PlazaMidwoodGuy

This whole Ahoskie bypass thing strikes me as a prime example of the Eastern NC-centered mentality we have to deal with when it comes to road building in this state. Here you have a tiny little town where local politicians want to build a completely unnecessary bypass for "economic" reasons (and manage to funnel in the money for it), while the booming urban areas of the Piedmont choke on traffic and can't get decent roads. Business as usual "Down East."

Some more good news about NCDOT finally getting off its duff and doing something about Charlotte's dark interstates. Saturday's Observer detailed how the state plans to fix the burnt out lights along I-77 and I-85 throughout the county. This is in addition to the repairs that will be done to the I-277 loop, which were recently announced. The even better news is that the state isn't robbing Charlotte of road BUILDING money for these repairs the way it is for the I-277 lighting - the money will be coming from a maintenance fund, as it should. Apparently the first lights to be repaired are along I-77 at the Lasalle St. exit as early as next week. (As for myself, I'll believe it when I see the lights burning.) The article noted that, just as an example of the problem, there are at least 250 lights on I-77 between uptown and I-485. Only 63 of them are working, which means that 75% of them are not. Between Tyvola and Woodlawn Roads alone, only 9 of 53 lights are operable (83% burnt out)! The article states that Barry Moose, the NCDOT division engineer that oversees Charlotte, got into a van with other DOT engineers back in November and drove on Mecklenburg's interstates at night. One of the engineers quoted Moose as saying he wanted to "see the problem for himself" and that he was "very surprised and very concerned" to see the number of lights that were out. WHAT??! This has been an ongoing problem since at least the 1990s and Charlotte has been very vocal about the issue, so just how in the world can ANY of this come as a surprise to Barry Moose or anyone else? My jaw dropped even more when I read that the state doesn't even have a formal schedule for checking roadway lighting in Charlotte. Of course, they also mention that having our highway division's office way the heck out in Albemarle tends to mean we're out of sight, out of mind for DOT officials. (Who in the world decided that the middle of Stanly County was the best place to put the traffic division office for the state's largest metropolitan area?) In the Triangle, says the article, an annual inspection of highways is done that includes lighting. So, why isn't that the case here?? Furthermore, Triangle DOT traffic engineer Steve Johnson is quoted as saying that he doesn't remember a time when a large segment of a Raleigh-Durham area freeway was almost completely dark. For anyone who thinks that Charlotte isn't treated like the redheaded stepchild where roads and road maintenance are concerned, or that our sister cities in the Triangle don't get better service from the DOT, I think Mr. Johnson's quote pretty much blows a hole in their argument.

Yeah, that was really quirky yesterday morning. I spoke to my sister who lives in Union County who said that she was listening to a Charlotte radio station as she got ready for work around 6:30 AM and they said it was 39 so she dressed accordingly. Then once she got in her car the temperature gauge on her dashboard said 58 and she was like, "huh??" As dramatic as cold fronts are when they blast through and drop the temperature, warm fronts typically move very slowly and can often shift back and forth over an area throughout the course of a day and cause huge temperature variances over a very small geographical area. Regarding the snow, what a bummer that Charlotte got missed by that little surprise storm. Greensboro picked up a quick 2 inches!

I read on the Triangle Traffic Congestion thread that, in an effort to reduce congestion, Raleigh is embarking on a project to overhaul its entire traffic signal network by 2011. That made me wonder if Charlotte has similar plans to do anything along those lines EVER. I've long complained that this city seems to go out of its way to clog up streets and gum up traffic with its ill-timed signals. Lights that stay green forever for traffic that isn't there, left turn arrows that go green whether or not any cars are even IN the left turn lane, OR a total lack of left turn arrows at intersections that need them - practically forcing left turning traffic to run a red light because they can only turn when oncoming traffic finally stops, lights outside of center city that seem to be on timers 24/7 regardless of traffic flow. The list goes on and on. I think Charlotte could improve its air quality, help us all get better gas mileage and reduce the amount of time we lose sitting in traffic by doing a better job of timing and updating the signal system.

