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Old 07-08-2010, 05:05 PM
 
468 posts, read 787,324 times
Reputation: 98

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Quote:
Originally Posted by jsimms3 View Post
Charlotte seems to have the lowest self esteem of any major metro in the SE, even though it is second in most categories only to Atlanta (I am not counting S FL, Tampa, or Orlando). It is weird, but Charlottans seem to not be able to develope their own identity, and they MUST, absolutely MUST be compared to Atlanta, NYC, or other large cities. Coming from Jacksonville, I thought we had a low self esteem, but after reading about Charlotte, meeting natives, and visiting...I conclude that Charlotte has literally wiped its slate clean only to try to be some other city. If you go downtown, there are maybe two pre-war buildings. The rest is completely new or built within the last 20-30 years tops. There are not very many older neighborhoods with older building fabric. I love Charlotte's clean, sleek appearance, but it seemed like it was trying WAY too hard.

Atlanta at least has history and old "stuff." That old stuff gives it more culture and identity. Hek, even Jax and Birmingham have almost as much old "stuff" as Atlanta, something Charlotte has lost forever because it destroyed it all.

Has Charlotte ever considered comparing itself with Austin, TX or its neighbor Raleigh, NC more often? Both of those cities are growing tremendously fast, are all new, and Raleigh has a very similar demographic moving there. None of those cities will catch up to Atlanta until 4-5 decades + after Atlanta quits growing.

Thats what everyone is trying to say on here. Compare Charlotte to Nashville Columbus Austin etc... more of a fair comparison
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Old 07-08-2010, 09:56 PM
 
Location: Carrboro and Concord, NC
963 posts, read 2,401,218 times
Reputation: 1255
Quote:
Originally Posted by jsimms3 View Post
Charlotte seems to have the lowest self esteem of any major metro in the SE, even though it is second in most categories only to Atlanta (I am not counting S FL, Tampa, or Orlando). It is weird, but Charlottans seem to not be able to develope their own identity, and they MUST, absolutely MUST be compared to Atlanta, NYC, or other large cities. Coming from Jacksonville, I thought we had a low self esteem, but after reading about Charlotte, meeting natives, and visiting...I conclude that Charlotte has literally wiped its slate clean only to try to be some other city. If you go downtown, there are maybe two pre-war buildings. The rest is completely new or built within the last 20-30 years tops. There are not very many older neighborhoods with older building fabric. I love Charlotte's clean, sleek appearance, but it seemed like it was trying WAY too hard.

Atlanta at least has history and old "stuff." That old stuff gives it more culture and identity. Hek, even Jax and Birmingham have almost as much old "stuff" as Atlanta, something Charlotte has lost forever because it destroyed it all.

Has Charlotte ever considered comparing itself with Austin, TX or its neighbor Raleigh, NC more often? Both of those cities are growing tremendously fast, are all new, and Raleigh has a very similar demographic moving there. None of those cities will catch up to Atlanta until 4-5 decades + after Atlanta quits growing.
Right on when it comes to Charlotte's conflicted relationship to its' own history. There's nothing left, and new new new is - I suppose - nice and pretty, but it's not a city with much soul. Squeaky clean.

I wonder if the comparisons thing is just getting sillier and sillier - now that Raleigh and Austin have come up. Atlanta is Atlanta. Charlotte is Charlotte. Austin is Austin. Raleigh-Durham in some ways is more of the 'smaller sibling' of Atlanta than Charlotte is: it's growing even faster, in terms of university strength RDU is closer to Atlanta than Charlotte is: UNC, Duke, NCSU, NC State, 6 or 8 smaller colleges, plus RTP - the place is a very very serious brain trust (per-capita, the highest concentration of Ph.D's in the world). Charlotte is much more of a biz city. Given the historical rivalry between Charlotte and the Triangle, it would be a cold day in hell before either compared themselves to the other: Wake County is within months of surpassing Mecklenburg County, NC in population (900,000+ in both counties), and this is generating quite a bit of tasteful self-congratgulation around the Triangle, and more than a few grumbles in Charlotte.

Someone mentioned skylines. I'd like to throw this out there. Geneva, Switzerland is one of the MOST IMPORTANT CITIES IN THE WORLD. It has a population of about 200,000. Quality can beat quantity, and size ain't everything.
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Old 07-08-2010, 10:38 PM
 
Location: West Cobb County, GA (Atlanta metro)
9,191 posts, read 33,782,648 times
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Atlanta planners are looking at Charlotte in one regard, however....

