Charlotte Off Topic

[gman430]

I’m disappointed in all of you for not noticing it was him: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/mick-jagger-finally-explains-ended-141751768.html

[videtur quam contuor]

In the Washington Post interview he says he walked the street in Nashville with mask and hat and no one identified him.

[JRCLT]

I’m disappointed in all of you for not noticing it was him: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/mick-jagger-finally-explains-ended-141751768.html

At least he enjoyed being just another person in a city. No one bothered him.

[videtur quam contuor]

Preserving the other thread and moving Post Office information here.

From my experience, lived and inherited, plus some learning over time with informed interactions with my carriers, I can give a short list of details about carriers and mail which may be unknown to some.

Carriers know much about you. Your incoming and outgoing correspondence, your subscriptions, all the inferred information based on your habits, both your mail habits and your personal habits such as when you are home or away each day, who receives mail at your address, and much more. He knows when I am on vacation, when and where I move. It is carrier code that this information is not divulged to others. They never know who might know you and could use this information. If you think you might be at risk from online sources think about someone who comes to your residence daily. 

Carriers are to deliver the mail to the designated spot at your address and NOWHERE ELSE. I had this underlined to me once. I was walking away from my house, maybe 150 feet at the next corner. I met the carrier coming to turn the corner and my house was his next delivery. He had my mail in his hand. He knew my name. I knew him by name. I said "Mike, you can just give me the mail now." He turned his head a bit and looked at me and said "You know I cannot do that." I was embarrassed I had asked him to do an unethical thing. How does he know I might have moved out and am taking mail meant for my wife? Follow the code of the carrier. Divergence is dangerous. I myself may work for the Post Office in another capacity and may report his infraction. 

Carriers deliver to an address, not a person. If it has my address and has some mythical or fictional person as the addressee it goes in my box. It is not his job to decide  who lives at my address. Although he may very well know who moves in and out, and when (and why). Again, the code.

Carriers may occasionally be observed on their route by a postal worker out of uniform to see if the carrier is following the route properly, making stops, anything that is out of ordinary. When one sees stories about stolen mail or missing mail it is common that an employee has observed this route surreptitiously to determine if the carrier is part of the problem. It may happen with any carrier at any time. Just part of the process of management.

Mail boxes: The familiar blue boxes for outgoing mail are served by a USPS collector and what is in that box is mail until it t is returned to the collection station and someone determines that it may be discarded or dealt with in some way. There are kittens, lunch remains, cigarettes, just anything you can imagine in there and sometimes what seems innocuous or worthless conceals something of value. Jewelry is a common item lost in those boxes and may fall into the half eaten sandwich someone stuffed in there. Perhaps the person who dropped the jewelry is the person with the other half of the sandwich. No matter. Inform the collecting office ASAP if this applies to your lost item. 

We see fewer of the green boxes now than in the past. They are ubiquitous in densely populated cities where motor delivery, the park-and-loop style commonly used, is inappropriate due to traffic, no parking areas, and security. Those green boxes are called relay boxes. The local carrier puts sections of his route mail in containers which are delivered to those boxes by truck and as the carrier walks his route he stops at the box, uses his matching key and retrieves the mail for the next part of the route.

Learn the name of your carrier. Speak to him(her), give him a gentle word. My carrier once helped deal with a crime at my house. The story of it is not important only that he had the details that only he could provide as one who went through the neighborhood and looked at everyone's house every day.

[Nick2]

Is it possible for these parcels to be developed?

[SouthEndCLT811]

Does anyone know besides co-working private offices another way to search for an available office around town with pricing online?

Curious at what options are out there..  My wife recently found out she'll also be 100% remote even post pandemic so in the event we ever wanted to have kids a 3 bedroom house with two being used for offices may not be an option.  We love our neighborhood and don't want to move (definitely look to add on eventually if we grow the fam) so I was looking at co-working options but that's kind of crazy it can be almost $700/mo for a single office space!  Spaces over by Pins seems most reasonable but I just wondered if there were other ways folks know how to search for a single office, could be in an older building I wouldn't need all the frills that co-working places advertise.

