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Despite a constant drumbeat (e.g. "Charlotte's got a lot) from the marketeers that Charlotte employs, the New York Times thought this is why Amazon may have overlooked the Queen City:
"...the winning region will also have the restaurants, outdoor recreation, cultural attractions and general cool of Amazon’s first home, Seattle. Urban economists suggest that such amenities are important to explaining the allure of cities. We asked the economist David Albouy to rank these metro areas for us with an index he uses to measure how much people would be willing to sacrifice, in terms of housing costs and commutes, to live in desirable places. On that basis, we cut Charlotte, N.C., and Indianapolis, because they rank lower on the cultural edginess that attracts young, educated workers."
As much as I love Charlotte, I have to agree with the above conclusions.
My feelings are not the result of N.E. snobbery, as I see Savannah, Charleston, and even Asheville, as "destination spots;" places to spend my recreational time and money. And, even though Greenville is small, there are promising elements and aspects of their downtown that hold promise for tomorrow. Sadly, I don't feel this way about Charlotte, in spite of (sometimes ridiculously exaggerated) marketing schemes that Charlotte employs.
That "people continue to move to Charlotte," does not negate any of my feelings. I'd love to see the City hold back some growth, while working on building quality developments that would build Charlotte's brand, without having to rely upon clever marketing schemes.
Charlotte has a lot of good, but now's the time for the City to truly set itself apart. I truly hope that the upcoming River District fully incorporates the Catawba River into it's final design (in a meaningful way - not a token gesture), along with pedestrian friendly elements along with a fully functioning light rail.
I agree with the sentiments as well. Charlotte is a great place to live, but it is very average. I'm happy here, but when people come to visit us, we don't really have anything their city doesn't - that's what we could benefit from.
As far as HQ2, COL is already on the upswing and I'm glad the chances of Amazon choosing Charlotte are slim-to-none. Although it would be great for the economy down the road (years), lots of us "average" folks would suffer and the suburbs would only spread more and more.
But I'm happy we dodged the Amazon HQ which would've increased our taxes and make traffic worst. Too big to swallow for our city.
Amazon hasn't selected the city for HQ2. This is an older NY Times article where they tried to guess where it might end up and they guessed Denver. They got a lot of click and advertising dollars, so they've been running multiple articles where they make a guess. A month after that article, they ran another article and guessed Pittsburgh. Every news site has made a guess ranging from Austin to Denver to Seattle to New York to Boston to Dallas to Atlanta, etc.... nobody knows but Amazon.
Publicly, Amazon has not ruled out Charlotte nor any cities to date. AMZN may not and probably won't select Detroit, but the Motor City's video quality trumps others seen and copied since it was initially put online:
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NDL
Despite a constant drumbeat (e.g. "Charlotte's got a lot) from the marketeers that Charlotte employs, the New York Times thought this is why Amazon may have overlooked the Queen City:
"...the winning region will also have the restaurants, outdoor recreation, cultural attractions and general cool of Amazon’s first home, Seattle. Urban economists suggest that such amenities are important to explaining the allure of cities. We asked the economist David Albouy to rank these metro areas for us with an index he uses to measure how much people would be willing to sacrifice, in terms of housing costs and commutes, to live in desirable places. On that basis, we cut Charlotte, N.C., and Indianapolis, because they rank lower on the cultural edginess that attracts young, educated workers."
As much as I love Charlotte, I have to agree with the above conclusions.
My feelings are not the result of N.E. snobbery, as I see Savannah, Charleston, and even Asheville, as "destination spots;" places to spend my recreational time and money. And, even though Greenville is small, there are promising elements and aspects of their downtown that hold promise for tomorrow. Sadly, I don't feel this way about Charlotte, in spite of (sometimes ridiculously exaggerated) marketing schemes that Charlotte employs.
That "people continue to move to Charlotte," does not negate any of my feelings. I'd love to see the City hold back some growth, while working on building quality developments that would build Charlotte's brand, without having to rely upon clever marketing schemes.
Charlotte has a lot of good, but now's the time for the City to truly set itself apart. I truly hope that the upcoming River District fully incorporates the Catawba River into it's final design (in a meaningful way - not a token gesture), along with pedestrian friendly elements along with a fully functioning light rail.
This is just another newspaper guess. Nobody won or lost yet.
Charlotte needs to work with the outlying areas to build the area's brand. They should look at history to build some things to catch the interest of tourists & residents & Charlotte city officials need to talk to the TV stations & tell them to quit playing favorites with the local areas. When everyone is given the same treatment, it helps the whole area.
"...the winning region will also have the restaurants, outdoor recreation, cultural attractions and general cool of Amazon’s first home, Seattle..."
Charlotte has the requisite attractions in small numbers, no matter how much requisite cool its exurbanites think they think they exude. Charlotte had little to offer 35 years ago. It has even less today.
I am sort of glad that Charlotte isn't on top. I wouldn't want to see Charlotte change its ways (a good mix of city, country, exotic, etc) to accommodate a bunch of northeaster techno snowflakes. We don't need Amazon for greatness. It is coming as projected by economists and according to them, we can expect to be on top in regards to the fastest growing city in the U.S.for the next decade. I expect the city to grow in the correct manner and I do have faith that it will. I too like Greenville, but it is 1/10 the size of Charlotte. And Charlotte has lots going on, but we are so spread out, it is in all over our widespread metro, not just in a 5 block area.
Last edited by Sheriff of London; 11-06-2017 at 02:57 PM..
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