Charlotte Off Topic

[Raintree21]

I actually saw highlights of a NHL team wearing pink jerseys yesterday and I believe some other professional men's team will be wearing them in the next few days.

Edited February 13, 2008 by Raintree21

[Raintree21]

I just read that IHOP has been offering a free stack of pancakes to customers today in honor of National Pancake Day! I wish I would have read that sooner! Hurry up people, only 25 more minutes left on the free pancakes (the offer ends at 10pm).

[Spartan]

I would have changed my lunch plans had I known about this pancake awareness day thing.

[monsoon]

I commend them for their charitable actions, but I would rather they clean up their stores first since a number of IHOPs are on the list for being some of the dirtiest restaurants in Charlotte.

[voyager12]

This has probably been mentioned somewhere before and is old news.....but I really like the shimmering screen alongside the Trade Center parking garage in Uptown. Makes a very ordinary structure fun and funky, we need more of this type of thing in Charlotte.

[Appetite for Construction]

Spotted a billboard on Brevard between Trade and 4th today that has the 2008 ACC Tourney logo.

Looks very nice, incorporates the three tallest buildings uptown, the crown logo, and some architectural details of the arena.

[Matthew.Brendan]

Does anyone know what the AT&T (formerly BellSouth) building started life as (in 1928 per the cornerstone)?

Was it the original Charlotte Masons Lodge? The building has obviously been extended but I just noticed that the original part has very ornate, symbolic stonework.

[Raintree21]

Does anyone know what the AT&T (formerly BellSouth) building started life as (in 1928 per the cornerstone)?

Was it the original Charlotte Masons Lodge? The building has obviously been extended but I just noticed that the original part has very ornate, symbolic stonework.

It was not the original Charlotte Masonic Temple. The Freemason community leased several small buildings and briefly owned property on Trade Street but the "original" Temple was on Tryon Street and was built in 1914. It burned down in the 30's but was rebuilt and used by Charlotte Freemasons until it was unfortunately sold and demolished in the 1987.

[voyager12]

Just wanted to warn everyone that the flu is still going around. I came down with a nasty version on Friday and I am still battling the remnants of it.

Edited February 25, 2008 by voyager12

[voyager12]

I just read on the Observer site that the tree that fell across East Blvd and Asheville PL this afternoon near Freedom Park, killed the driver and injured the passenger. Terrible. I detoured around soon after but all I could see was the tree from my vantage point. Life is so friggin random.

[monsoon]

Does anyone know what the AT&T (formerly BellSouth) building started life as (in 1928 per the cornerstone)?

Was it the original Charlotte Masons Lodge? The building has obviously been extended but I just noticed that the original part has very ornate, symbolic stonework.

That was how they built them back then. That building was pretty much "the" telephone system for Charlotte. All of the phone connections terminated there and this was where telephone operators operated on the old style cordboards. When I was in college in the late 70s I worked as an operator and I talked to many older operators who used to work in that building in that job before technology eliminated the cordboard operator. (By the 1970s the operators were located in suburban buildings) Think of the days when people used to give out phone #s such as Edison 55789 and they would call the operator to make the connection.

As you can see Southern Bell and AT&T, the old Ma Bell continued to add on to that building, simply known as Caldwell Street in tele circles, with the last big addition being on the back side around 1978 or so. Last time I had anything to do it, it housed all of the switch equipment for the 33X and 37X exchanges in Charlotte plus the switching equipment for the 704 area code.

[Charlotte_native]

They are finally painting the Blake hotel AND new signs have finally replaced the benners!

[voyager12]

I was talking to a friend who lives in Myers Park today. Robberies have gotten so bad on their street that the neighbors banded together and are paying a private security patrol to watch their houses. I know CMPD is doing the best they can with limited resources but there is clearly a problem here. DCDA has been debating going this route as well.

[HopHead]

I was talking to a friend who lives in Myers Park today. Robberies have gotten so bad on their street that the neighbors banded together and are paying a private security patrol to watch their houses. I know CMPD is doing the best they can with limited resources but there is clearly a problem here. DCDA has been debating going this route as well.

I live in Olmsted Park and I know there have been several car breakins in my development over the last few months... one of which was my own car. It was enough to finally get the property mgmt to fix a light that had been out since the start of the year. I now regulary see a CMPD car drive through at night.

Edited March 17, 2008 by dbull75

[Appetite for Construction]

Well this definitely qualifies as off topic ...

For the long time residents out there, you no doubt have heard many Charlotte Copy Data radio commercials over the years ... the Observer is reporting that Kal Kardous is retiring and selling the business to Sharp Business Systems.

I guess the accent will not longer be on ... quality.

[Neo]

Well this definitely qualifies as off topic ...

For the long time residents out there, you no doubt have heard many Charlotte Copy Data radio commercials over the years ... the Observer is reporting that Kal Kardous is retiring and selling the business to Sharp Business Systems.

I guess the accent will not longer be on ... quality.

I arrived at work and read the same unfortunate news. The first e-mail out this morning was to our Charlotte Copy Data rep asking a few questions about the buyout. All staff is staying and positions aren't being reorganized. Apparently they are still able to purchase, sell and service equipment other than Sharp products though when asked if the same would ring true in three or four years I got a resounding question mark.

