Charlotte Off Topic

[videtur quam contuor]

Creation of Confederacy of Canada is a story. The separate colonies (at that time) had fishing disputes. England said "This is small beer. You work it out. Whatever you decide is pre-approved. Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI met at Charlottetown PEI (named for same person as Charlotte NC) and agreed to spend the month of June working. Newfoundland never showed, saying they had not enough time. Likely because fishing was their only livelihood and any change might be bad news. All fishing issues were settled promptly and they had time left. "What else should we do?"  they asked. While we are here let's make a country, everything is pre approved (sort of). Two weeks later on July 1 they signed the confederation agreement.*

I have been to Confederation Hall in PEI. 

*This is the drunk history version

Related: Newfoundland remained a colony of Great Britain until 1949. It was the last colony and territory to join Canada. And the vote was contentious and quite close. Joey Smallwood the head of the government at the time twisted arms and made some promises to make it happen.

I was in St John's NFLD on Canada day once. Fun was had.

[davidclt]

5 hours ago, tarhoosier said:

I was in St John's NFLD on Canada day once. Fun was had.

Happy Canada Day!

[CLT>]

Why is Charlotte completely incapable of having manhole covers that are level with the pavement? They spend a bunch of money on repaving, then you have a manhole that's 4" lower than the roadway. It's not in one place either, it's all over the city. Are there not street construction standards that utilities have to be held to?

*rant over*

[DMann]

That is in process.  Crews are digging, raising the covers, and surrounding them with a concrete square that will be easier to repave to.  Patience grasshopper!

[LKN704]

How do you all feel about palm trees in Charlotte?

My parents have a couple in their yard in Lake Norman, as do a few of their neighbors. I was talking to a friend who lives in SF a while back and we randomly got on the subject of the sheer amount of palm trees there and how he claimed they are "unnatural" and how the city government has spent millions of dollars to plant them and help with the upkeep to boost tourism levels and give the city a sunnier/Los-Angeles vibe. 

I love palm trees, and it got me thinking if such a city program would work here. I think our climate could support it (probably not the tall Los Angeles/Florida style palms but definitely Palmettos and Windmill Palms). I think they add beauty/uniqueness to a landscape and make the environment seem brighter/sunnier (it definitely helps on rainy days in SF!). I think the airport approach road would look quite cool with palm trees lining it. 

[Madison Parkitect]

2 minutes ago, LKN704 said:

How do you all feel about palm trees in Charlotte?

My parents have a couple in their yard in Lake Norman, as do a few of their neighbors. I was talking to a friend who lives in SF a while back and we randomly got on the subject of the sheer amount of palm trees there and how he claimed they are "unnatural" and how the city government has spent millions of dollars to plant them and help with the upkeep to boost tourism levels and give the city a sunnier/Los-Angeles vibe. 

I love palm trees, and it got me thinking if such a city program would work here. I think our climate could support it (probably not the tall Los Angeles/Florida style palms but definitely Palmettos and Windmill Palms). I think they add beauty/uniqueness to a landscape and make the environment seem brighter/sunnier (it definitely helps on rainy days in SF!). I think the airport approach road would look quite cool with palm trees lining it. 

If palms were meant to be around here you'd see 'em in the wild.

[turbocraig]

23 minutes ago, LKN704 said:

How do you all feel about palm trees in Charlotte?

My parents have a couple in their yard in Lake Norman, as do a few of their neighbors. I was talking to a friend who lives in SF a while back and we randomly got on the subject of the sheer amount of palm trees there and how he claimed they are "unnatural" and how the city government has spent millions of dollars to plant them and help with the upkeep to boost tourism levels and give the city a sunnier/Los-Angeles vibe. 

I love palm trees, and it got me thinking if such a city program would work here. I think our climate could support it (probably not the tall Los Angeles/Florida style palms but definitely Palmettos and Windmill Palms). I think they add beauty/uniqueness to a landscape and make the environment seem brighter/sunnier (it definitely helps on rainy days in SF!). I think the airport approach road would look quite cool with palm trees lining it. 

