How did you learn about Charlotte? (Raleigh, Durham: fit in, transplants, lease)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Charlotte was virtually an unknown city/metro on the national and global scene less than 25 years ago. Just wondering when it did it register a signal on your radar as a place of interest, especially if you're from out of state or region.
I was raised in NC so it's quite obvious that Charlotte has been part of the discussion since youth, although most of my friends from eastern NC ended up in Raleigh/Durham or DC.
Job 'pushed' me into Charlotte. I used to be in DC and my contract was up, so I met the Director of a company who had bagged a project for TIAA-CREF. We met in Arlington and he said I dont want you to agree to a relocation till you have seen Charlotte. He said there are '4' highrises in Charlotte and its kind of a 'one-pony' town (I wonder what would be the reaction if he ever met any of the CD regulars!!!
But then both my job contract and lease were almost up. Thus I did not have time to visit Charlotte, but packed my bags and left only to land here and stay with a stranger who advertised for a room mate on Craigslist. It felt like an adventure lol
And the thing I looked forward to on the weekends was a trip to Boardwalk Billys....felt right at home in a bar full of happy strangers
Charlotte was virtually an unknown city/metro on the national and global scene less than 25 years ago. Just wondering when it did it register a signal on your radar as a place of interest, especially if you're from out of state or region.
I was raised in NC so it's quite obvious that Charlotte has been part of the discussion since youth, although most of my friends from eastern NC ended up in Raleigh/Durham or DC.
Charlotte began to appear on the national radar once IBM began relocating a division of their work to the University section of town back in the 1970's.
A company of their then stature doing such a thing piqued other large companies interest in our friendly little (at that time) town
Couple that with NASCAR exploding onto the national stage with tv coverage rivaling Monday Night Football by the early 1980's, and the race was on, so to speak
By the late 80's Charlotte was humming along and growing like a weed - the NBA had arrived and the NFL was coming.
Like many mid level companies looking for a great place to build, my husbands company recruited him and others to transfer to new offices here.
I had to look at a map to figure out where we were going, had no clue at that time where in NC Charlotte was!
Oh, and we arrived late at night, so the next morning I flung open the hotel room curtains to see the mountains!
What a shock and disappointment to discover you can't see them here, LOLOLOLOL.
Charlotte was virtually an unknown city/metro on the national and global scene less than 25 years ago.
Is Charlotte, NC really on the National and Global scene? Anyways, I grew up here so obviously I know about the place. My mother learned of Charlotte through her aunts and decided to come here in the early 1980s from Queens, NY (gave up a nice rent controlled place to do so ). As a New Yorker, she HATED Charlotte though it did grow on her over the years (as most places do after many years).
The biggest shock for me is that so many other New Yorkers came after folks like my mother. In a way, people like my mother paved the way for transplants of today. The earlier transplants changed Charlotte's identity as well as its mentality. Think of it this way. I grew up in the south, but I was not raised by a southerner. Therefore, many of the traditional "southern ways" of doing things is not a part of who I am.
I'm a black male who had a single black mother who introduced me to rock music. Moms also dated interracially like it was nothing (something that was a BIG "no no" for black females in the south during the 1980s). She spoke "too proper" (as many southern black associates would describe). She sent me to Catholic School because she didn't like how CMS was ran. Though she passed away a few years back, she would fit in so much more with the Charlotte of 2012 than she ever did with the Charlotte she moved to.
Today, I see many young black females with non-black boy friends. Here recently, I attended a Coldplay concert at Time Warner and I was by no means the only black fan in the house. I guess what I am trying to say is that everyday, I see Charlotte headed towards the mentality that my mother brought here nearly 30 years ago (and she was considered a weirdo in Charlotte back then). Today, it is now okay to be that white guy with a black girlfriend and 12 inch subwoofers in your trunk. Today, it is okay to be that black dude with skinny jeans and a skateboard.
IMO, many of these rapid changes that I've seen can be attributed to the rapid influx of people with different backgrounds. For that, I hope growth in Charlotte never ends. We're still southern, we're just "New South" and there's nothing wrong with that at all.
Is Charlotte, NC really on the National and Global scene? Anyways, I grew up here so obviously I know about the place. My mother learned of Charlotte through her aunts and decided to come here in the early 1980s from Queens, NY (gave up a nice rent controlled place to do so ). As a New Yorker, she HATED Charlotte though it did grow on her over the years (as most places do after many years).
The biggest shock for me is that so many other New Yorkers came after folks like my mother. In a way, people like my mother paved the way for transplants of today. The earlier transplants changed Charlotte's identity as well as its mentality. Think of it this way. I grew up in the south, but I was not raised by a southerner. Therefore, many of the traditional "southern ways" of doing things is not a part of who I am.
