Nascar HOF (Atlanta, Columbus, Nashville: live, vs., move)

[Carolina Blue]

Originally Posted by afonega1

Thats great!!Thats a major step in th right direction.Sounds really familiar from another cities playbook..... I just find it fascinating how people in Charlotte say they only look to Atlanta for what "not to do". While I'm sure thats true,but to say that cities looking to grow don't look in that direction of another city in the first place,is straight up untrue.They usually see somethings they find desirable to begin with.
Atlanta did it an does it by looking at NYC and D.C..Yet do you think Atlanta actually wants to be NYC?Hell no.Not even close.Somewhere in between for sure..but thats s far as it goes.

Charlotte's looks to Atlanta the same way.It its smart it will do a little of avoiding mistakes Atlanta has made but even smarter to follow the rule book of Atlanta.Charlotte has NO national identity.Atlanta 20 years ago and even a little today is still developing that for itself.Charlotte has to break out of the mold of being a "mini Atlanta".Its got to set its goals higher than even what Atlanta has.

What if Charlotte had come up with the idea for a BeltLine instead of Atlanta?They still can.If they did Charlotte would definitely rival Atlanta.It could be like Portland but with a higher corporate presence.What else does Portland have accept a great quality of life.That is what Portland is known for.Thats how it market itself.It works.It can work for Charlotte too.

I love Atlant for what it is and for where it seems to be going but if Charlotte could become the type of city I wanted to live in,then I would move there before I would move anywhere else.It has the general things that I like about Atlanta,it just needs to grow more.

You didn't answer my question, you just wrote a long pontification. My point is the point I've made with you and other ATL posters a million times. You guys are looking at Charlotte from the perspective of how it compares to Atlanta. rather you're intending to or not, thats what you're doing. You're comparing a metro area of almost 5 million people, to one that has less than 2 million people. Bottom line, Charlotte is actually doing extremely well for a city its size. The city isn't having any problems attracting people, and thats visitors or new residents. And its hard to say we need to raise our national profile when we were just awarded the DNC. When you compare us to our peer cities we are seen as a progressive leader, not some place that's trying to play catch up.

[Akhenaton06]

Originally Posted by Carolina Blue

And its hard to say we need to raise our national profile when we were just awarded the DNC. When you compare us to our peer cities we are seen as a progressive leader, not some place that's trying to play catch up.

Very true. Charlotte will never be a city with the history and culture of cities like New Orleans or Nashville or Memphis, but given what it has had to work with, it has succeeded in a very big way and continues to do so.

[qc dreamin]

Originally Posted by Akhenaton06

Very true. Charlotte will never be a city with the history and culture of cities like New Orleans or Nashville or Memphis, but given what it has had to work with, it has succeeded in a very big way and continues to do so.

[qc dreamin]

Originally Posted by Carolina Blue

You didn't answer my question, you just wrote a long pontification. My point is the point I've made with you and other ATL posters a million times. You guys are looking at Charlotte from the perspective of how it compares to Atlanta. rather you're intending to or not, thats what you're doing. You're comparing a metro area of almost 5 million people, to one that has less than 2 million people. Bottom line, Charlotte is actually doing extremely well for a city its size. The city isn't having any problems attracting people, and thats visitors or new residents. And its hard to say we need to raise our national profile when we were just awarded the DNC. When you compare us to our peer cities we are seen as a progressive leader, not some place that's trying to play catch up.

exactly

[afonega1]

Originally Posted by Carolina Blue

You didn't answer my question, you just wrote a long pontification. My point is the point I've made with you and other ATL posters a million times. You guys are looking at Charlotte from the perspective of how it compares to Atlanta. rather you're intending to or not, thats what you're doing. You're comparing a metro area of almost 5 million people, to one that has less than 2 million people. Bottom line, Charlotte is actually doing extremely well for a city its size. The city isn't having any problems attracting people, and thats visitors or new residents. And its hard to say we need to raise our national profile when we were just awarded the DNC. When you compare us to our peer cities we are seen as a progressive leader, not some place that's trying to play catch up.

You weren't paying attention.I never in any of my post said anything about holding Charlotte to do what Atlanta is doing.I only mentioned the Beltline because that idea had some of from Portland's model.Even when I did mention Atlanta I said things when Atlanta was the size of Charlotte.

I said for a city its size and I gave Portland as an examlple but mentioned the Belt-line.The Belt-line is basically what Portland has but with tighter zoning laws.If I were doing that then I would have not said PORTLAND!!Portland has things that make it desirable for people to come too.Portland is talked about beyond its business (or lack of) center.Its a place people want to be versus one they are more likely to be sent to.I'm not saying Charlotte is not desirable,but it could be more urban.