I LOVE palms and their majestic and exotic air, and we’re literally jammed against a state that has a palm tree as part of its state flag, so it’s only natural for there to be some palm spill-over here.  There are lots of pockets in town that have impressive palms (Westfield at Queens in MP is a great street to see how they can thrive) and there are nooks and crannies all over the city that have them.  Being from the NE originally, I love seeing them outside and not exclusively in a mall or airport.  If we had more, they wouldn’t be thought of as such outliers.  There are plenty of non-native ornamental trees that also shouldn’t be here, but life finds a way (my favorite line from Jurassic Park) and whether we like it or not, humans are part of that, and if they can thrive here, then why not?  Put me in the Pro column.  
 

And fwiw, there’s only one palm tree that’s native to CA.  All the others were imported from Mexico, Europe, and the Middle East going back to the mid-1700s.  

 

[kermit]

Palms really struggle down in the Wilmington area and they have a considerably milder climate than we do.

(unrelated, palm trees make me sad, they remind me of Florida)

Edited July 5, 2020 by kermit

[elrodvt]

We should strive to only use native plants. This is a bad idea.

[KJHburg]

The few palms I have seen planted in this area tend to be near homes to protect them from winds or extreme cold.    We do have so many great trees that thrive here and we should stick with those. I did have a friend up at LKN with a Palmetto and did pretty good but she surrounded it with other trees to kinda protect it from extreme cold. 

[LKN704]

I'm surprised to see all of the responses. I guess maybe because I am a New Yorker at heart I have subconsciously attached a romantic, warm connotation to them. I haven't heard anything about them doing poorly in our climate, because at my parents, they are scattered around their backyard pool and don't have any insulation barrier to them. My grandparents also had them (a windmill palm IIRC) in their backyard in Long Island when I was a kid, and it's a heck of a lot colder there in winter than in Charlotte.

8 hours ago, turbocraig said:

And fwiw, there’s only one palm tree that’s native to CA.  All the others were imported from Mexico, Europe, and the Middle East going back to the mid-1700s.  

 

A lot of people don't realize that the vast majority of palms in California (and even Florida) are planted and not native. 

[KJHburg]

Here is a company that will install palm trees in the Charlotte area and photos of their work.   My view is they look  nice around a pool or patio but all over the yard here they look so out of place.  So many beautiful trees and flowering trees you can plant in abundance here like crepe myrtles.  

http://www.chillypalmtree.com/   Order your palms for your Charlotte home next year. 

http://www.chillypalmtree.com/LANDSCAPING.html   Photos of work done in Charlotte area 

[KJHburg]

North Carolina's Yard of the Month for sure.  Nice mowing job.  

[videtur quam contuor]

From an off topic bit on capping 277. I posted a photo of a Pittsburgh funicular rail car descending. There are various methods of achieving a steep ascent/descent with a rail car. A funicular uses gravity as the power. Two cars on adjoining tracks are connected by a single cable and a large spool at top and bottom. When the car at the top releases the brake on the cable the car at the bottom is drawn upward by the the fall of the descending car. They pass at the midpoint until each has reached the house at its terminus. Brakes applied, each releases passenger (or freight) and the next process is ready. There are also electric, steam, animal drawn powered vehicles of this type, but a funicular is the gravity drawn. Québec City had a funicular but has been converted to electricity and thus is known as an elevator.

[DMann]

I used to ride that Incline to work!

[JRNYP2C]

2 hours ago, DMann said:

I used to ride that Incline to work!

I had a friend who lived a block from the Duquesne Incline.  If I stayed over, I could walk that block, take the incline down and take a bus across the bridge which let me off about a block and a half from my office.  The only bad thing was that in the winter, it was COLD!  No heat or A/C in that one.  It has been a long time since I rode the Mon Incline, but I think they were a little more modern, and were used more for tourists.

[elrodvt]

When I worked in Nagasaki I used to hike 3 or 4 miles to their Incline. 

Great views. 

Almost as fun as freaking out agents by going to random open houses. 