Story: Atlanta Beltline Uses Charlotte As Example - News Story - WSB Atlanta
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Old 07-09-2010, 04:22 AM
 
4,819 posts, read 6,053,182 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by crider View Post
The Metros of Philly and Atlanta couldn't be more different. The only thing they have in common is a Metro population amount. First Atlanta metro covers a area larger than the state of Massachusetts 8300 plus miles. Philly has an equal or greater population in less than half the land area 3,800 square miles. Atlanta proper and Philly proper are equal in square miles both about 135 sq miles but the population of Philly Proper is 1,500,000 and Atlanta is 540,000. Atlanta metro is isolated in that it does not connect to any other major metro only miles of lovely rural landscape. Philly metro connects to other major metros with millions of people. Those in Charlotte may guilty of booterism but some Atlanta backers are guilty of the same thing when it tries to transform a sprawling metro of 5 Million into a "city" of two million. I am not a Philly promoter but if you're definition of a cities "league" is more than the number of skyscrapers it contains and the population of its metro than Philly can match up with any other city in this nation including LA and Chicago, the only exception would be NYC.
Cities create suburbs, suburbs create commuters their's a major reason why metro Atlanta is bigger in area then Philly and Boston. Many cities sprawl outward, Philly and Boston didn’t their just near other cities. So stating density is irrelevant to the population that’s reactionary of a city. Hampden County Massachusetts is about the same distance from Boston as Cherokee County Georgia is from Atlanta. The difference is the growth of Hampden is not cause by Boston, the population their doesn’t commute to Boston, it not even a Metroplex Hampden has nothing to do with Boston, period. How ever Cherokee county growth is cause by Atlanta, the population there is cause by Atlanta, they commute to Atlanta. It’s Atlanta itself expanding outward.

Yes Atlanta, and Philly is in the same league, think about it this way. Pittsburgh or maybe Baltimore is Charlotte league. Comparing Atlanta and Charlotte is like comparing Philly to Pittsburgh or Baltimore. And no that's what I mean by league besides population, by global ranking in studies, how and where does the city rank in numerous industries, education, convention, recognition, human capital, and etc. And you lost a lot of credibility by just saying Philly is on pare with Chicago and LA...... LMAO in terms of what? And trust me I not boasting Atlanta I wouldn't ever say something crazy like Atlanta is on pare with Chicago or LA.
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Old 07-09-2010, 04:27 AM
 
2 posts, read 2,730 times
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http://www.highwaytowatches.com
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Old 07-11-2010, 03:00 PM
 
101 posts, read 293,338 times
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I just moved from Charlotte, and have to agree on the lack of identity thing. I never could figure out what it was trying to be. It ended up being mostly a yuppie city, with in the banking or tech industry. There's not a lot to do, not a lot of unique classic places to eat, and only one area that's socially diverse (NoDa.) I've found traffic was worse there, and it took me longer to get places there.
I now live in Smyrna, can be in Decatur in about 30 minutes. Have tons of unique places to dine, parks to visit, and events to attend. Heck, we've visited four or five festivals already! Even my wife who's not a huge fan of big cities, LOVES living in Atlanta over Charlotte, and she's from a city an hour North of Charlotte, lived there all her life.
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Old 09-06-2010, 03:44 PM
 
15 posts, read 78,355 times
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Many North Carolinians don't even consider Charlotte part of "true NC". We could care less about it other than the Carolina Panthers. Charlotte may have pro sports but none are ever competitive and breed a loser mentality in the city (Bobcats? Gimme a break.). Visit any other town in NC and they have history, culture, museums and just better people. Even Charlotte's banking is shipping out of town. If you want to go to a winning area try RTP. Winning college sports (UNC/Duke), smarter people, genuine growth and never trying to be something we aren't. South Carolina should just annex Charlotte because NC doesn't want you. Also, Charlotte is probably the only metro area of its size in America without an elite University.
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Old 09-06-2010, 09:29 PM
 
719 posts, read 1,692,405 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by marighand View Post
Also, Charlotte is probably the only metro area of its size in America without an elite University.
Interesting point. On the other hand, maybe it can be forgiven in a state that's full of elite institutions, particularly with the ones that are crammed into the Raleigh-Durham area. So maybe it's not quite as important in its case.
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Old 09-07-2010, 10:00 AM
 
