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Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Quote:
Originally Posted by urbancharlotte
For me the OP was very clear.
1 Old Homes (generally 30 years old or older)
2 Trees (NOT hardcore urban with only buildings and concrete)
3 Small Yards (generally 1/4 acre lots or smaller)
4 Walkable to schools (generally less than 15 minutes walk one-way)
5 Grocery stores (generally less than 10 minutes walk one-way to avoid carting groceries too far)
6 Entertainment/Museums (places like the Nature Musuem near Freedom Park, movie theatres, or the Neighborhood theatre in Noda)
7 Public Transportation (less than a 5 minute walk to the nearest bus/train line; preferably a line that has a 15 minute headway at the least)
8 Safe family-like place (again, not a hardcore "concrete jungle" with shootouts every night; a place where kids can ride their bikes/skateboards after dark)
Are there areas of Charlotte where this can be found? ABSOLUTELY!!! The rule of thumb is to live 4.5 miles or less from the corner of Trade and Tryon. This gives a person roughly 64 sq/miles of area to search. This is where "old Charlotte" exists. Obviously, the closer one is to Trade and Tryon (ie 2 miles or less) the more "urban-y" things get. However, urban-y can be found as far as 4.5 miles out. Eventhough 64 sq/miles isn't a whole lot in a city with nearly 300 sq/mi of real estate, just know that over 33% of Charlotte's population lives within that 64 sq/mi area (it does have greater density than the rest of the city; thus making it "urban-y"). Also, I can think of quite a few cities that don't even have 64 sq/miles of land (San Fran, Boston, Paris just to name a few). But then again, these are cities with well over 500,000 people in less than 64 sq/miles of land (super urban places which is NOT what the OP asked for).
Maybe its just me, but the OP was VERY clear. And YES, Charlotte has what the OP asked for.
Or it could just be me.
I spent part of my childhood in Grand Rapids Michigan. One set of grandparents lived in Kalamazoo. Both cities provided environments that, to me, were urban, but I never saw a rowhouse of any kind until the family moved to South Jersey. The Philly metro has every flavor of urban that you can dream of in the US, including colonial period urban. While I absolutely agree with your choices, depending on where the OP is, their concept of urban might extend beyond where you stated.
Not trying to be difficult, but based on my experience is how I see it. Overall I do agree with you, but I'd just like the OP to clarify it.
Chicagocubs, Yangtosh, who really cares about the precise definition of the word "urban". Charlotte is an urban area and some of the villages in the area are also urban. Not Philadelphia urban, but sunbelt/new city urban. There are hundreds of thousands of people that love the area and many others moving here. Yes, there are walkable areas. I don't know why the denial. It isn't London, Budapest, or Berlin, but by American standards, it is right on. And Chicagocubs, please please please understand that you now live in Charlotte and not Chicago and if one despairately wants to go back, I am sure that social services will provide transportation or some sort of repay plan.
Charlotte is not Chicago. Get it? If you want Broadway, move to New York City. A car is generally needed if one lives in the Charlotte area unless riding a bus is acceptable. Bus service is pretty good and covers the whole county. Again, several posters have listed specific walkable areas. They are not lieing. Trust them. In my opinion, the only bad thing about Charlotte, other than gangs in certain areas, is the lack of a river running through town or a beach withing a couple of miles. Oh yea, and women on cell phones driving huge vehicles may run over you if you are jogging or biking, but that is the case all over the world.
UrbanCharlotte, thank you for contributing useful information that is factual andn setting the record straight for the few cronic complainers . You are great at furnishing non-biased information that is useful for the prospective newcomer.
Last edited by newcomerfromuk; 06-08-2011 at 11:10 AM..
UrbanCharlotte, thank you for contributing useful information that is factual andn setting the record straight for the few cronic complainers . You are great at furnishing non-biased information that is useful for the prospective newcomer.
Thanks for the kind words. I try to help when I can.
Dilworth and Elizabeth are not urban. Both were built specifically as suburban developments. I would not even rate either as particularly walkable since many streets in these places have no sidewalks.
Dilworth and Elizabeth are historic streetcar suburbs which are functionally urban. "Suburban" when used in relation to those neighborhoods is literal in its meaning and does not refer to the built environment. In their essence, the core of those neighborhoods are indeed urban and I don't know of these "many streets" that lack sidewalks in these neighborhoods. At any rate, urbancharlotte clearly demonstrated that Charlotte has neighborhoods which possess at least most of the characteristics of what she/he is looking for.
