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17 minutes ago, elrodvt said:

Are you going to switch to the lab grown "meat" burgers when they come out or will that reset your count?

Reset the count but I may start a drive to eat 300,000 Original Chick-fil-a sandwiches or a drive to eat at every In N Out from TX to California! Just thinking out loud.... 

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anybody have relatively current knowledge of per square foot construction costs for podium / stick built multifamily (the normal Southend drech) compared to concrete / steel construction (something like the Ashton) these days? I just need a rough estimate

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Don't let the name fool you the movie Three Billboards outside of Ebbing Missouri was filmed right here in NC and western NC in particular.  In one of my favorite mountain towns of Sylva and Black Mountain.   https://www.visitnc.com/trip-idea/explore-authentic-locations-from-three-billboards-outside-ebbing-missouri?utm_source=Visit+North+Carolina&utm_campaign=fb5e1ba374-Travel_Insider_01-04-2018&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bb27089e03-fb5e1ba374-305641561

Edited by KJHburg
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It is Amazon and Walmart's world. We just happen to live in it. 

In the US retail toy market: Walmart currently has a 30% market share, Toy R Us has an 18% market share, Target has 17%, and Amazon has 10%. 

Walmart will probably end up at around 38% share, Target at 22%, and Amazon at 15% once Toys R Us dies. 

Mattel stock is down 10% today, Hasbro down 3.66%, and Bandai Namco down 1.5% as they will face an initial drop in sales and a consolidation of toy retail power in the hands of Walmart, Target, and Amazon who slaughter suppliers.  

 

Edited by CLT2014
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2 minutes ago, CLT2014 said:

It is Amazon and Walmart's world. We just happen to live in it. 

In the US retail toy market: Walmart currently has a 30% market share, Toy R Us has an 18% market share, Target has 17%, and Amazon has 10%. 

Walmart will probably end up at around 38% share, Target at 22%, and Amazon at 15% once Toys R Us dies. 

Mattel stock is down 10% today, Hasbro down 3.66%, and Bandai Namco down 1.5% as they will face an initial drop in sales and a consolidation of toy retail power in the hands of Walmart, Target, and Amazon who slaughter suppliers.  

 

Lets face it, kids only really need their stupid soul sucking electronics with backlit LED screens.

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Humor me,

I'm wracking my brains thinking about the housing market in Charlotte. Just looking at a couple charts from the St. Louis Fed, we ain't in a bubble yet. St. Louis FED Charlotte

You draw a line on the chart, we are about where we should be. I suspect neighborhoods near downtown are already starting to get over-priced. If the market doesn't cool significantly this year, it won't take long to set things up for a total repeat of 2008.

Nationally, there are some signs of a significant bubble, but concentrated on the west coast and Texas. Hopefully, that means the next correction won't be as severe as the last time for Charlotte.

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Not exactly off-topic, but we're already seeing the steel tariff effects on construction prices - some mills have already notified customers that orders closed after this weekend will be 5.5% higher per ton.

I've seen guesses that range from 2% to 10% increases in bid prices for steel, which is especially significant as steel is often already the most expensive part of a building. I haven't seen Aluminum numbers yet, but most curtain wall on buildings uses aluminum framing. All that said, I would legitimately not be surprised if we see some larger commercial projects struggling to get started or being value engineered to offset those other costs. 

Wood timber high-rises are a thing, but only a very few of them and all in the PNW & British Columbia. We might see them become more of a thing in a hurry.

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It ain't Charlotte but this is more evidence of the approaching suburban apocalypse: Ford (which moved its HQ out of Detroit to Dearborn in 1956?) is in talks to purchase the most beautiful abandoned building in the US -- Michigan Central Station in Corktown Detroit (adjacent to the CBD). This will be a MASSIVELY expensive renovation, they must really want to be there.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20180319/news/655651/sources-ford-pursues-deal-to-buy-redevelop-michigan-central-station

First, GE moves to the city, then McDonalds, and now this

image.png.3f3cd4bc5a2a06f6d6102c5613d20b41.png

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http://www.newsweek.com/2018/03/30/school-segregation-america-today-bad-1960-855256.html

This article should be required reading for anyone who has moved to Charlotte and seeks an understanding of the immense pride our community shared for integrated schools and the sadness many share due to their resegregation. The summary of the key events that have contributed to our current state is well documented in the article.

I fear it is close to impossible to rekindle the earnest interest in a more equitable education for all of the children in Mecklenburg county.   

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Apparently you were not the pawn in that game like my siblings and I were! Being bused across town for years to pay for the guilt of politicians of the past is not something I will ever encourage anyone to be proud of.

And that policy has cost the CMS a ton of students over the decades. Many, who could afford it, went to private schools, others moved to places like Fort Mill and Union county.

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37 minutes ago, Scribe said:

Apparently you were not the pawn in that game like my siblings and I were! Being bused across town for years to pay for the guilt of politicians of the past is not something I will ever encourage anyone to be proud of.

And that policy has cost the CMS a ton of students over the decades. Many, who could afford it, went to private schools, others moved to places like Fort Mill and Union county.