Edited January 11, 2022 by SouthEndCLT811

[tozmervo]

1 hour ago, SouthEndCLT811 said:

Does anyone know besides co-working private offices another way to search for an available office around town with pricing online?

Curious at what options are out there..  My wife recently found out she'll also be 100% remote even post pandemic so in the event we ever wanted to have kids a 3 bedroom house with two being used for offices may not be an option.  We love our neighborhood and don't want to move (definitely look to add on eventually if we grow the fam) so I was looking at co-working options but that's kind of crazy it can be almost $700/mo for a single office space!  Spaces over by Pins seems most reasonable but I just wondered if there were other ways folks know how to search for a single office, could be in an older building I wouldn't need all the frills that co-working places advertise.

Are there commercial space realtors that specialize in this kind of thing? Seems like there should be. Tons of sublease space out there, too.

[SouthEndCLT811]

20 minutes ago, tozmervo said:

Are there commercial space realtors that specialize in this kind of thing? Seems like there should be. Tons of sublease space out there, too.

Thanks for the reply and agree I'm sure this comes up somewhat often.  I took co-working out of my search and it seems like Regus uses some of their buildings in Southpark for this purpose and it is as low as $260/month which is wayyyyy more reasonable then rates found when Googling "co-working Charlotte"

Edited January 11, 2022 by SouthEndCLT811

[turbocraig]

Someone sent this to me from Reddit.  Essex (and any M5 Hospitality group restaurant) plans to start skimming credit card processing fees from servers’ tips.  Apparently this is a legal thing in NC, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t incredibly sh!tty to do.  I googled M5 but it isn’t super clear what other restaurants are part of this.  I won’t be patronizing them again.  How, in this environment, when service industry workers are so hard to come by, do you implement this and think it’s a good idea?

 

 

And the person who initially posted this (with the restaurant name blurred out) was fired for that.  I like how they justify it with “but everyone is doing it”, but if you tell anyone we’re doing it, you’re done here.  GTFO.

Edited January 13, 2022 by turbocraig

[videtur quam contuor]

I had a discussion with servers at several of my favorite places about this very thing. I was curious if it was legal, if it was done and how. The most common answer was that on card transactions the business register software had each server identified with each tab and could then deduct the 3% transaction from the tip amount to go to the business. One server said it was weekly as that was the pay period for that establishment which was a local business with multiple locations. All server tips thus accumulated over the pay period had the tip pay reduced by the card fee. At a smaller business, owned by a former bartender of the same place, the answer was there was no deduction. "Tommy takes care of us."

Cash tips that are not split by the staff are a way to avoid this. I often ask if the staff split tips to know to whom I should make my effort.

Tipping is a continued pain for customers as well as staff and management/owners. 

[turbocraig]

Just add the 3% as a credit card processing fee then.  It’s not atypical these days and it’s $3 on a $100 tab.  If someone can afford to eat out at a restaurant with table service, they can afford an extra 3%.  I don’t expect the poor check out girl at Harris Teeter to be docked for my convenience to use a credit card there.  Why should the folks who are already legally able to be paid less than minimum wage have to take this on the chin? And I don’t write this from the point of you disagreeing with me, because I don’t think that’s the case.  I’m just miffed that these restaurants are paying for the cost of doing business on the backs of these workers.  It doesn’t pass the smell test. 

[15895]

https://www.insideindianabusiness.com/articles/northwest-in-already-seeing-south-shore-line-project-benefits

The South Shore Line (A Commuter rail line going from Chicago to the city where the Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg was mayor;  South Bend Indiana)  is going to get double-tracking 

Alternative Reality:

Republicans and Democrats under Obama pass a historic Infrastructure Bill. Charlotte has an ambitious set of Heavy Rail Lines. Secretary and former Charlotte mayor Anthony Foxx sends a Billion to Charlotte to build it, just like what happened with Atlanta (and Washington DC.) Too bad we don't just commit to building entire systems like the USA used to. 

