Charlotte Off Topic

[KJHburg]

Since it is the kickoff to the Carolina beach season I will give you my power ranking of my favorite Carolina beaches (both NC and SC)

1.  Hilton Head Island natural beauty and 45 minutes from historic Savannah

2. Outer Banks OBX from Corolla and its wild horses in Currituck to Dare county expansive beaches down to Hatteras

3. South Brunswick county beaches Ocean Isle and Sunset Beach

4. Carolina urban beaches:  Wrightsville and Carolina Beach so close to Wilmington 

5. Pine Knoll Shores Emerald Isle in Carteret County close to historical Beaufort (Bo fort not Beu-fort like in SC) 

6. Isle of Palms so close to Charleston 

7. Myrtle Beach in the dead of winter with no crowds is not too bad and boy do they have the attractions and so forth

One thing that is GREAT about Charlotte we are an easy drive to all the above from 3.5 to 5.5 hours a beach for everyone for the surfers, the little ones,  the little towns, the big urban beaches, historical towns nearby, solitude, golfing, tennis, and just laying on the beach.  

(I have been to all the above and more but these are my top ones) 

[rancenc]

Well since we don't have THE DRAMA forum, I will place this article here.  Concerning a libel suit from the Huntersville "Lagoon" developer against two locals.  Seems like this developer might be just a tad on the thin skinned side.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/lagoona-bay-developer-sues-two-215152466.html

[Temeteron]

Wasn’t sure where to put this…has anyone noticed how many gas stations have disappeared lately?  The corner of South blvd and Woodlawn- gone.  The corner of Park and Woodlawn (2 different ones) gone.  The corner of south blvd and Tyvola- gone.  I wonder why.   

[videtur quam contuor]

This was discussed a bit ago. Conventional convenience store/fuel businesses have diminished and the supersize QT taken some of the business. Land cost challenges the limited profit from such businesses that traditionally used low gas prices to drive beer/wine/tobacco sales inside. Prominent locations are worth more as bank branches, national food chains and such higher lease competitors. That was some of the discussion as I recall.

These "Chipotle" brands can allow losses at some locations and overcome them with the profitable locations among their 1,000 locations. A Chipotle will also steal business from a nearby Taco Bell, for example, so provides a business advantage even in a negative profit location. Electric vehicles add a small amount to the trend though I doubt that is driving the current activity. 

[turbocraig]

This was funny today…

[15895]

Seen on the Twitter.

(The T is Boston’s mass transit - it’s a rebuttal that mass transit should make a profit) 

Edited June 8, 2023 by AirNostrumMAD

[15895]

Ok. Kinda torn to post this because it’s not really fun to be portrayed as someone talking about where they live too much, bragging etc because I really just like urbanity. & I don’t really like being negative or critical of other places more than positive so. If I were going to hate on a city passive aggressively or something, it wouldn’t be Charlotte. I don’t even against Jacksonville, Raleigh, Dallas etc when it comes up here. But I’ll go ahead and post anyway

If any of y’all haven’t been to the DC region in a while, and you want to see some urbanity from somewhere other than NC. You need to visit asap. And if you do. * DO  NOT * go to the museums, Whitehouse or the downtown neighborhood, no Arlington cemetery. 

Although all are metro accessible, I’d say for sure visit the suburban & exurban downtowns: Reston, Tyson’s, Bethesda, Silver Spring, Crystal City and the Ballston-Rosslyn corridor. Drive the Dulles Toll road between Reston & Tyson’s. To look at urban development (not because they’re so mind blowingly great you have to visit lol. But to see the urbanism. What sucks, what’s great, what to avoid what To emulate). Maybe use a car for Reston & Tyson’s. Only because it’d be too time consuming on a visit. 

There’s some super great urbanism in each. Some have notable criticism like Tyson’s. It was just built so suburban and like Ballantyne. It has a ton of highrises, impressive from angles but fragmented. Reston is a great town center and it’s growing into metro but for now still a little isolated. The others are more proper. 

But the Highrise & urban growth has been so transformative in the past few years. Crystal City especially with a new outdoor food hall coming, movie theatre, groceries. It’s not longer a 1980’s brutalist hell hole.
 

& the towers all throughout are tall, especially in the exurbs and I didn’t know crystal city could have such tall towers. 

 

In DC… it’s worth now visiting to see new urban growth & development:

- Union Market District (when I moved here 5 years ago it was 1 building and like. All parking lots. Now it’s crazy developed and the last parcels are U/C.

- Navy Yard. Sort of bland Development but too 10 years ago nothing. The final last parcels being built but it’s worth noting. It’s nice! For sure, a great modern neighborhood. But take it for what it is. 

- Buzzard Point. Right beside Navy Yard. It’s had a huge transformation in 5 years. Lots of mega projects broke ground (including one the bank I work for financed not yet public). But the area is still in the early-ish phases of build out and should be fully built out in about 4 years. It’s not fun to hang out yet but it’s interesting to witness. Once several of the mega projects begins to open (which they’ve only just broke ground so it’ll be a couple years before the venues start to open) it’ll be fun but for now it’s like. A great case study. 