And again I never said "raise its "national profile".I said raise its "image".Profile and image are 2 different things.
Yes Charlotte is progressive.Nowadays most cities are.There is always room for improvement just like there is in Atlanta.

[Akhenaton06]

Originally Posted by afonega1

Yes Charlotte is progressive.Nowadays most cities are.

I disagree, but either way, it's clear that some cities are much more progressive than others. Charlotte is one of the most progressive cities for its size in the South, and probably the nation--and that's because it's becoming an increasingly livable city and not because it's trying to land attractions to lure tourists. That has its place but it shouldn't be Charlotte's aim at all.

[DeaconJ]

Originally Posted by Akhenaton06

I disagree, but either way, it's clear that some cities are much more progressive than others. Charlotte is one of the most progressive cities for its size in the South, and probably the nation--and that's because it's becoming an increasingly livable city and not because it's trying to land attractions to lure tourists. That has its place but it shouldn't be Charlotte's aim at all.

Maybe he meant "progressive" in other ways...I see Charlotte as progressive toward growth and devlopment, in attracting business, in transit development, etc.

[Big Aristotle]

Originally Posted by DeaconJ

Maybe he meant "progressive" in other ways...I see Charlotte as progressive toward growth and devlopment, in attracting business, in transit development, etc.

This is the natural progression for a city like Charlotte. If a city doesn't possess natural attractions (beaches, mountains, etc) or well-known historic attractions (Blues: Memphis, etc), the objective is to expand the business base, livability, etc and eventually develop tourist venues as a by-product (quasi-organic): the NHOF with more to come. You can't force a national profile, it'll occur by hosting national events such as the DNC to gain recognition.

Sun-belt cities (any) and Portland (NW cities) are awful comparisons. Amongst other things, the culture and topographies are polar opposites. Honestly, the urban south will never resemble those places, but will ultimately have an urbanity that suits us.

Many Charlotte business and city leaders intentionally minimized the nascar relationship due to stereotypes. If Atlanta had not initiated the idea of a Nascar Hall of Fame, I seriously doubt Charlotte would have pursued one. As afonega1 has sort of inferred, at his point, I think the city has reached a threshold where it can step-outside of its comfort zone (button-down business image) to improve national profile without seeming too pretentious (removing the sterile label).

The current leadership seems to have taken this mission to task but not without a contigent of resistance. Surely, given Charlotte's perceived national image, the fact of landing the DNC was a coup (fortunate as the Democrats now consider NC a battle ground state). This in itself is an extremely progessive statement for a relative national nobody mid-size city (afterall, is it Charlotte, SC or Charleston or Charlottesville???).

[Carolina Blue]

Originally Posted by afonega1

You weren't paying attention.I never in any of my post said anything about holding Charlotte to do what Atlanta is doing.I only mentioned the Beltline because that idea had some of from Portland's model.Even when I did mention Atlanta I said things when Atlanta was the size of Charlotte.

I said for a city its size and I gave Portland as an examlple but mentioned the Belt-line.The Belt-line is basically what Portland has but with tighter zoning laws.If I were doing that then I would have not said PORTLAND!!Portland has things that make it desirable for people to come too.Portland is talked about beyond its business (or lack of) center.Its a place people want to be versus one they are more likely to be sent to.I'm not saying Charlotte is not desirable,but it could be more urban.


And again I never said "raise its "national profile".I said raise its "image".Profile and image are 2 different things.
Yes Charlotte is progressive.Nowadays most cities are.There is always room for improvement just like there is in Atlanta.

You don't realize what you're doing. Now you're comparing Charlotte to Portland. Portland is also larger than Charlotte. Charlotte has grown faster than Portland over the past few years, so its closed the gap a bit, but that's only very recently. Historically Portland has been a much larger place than Charlotte. You might as well rephrase your agruments to say, "Why isn't Charlotte larger?" Because that's really the only point you're making. As I said before, when you compare Charlotte to its true peer cities, places like Columbus, Indianapolis, Providence, Nashville or Milwaukee, again I say its very hard for you to say the city needs to "raise its image", or that its lacking in any way. BTW, have you seen the latest Fortune 500? Atlanta has 12 companies, Charlotte has 10, just two less. Your city is three times our size and we need to raise our imagine?

[testa50]

I think Charlotte is doing great, and I want it to succeed. Seems like all Atlantans should, and all Charlotteans should probably want Atlanta to succeed too. Atlanta is better linked to Charlotte than it is to any other metro of 2 million, and Charlotte is better linked to Atlanta than it is to any other metro of 5 million. Just look at air travel passenger stats: Charlotte is #8 for Atlanta, and Atlanta is #1 for Charlotte.

The cities each benefit from doing lots of business with the other, and if either city faltered, it would harm the other.