Anthony Foxx became Secretary of Transportation at the worst time ever (sequestration/tea-party era). I wonder what Foxx is doing these days.

For anyone who likes mass transit and doesn't know the South Shore Line, look it up. It's a literal train that travels in the middle of the road... and goes through peoples yards. It's crazy.

 

In other news, the Maryland 20 mile light rail Purple Line connecting 4 Lines on the DC Metro (Well, technically 3 lines but the red line makes a U) is scheduled to open by 2026 and really interseting, L.A. Metro has to even eclipse the Denver RTD expansion. I'm not a huge fan of it since it is light rail that some lines stop for traffic lights. Though I'm glad the Purple Line is getting expanded further. I'm not impressed by L.A. Metro other than, it's large. I just find it ridiculous such a large metropolitan area is relying on dinky Light Rails.

Also,  MARTA's new trains they ordered are so great. 5 Points Station is getting an amazing renovation. HART is about to open. 

Anyone interested in Mass Transit, feel free to message me if you need a nerd buddy to talk about Mass Transit :p 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 13, 2022 by AirNostrumMAD

[rancenc]

This was an interesting statistic to stumble across!!!

https://businessnc.com/charlotte-docs-book-nations-top-pay/

[15895]

I remember before Austin was really booming and the skyline looked like Greensboro back in 2005-ish. I remember being dismissive of it ever rivaling charlottes skyline. 
 

boy, honestly, I think they’ve really eclipsed the Charlotte skyline and I think Austin’s skyline will completely dwarf Charlotte in the coming decade. 
 

That city had quite the skyline transformation 

Austin seems much much more heavily skewed towards residential. Nashvilles boom seems to be heavy on the residential too. Is this just a perception or does anyone know if Charlotte isn’t keeping up in the residential tower game??

Edited January 19, 2022 by AirNostrumMAD

[Matthew.Brendan]

Well……. Austin has 14 all-residential towers 30 stories or taller, two of them taller than Hearst tower here in CLT. The Independent (690’) is the tallest west of the Mississippi. This does not include the additional 5 buildings over 30 stories that are combo res/office or res/hotel.

Additionally there are at least 10 more already approved but not yet begun, most of which are res or res combo.

There are 14 buildings under active construction, all of which save 4 are all-residential. The tallest of which, The Travis, at 594’ and 52 floors, will be taller than 1 WFC aka the Jukebox.

The tallest overall, Sixth and Guadalupe at 875’ and 65 floors, will be combo Office and Residential. While overtaking our tallest, BAC at 871’

Talk about a booming downtown for sure  Austin is top of my list of cities to visit.

 

[TheRealClayton]

27 minutes ago, Matthew.Brendan said:

Well……. Austin has 14 all-residential towers 30 stories or taller, two of them taller than Hearst tower here in CLT. The Independent (690’) is the tallest west of the Mississippi. This does not include the additional 5 buildings over 30 stories that are combo res/office or res/hotel.

Additionally there are at least 10 more already approved but not yet begun, most of which are res or res combo.

There are 14 buildings under active construction, all of which save 4 are all-residential. The tallest of which, The Travis, at 594’ and 52 floors, will be taller than 1 WFC aka the Jukebox.

The tallest overall, Sixth and Guadalupe at 875’ and 65 floors, will be combo Office and Residential. While overtaking our tallest, BAC at 871’

Talk about a booming downtown for sure  Austin is top of my list of cities to visit.

