the data for this... I would dispute this on any given day walking around SouthEnd, Uptown or Plaza Midwood (to name a few). 

[nowensone]

Plain old crack smoking.  Milwaukee #5 and CLT #4.... not to make a City-Data like comment here, but I live in Milwaukee now, the difference there, without being mean, is meteoric, light years, and that's no homerism.  Not all opinions are equal despite what we tell children, but in this case, I smell a rat.

[ah59396]

Have these people never been to Buffalo?

[Guest]

13 hours ago, nowensone said:

Plain old crack smoking.  Milwaukee #5 and CLT #4.... not to make a City-Data like comment here, but I live in Milwaukee now, the difference there, without being mean, is meteoric, light years, and that's no homerism.  Not all opinions are equal despite what we tell children, but in this case, I smell a rat.

I go to breweries in Charlotte, and am amazed at how attractive people are. People in Brooklyn, are fudgeing ugly. 

Edited April 21, 2017 by Guest

[CLT2014]

Given that 80% of the people that rated Charlotte in the Travel & Leisure survey probably have only experienced our town via a connection at Charlotte Douglas - I'm not that surprised. I wouldn't call the staff at Charlotte Douglas the prettiest people in the city, nor the folks working at AA that end the flight with "On behalf of this Charlotte based flight crew with a combined 530 years of experience, thanks for flying with us" a huge selling point for looks in Charlotte. 

Edited April 21, 2017 by CLT2014

[rancenc]

These types of rating are absolutely juvenile.  Even the "Best of.." can swing wildly from year to year.   I guess after the Best Looking City contest, the next one will be "What City's Men (or Women) have the biggest...(fill in the body part)!!!