- The Wharf (from waterfront Metro Station). It’s the Southwest Neighborhood. It’s brand new in the last year and the base of it is very well done. Good to look at for what further the Rail Trail in SouthEnd could emulate (or avoid). It’s all new in the past 6 years. 

H Street Corridor: tons of development over the past 7 years. And it was just Rezoned further east for more development. *tons* of development U/C and in the pipeline. This is the streetcar corridor. (Which has a terrible connection to union station but the multi billion dollar renovation will make it well integrated). Streetcar is useless as a mode of transportation but spurred A ton of development.

And then you have more established older neighborhoods to visit if you haven’t:

- Adams Morgan

- U Street Corridor

- 14th street (starting from U Street south) 

- Columbia Heights (eh. Walk from there to Adams Morgan). Not much to see other than just some urbanism. 

- Malcom X / Meridian Hill Park. It’s a park but skip the national mall and visit this park. It has a very European feel. 

^ For sure those neighborhoods are nice. They are great, very urban but older so. I don’t think there’s much to really take away from a development standpoint because it’s just a different era & time period they matured. Not much to “learn” or analyze rather just enjoy. 

We also have among the best protected bike lanes network so definitely recommend. There’s some of the best protected bike lanes too. If anyone’s interested, DM me. 

I will say Georgetown is very nice. Not convenient to metro, tons of bus service but M St is so congested. And it’s so typical. So is Old Towne Alexandria. I’d lump those two areas like. To do when you take the White House/museum/etc trip. It’s very that type of touristy stuff. 
 

Also there’s a ton of recreation. Rock Creek Park, Canoeing, hiking. 

I’d recommend looking up things like canoeing too . I prefer Fletchers Cove because it feels like the Mountaisn of West VA and doesn’t feel like you’re in a city but you could also canoe in Georgetown which I don’t prefer (because I like the nature setting of fletchers cove more) but I thought the below encapsulated several activities that people never do when they visit. 

Pentagon City station is connected to a Simon mall. Again, that area around Fashion Center Mall is a great case study for modern urbanism and still in progress with Amazon’s HQ2.

And lastly. If you like planes. Check out Gravelly Point. It may be best to bike there on the Mount Vernon Trail from DC or get off at Crystal City metro or National Airport (you can google map it by foot) but it’s even better than (the old?) the overlook at CLT airport. 
 

Ok. Sorry for those not interested but I know me being a Charlottean. Whenever I visited Dc it was a hotel in crystal city and to the museums, Arlington cemetery etc and it does feel a little bland in those areas. I never went outside those areas so. I had no idea how urban the area actually was. 
 

Additionally, if anyone ever wants a free place to crash (like I’ll be in Barcelona July 4 - July 12)to visit, DM me. I wouldn’t charge because I just don’t charge people to stay in my place. That’s like. Not hospitable.

And off topic, but anyone in MF Real Estate (especially Asset Management), i know Freddie is always looking for people typically and require people to be in office in McLean & I know a Bank based in Manhattan that definitely needs Asset Management people which offers remote work so let me know. I know our industries overlap here.

And I can’t wait to visit Charlotte later this year when I go to the Cleveland County Fair  It’s sooo expensive to visit Charlotte, my god. Or I’d visit more. (Seriously. I think I spend like $600 on accommodation & car rental alone for just a weekend which is so hard to justify when I already travel a lot and no offense but I rather go to the beach in the summer xD). So I just don’t visit as much as I’d like so I appreciate all of y’all’s contributions on this board so I can be kept up to date and be kept in the loop  

Edited June 11, 2023 by AirNostrumMAD

[ScottCLT]

I work in the dental technology industry, for a small company that provides dental imaging (x-ray) software to big organizations, like the US Defense Health Agency, VA medical system, and almost every dental school in North America, plus many "franchised" dental organizations (like Affordable Dentures and Implants - they have many commercials on TV and use our software). We started to notice that many dental technology companies like our own are moving to Charlotte. 

Charlotte is the North American HQs for Dentsply Sirona/Schick, Envista (part of KaVo/Kerr group/Danaher), Cefla Group, Pelton & Crane, and now Planmeca Group is moving here from Chicago. I realize that most of you are probably not familiar with these companies, but they are all big players in the dental digital imaging and technology industry (much bigger than our small company, Medicor Imaging

Charlotte has become a one-stop shop for large organizations seeking dental digital imaging and technology solutions. People fly here and meet with us one day and make 3-4 other meetings with different companies in town while they are here. It's really becoming the of "dental technology hub" for North America. 

It's an industry you don't hear a lot about because it's so niche, but I thought it was an interesting fact to share with you guys. Luckily for us, these companies are partners, not competitors with our company. We have relationships with all of them and it's nice to just be able to drive across town to meet with these partner companies rather than having to hop on a plane.

