Mr Downtown

I know that in the past, the rankings were based only on the largest 40 Metro areas. Im not sure if this has changed, but nontheless.. 31st is an improvement over past years.

Oh ok, cool. Learned something else new.

Augusta?

While I dont have a dog in this fight, I do know, and have known for many many years, that Houston is known for both the number, size, and quality in the health care field. I assumed that most people knew about the Texas Medical Center area. Didnt know that Little Rock was known for anything in terms of health care or hospitals, but hey...guess I learn something new every day.

Amen to that. About the 80 restaurants, does anyone know the number of places currently in downtown? And yes, we should strive to have more places than downtown Greenville, SC.

Great News, good to see another restaurant/nightspot opening up downtown. We have a nice mix of restaurants developing...... maybe one day we could add a soul food restaurant as well

Yeah, thats a darn shame. They tried to justify killing it by saying there department didnt own a tranquilizer gun. I agree, that bear didnt look any where as big as people made it out to be. I've seen bigger dogs roaming the streets.

Sad indeed. I know this years Festival will go on as scheduled, but hopefully it will continue into the future. Its definitely a gem in Winston Salem's crown.

I bet. Its always cheaper in SC and VA than in NC... The cheapest gas that I ever bought was in SC... maybe around Gaffney... for 67 cents a gallon back in dec 1998. Hard to imagine I could drive from here to Atlanta and back for less than 15 dollars

Actually I read a few years ago that the DOT was looking at that possibility of adding an extra lane in each direction between Greensboro and the 40/85 split in Orange county. That would be simply amazing. Even in its present condition its kinda amazing... there cant be many places in the country that have a 8-lane interstate running some 30 miles in an non-urban environment.

Amazing, Never thought I see the day where gas between $2.93 and $2.99 a gallon would spark a gas war. If the day ever comes that I have children... I'll have to tell them of the days when the Kangaroo Station at Holden and Vandalia sparked a gas war and gas was selling for 70 cents a gallon. I think that was 1998 or 1999.

Actually its funny how much lanes and lights make a city appear bigger or smaller than it actually is. Perfect case in point, I have always thought that Burlington appears to be a bigger place than Greensboro. Especially traveling through at night... with the 8 lanes and the center lights, and the way the city is built up near the highway. You would think Burlington has at least 150,000 in population, not 50,000. Another good example is Salisbury of all places. Go through there at night.... again with the 8 lanes and the center lights A city of 26,000 seems much larger.

Moving to High Point? Surely things won't be that bad

Its funny... I was just about to write to see if anyone else had noticed the lights on 40. I knew they had been up for a bit.. but suprised to see that the lights were actually on from the 40 split to 68... and off and on again to Wendover. Makes me wonder when they are finally going to turn on all the lights from the split to death valley. They have posted lights from the Mall to death valley but for some reason they havent turned them on yet.. and the posts have been up for at least 2 years. Besides making things alot safer.... I think it makes Greensboro seem like a bigger city at night with them on. My only problem with them is that they seem to be using a lower intensity light than I have seen in other cities.. not sure if they are trying to save a little money or what. Also a noticeable number of them are already burned out

I can't imagine any scenario in which Greenville's future skyline could esily reach that of present day's Charlotte. Present day Raleigh seems like a much more reasonable estimate.

Yea, I was hoping it was coming from some big cookout somewhere, I was getting a bit hungry Didnt know we had forum members that young. When I saw principal, I was thinking you were a teacher or something.. then I continued to read Its good to see you have an interest in urban things at an relatively early future. If only they had something like this around when I was in high school.

Charter Member here of the Urbanplanet Carlos Boozer fan club. He's a beast. Everyone is hyping up Golden State, but Utah has more ways to hurt you offensively than Dallas does/did.

Well, I would say that there are 3 islands of blue in a red state, maybe 4 (not sure about Asheville Metro)

Yeah, that shot was impressive, I almost didnt recognize the place.

Yeah, thats the first thing I noticed watching the news tonight.. the Raleigh-Durham merged city. Maybe they should rename the hockey team to the Raleigh-Durham Hurricanes

As far as hosting the Women's Final Four, I think the issue is not only the number of hotel rooms available, but also the number of rooms available at full-service hotels. Im sure they include hotels/motels like Motel 6 and maybe the Cavalier Inn in the room count, but I doubt that these are the type of places an out of town visitor is looking to stay for 3 or 4 days. The last time Greensboro tried to get a Women's Final Four the issue of hotel rooms was a drawback. I know that Greensboro is looking to land the 2013 Final Four, and by the time they name the winning city later this year, a few more hotels will be added to the mix. So between the Sheraton Four Seasons, Marriott Downtown, the O'Henry, Grandover, Embassy Suites, Airport Marriott, the hotel core around the Interstate 40 and 68 interchange.. and the ones around Four Seasons... I think we may be reaching the number of rooms needed to host. Toss in the new Doubletree opening up soon, and of course the Proximity and we may be in business. And another plus is that the Sheraton would definitely be the host hotel for the NCAA committee... and has plenty of both rooms and convention space to accompany the activities. As a women's basketball fan... I sure hope they can pull it off.

I cant see either Nordstrom or Saks coming to Greensboro. The demographics just dont compare to other markets in which these stores are in. Not so much in terms of population, as the Triad has more people than say Richmond, but more in terms of having the number of higher income households needed to support a free standing store. However, I can see the day that Dillards either closes its Four Seasons store, and moves to Friendly, or just keeping a store at Four Seasons and building a new one at Friendly. I think Greensboro could support 2 Dillards like it does 2 Belks, and 2 Macy's. (It will always be Thalheimers to me )