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Well, you know, no place is perfect. (as the adage goes...if you find a perfect place, leave, because you are sure to ruin it! ) Charlotte has great traits as do many other places. I think that sometimes people get offended too easily when someone says that they miss_(fill in the blank)_ which they had in their previous home. They look upon this as being some kind of accusation that Charlotte (or anywhere) is less than perfect. Sometimes, it IS a complaint. Sometimes, it is merely a statement of fact. Is that negative? Not necessarily...it really might just be an observation.
For example, on a recent trip to Chicago, my family and I went to a Cracker Barrel restaurant. Now, there was my son & I (we both live in Charlotte) and 5 others that were from Illinois & Iowa. Immediately, when my son saw that they had sweet tea, he smiled broadly and said, "yeah...good tea!" Now, my cousins/niece were amused by this, but,were not offended. Nor were they offended when I ate grits. They poked a bit of fun, we all laughed and went on with the conversation. (minus any argument or offense taken or given)
So, in the end, while I think that Charlotte is great, I also love Chicago in the summertime and London in the spring and Florida in the winter....the list goes on and on....if I had the money, I would travel to all of these places and beyond!
Location: livin' the good life on America's favorite island
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My wife and I decided to move from the snowbelt (CLE) 5 years ago and chose to move to Charlotte after doing some research of cities in SE. We had never stepped foot in NC prior to that time. It was a great decision for us and we really like it here. No question that the economy makes us tighten our belt some but fortunately I am not in the Banking business so we don't feel the stress of reading about BoFA, WF news. The weather was a big consideration and I play alot of tennis and prefer the extended outdoor season. My wife took up tennis when we moved here and she is hooked and plays alot more than me (she plays 5 times a week), even in Dec/Jan. I also like the transient nature of CLT and we have met so many new friends and our social life is very full. I remember getting my NC drivers license and there was a guy working at the Bureau that discussed how he retired as a police officer in NY to move down here near his wife's family and said that living down here was 'like being on vacation every day'. I don't mean to over glorify but must I feel a sence of this living down here as well.
You hit the nail on the head. I think that the bashing comes from two sources. First, people that live here often trash the city without having enough real knowledge of other places to make a sensible comparison. It gives them a feeling of being an expert at something at which they know nothing about.
Secondly, you have those that might have been transferred here against their will and feel better by using the message board as a sounding board. You also have those that don't want to be anywhere but where mommy lives.
I lived in some pretty great places overseas. My favorite was London. I lived there for many years. It was amazing that Americans can go to such a wonderful city and complain, whine, and compare so much. I always wondered why they don't just stay home and shut up. That is sort of what we see on the message boards.
I really haven't been to many places where I didn't enjoy. Every place seems to have some positive things to offer.Charlotte is a fast growing city. It is cleaner than most other cities and people complain about that. The traffic is better than in most comparable cities, but they complain that it is worse. It is a city that is forever getting new restaurants representing all ethnicities, yet people think it should be just like NYC. People complain about insurance, taxes, utility bills, etc. yet, they are lowere than practically all cities larger or comparable in size from which they came. But please understand that this is because we are Americans and are experts at criticizing anything that is different regardless of reality.
Charlotte is a good mediocre city in my opinion. It has plenty to entertain a metro population of two million. There are some of the most gorgious neighborhoods in the U.S. Shopping is extremely good. We have Neiman Marcus, Norstroms, etc. Most countries are represented when it comes to restaurants although people always complain about things not being like the particular restaurant at which they ate in their hometown. Entertainment is really good with a very active performing arts scene, great bars and other entertainment. There are professional sports teams around as well. But, the complaints are still prevelant. Again, Americans.
Traffic is not really bad and getting to places around the county is quite simple with good connecting roads and highways. There really isn't much snow to worry about in regards to driving. People say that locals can't drive in the snow, yet a huge percentage of the cars in ditches are not local nor are 60 percent of the drivers. Go figure.
