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!

As we are similar to Indianapolis in terms of size, and they have a highly successful downtown AAA stadium, I think the Knights moving uptown are a perfect fit for us.

I like the building out behind left field. Is this going to be a residential building? Team offices? A parking garage?

...or is it Stonehenge from This is Spinal Tap?

After trecking around Chicago this weekend, I'd love to see more walkable family-friendly, free offerings like parks and splash areas. In Millenium Park they had this awesome area with two facing, 30-ft tall monoliths that had videoed faces on them that "spit" water out onto park goers who happily splashed in the cooling waters. Neat stuff and definitely a big gathering place for visitors who just want to be outdoors enjoying an urban environment.

Just got back from Chicago to see the Cubbies at Wrigley...Chicago has got to be the most pleasant city to visit. The people are kind beyond anything I've seen here or in New York, and the transportation is a breeze to navigate. Charlotte has a looooooooong way to go in the transportation department. I'd hate to be someone used to what a city like Chicago has to offer who gets transferred here. I know it's unfair to compare a smaller city like ours to Chicago, but if we should model our transportation and cultural offerings on any city, you could do far worse than Chi-town.

Has anyone seen this one? I'm probably way behind on this, but if you haven't seen it, it's pretty cool. http://marynewsom.blogspot.com/2010/03/extremely-cool-charlotte-urban-video.html

I haven't been there, yet, but from what I've read, you won't be able to barhop over there as it is outside the uptown area. From the sound of the bands hitting Charlotte now, it's just the right size venue to attract bands who can't fill Cricket Arena but are too big for, say, Tremont Music Hall.

I disagree with those who like the look of the top of this one. We were tailgating yesterday and along with enjoying ice cold beverages, I had plenty of time to look at the top of this building. They're not going to leave the top like that, right? It looks like a cheap BOA tower-top knockoff. It reminded me of finding a toy in the dollar store that is supposed to be just like the "real" toy but is woefully inadequate. Maybe it just has not been completed, yet.

It's about damn time they figured this 485 problem out. It appears to be a good agreement between the public and private entities involved. For those of us in NE Charlotte/Cabarrus areas, this is a long time coming. I just hope they build it wide enough and learn from the mistakes of the SE section of 485. I pity those of you stuck in that parking lot every day.

Since this was an "economic" issue story, WBTV marched out that UNCC professor who is expert in such things. I don't know his name, but he drives me crazy every time he speaks because he constantly whistles his "S" sounds. Just wanted to see if anyone else knows of whom I speak.