^^ How many trees are being saved vs. the number being ripped up by this "green" project?

That's certainly true. But these Union County residents keep electing officials that are just as pro-growth as anyone in Charlotte or Mecklenburg, if not more so. Until the good folks in Union (my native county) get fed up enough with the strain caused by explosive growth and start putting people in office who will learn to say "NO" to development for development's sake, nothing will change. In the last county commissioners election, did they not throw out all their reps that supported any sort of growth controls and elect 100% Republican candidates who ran on a "pro property rights" and "pro growth" platform? Naturally, Mecklenburg is guilty of much of the same mentality, but at least we have more infrastructure here to handle it (mostly). With the exception of Rea Rd. and Hwy. 74, the western part of Union Co. is nothing but 2-lane country roads that are overburdened with strip shopping centers and cookie cutter subdivisions, one after the other after the other. Furthermore, Union has serious water supply issues and problems with soils that won't perk and therefore require being connected to county or municipal sewer systems.

I for one am thrilled to hear the news about Fresh Market, especially after Whole Foods bailed on that location (their loss). Not only do I like Fresh Market, it's a North Carolina-based company and I support keeping my dollars close to home whenever possible.

"Needed to be done??" There was a NEED to cut down dozens of mature hardwood trees? You don't necessarily have to mow down existing trees in order to "transform" an area. IMO, this entire project could've been designed so that the trees AND the development could exist side by side. Just because trees are in an urban area doesn't mean they're expendable. Or at least, it shouldn't. Sorry for the rant, but tree preservation is a big deal with me, and I've watched far too many developments in the city (even in-fill projects that are otherwise good) rip up trees that really could've been incorporated or worked around.

^^ Hysterical! Ah, the optimism of the "Jet Age." One of my favorite things is when he says that advances in technology will give us more time for leisure in the future. Little did they know that we Americans would actually be working MORE! How times (and reality) have changed.

Actually, with all due respect, they don't. The state installed the lights that line I-277, I-77 and I-85 in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. Therefore it is, and always has been, the state's responsibility to MAINTAIN them. I can't speak to why lights weren't incorporated into the design of some state-maintained highways in Raleigh or Durham or any other city in North Carolina, for that matter. But if you build it, then you have the responsibility of maintaining it. The fact that NCDOT has neglected the highway lights in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County since the 1980's has only made the problem worse and caused the repairs to be more costly to taxpayers. Had they kept these lights and their circuitry in proper working order over the last 20 years, they wouldn't be faced with suddenly having to spend ridiculous amounts of money to repair them! Charlotte's freeways have been in the dark since WAY before there was a budget crisis in Raleigh. This is not a new issue, nor is it a complicated one. Or at least, it shouldn't be. And now the state says our particular highway division should spend money allocated for road building by the asinine "equity formula" (as dictated by the Down East-controlled legislature) for the repair and maintenance of lights?! Meanwhile, we get to choose which controlled access freeways we want to drive between tobacco farms in eastern NC.

I'm a die hard Democrat and I gotta tell ya - unless I'm missing some of the facts, this is a fiasco! I think the Democratic Party in Mecklenburg County has virtually guaranteed that a Republican sheriff will be elected once Mackey finishes his term and has done serious damage to its reputation. The candidate who CLEARLY was the more qualified and experienced of the two (Bailey) was thrown under the bus. I hope I'm wrong and I hope there's something I'm missing that hasn't come to light yet, but I think the Meck County Democratic Party has just inflicted a serious wound on itself.