Edited July 14, 2020 by elrodvt

[JRNYP2C]

For those that frequent French Quarter Uptown, or ate at Greek Isles when it was on the Blue Line in South End, some sad news to pass along.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article244212432.html

Every time we were in French Quarter for a quick lunch, or going to Greek Isles for a leisurely dinner, Panos was always walking around to each table, and conversing with everyone.  If you were lucky, he made time to sit down with you and chat for a few minutes.  He really loved the restaurant business, and it showed.  As the article states, he made you feel like family if you had been into any of those restaurants dozens of times for for a dozen minutes.  My heart goes out to the family, who are just as nice as he was.

[videtur quam contuor]

I was in Pittsburgh a few years ago and stayed in a rental house top of Mount Washington. Took the Mon incline down and walked past the Bessemer furnace on display. Boarded a two level cruise boat to cruise around Point Park and dropped us off at PNC baseball stadium. Same on the return after the game.

In a time before time ago, I visited Pittsburgh with a college friend from there. He drove me to the top of Mt Washington one night. While there we enjoyed the view of the city of that time. And then...The sun burst upon the river even though it was dark of night. A bright orange flare and blinding light spread across the water of the Monongahela. The sky was orange and the orange spread quickly up the hillside and engulfed us and lit our faces. Everything was orange as sunrise. Jones and Laughlin Steel was on the riverfront downtown and they regularly raised the loading doors at the rail docks and opened their blast furnaces to cool between cycles and the effect was otherworldly. It was  beyond description. 

Of course it was nasty and dangerous as the mouth of Sauron, which it resembled. Oh what a daMnGloOrioUs thing it was. I am so happy it is gone and glad I had a chance to experience it.

[elrodvt]

I really like Pittsburgh. It was one of the cities we visited when we decided to leave Vermont.  Denver won us over though because of the climate, retiree tax benefits,  progressive atmosphere and great outdoors. Then came those pesky grandkids in Charlotte... 

[JRNYP2C]

22 hours ago, tarhoosier said:

I was in Pittsburgh a few years ago and stayed in a rental house top of Mount Washington. Took the Mon incline down and walked past the Bessemer furnace on display. Boarded a two level cruise boat to cruise around Point Park and dropped us off at PNC baseball stadium. Same on the return after the game.

In a time before time ago, I visited Pittsburgh with a college friend from there. He drove me to the top of Mt Washington one night. While there we enjoyed the view of the city of that time. And then...The sun burst upon the river even though it was dark of night. A bright orange flare and blinding light spread across the water of the Monongahela. The sky was orange and the orange spread quickly up the hillside and engulfed us and lit our faces. Everything was orange as sunrise. Jones and Laughlin Steel was on the riverfront downtown and they regularly raised the loading doors at the rail docks and opened their blast furnaces to cool between cycles and the effect was otherworldly. It was  beyond description. 

Of course it was nasty and dangerous as the mouth of Sauron, which it resembled. Oh what a daMnGloOrioUs thing it was. I am so happy it is gone and glad I had a chance to experience it.

As a kid, we lived above the river surrounded by three separate US Steel plants.  At night, the sky would get so bright orange from the blast furnaces, you could swear it was almost day.  Fun times!

[KJHburg]

since this Charlotte Off topic but this is a NC story read about this homegrown NC company expanding in RTP very interesting.  As we have several architects on here this is a great green building material.

This upstart RTP based company is adding square footage and employees,  BioMason.

https://www.wraltechwire.com/2020/07/15/with-plans-to-boost-workforce-by-50-biomason-secures-new-hq-in-rtp/

Read what they do as they "grow" cement! 

https://www.biomason.com/

[Madison Parkitect]

5 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

since this Charlotte Off topic but this is a NC story read about this homegrown NC company expanding in RTP very interesting.  As we have several architects on here this is a great green building material.

This upstart RTP based company is adding square footage and employees,  BioMason.

https://www.wraltechwire.com/2020/07/15/with-plans-to-boost-workforce-by-50-biomason-secures-new-hq-in-rtp/

Read what they do as they "grow" cement! 

https://www.biomason.com/

I've heard of that stuff before, it's an amazing product!

[KJHburg]

Just now, Madison Parkitect said:

I've heard of that stuff before, it's an amazing product!

Developed and made right here in NC too!  

[elrodvt]

That's a really interesting product. I don't recall the numbers but remember concrete is a major CO2 contributor.