Schools in Charlotte are like all other cities. We have both excellent and really bad. The same with neighborhoods. Charlotte is in a fantastic location being two hours from the mountains and just over three from the beach. Weather is excellent with cool winters and very comfortable springs and falls. Summers are very hot, but being in Florida, you are used to that. The major difference is that it gets comfortable in the mornings and evenings in the summer here. That doesn't really happen in Florida.
In summary, Charlotte is a very nice city. It all depends on what one wants. If you like living in NYC, on the ski slopes, on a tropical island, or surrounded by desert, you will likely not want to be here. And oh yea, we are in a recession just like all other cities in the U.S. so it is a good idea to have a job lined up before moving here. Trust me, Charlotte is fine. As I said, this message board is often only a sounding board for those that like to take their frustrations out on others. Best wishes. Charlotte will always continue to be a hot relocation spot because it is obviously better than most places in the U.S.
Basically this stems from a pervasive refusal to accept reality.
Very well stated.
I agree with a lot of what Vindaloo posted. I lived in Paris and missed it enormously when I left and returned to NYC. I have lived in many places and have a good perspective. I moved to Charlotte for work before the meltdown and I had a fantastic job. I flew around the world and was paid a NYC salary. I took up whitewater kayaking and made all kinds of friends. The US national whitewater center is among the BEST urban parks in the world. The location of Charlotte is tough to beat. You can make it all the way to Florida in just 5 hours and within an hour and a half you can be in mountains where the summer heat is about as common as a snowy day in Charlotte. I never found traffic to be a problem. Perhaps annoying on occasion but I could head to the WW center at rush hour and make it there in the same time as non rush hour. Just don't live in the sprawling cul de sacs as there is no traffic in and around downtown. I had a 15 minute door to door commute to work. I could do it in five minutes if I were willing to pay an outrageous cost of parking.
My complaints about Charlotte are what I don't like about most American cities. Developers have been building at random for the last 50 years leaving behind these depressing carcasses that even vultures wouldn't touch. Some of this has been revitalized but there is a lot more work to be done on the main arteries. Many of the shopping centers that are doing well I find have no character and are what I would call anywhere USA. There is very little urban energy despite the fact that the downtown has come a long way in the past 10 years. Outside of the old established US cities and a few exceptions I find these problems exist for most American cities. In fact Charlotte's urban core is doing better than many other places. I think of it as a toy city.
With no work now keeping me in Charlotte I will probably move again. With the economy down it is easy to focus on the negatives. If you don't have work it is not worth living here but if you have a job you like than unless you are Debbie Downer you should be quite happy. If you don't need to work wouldn't you choose Asheville, Boone, Wilmington or Charleston over Charlotte?
I agree with a lot of what Vindaloo posted. I lived in Paris and missed it enormously when I left and returned to NYC. I have lived in many places and have a good perspective. I moved to Charlotte for work before the meltdown and I had a fantastic job. I flew around the world and was paid a NYC salary. I took up whitewater kayaking and made all kinds of friends. The US national whitewater center is among the BEST urban parks in the world. The location of Charlotte is tough to beat. You can make it all the way to Florida in just 5 hours and within an hour and a half you can be in mountains where the summer heat is about as common as a snowy day in Charlotte. I never found traffic to be a problem. Perhaps annoying on occasion but I could head to the WW center at rush hour and make it there in the same time as non rush hour. Just don't live in the sprawling cul de sacs as there is no traffic in and around downtown. I had a 15 minute door to door commute to work. I could do it in five minutes if I were willing to pay an outrageous cost of parking.
My complaints about Charlotte are what I don't like about most American cities. Developers have been building at random for the last 50 years leaving behind these depressing carcasses that even vultures wouldn't touch. Some of this has been revitalized but there is a lot more work to be done on the main arteries. Many of the shopping centers that are doing well I find have no character and are what I would call anywhere USA. There is very little urban energy despite the fact that the downtown has come a long way in the past 10 years. Outside of the old established US cities and a few exceptions I find these problems exist for most American cities. In fact Charlotte's urban core is doing better than many other places. I think of it as a toy city.