There was a report on News14 Carolina tonight that said the City of Charlotte is looking at legal options against the state due to the fact that they refuse to fix our burned-out interstate lights and signs. As has been discussed earlier in this thread, the NCDOT wants Charlotte to use money from our local road-building fund to repair the lights instead of the state addressing it as a maintenance issue. They showed a City Council meeting and a visibly ticked off Mayor McCrory saying he was unaware of any other city in the nation of this size that didn't have its highways and road signs lit, as well as mentioning the safety issues of our dark interstates. He lamented the lack of response on the part of the NCDOT central office in Raleigh where this ongoing problem is concerned.

Is that the case? My impression was that the problem started when Bruton began moving dirt for the drag strip without first getting a building permit. When Concord reminded him of that, he got huffy and the whole pi**ing contest started. Yes, it's his land, but he chose to ignore the city when they told him he must get the building permit in place first. Correct me if I'm wrong in that sequence of events. It just seems to me that Bruton Smith has a history of not playing by the rules and feels he's above them. I cite the incident a few years back when his people "accidentally" cut down the trees that he was told to replant and he refused. But as we all know, there's more than enough blame to go around in this whole ridiculous fiasco.

While it certainly does seem there are fewer exclusively gay venues (bars. bookstores, etc.) in Charlotte now than there used to be, is that necessarily a local phenomenon or is it happening in cities all over the country? I don't know the answer to the question, but I ask it due to the fact that socializing (gay and straight alike) has changed quite a bit in the last decade or so. Maybe part of it is due to bars becoming more "mixed" as straight people (most of them, anyway) become more tolerant and less homophobic, so gays and lesbians don't feel they only have the option of socializing in bars that are strictly gay. In addition, I think the Internet has had a profound effect on the way people of all sexual orientations go about socializing. So maybe going to bars has become less about finding new friends (for whatever purpose) and more about being a place to just go have fun with the social circle you already have - and you don't necessarily have to be in a 100% gay (or straight) place to do that. Obviously, that's not always the case and I'm generalizing a bit, but the point is that socializing has changed a lot over the last few years, especially in the younger age groups. And in Charlotte, I think that bars used to be about THE only place you could safely meet other gay people. But that's really not the case anymore, so maybe that makes our local gay/lesbian community feel less of a need to go out clubbing in order to make friends and acquaintances. Thoughts?

Ah yes, the Odyssey. It was in the Zayre Shopping Center at the intersection of The Plaza and Eastway. For a time in the early 80's the Dixie Electric Company - a straight bar popular with teens and 20-somethings - was a couple of doors down. I vividly remember standing in line to get into the Odyssey on more than one occasion while kids going into Dixie Electric walked or drove by and yelled anti-gay slurs at us. Nice. At some point in the late 80's it changed names to Charades. The descriptions of the layout of the bar and the dance floor brought back some fun memories of those long-ago days. I also remember one of the coolest things was a column of flashing lights that used to descend periodically from the ceiling into the middle of the dance floor, right into the crowd. Ahh, good times.

To take the discussion of local supermarkets in a bit of a different direction, can anyone shed light on why some grocery stores now play pop music on their muzak? I can't speak to other chains, but I know that Harris-Teeter does this in pretty much every one of the stores I frequent in Charlotte. I even asked the manager of my neighborhood H-T about this one day and he didn't know the answer. Call me an old fuddy duddy if you want, but I don't for the life of me see how Top-40 pop is conducive to grocery shopping for anyone over the age of 20-something. Whatever happened to just generic canned background music or something totally innocuous like jazz or classical? I go to the grocery store to buy groceries, not to listen to Kiss 95.1 (or the muzak equivalent of it). Nice, pleasing background music is fine. Christina Aguilara and Boyz II Men are not. Can this honestly be the result of market research?

Chili's?? Please say it ain't so!

Sorry, I disagree that it was impossible to save them. Developers can find ways to accommodate trees if they want to badly enough, even if it means changing some of the footprints or designs of particular buildings within a project. They simply see them as "in the way" and mow them down. And as you saw, these weren't little trees. We're talking mature 50-100 year old oaks and other hardwoods.

