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Bank of America to buy FleetBoston


TravisNC

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TravisNC -- Actually I have read Hornet's Nest and while I think it's a nice read, it was written in the mid-90's and Charlotte has changed so much even in that short a time that it's no longer the city portrayed in the book. The Charlotte Cornwell wrote about then was the city most of the Charlotte-bashers would rather believe still exists: an aspiring blowhard city with a few nice skyscrapers surrounded by miles of dirty, cracked parking lots that are in turn surrounded by deadly slums. She wrote about a fiercely segregated, embarassingly conservative, culturally backward city, and that Charlotte has been buried under the foundations of the new Charlotte.

The novel I originally mentioned, by the way, was Isle of Dogs, which is quite frankly, ghastly. When I read it I was working at a bookstore and borrowed it from work. I would never, ever have bought it by choice, but had to because one night while I was reading it while waiting to pick up my cousin from work, a stray cat jumped into the open book, looking to be petted, and left muddy paw prints all over it. Ironically enough though, in that novel the crew from Hornet's Nest has moved to Richmond from Charlotte -- apparently Chief Judy Hammer of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police has made such a name for herself cleaning up corrupt and inept police departments that that's what she does for a living now, but not without her trusty sidekicks Virginia West and Andy Brazil. Next stop after Charlotte is Richmond!

Like I said, it stank. I believe I donated that copy with the paw prints to the library.

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Oh, believe me, I DO know, monsoon, and I agree with your statements that most of the animosity toward Charlotte is just sour grapes. People are appalled that such a relatively unknown city has rocketed to the forefront of the business world and is gaining in international prominence by the day. I think that even beyond that though there's a lot to envy about Charlotte. Its park system is par excellance for one, and there's a committment to smart growth in Charlotte that most cities would kill for.

I also agree with you that it wouldn't make much sense, from our perspective at least, for any big bank to move away from such an accommodating place. The leaders of both Charlotte and North Carolina would jump through flaming hoops if the CEO of Bank of America told them to.

I recall reading not too long ago an article somewhere about just how it was that North Carolina came to be a banking state with Charlotte as a national banking capital. I don't remember the details, but I seem to recall reading that North Carolina was studying the banking and finance laws of many nearby states and enacted laws that were designed to accomplish the exact opposite goal of those laws -- and voila. While other Southern states' banking industries grew only modestly or not at all, North Carolina's boomed beyond anyone's wildest dreams.

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