1 Old Homes (generally 30 years old or older)
2 Trees (NOT hardcore urban with only buildings and concrete)
3 Small Yards (generally 1/4 acre lots or smaller)
4 Walkable to schools (generally less than 15 minutes walk one-way)
5 Grocery stores (generally less than 10 minutes walk one-way to avoid carting groceries too far)
6 Entertainment/Museums (places like the Nature Musuem near Freedom Park, movie theatres, or the Neighborhood theatre in Noda)
7 Public Transportation (less than a 5 minute walk to the nearest bus/train line; preferably a line that has a 15 minute headway at the least)
8 Safe family-like place (again, not a hardcore "concrete jungle" with shootouts every night; a place where kids can ride their bikes/skateboards after dark)
Are there areas of Charlotte where this can be found? ABSOLUTELY!!! The rule of thumb is to live 4.5 miles or less from the corner of Trade and Tryon. This gives a person roughly 64 sq/miles of area to search. This is where "old Charlotte" exists. Obviously, the closer one is to Trade and Tryon (ie 2 miles or less) the more "urban-y" things get. However, urban-y can be found as far as 4.5 miles out. Eventhough 64 sq/miles isn't a whole lot in a city with nearly 300 sq/mi of real estate, just know that over 33% of Charlotte's population lives within that 64 sq/mi area (it does have greater density than the rest of the city; thus making it "urban-y"). Also, I can think of quite a few cities that don't even have 64 sq/miles of land (San Fran, Boston, Paris just to name a few). But then again, these are cities with well over 500,000 people in less than 64 sq/miles of land (super urban places which is NOT what the OP asked for).
Maybe its just me, but the OP was VERY clear. And YES, Charlotte has what the OP asked for.
Dilworth and Elizabeth are historic streetcar suburbs which are functionally urban. "Suburban" when used in relation to those neighborhoods is literal in its meaning and does not refer to the built environment. In their essence, the core of those neighborhoods are indeed urban and I don't know of these "many streets" that lack sidewalks in these neighborhoods. At any rate, urbancharlotte clearly demonstrated that Charlotte has neighborhoods which possess at least most of the characteristics of what she/he is looking for.
Exactly...let's look at Dilworth, for example. East Blvd was just narrowed to one lane in each direction between South Blvd and Scott to make it more pedestrian friendly. As for sidewalks.
East - check
Euclid - check
Lyndhurst- check
Dilworth East and West - check
Park - check
Tremont - check
Worthington- check
Kingston - check
Berkeley - check
Romany - check
Myrtle - check
Kenilworth - check
Cumberland - check
Exactly...let's look at Dilworth, for example. East Blvd was just narrowed to one lane in each direction between South Blvd and Scott to make it more pedestrian friendly. As for sidewalks.
East - check
Euclid - check
Lyndhurst- check
Dilworth East and West - check
Park - check
Tremont - check
Worthington- check
Kingston - check
Berkeley - check
Romany - check
Myrtle - check
Kenilworth - check
Cumberland - check
etc, etc...
I often drive thru East Blvd. when I'm in Charlotte and I've noticed that East Blvd. has been narrowed down to one lane in each direction, along with the bike lanes that have been installed along East Blvd., it is a nice area!
Yeah, they were close to wrapping up the overhaul of East Blvd when I moved. I lived on Euclid so I pretty much witnessed the daily progress. It would be awesome if a modern streetcar line would go down East again like it did when Dilworth was first established as a streetcar suburb.
East is much better now - they did a really nice job with the design. Including left-turn lanes where needed, but otherwise one-lane in each direction. The pedestrian-friendly medians make crossing the street much easier, which is great with Dilworth Elementary now being a neighborhood school. Traffic speeds are much calmer, and the added parking is a nice buffer between the street and sidewalk.
They did dig up some old tracks in the process...would love to have a streetcar line down East, up Kings past the Target, then up Charlottetown to Elizabeth...will never happen, though.
Adj. 1. urban - relating to or concerned with a city or densely populated area; "urban sociology"; "urban development"
This is the proper definition. Now, the OP may be thinking that it is something else...which is why we need their input as to what they are looking for when they say "urban".
London is urban. Chicago is urban. NYC is urban. Charlotte...not so much.
BTW: there are no complainers here. Just people arguing the definition of "urban". Again, what we need is the OP's definition/ requirements because we see that Charlotte simply does not fit the definition of "dense population" anywhere...
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