With no work now keeping me in Charlotte I will probably move again. With the economy down it is easy to focus on the negatives. If you don't have work it is not worth living here but if you have a job you like than unless you are Debbie Downer you should be quite happy. If you don't need to work wouldn't you choose Asheville, Boone, Wilmington or Charleston over Charlotte?
You make some great points! I wish Charlotte had a beautiful shopping area like Kansas City's Plaza District (still miss it - always will!). The outdoor shopping is one reason I always enjoyed Santa Monica, for that matter. So I wish we had something like that . . . but for a Mall, SouthPark is fine and the surrounding area is pretty convenient.
Interesting the cities you mentioned, b/c I have lived in Boone (love it there!) and have a second home there now and the other cities I visit often. I would like to live in Charleston or Savannah at some point - have family there and have spent a lot of time in both towns and love them both. I have thought about leaving Charlotte, keeping the mountain house and living at the coast. But the neat thing about Charlotte is - I can get to any of those destinations easily enough (well, Wilmington is not as convenient a trip as the other cities you mentioned).
We also like being so close to the airport. Picked up hubby this evening. Took me less than 20 mins to get to the airport. That really is convenient.
Charlotte is a good location for business reasons even tho I would have to say there are other cities I find more charming. But - not like they are far off. And I can often find cheapie tickets to fly to other cities, as well - and I don't mind driving to Nashville, Atlanta, St. Augustine, Savannah, Charleston, DC, Charlottesville, etc. If I can get a cheap flight, all the better. There really are a lot of great places to visit on the east coast.
Charlotte is fine, but no paradise. The "negativity" is more like a touch of reality, to offset all the sunshine and lollipops threads by realtors. The traffic is bad, and the city lacks many things found in the larger northern cities, but the weather is much better....
Charlotte is fine, but no paradise. The "negativity" is more like a touch of reality, to offset all the sunshine and lollipops threads by realtors. The traffic is bad, and the city lacks many things found in the larger northern cities, but the weather is much better....
Honestly, monkeyboy, realtors rarely even post here. I can't think of a time I have seen a realtor start a thread . . . and we only have a few that even post info in response to questions.
I think a lot of folks were waxing poetic about Charlotte back in 2006 and folks were still flooding here in 2007, but after that . . . I don't think there have been very many threads about Charlotte as Land of Milk & Honey, lol.
I also think that most folks on this forum are fully aware that Charlotte is not DC, Boston, NYC, etc and so never did expect to find the same types of things here as in these large cities. I mean - we don't even have 1M people living in Charlotte, and before the big migration, we didn't even have 1/2 million. Not that I see a population under 1million as a problem - I don't. My point is simply that you can't compare a city like Charlotte to one like Boston. That is not a comparison - it would only be a contrast.
Last edited by brokensky; 12-10-2009 at 05:03 PM..
It's an amusing topic. That is, it's a topic that essentially bashes forumers for having allegedly bashed Charlotte because bashing is bad and hence shouldn't be done.
Charlotte is fine, but no paradise. The "negativity" is more like a touch of reality, to offset all the sunshine and lollipops threads by realtors. The traffic is bad, and the city lacks many things found in the larger northern cities, but the weather is much better....
+1
Post of the week.
Our weather is great though.
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) Charlotte has great traits as do many other places. I think that sometimes people get offended too easily when someone says that they miss_(fill in the blank)_ which they had in their previous home. They look upon this as being some kind of accusation that Charlotte (or anywhere) is less than perfect. Sometimes, it IS a complaint. Sometimes, it is merely a statement of fact. Is that negative? Not necessarily...it really might just be an observation. 
Charlotte will always continue to be a hot relocation spot because it is obviously better than most places in the U.S. 