I'm a black male who had a single black mother who introduced me to rock music. Moms also dated interracially like it was nothing (something that was a BIG "no no" for black females in the south during the 1980s). She spoke "too proper" (as many southern black associates would describe). She sent me to Catholic School because she didn't like how CMS was ran. Though she passed away a few years back, she would fit in so much more with the Charlotte of 2012 than she ever did with the Charlotte she moved to.
Today, I see many young black females with non-black boy friends. Here recently, I attended a Coldplay concert at Time Warner and I was by no means the only black fan in the house. I guess what I am trying to say is that everyday, I see Charlotte headed towards the mentality that my mother brought here nearly 30 years ago (and she was considered a weirdo in Charlotte back then). Today, it is now okay to be that white guy with a black girlfriend and 12 inch subwoofers in your trunk. Today, it is okay to be that black dude with skinny jeans and a skateboard.
IMO, many of these rapid changes that I've seen can be attributed to the rapid influx of people with different backgrounds. For that, I hope growth in Charlotte never ends. We're still southern, we're just "New South" and there's nothing wrong with that at all.
Just another perspective...
I never saw an interracial couple in my life UNTIL I moved to Charlotte in 1988.
And they seemed to be everywhere! Carowinds, the grocery store, CHURCH - this was huge for me
Since that time it has always seemed to me that Charlotte is a very welcoming place
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,814 posts, read 34,725,598 times
Reputation: 10256
My family moved from Michigan to the South Jersey suburbs of Philadelphia in '64. The mills were shutting down & moving to NC, followed by most of the mill workers. Philadelphia took a huge population hit. It was well known that a lot of the mills & mill workers ended up near Charlotte. I knew lots of North Carolina natives or their children or grandchildren. The Piedmont cities were not seen as strange far-away places.
I was married to a military man and the Marine Corps took me to some very "strange" places...hahaha....strange for this city girl who never even went to the Chicago suburbs...(as far as the extent of my 'rural living' experiences were concerned)
Living in Beaufort, SC and not making enough money to live on, my then-husband's parents suggested Charlotte which they had come through on their way to Beaufort from the Pittsburgh area. Came up, visited, were overwhelmed at the "NOW HIRING" signs on every store...the rest is history. That was 1989. And, no, I had never heard of Charlotte before that time.
PS: it took him about a year to move back to Beaufort; couldn't handle the "city" life of Charlotte
Is Charlotte, NC really on the National and Global scene? Anyways, I grew up here so obviously I know about the place. My mother learned of Charlotte through her aunts and decided to come here in the early 1980s from Queens, NY (gave up a nice rent controlled place to do so ). As a New Yorker, she HATED Charlotte though it did grow on her over the years (as most places do after many years).
The biggest shock for me is that so many other New Yorkers came after folks like my mother. In a way, people like my mother paved the way for transplants of today. The earlier transplants changed Charlotte's identity as well as its mentality. Think of it this way. I grew up in the south, but I was not raised by a southerner. Therefore, many of the traditional "southern ways" of doing things is not a part of who I am.
I'm a black male who had a single black mother who introduced me to rock music. Moms also dated interracially like it was nothing (something that was a BIG "no no" for black females in the south during the 1980s). She spoke "too proper" (as many southern black associates would describe). She sent me to Catholic School because she didn't like how CMS was ran. Though she passed away a few years back, she would fit in so much more with the Charlotte of 2012 than she ever did with the Charlotte she moved to.
Today, I see many young black females with non-black boy friends. Here recently, I attended a Coldplay concert at Time Warner and I was by no means the only black fan in the house. I guess what I am trying to say is that everyday, I see Charlotte headed towards the mentality that my mother brought here nearly 30 years ago (and she was considered a weirdo in Charlotte back then). Today, it is now okay to be that white guy with a black girlfriend and 12 inch subwoofers in your trunk. Today, it is okay to be that black dude with skinny jeans and a skateboard.
IMO, many of these rapid changes that I've seen can be attributed to the rapid influx of people with different backgrounds. For that, I hope growth in Charlotte never ends. We're still southern, we're just "New South" and there's nothing wrong with that at all.
urban...have to say that I was shocked when I came here that there weren't MORE inter-racial couples and people from other countries. Could not understand where all the culture was.....
I was born in Wilkes and Charlotte's WBTV was one of two stations we could get almost clearly. The other station was WSJS in Winston Salem. Charlotte was the largest city in North Carolina that no one wanted any part of being anywere near. It was almost like a foreign country.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
(I wonder what would be the reaction if he ever met any of the CD regulars!!! 
). As a New Yorker, she HATED Charlotte though it did grow on her over the years (as most places do after many years).