[15895]

Does anyone else still refer to Clayton / CLT dev as RDF or is that just me? Lol. 
 

 

[15895]

Two major announcements this week for rail transit. 

- Philadelphia Roosevelt Blvd Subway. 
- Baltimore Redline (with the center core being underground. The dashed line below shows the underground portion).

 

Funding is not fully secure, not firm time lines. In the case of Philadelphia, they fast tracked hearings (which has been the next step for major progress) is for next week or so. Now the KOP has been killed & I95 collapse - real momentum for this.

For Baltimore, the governor announced it will be prioritized and expedited in getting it built. 

Philadelphia also has their streetcar modernization that is supposed to be complete in a couple years and they’re trying to make their commuter rail system act even moreso as a rapid transit system with high frequencies. 

Fingers crossed these 2 cities are able to break ground soon. I’d love to see more more more across the country. Particularly as these two are built with no expenses spared unlike the introduction of a rail system that gets pulverized to oblivion like Austin [  ]

Philly’s rail system below for those not familiar (excluding all the streetcar lines). I honestly found SEPTA to be the hardest transit system I’ve been to in the world to use. I still don’t really feel comfortable navigating their system. So the revamping of it would be great. 

Streetcar lines in green and purple. 

[JacksonH]

I saw this commercial today for BMW.  Is that Charlotte?

[Matthew.Brendan]

Classic NYC lamp post.

[elrodvt]

I see resemblance in background but that foreground building not so much.

There are no people on the street though. :⁠,⁠-⁠)

Edited June 16, 2023 by elrodvt

[jtmonk]

19 hours ago, JacksonH said:

I saw this commercial today for BMW.  Is that Charlotte?

That's LA  

 

[tozmervo]

[grodney]

This might be on-topic but I don't know which thread.....

From my new spot in the fancy new Duke tower, I look down Tryon-ish.  What are the two new towers being built sort-of across the street from the Lowe's tower?  (They're probably slightly closer to uptown, too.)  And what's going in the spot where the diner used to be?

Thanks!!

Edited June 22, 2023 by grodney

[kermit]

43 minutes ago, grodney said:

This might be on-topic but I don't know which thread.....

From my new spot in the fancy new Duke tower, I look down Tryon-ish.  What are the two new towers being built sort-of across the street from the Lowe's tower?  (They're probably slightly closer to uptown, too.)  And what's going in the spot where the diner used to be?

Thanks!!

Across the street from Lowes (more or less): 

 

on South roughly where Walgreens / Rite Aid used to be:

At the former Diner site (and Uptown Caberet): 

 

Enjoy the view!

 

Edited June 22, 2023 by kermit

[grodney]

49 minutes ago, kermit said:

 

Enjoy the view!

 

Thanks for all the info!  I'm up pretty high, so it's a good view.  And the window space is so different than being in 400 S Tryon, hahahaha!

[abttown]

6 hours ago, grodney said:

Thanks for all the info!  I'm up pretty high, so it's a good view.  And the window space is so different than being in 400 S Tryon, hahahaha!

You tell us this, but no pictures from your new perch? Come on man! 

[grodney]

On 6/22/2023 at 7:48 PM, abttown said:

You tell us this, but no pictures from your new perch? Come on man! 

Okay here are some from my low-budget android phone.

 

Edited June 28, 2023 by grodney

[kermit]

^ turn that f’in highway into greenspace and that view would be amazing! Also a shame that the only nice urban greenspace in the foreground is the noisiest place in Charlotte.

(Despite my beotching, I think the picture is pretty cool. Thanks!)

Edited June 28, 2023 by kermit

[grodney]

42 minutes ago, kermit said:

^ turn that f’in highway into greenspace and that view would be amazing! Also a shame that the only nice urban greenspace in the foreground is the noisiest place in Charlotte.

(Despite my beotching, I think the picture is pretty cool. Thanks!)

Seeing all the development outside 277, some of it JUST outside, really makes the "cap 277" dream seem almost necessary!

[CharlotteWkndBuzz]

Is this not the biggest missed opportunity in the area? It’s hot as shi* outside and you have two soccer games tonight at BOA. Slushies, snow cones, ice cream, waters, sandwiches.  If we ever get these social districts sell beer on game days there. Thousands of ppl walk by…

[CLT Development]

On 7/2/2023 at 9:13 PM, CharlotteWkndBuzz said:

Is this not the biggest missed opportunity in the area? It’s hot as shi* outside and you have two soccer games tonight at BOA. Slushies, snow cones, ice cream, waters, sandwiches.  If we ever get these social districts sell beer on game days there. Thousands of ppl walk by…

A 'frickin' MEN 

[KJHburg]

^^^ coffee and hot chocolate in the winter and and cold drinks in the summer and some of both year round.  Plus it would help contribute money to the park upkeep.