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being in the piedmont, charlotte naturally has more beauty, but that's about it. this isn't a fair fight at all. a more accurate comparison would be houston vs atlanta..oh, wait...nevermind
As a Charlotte resident who is currently looking to relocate, my vote would be for Houston (given the 2 choices). Atlanta won out for me over Tx just due to flatlands and temps. But don't be fooled by the light rail hype in charlotte. If you do not live in a very specific area of the city(southwest) it will be of no use to you, particularly if you need to get anywhere other than uptown (downtown). And there really isn't great nightlife or variety of activities for families or singles. Just as much as any other city (movies, restaurants - of which again there is no great variety, parks, museums) but the job market would prob serve you much better in Houston (or even Raleigh for that matter). And while I don't personally have children, I am underwhelmed by CMS from what I hear from friends. As far as traffic, it's not the "nightmare" that NYC, Atlanta or LA may bring but it's certainly not all peachy either. You have 85 which even with 2-4 lanes backs up as ppl seem generally confused about they're going, 77 which continually cuts out & adds lanes up and down causing bottlenecking and 485 which 1st of all is backwards (you have to go south to seemingly get north and vice versa) and not even complete. And with any larger city with rush hour you will get traffic, more so in Charlotte b/c public trans is a joke.
I'd choose Charlotte. I have lived in Houston and it wasn't my cup of tea. While Charlotte isn't my first choice in NC, I'd definitely choose it over Houston.
Two totally different cities. One is a major city, the other is a rising mid-size city. I wouldn't rule out moving to either of them, but there are other cities in their respective regions that I'd much rather live in.
Also, Charlotte may not be close to the coast, but it can be affected by hurricanes too. Anyone remember the damage Hurricane Hugo did to Charlotte back in 1989?
I think Charlotte is friendlier for families, but there are plenty of family friendly suburbs of Houston. As for beaches and mountains, Houston is closer to the gulf, Charlotte is about 3 hrs from the ocean. NC beaches >>>>> Texas Beaches any day (with the exception of South Padre). Charlotte is closer to the mountains if that's your thing.
Truth be told, Houston trumps Charlotte in terms of amenities due to it being a much larger city and metro area. To me, the only thing Charlotte can beat Houston in (and again, this is a personal preference, so I don't want to hear it from the Houston posters) is natural beauty and proximity to the East Coast. Since I prefer the Piedmont region and the Northeast, that would be a huge advantage for me, since right now, Charlotte is too small for me and I'd be hitting up I-85 or the Airport as much as I could to go somewhere else on the weekends.
The person stating that the Charlotte LRT was "garbage as well" is from NYC, which is one of the very few cities you don't even need to own a car in because their subway system is incredible. NYC has also had over 100 years to develop it's rail. Charlotte's rail system opened in 2007, Houston's opened in 2003.
The thing to examine is the fact that Charlotte's LRT is dedicated right of way, instead of mixed in with traffic like Houston's, which makes it much faster and, obviously, less dangerous to cars and pedestrians. Considering the size of Houston versus that of Charlotte, Houston also needs a lot more expansion miles to service their city and it's suburbs. Both are currently expanding by roughly the same number of miles over the next few years.
Charlotte seemed exceptionally boring to me for a city its size. It is WAY more dull than its two closest "peer cities," Austin and Nashville.
Houston, on the other hand, is just a great city all-around. Warm weather, awesome nightlife, and believe it or not, they have some of the hottest chicks in the country outside of SoCal, SoFla, and Phoenix-Scottsdale. The economy in Houston is much larger and much more diversified as well, which is why they didn't get nailed by the financial crisis like Charlotte did.
I"d go with Charlotte, closer to the mountains in addition to beaches, and also very importnatly the lack of hurricanes.
Charlotte is due north of the South Carolina bight, an express train for hurricanes.
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Originally Posted by blkgiraffe
It doesn't interfere with traffic like Metro does.
Pedestrian crosswalks interfere with traffic. Let's build skybridges like in Las Vegas instead!
Seriously, this car-centric philosophy must be stopped. Cars should and have to share the road with bicycles, city busses, and in some cases light rail. The amount of infrastructure needed to make roads for private automobiles only would be enormous and cost prohibitive!
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