 

As @KJHburghas alluded to, I manage a spreadsheet with 60 towers on it (17 floors and above) in various stages of planning (this does include Ballantyne future plans and 1 building in SouthPark)., Nashville has a spreadsheet with 72 towers on it last I checked. Our high rise residential is about to have a massive boom, and our office boom seems poised to continue, albeit with a focus on 200-500K product, with Riverside being the outlier (800K-1M Sq Feet) I have an article I'm publishing hopefully soon in Charlotte Ledger about the changing South End Skyline, which will by itself surpass Downtown Raleigh in the next 5 years. Pretty soon our skyline will stretch from Atherton to 11th Street

Edited January 19, 2022 by TheRealClayton

[rancenc]

Seeing this article about Sears, brings memories back to about 1988 when the company was looking at moving from their downtown Chicago headquarters at the time.  Charlotte was actually one of the top sites being entertained has a potential new headquarters.  If memory serves me correctly, they were looking at the current Ballantyne area for a very large operation campus.  At the time it would have been a business coup for both the city and state....essentially a Amazon type relocation of the 80's.  How times have changed!!

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/17/sears-to-sell-or-redevelop-its-massive-corporate-office-in-chicago.html

[kermit]

Man, imagine a world where Charlotte was the HQ of Sears AND Radio Shack  [a relocation discussed here a bunch in 2009] AND Chiquita. That would have been amazing! 

I am not trying to be super snarky, Sears would have been fantastic for about 12 years. And some corp relocations are spectacular (Truist!), and you miss 110% of the shots you don’t take ( yada yada.)  But it does seem clear that a significant percentage of them have little (and sometimes negative) impact. Along those lines it seems like Sealed Air has been very disengaged from any local connections of note (but I may be looking in the wrong place) and Arrival’s market cap is looking pretty grim.

Edit: I had forgotten about Babcock and Wilcox who nominally moved their HQ from Btyne to Akron (!)  in 2018 (they moved to Charlotte in 2010). The venerable boiler-making and energy generation company was recently very excited to announce their entry into the crypto mining sector…

There was also Alevo (not a HQ) who announced (to great fanfare) they were going to manufacture massive, grid sized, batteries at the Phillip Morris facility in Concord in 2014. They liquidated in early 2018.

I know business failures are inevitable, but its hard not to think we would be better off by helping startups flourish rather than hustling to attract established companies looking to move. The story of Sears, Radio Shack etc. suggests that some companies move because they are on the decline.

Edited January 24, 2022 by kermit

[videtur quam contuor]

 

[kermit]

This is an AMAZING graphic!

 

[KJHburg]

Lets hope NC wins this most of the events would be in the Triangle but this has not been in the USA since 1993.

This Olympic festival would be great for the Triangle and NC as a whole.

""The Triangle is a finalist for the 2027 Summer World University Games, the International University Sports Federation announced late Thursday, putting the market squarely in position to add a major festival for the first time since 1987.  Competing with the Triangle for the event is Chungcheong, South Korea.   Hill Carrow, who is spearheading the event for the Triangle, said a decision is expected Oct. 9.  Carrow led the Triangle’s effort to host the 1987 Olympic Festival, a massive event that captured the state’s attention at a time when the region was just emerging on the national scene.   But this event would be much larger than that. Carrow, now CEO of Sports & Properties Inc., said the Olympic Festival had 4,000 athletes, coaches and staff, while the University Games would bring in 10,000.   The Olympic Festival had 464,000 fans in attendance, and Carrow is projecting 600,000 fans for the Summer University Games if they come to the Triangle.  “This would be taking it up another notch,” Carrow said.   Carrow said the Triangle’s strong university systems and hospitality settings, combined with attractive venues and support from regional governments, make the market a strong candidate.""

https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2022/02/04/raleigh-durham-finalist-world-university-games.html

https://www.wralsportsfan.com/triangle-area-has-national-backing-in-bid-to-host-2027-summer-world-university-games/19530253/

[carolinaboy]

I have been playing around with this map for a few days and wanted to post it for the collective wisdom/insights of the UP posters here. This is my vision of rail transit in Charlotte mostly based on what I have read here as wanted/preferred. Of course this is just my feeble attempt at a comprehensive rail transit scenario and is wholly my making. I am interested in the critique of the posters here. Here are some main points in my thinking:

Connects major city nodes via light rail: Airport-South End-Gateway Station-CTC-Uptown-UNC Charlotte- Medical School Innovation District-South Park-Ballantyne

