CharlotteDave

Here is a photo I took from Elmwood Cemetery.

My earlier comments were just based on what Bobby Shields said at the county commission meetings two weeks ago. Hopefully, a 2009 opening is still a possibillity, and the idea of opening in the middle of the season is an interesting one. It has happened plenty of times before with both major and minor league facilities around the nation. After all, just a few months ago they were still determined to play in 2009, so why couldn't they do it by mid season. The league would probably work with them to schedule a higher percentage of their home games in the last two months.

I caught the train today around 12:30 at the Woodlawn station and it was jammed packed. Then on the return trip at 4 o'clock it was the same way. Apparently a lot of people on their Christmas vacation were taking advantage of the opportunity to check out the train and look around uptown. There seemed to be a lot of tourists uptown of one type or another, maybe some from out of town and others local. I saw numerous people taking photos of everything from tall buildings to the more historical things like the old churches and Old Settler's Cemetery. They never asked to see my ticket today.

At the city council meeting last night, there was good news and bad news concerning the new ballpark: The good news is that the council voted to approve the letter of intent or whatever they called it, but the bad news is that, according to Bobby Shields, the ballpark will probably not be ready for the 2009 season. If true, that's a pretty big letdown for me. I'm still excited that baseball will be coming to uptown Charlotte, but if it won't be until 2010, that sort of removes the short term excitement from the equation. It was also exciting to imagine the triple whammy effect of a baseball park and two other parks being built within the next 18 months.

Today I walked from the upper parking lot at CPCC and followed the future greenway route all the way down to the part that goes behind the Home Depot -Target Center and eventually most of the way down Kings Drive. That included a stretch that goes past the grounds of the Vietnam Memorial. All I can say is that the potential of this thing is staggering. The overall layout of the route is just very impressive. When I got to the bridge across the street from the Home Depot - Target, I noticed something different from just a few days ago when I was there and posted the images. Now, they've started rerouting another part of the creek, this time the part almost directly below the bridge. They had a big pile of dirt right in the middle of the water at that point and were draining water from that part of the creek and spitting it out further down the creek. photo of new construction the creek next to parking lot at CPCC

Today, while walking along the Sugar Creek Greenway on Kings Drive, in the midst of all that heavy traffic, I was surprised to see three ducks in the creek and took this photo. Ducks on the Greenway

I'm not sure what the deal is with the dirt mounds. I did forget to mention earlier that they haven't started work yet on the other side of the bridge as people can see in the image below. Although I would think so, I'm not sure if that side of the bridge is part of the current phase of the project. the other side

Today I got another look at the greenway from what is likely the best possible vantage point, looking down from the bridge across the street from the Home Depot - Target complex. I have to say, even at this stage of construction, it is a pretty dramatic view from there. It seems like that section is maybe a little wider swath than other parts of the greenway and one can sense that when it's complete it might have somewhat of a river look to it. Even with all the mud and construction, it looked sort of pretty on a glistening sunny day. From all I can gather, the timetable for completing that section of the Greenway is late 2009, but it seems clear that parts of it will be great to look at long before that. Greenway1 Greenway2 Greenway3

Below are links to four images I took today of the Greenway. Two were taken behind the Park Rd. Shopping Center and the other two at the section they're currently working on around Kings Dr. Greenwayphoto1 photo2 photo3 photo4

Thanks very much for helping to clarify that.

I visited the area today, and while I'm not as familiar with it as some are, I'm pretty sure I found the spots where both the West Park and the baseball park will be built. I'm thinking that the decent sized patch of open land beside the Panther's stadium must be the park site because I don't see any other spot that would be large enough. Am I correct on that? And I'm guessing that the gravel parking lot beside the Virginia Paper Company must be the basebal site. If so, that will provide a pretty dramatic view of the Charlotte skyline. It should be a lot of fun to watch it all unfold over the next year or so.