 

Quite an assumption on your part.   Not looking to bicker, but I was bussed from Cotswold to West Charlotte and am thankful for the education and experience.   In fact, when my family moved during my junior year and I was provided an opportunity to switch, I stayed at West Charlotte by choice.   At the time we had an excellent AP program and over a 15 year stretch produced more Morehead scholars than any school in the state.   Despite my pride, I'm sorry your siblings didn't find a benefit and recognize that no policy is perfect. 

No one is looking to return to bussing, but when considering the current state as an alternative, I think it created more equitable schools for more children than the current state.    I am encouraged by some of the creative solutions found in zones where pairing disparate neighborhood zones   (Sedgefield/Dilworth, Cotswold/Billingville) is feasible.   Unfortunately there aren't enough scenarios like that to make a large-scale difference in the system. 

In a way, I think your post proves my point - we are far removed from the time that our collective community saw designing/supporting integrated schools as a core value.   I think we (as a community) are worse off for it.   You can disagree.

Edited by WCUP
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3 minutes ago, WCUP said:

didn't find a benefit

There is no need to search for a benefit -- this was a political move, not focused on education but an attempts to pay for past political sins by the ruling elite. In my family, the number one goal for a school was education. My parents took education seriously. With the policies pursued by CMS education suffered.  The problems that CMS is experiencing today are because they abandoned quality of education for social experiments that fit a political narrative. The end result is -- booming private school enrollment, exploding charter schools (at times of questionable quality) or migration to the surrounding school systems.

But hey, it made someone warm and fuzzy inside, so it must have been worth it.

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17 minutes ago, WCUP said:

 

Quite an assumption on your part.   Not looking to bicker, but I was bussed from Cotswold to West Charlotte and am thankful for the education and experience.   In fact, when my family moved during my junior year and I was provided an opportunity to switch, I stayed at West Charlotte by choice.   At the time we had an excellent AP program and over a 15 year stretch produced more Morehead scholars than any school in the state.   Despite my pride, I'm sorry your siblings didn't find a benefit and recognize that no policy is perfect. 

No one is looking to return to bussing, but when considering the current state as an alternative, I think it created more equitable schools for more children than the current state.    I am encouraged by some of the creative solutions found in zones where pairing disparate neighborhood zones   (Sedgefield/Dilworth, Cotswold/Billingville).   Unfortuntely there aren't enough scenarios like that to make a large-scale difference in the system. 

In a way, I think your post proves my point - we are far removed from the time that our collective community saw designing/supporting integrated schools as a core value.   I think we (as a community) are worse off for it.   You can disagree.

That's an interesting Newsweek article you cited, but it does paint the Charlotte example of busing a little bit on the rosy side.  "Everyone was uneasy about the experiment. As one African-American student recalled years later, “[People] thought it was going to be racial tension every day. ‘Here we go again. Six o’clock news. A riot at West Charlotte again.’ Never happened.” Whites and blacks made the requisite effort. It wasn’t a seamless union, but the rivets held."

I was first bused to First Ward uptown in 1972, and then allowed to return to Carmel Jr. High.  I think I was probably ambushed and beaten at least twice, and had to walk away from a fist fight because the guy who shoved me had all his buddies with him.  MANY times, not just occasionally, Carmel was shut down for the day because of fights. Things never calmed down until the Rev. Pop Miller was moved in.  He was an ex marine who practiced paddling enthusiastically.  South Meck was shutting down very often. I remember once when car loads of white teenagers from South Meck drove into the parking lot at lunch time at Carmel and began hurling rocks at any black kids they saw.  West Charlotte was the best example out there, for sure. I remember 60 MInutes did a story on it too, but by far, West Charlotte was different.

Anyway, things did settled down everywhere by the late 70's, And, yes, the 80s -90s brought back folks who rekindled the "neighborhood school" thing. Many of those people were out-of-towners moving in. I had one of them working for me at the time. She and her Ohio friends made a point of turning up at school board meetings to protest busing. I gave her a hard time about it, but as an employer had to be careful.

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http://wfae.org/post/faq-city-giant-vault-money-buried-beneath-uptown

I walk by this building often and assumed it was just office space for Federal Reserve employees.  Now that we know there are untold billions of dollars of cash stored underground, does anyone think John Lewis may be planning the ultimate heist  to fund the Red/Silver/Airport rail lines? 

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15 minutes ago, pathb said:

Now that we know there are untold billions of dollars of cash stored underground,

Quote

Charlotte's branch of the Federal Reserve is one of the most highly-secure buildings in the city, with cameras, motion detectors, security guards, and high grade locks at nearly every turn.

About 10 years ago they were beefing up security (structural) they installed a bunch of new  bollards and added steel reinforced concrete walls to certain sections of the building. Just seeing how much steel and concrete went in during that upgrade you knew that building was not for mere humans...

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Anybody know what factory was on the 600 block of Summit ave? (at the tracks, other side of Summit from the new rail service yard). Historical imagery from Google Earth shows that the factory was standing until 2006-2007 but I can't find anything about what the factory was.

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