Connects to other transit options: Airport, Amtrak and Gold Line at Gateway Station, Blue Line at CTC

Serves more urban nodes rather than suburban nodes

Connects major business nodes

Below grade sections don’t interfere with street traffic and therefore operate more efficiently as well as doesn’t contribute to street traffic

Keeps CTC in center of uptown (where bus service already serves/connects)

Phase 1: Airport to Gateway Station and CTC

Phase 2: CTC to Medical School Innovation District and South Park

Phase 3: Blue Line southern extension to Ballantyne

Provides both people-moving capabilities and economic development opportunities

TOD could occur around stations and along the lines therefore concentrating development density promoting height/density/walkability over less dense development patterns

[SouthEndCLT811]

12 minutes ago, carolinaboy said:

I have been playing around with this map for a few days and wanted to post it for the collective wisdom/insights of the UP posters here. This is my vision of rail transit in Charlotte mostly based on what I have read here as wanted/preferred. Of course this is just my feeble attempt at a comprehensive rail transit scenario and is wholly my making. I am interested in the critique of the posters here. Here are some main points in my thinking:

Connects major city nodes via light rail: Airport-South End-Gateway Station-CTC-Uptown-UNC Charlotte- Medical School Innovation District-South Park-Ballantyne

Connects to other transit options: Airport, Amtrak and Gold Line at Gateway Station, Blue Line at CTC

Serves more urban nodes rather than suburban nodes

Connects major business nodes

Below grade sections don’t interfere with street traffic and therefore operate more efficiently as well as doesn’t contribute to street traffic

Keeps CTC in center of uptown (where bus service already serves/connects)

Phase 1: Airport to Gateway Station and CTC

Phase 2: CTC to Medical School Innovation District and South Park

Phase 3: Blue Line southern extension to Ballantyne

Provides both people-moving capabilities and economic development opportunities

TOD could occur around stations and along the lines therefore concentrating development density promoting height/density/walkability over less dense development patterns

Very cool!  Interesting enough I saw a friend retweet this Hypothetical 2005 Light Rail map (1989).  They're pretty similar

https://twitter.com/jacktymac/status/1490338271720841225

 

Edited February 8, 2022 by SouthEndCLT811

[JRCLT]

Very cool!  Interesting enough I saw a friend retweet this Hypothetical 2005 Light Rail map (1989).  They're pretty similar
https://twitter.com/jacktymac/status/1490338271720841225
 

If only freight companies were more friendly….

[Cadi40]

It’s days like these where it’s 65 and sunny that really make me think, with Charlotte’s desirable climate why don’t we invest more in outdoor entertainment?
Growing up in South Florida, there’s always something to do outdoors. There’s a plethora of public water parks, pools, nature reserves, and playgrounds. During  the months of May-September the climate of Charlotte is almost identical to that of Florida. Even though the weather is still around 70 degrees in Florida during the winter, most water activities are closed, just like they would be in Charlotte. Therefore, with similar operating patterns, why can’t we achieve something like an artificial lagoon like this one recently built… 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiksq698vX1AhX7q3IEHWluBL4Qjhx6BAgBEAI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.orlandoweekly.com%2FBlogs%2Farchives%2F2018%2F12%2F10%2Ffloridas-first-man-made-clear-water-lagoon-opened-last-weekend&psig=AOvVaw1hnkBc1tpdIDjVvZ_caWe9&ust=1644608559813286

If not water related, we still have such an excellent climate yet a drastic deprivation of public parks and activities that everyone can do.  Not everyone can afford to go to Carowind’s on a hot summer day, and nor should that be the only offering for outdoor fun during the summer. Just my two cents!

 

Here is a story about the same developer in Charlotte, clearly this never came to fruition but it’s a nice pipe-dream rendering..

https://www.wbtv.com/story/31187888/are-crystal-lagoons-headed-to-charlotte/

Edited February 10, 2022 by Cadi40