Munson79

Love this tour of local greenways. We have done some city hopping over the past few years and have seen what other cities (Seattle, Austin, SF) have done to connect neighborhoods through trails. Can't wait for the Thread Trail to connect Cabarrus County with Mecklenburg County and into other areas.

We have had a nice resurgence of small-mid sized buildings, but are there any signature 50+ towers on the horizon?

Don't know if this is the right spot for this, but in researching the population surge in NC/SC, I came across the concept of a "Global City" ranking, which ranks cities in relation to their importance in the "global economic system." Charlotte's rank is "Gamma +," putting us in the 19th slot in the U.S.A.

This summer reminds me of those from my youth in the Adirondacks Mts. of Upstate New York. Fond memories.

Excellent, indeed, but it is interesting that there are those on the Nashville site, like here, who are cynical about developers. When it comes to 50+ story towers, seeing is believing.

Hardly Central Park in size, but there is no doubt that this park will be transformative and will attract cool outdoor events as well as provide an outdoor space for families and for visitors to enjoy our beautiful city. I'm so psyched to enjoy this space before strolling over to watch a ball game. We finally have outdoor space. So sweet!

Spent the weekend dropping off and picking people up at the airport. What a mess! I hope those new parking decks will be done soon because it'a nightmare up there right now. My guests mentioned that it was easily the worst airport they've ever been to. Besides the obvious parking deck issues, the security lines are the slowest and most understaffed of any airport they've seen. Are there plans to redesign the interior of the airport?

Can't wait to be able to park at the lot, jump on a train, and get to uptown for Panthers games, Knights games, Checkers games, shows, and restaurants. Once these trains get in place, linking the burbs to the city center, the city and region will see countless benefits. Throw in the greenways and the Carolina Thread Trail and this part of the country will only grow as a magnet for quality development, smart business relocations, and creative young people. Connectivity is sorely lacking in our over-sprawled area, but it's never too late to build it in.

It will be interesting to see how this open space will transform this whole part of uptown. I'm always in favor of big buildings to make our skyline more and more impressive, but cities are usually defined by more than their skylines. NYC is great, but an argument can be made that the most unique aspect of the whole city is Central Park. While this park won't be as dramatic as C.P., for our sized city, it will be positively transformative. Thanks for the pix, Hamlet!

Great info about this excellent park and even better info about the Observer website!

I love the rendering above, but I didn't know that they had released info about what it would look like. The article in the C.O. this morning mentioned that the design of the actual building was still being considered.

What does everyone know about this story about a plan for a $200 million, Grand Central Station like development uptown? http://www.wcnc.com/community/Gateway-Station-could-make-CLT-a-world-class-city-177040061.html

This ballpark will definitely get my family and me uptown. We live halfway between the Intimidators and Uptown. Love going to Kannapois for games. They're cheap and fun for the kids, but this AAA ball is going to be a real treat. The tickets will be a bit more, but the setting will be extraordinary. How awesome will it be to have a brightly lit green field, the smell of hotdogs, the crack of the bat as a ball sails into the evening air, with the towers lit up in the background? With baseball, there will be something going on uptown year-round. There was never a reason to go Uptown mid-week in the late spring/summer. We're 20-25 years from MLB. In the meantime, let's enjoy a cold one and a great game in a great place.

That was one of the coolest video posts I've ever seen on this site. Thanks for posting it!

Does anyone have a link to a rendering of what this park will look like when completed? Sorry for being so lazy as I am sure this info is somewhere in this board, already!