This will unfortunately hurt that company since they were quite diversified in the brands of products they offered and service. I don't care much for Sharp equipment and if it is true that going forward they will only sell Sharp equipment then I'll be taking my business elsewhere.

They really did have great service from my experience with them over the last five years or so. I hate to see it go to a monolithic company like Sharp.

[voyager12]

I really like "Eye" from The Charlotte Observer. Central Charlotte needed a current and modern weekly focused on young couples and singles and happenings going on around town. I learn more from their small stories and handy event listings than what I find laboring through the ad choked and juvenile toned excuse of an "alternative" paper in this town.

Edited March 20, 2008 by voyager12

[tozmervo]

I really like "Eye" from The Charlotte Observer. Central Charlotte needed a current and modern weekly focused on young couples and singles and happenings going on around town. I learn more from their small stories and handy event listings than what I find laboring through the ad choked and juvenile toned excuse of an "alternative" paper in this town.

THANK YOU.

I'm glad I'm not the only one around here that hates Creative Loafing. I dearly miss the alt-weekly in Knoxville, the Metropulse, the quality of which the Eye is much closer to. CL is a waste of newsprint.

[voyager12]

I try to like Creative Loafing because I am a huge fan of alternative media. I have just about given up though. Every once in a very long while they write interesting articles but it's the exception to the rule. Most of the time their topics are completely unrelated to Charlotte. When they do have local stories they are often half hearted and error filled. Against my better judgment I was looking forward to reading their "Battle of the Hoods" issue. Their neighborhood profiles were a joke. A couple of stale paragraphs that seemed like they were copied from the Chamber in the 80s. I wanted to read fun and interesting tidbits about our great quirky hoods. They listed Ballantyne with a picture of sprawl. Dilworth's blurb was pathetic. They had Patou as currently open on Park Rd! Not only is that location years out of date, Patou moved to Scott&East and is closed to boot. And their picture for Dilworth was actually a view of the lake at Latta Plantation, last time I checked that was not in Dilworth. Unexcusable errors. I worked for my small shoestring college paper and our Editor would never let those mistakes get through. I have talked to people about improvements and emailed suggestions but they really don't care how stupid their paper is. Their demo are people who spend every weekend drunk in a bar. That's their niche but not everyone in Charlotte is a barfly. So I will continue to read The Charleston City Paper, Asheville Mountain Xpress, and The Indy from The Triangle, online. Those are real alt papers with an intelligent but still fun voice. CL Charlotte should read them sometime to get a clue.

Edited March 21, 2008 by voyager12

[Charlotte_native]

You have to understand, unfortunately, what Creative Loafting is. One large ad. Though all, or at least most, publications are ad revenue driven, CL is really nothing more. The articles are just filler. Count the ad ratio to content ratio sometime. When you look at it from that perspective it is actually a great paper for what it is. It gets the word out for bars, restaurants, developments, real estate, live music listings, sex phone number lines, etc, but don't let yourself down by expecting to learn something relevant from it.

[voyager12]

There was a violent armed robbery in Dilworth this weekend. I will let the posting from Idilworth.org speak for itself, it's pretty disturbing to me since I am always walking around Dilworth. Stay alert 24/7!!

"My husband, Lane, and I were robbed at gunpoint last night at 8:45 p.m. at the corner of Winthrop Avenue and E. Worthington, while walking home from dinner at La Paz. The robber fired a .22 pistol at us and missed. He then pistol whipped Lane in the head, and when Lane fell to the ground, the robber came over and put the gun in my face telling me to get down on the ground. He told me several times that he would kill me if I looked at him.

Our lives were saved last night because the neighbor across the street heard the first shot, and she came out on her porch and started yelling at our assailant. He became confused, and took Lane's wallet, then eventually fled up Winthrop Avenue toward East Boulevard. Lane has several stitches in his head where he was beaten with the butt of the gun.

I feel very lucky to be alive.

The suspect is a black male, approximately 30 years old, 6' tall, and skinny--maybe 155 pounds. He was wearing a black hooded coat and baggy blue jeans. The hooded coat had fur fringe.

Please keep a close eye, and ear, out for your neighbors."

Tamara

[RiverwoodCLT]

I am glad that you and you husband made it alive. It upsets me to head things like this. Think what kind of world this would be if no one ever commit crimes against another person.

[RiverwoodCLT]

Tamara I saw you and your husband on TV last night about your story. I hope they catch this guy and put him away for a long time.

[HopHead]

I frequently drive through through this area. My girlfriend and I also walk my dog through here in the early evening during the week. I will say that I've seen a few suspicious characters wandering around. One of which kind of fits that description (minus the coat). I've seen him walking around that area and even saw him at Harris Teeter on Friday. He's always asking for a few bucks. He used the same excuse on me a few times. After the 2nd time I stopped giving him change b/c I realized it was a scam. I will be paying a little more attention to him now.

[voyager12]

I have new dogs to walk in the Freedom Park neighborhood. We passed by Wing Haven today. It looks very pretty from the outside. Has anyone been inside the garden? I know it's small and has limited visiting hours.