Charlotte Off Topic

[Madison Parkitect]

I always assumed they just picked a point like the intersection of Trade and Tryon and said "Okay, North/South/East/West from here using an actual compass." I guess I never thought that it would be stupid enough to cut through blocks or use a made-up compass. I will say, though, for visitors or Charlotte residents who don't know what the ward boundaries are, using compass directions is easier to follow.

[Urbanity]

[tozmervo]

It would have been one thing to label 2nd ward "South," 1st ward "East" and so on. That would have been somewhat logical and fitting to reality.  But yes, they rotated the compass 45 degrees for the sake of signage.

[Matthew.Brendan]

Pretty much sums up Charlotte's schizophrenic state of mind on these sort of things eh?

[birky]

I'd like to rant about the lack of gas stations near uptown.  I think there is one station within the 277 loop, off Graham, which is just about impossible to get into or out of during normal commute times.  The gas station on W Trade next to Bojangles, just outside the loop, not only presents the same issue, but also seems to have pump issues constantly.  Now, i'm far from suggesting that we need to start building a bunch of gas stations near/in Uptown.  But it certainly seems like the residents of Uptown are underserved at the moment.

[ah59396]

I'd like to rant about the lack of gas stations near uptown.  I think there is one station within the 277 loop, off Graham, which is just about impossible to get into or out of during normal commute times.  The gas station on W Trade next to Bojangles, just outside the loop, not only presents the same issue, but also seems to have pump issues constantly.  Now, i'm far from suggesting that we need to start building a bunch of gas stations near/in Uptown.  But it certainly seems like the residents of Uptown are underserved at the moment.

 

 

Can we ban this guy??  Ha-ha!

 

 

#kidding

#alsoserious

[Guest]

Can we ban this guy??  Ha-ha!

 

 

#kidding

#alsoserious

I live in Brooklyn, and honestly, I am searching my memory… but I don't think I've seen a gas station in NYC in probably 3-4 months (I was in nashville in mid february, there are a million there.)

[rugger62]

I'd like to rant about the lack of gas stations near uptown.  I think there is one station within the 277 loop, off Graham, which is just about impossible to get into or out of during normal commute times.  The gas station on W Trade next to Bojangles, just outside the loop, not only presents the same issue, but also seems to have pump issues constantly.  Now, i'm far from suggesting that we need to start building a bunch of gas stations near/in Uptown.  But it certainly seems like the residents of Uptown are underserved at the moment.

 

You would have to sell an ungodly amount of gas to make a highest and best use case for a station inside the loop. Land values are too high and the margin on gas is too small to make it work.

 

I pulled the UST information from the NC DENR website, and this map represents a rough guideline for gas stations near uptown.

 

On a side note, does anyone know of a free geocoder and mapper that will do more than 250 lines?

[Madison Parkitect]

Definitely off-topic to anything in Charlotte, but I thought this was interesting seeing how much of a storm the Dilworth historic people can kick up around here http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/03/10/3691004/construction-to-be-stopped-on.html

 

Sucks to be that guy, especially if he ends up having to tear it down. The across-the-street neighbor leading the charge sounds awful.

[birky]

Oh man. If that was me, and I could afford to just sit on that lot, I would build a giant middle finger facing that neighbor.

[15895]

Oh man. If that was me, and I could afford to just sit on that lot, I would build a giant middle finger facing that neighbor.

Hope it looks as nice as our other middle finger, the Arlington

[Matthew.Brendan]

 

 

Come on Apple... come on Charlotte..... give us something 1/10th as awesome as this...

[southslider]

The intersection of Tryon and Morehead would be my preferred site for an Apple store. Just the other side of the Tryon bridge for Uptown foot traffic, yet close to South End apartments and LYNX for 24/7 traffic. The combination of the future Crescent project would result in an "activity bridge" to overcome the freeway moat. If only Uptown Cabaret wasn't there, but alas, that's the problem.

[tozmervo]

Had an intriguing epiphany yesterday looking at the signs for the St Patricks Day Pub Crawl. I think that event is even worse than the CIAA. The most harassed and out of place I've ever felt Uptown was walking down the light rail trail last year (early afternoon, for god's sake), and the pub crawl was in full force.

[MilZ]

Had an intriguing epiphany yesterday looking at the signs for the St Patricks Day Pub Crawl. I think that event is even worse than the CIAA. The most harassed and out of place I've ever felt Uptown was walking down the light rail trail last year (early afternoon, for god's sake), and the pub crawl was in full force.

I actually loved it, and already purchased a shirt again for tomorrow. Then again, I celebrate in a fashion in which nothing can bring me down.

[CLTProductions]

I actually loved it, and already purchased a shirt again for tomorrow. Then again, I celebrate in a fashion in which nothing can bring me down.

Could not agree more. Got my shirt ready to go. It's game time   :alc:   It is a fantastic time, great drink specials, looks to be great weather tomorrow, and a chance to go to bars I don't normally go to. Can not wait.

Edited March 14, 2014 by Jayvee

[ah59396]

I went last year, it was fun but I can live without it.  I'll be at the Banff Film Festival showing tomorrow evening instead!

[grodney]

Took a day-trip to Morganton on Saturday, primarily to hit Catawba Valley Brewing. It was good, but the new brewery "Fonta Flora" was outstanding.  Great tap room - very well done.  Great story.  Great philosophy.  Great beer.

 

I highly recommend a trip up there.  We started at Mountain Burrito on the way into town (which was perfect), then just parked downtown and walked to everything (the "square" is about equidistant between the two breweries).  We hit a couple very nice galleries (Kala was really neat) and shops (a used book store that was trippy, a yarn shop my girls loved, and "My Favorite Bakery" for between-the-breweries sweets).  We didn't make it to the much-recommended coffee shop or clay gallery -- since it was so beautiful out we went to Catawba Meadows Park for frisbee golf and playground time before grabbing some BBQ and heading home.

 

Catawba Valley has a large-ish warehouse style (unfinished feel) taproom, with a bar, tables, booths, picnic tables, 2 pool tables, midwest table-top shuffleboard, a giant screen TV, stage for a live band, and open garage doors on a nice day.  Fonta Flora has a small tap room (between Birdsong and NoDa size) with a bar and 7ish tables, and a tiny little brewing system.  They have only 1 standard beer, but several other rotating varieties.  The tap room is beautifully done, easily on par with NoDa and Triple C, in my opinion.

[CLTProductions]

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/going_green/2014/03/vote-on-new-charlotte-restaurant-rules-to-be.html

 

Wasn't really sure where to put this, but man, if this passes what a huge step backwards for this city. I feel like this just screams "fun police" shutting it down.

[HopHead]

Deadspin delivers again, though nothing Charlotte related: http://deadspin.com/who-are-the-beotchiest-most-defensive-fans-in-america-1542968511

 

Some of these are pretty funny and spot on. 

[birky]

There is a fantastic new twitter account run by the Charlotte Observer's archivist. She's tweeting out old pictures of the city. Really cool stuff.

 

@ObserverArchive

[Matthew.Brendan]

No discussion of the brouhaha @ Amelie's?

[Bikeguy]

Interesting take from James Fallows in the latest Atlantic Monthly on how two politically opposite small American city mayors ( Greenville SC & Burlington VT ) have succeeded by embracing public/private economic development and their respective natural environments..

 

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/04/the-case-for-strong-mayors/358642/

[birky]

So...uh...Mayor Cannon was just arrested by the FBI.

[ah59396]

So...uh...Mayor Cannon was just arrested by the FBI.

 

 

Prepare yourselves, this will be national news.