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Northerners, Midwesterners, Old South, Nascar, loss of southern accent, and diversity, is the makeup of Charlotte. Geographically, Charlotte is in the South, but it is not southern like Charleston or Savannah.
Charlotte is a microcosm of America. Many cultures living in an area creating many identities. So, overall, what will the Queen City be known for in the future?
With so many transplants will we be known other than a banking center, or a city of the New South? What factors or influences can/will change the perception of the city, or is everything fine as it is? Your thoughts…
Charlotte foolishly shucked her Southern heritage when she reinvented herself; she quickly adopted the "we're the New South" nonclementure. As a consequence, the City attached herself to frivolous things, since they recognized that they could not be a City without a culture, yet they sought not to cling to her past. This has, in some ways, made the City come across as having a superficial facade.
The only appropriate, and substantial, contributions to the City's culture come in the form of embracing her Black American past - the vast majority of which are substantial. Unfortunately, outside of NASCAR, the City has largely shucked her European heritage.
The old era of the Belks, Levines, Grahams and banking is fading. But I think the Charlotte region continues to call to people who want to be do-ers. I mostly get the feeling from my encounters with contractors and customer - facing employees that people want to work and achieve something.
Whereas you can drive to some parts of the USA and quickly get that humdrum feeling... Nothing really happens here, the subsequent generation is content to inherit what is there and just keep it afloat. I think there is a broader acceptance of change and growth here.
Cities all around the world were built by a mix of immigrants. It might take several hundred years for all of that to gel into a common culture.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hickoryfan
Northerners, Midwesterners, Old South, Nascar, loss of southern accent, and diversity, is the makeup of Charlotte. Geographically, Charlotte is in the South, but it is not southern like Charleston or Savannah.
Charlotte is a microcosm of America. Many cultures living in an area creating many identities. So, overall, what will the Queen City be known for in the future?
With so many transplants will we be known other than a banking center, or a city of the New South? What factors or influences can/will change the perception of the city, or is everything fine as it is? Your thoughts…
The "non-southern" accent that I hear natives speaking most often is MidAtlantic, which is most similar to Baltimore and Philadelphia, minus some verbal quirks that each has.
Charlotte should go with it's own history, which is intertwined with the MidAtlantic. Cripes, the Cherryville New Years Shooters have a website. On the website is a history of the group with ties shown to the Philadelphia Mummers. Nothing wrong with that.
The old era of the Belks, Levines, Grahams and banking is fading. But I think the Charlotte region continues to call to people who want to be do-ers. I mostly get the feeling from my encounters with contractors and customer - facing employees that people want to work and achieve something.
Whereas you can drive to some parts of the USA and quickly get that humdrum feeling... Nothing really happens here, the subsequent generation is content to inherit what is there and just keep it afloat. I think there is a broader acceptance of change and growth here.
Cities all around the world were built by a mix of immigrants. It might take several hundred years for all of that to gel into a common culture.
Great post, but here's what's lacking: a "cohesive" Charlotte. Whereas ethnic groups in Philadelphia identified as Philadelphians, and the same of New York, Boston, etc., CLT shucked her European past. The Black tradition in CLT was preserved, and it's good that it was, but CLT's European roots were shucked, and it shows. In other words, it's not as if new Charlotteans see themselves identifying with, or bragging on, Anderson's Pecan Pie. Newbies to Gaston might brag on Kyle Fletchers or Tony's Ice Cream, but there's no equivalent in CLT. There's a lack of cohesion in CLT that's (thankfully) not present in Gaston County.
Place more cops uptown, get rid of the homeless and panhandlers, and put qualified, intelligent people in office that care about the "whole" community and not "just people that look like them." Finally, make the streets safer by actually keeping thugs and hardened criminals behind bars and not releasing them back on the streets with only a gentle slap on the hand by inept judges. As it is, we seem to be a world class city ran by 3rd world invaders. Whether we have an image or not, we are on the top in regards to being one of the countries fastest growing cities. Our image is "the place where everyone wants to move." That should be good enough. That speaks on it's own. Just make central Charlotte a fun place that is safe and inviting and not a place where you have to watch your back around the corner where its dark and not crowded.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Originally Posted by NDL
Great post, but here's what's lacking: a "cohesive" Charlotte. Whereas ethnic groups in Philadelphia identified as Philadelphians, and the same of New York, Boston, etc., CLT shucked her European past. The Black tradition in CLT was preserved, and it's good that it was, but CLT's European roots were shucked, and it shows. In other words, it's not as if new Charlotteans see themselves identifying with, or bragging on, Anderson's Pecan Pie. Newbies to Gaston might brag on Kyle Fletchers or Tony's Ice Cream, but there's no equivalent in CLT. There's a lack of cohesion in CLT that's (thankfully) not present in Gaston County.
Philadelphia isn't the best place to look at for that example. It was a city of neighborhoods, made up, primarily, of segregated ethnic groups. Heck, Chris Matthews came from an Irish neighborhood and still speaks with the Irish version of the Philadelphia accent. Yes, they self identify as Philadelphians to outsiders. To other locals they self identify as being from their neighborhood, which is like saying I'm Irish, Polish, Chinese, Italian, etc. In recent years, the ethnic neighborhoods are lessening, but they still exist.
You're comparing Charlotte to port cities. Until fairly recently, port cities were more likely to get ethnic immigrants in large numbers, whereas the Charlotte area got 2nd or 3rd generations of those groups.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Originally Posted by OldEm
sb - I think that for most people looking at Charlotte from a distance, would see it as "large up-and-coming Southern Generic City" that's not Atlanta!
Philadelphia isn't the best place to look at for that example. It was a city of neighborhoods, made up, primarily, of segregated ethnic groups. Heck, Chris Matthews came from an Irish neighborhood and still speaks with the Irish version of the Philadelphia accent. Yes, they self identify as Philadelphians to outsiders. To other locals they self identify as being from their neighborhood, which is like saying I'm Irish, Polish, Chinese, Italian, etc. In recent years, the ethnic neighborhoods are lessening, but they still exist.
You're comparing Charlotte to port cities. Until fairly recently, port cities were more likely to get ethnic immigrants in large numbers, whereas the Charlotte area got 2nd or 3rd generations of those groups.
And until after WWI, ethnic immigrants in the Charlotte were predominately Scots, Irish, English, German, French, Swiss, and Welch for which most started coming in the mid 1700s. We were also predominately Protestant and shared very similar cultures unlike the Italians (including Sicilians), Ukrainians, Irish, Jews, Poles, and Chinese for which lived in their ethnic own communities for security and the preservation of cultural lifestyles.
Northeastern cities are still segregated to a large extent by culture which is fine, but didn't occur in the south as we mostly shared similar cultural lifestyles. The only way that we can identify a culture, if anyone cares, if by the last name. If it doesn't end in an "A, I, O, or U", it is likely you are of Western European heritage. Of course, that is changing and I tend to appreciate our foreign newcomers more than I do those that have always been here. Too many Americans want to be become part of a European culture that was cruel, dominating, and that time has passed and that they know nothing about. I believe that most of us living here have evolved beyond cultural restrictions and see and judge people on how they behave within the norms of our society as it was before the very recent downward spiral.
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