Location: Atlanta ,GA
9,067 posts, read 15,728,766 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by crider View Post
I for one do not understand why Charlotte would want to pick Atlanta as its role model. I have nothing against Atlanta but one Atlanta is enough. The Atlanta metro should continue to outgrow Charlotte's. Atlanta serves as the center of a much wider region than does Charlotte. As an example there are three major airports within 100 miles of Charlotte airport. Charlotte metro has a million plus metro to its immediate north and another million plus metro to its immediate south that has most of the amenities that its population seeks. South Park is not Buckhead and the residents of South Park are doing all it can to
Quote:
avoid becoming like Buckhead The same as the residents of the Queens road area who fought against it becoming a corrider of highrises ala Peachtree buckhead.
Atlanta is a large Metro that is trying to leverage that large metro population into being a tier one city. Thus the quote above that Atlanta is a city of over two million which attempts to puts it in the same league as Philly and Chicago the same as some do in trying to move Charlotte into Atlanta's league Charlotte is not Atlanta and I am very comfortable with it never being in Atlanta's league since the real Atlanta is only four hrs away.
This is exactly why Charlotte is no where near what Atlanta is.Its all about the mentality.If you feel that its just a matter of better zoning then so be it but Atlanta has started doing what cities in North are also doing.That is rebuilding infrastructure and increasing the mass appeal of the urban core.

Just little thing like adding the new street vendor cubicles:


Not to mention big things like urban centers that are planned around rapid rail.Such as Lindbergh:http://www.vatransit.com/practices/images_task5/r08-2.jpg (broken link)

Other major difference why Atlanta is in Philly or Boston league and NOT Charlotte is basically pure economics when it comes down to it.GDP

Other factors are educational attainment and international prominence.For instance I just read yesterday how Georgia after NY and California attracts the most direct investment from China.

You can bet there are elements of Atlanta that Charlotte does not want just like there are elements of NYC or Chicago that Atlanta should not envy,however there is a whole lot in which all cities strive to achieve by directly emulating from other locations.

I also keep hearing people say Charlotte is Atlanta 30 years ago.I for one do not agree.There major things that will keep Charlotte from achieving what Atlanta is still in th process of growing.

1)A center of Education,AS someone said before,Charlotte is the only city of it size not to have a topped ranked school/college.Atlanta has a major research university in the middle of its downtown with almost 30,000 students.Plus several other colleges within its core.

2)Charlotte is NOT a destination place.Charlotte ranked almost at the very bottom of cities that people went to for pleasure.Travel industry is very important for a cities future.

3)International Prominence.Charlotte has Bank of America.Most people outside of the U.S. figure its in NYC.Atlanta even in 1980 (30 years ago) had Coke,MLK jr, and Delta

4)The convergence of rail,public transportation,roads(interstate access) and Air in Atlanta 30 years ago was well established much further than what Charlotte has today.

Maybe you agree or not but this is how I and at least dozens of publications that rank these see it as well.
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Old 09-07-2010, 10:32 AM
 
719 posts, read 1,692,405 times
Reputation: 220
Quote:
Originally Posted by afonega1 View Post
I also keep hearing people say Charlotte is Atlanta 30 years ago.I for one do not agree.There major things that will keep Charlotte from achieving what Atlanta is still in th process of growing.

1)A center of Education,AS someone said before,Charlotte is the only city of it size not to have a topped ranked school/college.Atlanta has a major research university in the middle of its downtown with almost 30,000 students.Plus several other colleges within its core.

2)Charlotte is NOT a destination place.Charlotte ranked almost at the very bottom of cities that people went to for pleasure.Travel industry is very important for a cities future.

3)International Prominence.Charlotte has Bank of America.Most people outside of the U.S. figure its in NYC.Atlanta even in 1980 (30 years ago) had Coke,MLK jr, and Delta

4)The convergence of rail,public transportation,roads(interstate access) and Air in Atlanta 30 years ago was well established much further than what Charlotte has today.

Maybe you agree or not but this is how I and at least dozens of publications that rank these see it as well.
I agree with you particularly on points 3 and 4, although I think Atlanta's international profile has been established fairly recently (since Olympics).

However, even today Atlanta's international profile is probably somewhat limited to those in certain segments (people aware of civil rights issues, some parts of the business community, the media). In terms of general recognition among the wider populace, I'm not sure Atlanta's name recognition is a whole lot higher than Charlotte (and certainly lower than cities like Miami, Las Vegas, and even Seattle), but I could be wrong. And perhaps here your #4 point comes into play. People both nationally and internationally probably learn of Atlanta through its prominence as a transportation hub. Then again, this also gets into what has also been discussed on this forum a fair amount before, which is Atlanta's unique role (one which Charlotte is no where near approaching) as a "capital" for the region of the Southeast. A certain status accrues to the city just on that basis alone, apart from any attributes the place may or may not have.
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