geekUSA1981

For what it's worth... Though I'm not holding my breath. Even after the vote in March, who knows how long until there will actually be bulldozers, cranes, etc on the site. Have the feeling there will be a lone UNCC building floating amongst a sea of parked cars for a few years, at least.

Since the generic "SouthEnd" thread has been archived, guess I'll throw this in here: While on the way to work this a.m., noticed (nice-looking) signage reading "1300 SouthEnd Tavern" on the side of the building where the Original Pancake House used to be. I remember the controversy and protest surrounding having a bar underneath the residences being discussed in the old thread. Looks like the tavern people won. Should have a fairly steady supply of customers from the Arlington, 1200 SouthEnd, the (presumably) hideous Crescent apartment project, and the apartments going up at the corner of Tryon and Bland ( The Reserve--?).

When something like this happens, does CATS hit up the driver's insurance company for all repairs to the train? I guess same would go for when a car hits a CATS bus. If CATS is as fault in an accident, surely their insurance takes car of damages to the motorist. Does it work the other way when a CATS vehicle is damaged by a motorist?

Just a correction: The schools in Orlando are part of the county system. It's OCPS = Orange County Public Schools.

Actually, I don't believe they're priced that much more, if any, above most other theater chains. There used to be one in Orlando that I went to. I don't remember being bowled over by the ticket prices. And after just checking different locations/prices at their website, prices seem to be in line with the city/market. $9.25 in West Palm Beach, $9 in Tampa, $8 in Memphis. Seeing as how most theaters in Charlotte are $8 - $9 (frickin' AMC is $9! on the w-ends), I would guess Muvico will end up being $9 - $9.50, maybe $10. So, a bit more than the norm, but certainly not $15 a ticket, or enough to "out price" the average theater-goer.

The site has since been updated with a lot more, including a 47 page PDF file describing the layout, architectural guidelines, building heights, etc. Hover over "Our Vision" and then click on the "Design Standards" link that appears at the top of the screen.

Drove by there on Saturday and it looked like they were prepping to reroute the creek to have it run closer to Kenilworth. Anyone else notice this?

Pretty much every tree except for those considered part of the park will be cut down. That includes all trees along McClintock. The reason for this being the new street grid that will be incorporated with the village. McClintock is being widened to accomodate parallel parking on each side, and one lane of traffic in each direction. There will also be a few new streets added to create the new village grid. They will be planting new trees along McClintock, ones which are supposed to be at least 18inches in diameter. I believe trees will be planted along all new streets, as well. Since this is supposed to be a very dense multi-family-only housing development, the trees have to go to make way for the massive blocks of apartments, condos, townhomes.

Will these be replacing those (sketchy-looking) townhomes along that street? Been a while since I've walked over there, and can't remember if there was any undeveloped land.

Also, what's up with the floorplans? If you mouse over the building, there are new floorplans which are virtually the same on all floors. Narrow lofts/studios from floors 9 - 32. It then switches to floorplans that basically combine two of the smaller units. Larger ones and penthouses from 42 on up. However, when you click on the floor and it displays the plans to the right, they are the old floorplans. ??? I'm assuming that having consistent floorplans all the way up would decrease cost and time to build. But, it also makes everything kind of boring. I had my heart (unrealistically) set on a particular unit. I thought that if, in the far off future, I could afford it, I would get a unit in the Vue. But, if these are the new floorplans, think I'll scratch that dream.

Haven't heard any rumors about Thomas Street moving--not sure how much truth is there. No update on Little Italy. I thought Zada Jane's already did a grand opening....? The car dealerships will be gone. They have been/will be bought up as part of the Morningside Village complex. The plan is for the main entrance to be located where the dealerships currently are. OTHER UPDATES: McDonald's has been closed. Bulldozing should be occuring in the next week or two. New McD's should be built and ready to open around Thanksgiving/early December. Rumor has it DI Central is supposed to be closing up shop. A restaurant may be looking at occupying the space. The Circle K at Moningside/Commonwealth is supposed to be undergoing renovation soon. They opted to incorporate flood walls in the buildings exterior. There will be steel gates that will need to be slid across the doorways when flooding is anticipated.

^^ Friend of mine went to Crisp and said it was pretty good, but a little $$. And not sure if this counts as a chain, since this is their only location outside of New Orleans, but I went to GW Fins this past weekend (where Palomino used to be). It was excellent. Very good food and the interior is spectacular. Fairly modern design, but still warm/inviting. With the exception of Filet and Chicken, the rest of the menu is seafood. Selection is based on whatever is available that day, so they print the menu daily. Most entrees in the mid-20s to low-30s--very reasonable for the quality of the meal. Only problem they're having is lack of customers. We went at about 8:30 on Saturday. They were at about 15% capacity, I'd say. The place is split in two main sections--dining area on one side, and a bar/lounge/dining area on the other. The bar side was empty. The dining side we sat in had maybe 25 people. Our waiter said some of the wait staff have already had to take on second jobs to make ends meet. No doubt they suffer due to location--eveything seems to really drop off past 7th street. Maybe they do better business during the week with client dinners and such.

I don't think skywalks--true skywalks that are just walkways; no retail--between office buildings are as anti-street-level-activity as everyone makes them out to be. Here's why: they're being used by people AT WORK during OFFICE HOURS. People who are walking to a 10am meeting at 9:50am, are not going to stop and shop at stores along the street. So, if they use a skywalk vs. a sidewalk, it's not going to really affect retail numbers since they would not be taking part in the retail. And those people uptown that are not working and are servicing retail establishments, are most likely not cutting through all the office buildings and using the skywalks. After office hours (6pm or whenever) and on the weekends, the skywalks are not even used by people--because everyone is walking on the sidewalks, servicing the street level retail. So, while an absence of skywalks would put more people on the sidewalks from 8am - 6pm and make the city streets look super-busy, it wouldn't have much of an affect on retail, because all those added people would still be working or going to a meeting, and not have time to stop and shop. Now, Overstreet Mall and the other indoors/enclosed retail things in the bank buildings? They're a whole other matter.....

To play devil's advocate with this remark: Judging from google maps, virtually all homes are currently 3/4 to 1 mile from LMS. If this drag strip is indeed being built to the north of the dirt track, it will probably end up being around 1000ft or a little more from existing homes. 1 mile vs 1000ft is a huge difference. So, despite the argument that people knew what they were buying into (5 NASCAR races a year about 1 mile or more from their homes), I doubt they were anticipating drag races occurring who-knows-how-many times a year 1000 ft from their backyards. I think a lot of this would die down if Bruton would just release his plans to the public. What is the site plan and what, if any, plans does he have for noise barriers? I am totally on the side of Concord in this, solely because of the way Bruton has gone about this. And I can't believe Rowan, and potentially other locales, are actually wanting Bruton to build in their jurisdiction. Do they really think he won't pull this same kind of crap with them?! This whole thing reminds me of a western movie: the fat, wealthy rancher who rules the town and stomps all over the local government and townspeople, until finally, one day, someone leads everyone to say "Enough!" and they all drive him out of town.

Does anyone know exactly where the strip is being built? I can't find any article that gives its specific location. After looking at a map at Charlotte.com that shows the proposed location, and trying to figure out where that is on a more detailed map, it looks like the location is between Poplar Tent and Weddington Rd, with Kannapolis Pkwy to the east. Is that correct?