Thanks for the tip, Raintree21. I visited both of those greenway areas today and was very impressed. The section behind the Park Rd. Shopping Center is absolutely beautiful. It was the first time I had seen any of the greenway. You never know if things like this will turn out to be overrated, but this was just the opposite. The vibrant looking plant life along the creek banks was very nice here in the middle of the winter and it was very soothing to just listen to the water at certain spots. Later I stoped at several places along the Kings Dr. part of the greenway, including one place that was probably the hospital you metioned. While that section is obviously a work in progress, it is also extremely impressive in terms of projecting what it will be like when fully complete. They seem to be well on their way though. I'm hoping maybe it will be finished sometime in the next six months or so, but I really have no idea. Later, I may post some photos of what I saw today.

Since I can't get the image function to work, I thought I would try it this way. Below is a link to an image of the new Blumenthal Performing Arts Center at CPCC, at least I think that's the official name for it. Blumenthal Performing Arts Center

A question for those who are real familiar with this subject: Where is a good place to go, maybe somewhere with a convenient place to park, where one can get a good look at the greenway? Those are the first good photos I've seen of it, and I'm really intrigued by it.

A few years ago, a group of city leaders, including CPCC President Tony Zeiss, came up with the idea of constructing a series of statues along the Sugar Creek Greenway of historical figures from Charlotte's past. I haven't heard much about it since then, but there was an article about it in the Observer a week or so ago. They seem well on their way to raising the money, so I guess it's an idea that will definitely happen. My question is, does anyone know what the timetable looks like for this project? I guess it would obviously have partly to do with when that portion of the greenway will be finished. Whenever it happens, I think it's a great idea. Like many others have said in the past, I don't think Charlotte has ever done a very good job of celebrating its history, and this seems like a very creative way to help contribute to that. I would appreciate any input people might have on this subject. http://www.charlotte.com/157/story/357181.html CPCC and the Greenway

Someone mentioned the northeast line, and there is something I've been wondering about with that: Will they have to finish the entire thing before they can use any of it? After all, it will be connected to the current line, so it makes one wonder why they couldn't gradually open new stations as they are completed. My impression, though, is that they won't use any of it until the entire line is complete. Hope I'm wrong.

Thanks for the suggestions. The CPCC thing was more a matter of curiosity than anything else. I walked part of the way, but wasn't seeing any signs of it. I guess I gave up just a tad too soon. A mile isn't a big deal, but it's a shame they don't have one a little closer.

I tried it for the second time today and enjoyed it even more this time. Although I live on the west side of town in the Mountain Island area, I still think I can find some good uses for it even when the novelty wears off. Like many others are probably thinking, I can use it for certain events uptown if I want to avoid the hassles and the cost of parking. It took me about 17 minutes to drive from my home to the Tyvola station. If I have any minor criticisms, I'm wondering why the park and ride stations, at least the two that I've been to, don't have any restroom facilities. Like others, I also had a problem with the ticket machine today. I tried to buy a one way ticket with a ten dollar bill and it didn't give me my change. After pressing the help button and talking to them over the speaker, which was very hard to hear over, they told me to talk to the people at the transit station, which is apparently supposed to handle disputes of that nature. I wasn't sure who to talk to after I got there, so I just went to the main ticket window and the guy gave me the $8.70 I was due. Also it's a shame that the southern most stations don't have more realistic access to some of those shopping centers nearby. After riding it two times now, I've only had one occassion when anyone asked to see my ticket. Today I caught the Tyvola train around 12:30 to go uptown and it was extremely crowded. I was able to take some good pictures of both the light rail stations and uptown Charlotte in general. I had hoped to find out the closest station to CPCC today, but that didn't work out too well. According to mapquest, the Colisieum station on E. Trade is less than a mile from the school, but I quickly found out that wasn't the case and didn't try walking the entire distance. Does anyone out there know which station would provide the most convenient access to CPCC, if any of them do? Overall, I've had a very positive impression of the new light rail and look forward to riding it many times in the future.