I will say this about the Morningside project: they have cut down WWAAAYY more mature trees than I think was absolutely necessary and I'm not happy about that in the least!

There is a bypass around Laurinburg and Maxton but the section in western Scotland between the Richmond County line and Laurinburg is still a regular highway. I don't know about the Wadesboro bypass - hopefully ChiefJoJo or someone else may have some info on that. While it would certainly be nice to have the entire length of US 74 from Charlotte to Wilmington as freeway, the only two really bad sections (at least to me) are the 2-lane part in Robeson County and the stretch from Charlotte through Monroe. The other small towns like Wingate, Marshville and Wadesboro are a piece of cake to get through, comparatively speaking.

As a native of Union County, I know several back roads that get me around the stretch from Indian Trail to Marshville without the agony of US 74. And you're right, I don't want to disclose them!! While I've taken Hwy. 218 numerous times, it seems to have been discovered by many Charlotte area drivers and isn't the secret it used to be, though it's still not a bad route. The trouble on that road comes when you get stuck behind a tractor or Maw-Maw doing 30 mph in her Buick LeSabre, with no passing lanes for miles at a time. I used to take Providence Road to Weddington and jump over to Monroe on Hwy. 84. But with the population explosion and the proliferation of cookie cutter McMansions in that area of Union County, it's no longer much of a "bypass."

^^It's actually the NC Baptist Association that's going to kick out Myers Park Baptist. They left the SBC (Southern Baptist Convention) many years ago. From the stories I've heard, it was sometime in the late 1960s or early 1970s and it was due to conflict over integration. Someone might be able to clarify that, however. MP Baptist has always worn the fact that they left the SBC as a sort of badge of honor, and something tells me they will do the same with the split from the NC association. They've always marched to their own drummer and I say "GOOD FOR THEM!"

grodney, Thanks for the update on US 74 down east. I typically travel that road a few times a year going from Charlotte to the Wilmington area and back, so eliminating the 2-lane section through Robeson County is going to make the trip much easier. However, the worst part of the entire drive is still the nightmare known as Union County. If we can just get the Monroe Bypass built, the drive from Charlotte to Wilmington will be a breeze. Of course, I maintain that I won't drive on a completed bypass in Union County in my lifetime!

How is this Mayor McCrory's fault? It is the responsibility of the state to maintain these lights, not the City of Charlotte. And now NCDOT tells Charlotte it needs to use part of its share of state road-building money to cover the cost of light repair and replacement. I'm certainly NOT a Pat McCrory fan, but while he may be tactless I think he has every right to be angry and frustrated about this situation and to say so - especially after we've been dealing with burned out lights on our local freeways for many years. If anything, I don't think the city and its leaders have been vocal ENOUGH about the lighting situation. Charlotte has a long history of being short-changed when it comes to getting money from the NC Legislature for anything, especially highway funds. It doesn't matter whether our local officials kiss up to the folks in Raleigh or are blunt with them. Either way we're labeled the "Great State of Mecklenburg" and we always struggle to get our share of state funds.

I can't tell you how happy I am that Zada Janes is now open! This is a welcome addition not only to the Plaza-Midwood dining scene, but to the city as a whole. I've always thought Charlotte lacked a good breakfast restaurant that was more than a greasy spoon diner. Nothing wrong with greasy spoons mind you, but sometimes you're in the mood for something a little less "greasy." To me it's along the same lines as the Flying Biscuit in Atlanta in that it's good food for not a lot of money and there's actually some creativity to the menu AND the space. They serve breakfast right up until 3:00 PM. I was just in there today and they say they may start opening for dinner in a couple of months, although they want to get their groove going with the b'fast thing before they look at expanding to a dinner menu. But there's something to be said for doing just one thing and doing it well, so I'd be happy for it to stay a strictly breakfast cafe. I just hope there's enough business for that niche because Charlotteans have never struck me as a breakfast-y bunch (sadly).