Urbanity

^I can imagine Knights won't be too keen on food trucks due to perceptions of lost concession sales, but Romare Bearden may be receptive.

All the discussion about Food trucks in another thread made me think we may need to revive this thread. I know it says Food Truck Reviews - but it seems a good a place as any to discuss the needs for/against Food Trucks in the city. Re: Time curfew on Food trucks from another thread - I don't have a problem with 11 p.m. curfew on Food trucks per se if we are talking Uptown in general so long as the city allows special permits for holidays/festival events - which I think they do now anyway with vendors. I would like to see some more food trucks in the center city - this is true, but not as much as I want to see more mom & pop little restaurants that aren't geared for the expense account crowd. I honestly don't get the huge love affair with Food trucks. I like them myself and have eaten from a number (though admittedly many in other cities) but "Food trucks" sometimes gets thrown around like a checklist item that will certainly make us more urbane. Allow some more places here and there to have trucks, and allow the 11p.m. curfew with ability for special permit on festival events - but beyond that I don't think there is a dramatic crisis of lack of food trucks in the city.

EDIT: - I revived the Food truck thread in case we want to carry the discussion over there. Double Edit - Sorry for lack of context now to elroddvt and nonillogical's posts as they were replying to my post which I moved to the other thread.

Interesting Census data tidbit for the day: They released numbers for Hispanic household and Mecklenburg has the largest population of all counties with 124k . Our MSA though (if I added right) is more than 200K. I had always heard claims that the Triad had the largest Latino population but that's looking to be incorrect based on the census numbers, Anyway - see charts for county by county breakdown:

Two signs that Charlotte's LGBT community has come of age and that Charlotte is growing into its adult shoes as a vibrant and diverse city. Charlotte Pride has scored LeAnn Rhines as the main stage entertainer (and it also has Bianca Del Rio this season “RuPaul’s Drag Race winner) which shows the size and clout the festival has gotten (last year there was about 80k in attendance). The other side of the coin is that the CRVA included a PRIDE spread inside their summer happenings mag that is in the visitor's center, the airport, and is mailed to tourists and media. It also lists Pride on the front cover.

With all the talk of zoos and CHarlotte people wanting one vs. unlikely to get state funding - I think there would be great opportunity for Carowinds to expand to include an animal safari area like Six Flags in New Jersey.

Therein lies the problem with University City Partners IMO. I think planning wise it would make more sense if UCity was bounded pretty much within the confines of the University, University Research Park to Governor's Village and the NTyron/U City Intersection. Made a bad sketch up from map below By making the University City moniker cover almost everything on the North side of Charlotte above Old Concord Road/N. Tryon is ridiculous. No wonder the UCITY Partners kind of crap out on planning (e.g. Car lot next to Light rail stop).

Love it! The Knights posted one on their twitter stream as well:

I feel the same for North Charlotte between UNC Charlotte and Northlake. I always thought the WT Harris corridor from North Lake to Independence has the potential of being a great line - though I would also love it go the whole length of WT Harris to Independence with the Central Ave Streetcar extended to there. I would also love to have seen a connecting Commuter Rail (Red Line) stop near North Lake as well. Obviously the priorities with the very limited pool of money is finishing the BLE, building the Streetcar (at least from JCSU area to Plaza Midwood) and answering the East question (Rapid Bus down Independence, Streetcar down Monroe, etc) and these are just dreams - but at some point in the future (20, 30 years?) the East-West gaps are going to have to be addressed.

Is this really Part of University City? From what I can see it is more the Highland Creek area. I'm not nitpicking your post btw - I'm just really curious if this part of town is seen as part of University CIty?

I thought it was interesting that the "zoo" made a comment on their own status update with "... land has not been contracted, and the local planning department must approved the zoning" If it is the same people who have been behind the "zoo" since its inception I expect this is more of a scam than anything particularly with requirement for people to pay $20 for a meet-up!

I don't think I have ever been to an under 2 hour baseball game in my life to be honest. I do think that there was a communication problem about when to expect fireworks which is being acknowledged for future years, but I don't get a lot of the griping about expecting fireworks before 10 pm or be done by a little after for a 7 pm game.

I actually think they embarrassed Greensboro to be honest. I get your point - but if you look at the chatter beyond just Greensboro it is mainly snickers since they billed it as the largest event in 55 years.... BTW - He played Charlotte twice with his 90's concert (before Charlotte was even big) being broadcast live nationally via FOX.

^ I think it's really awful that the NYT didn't mention Greensboro. I read CNN piece as well as a WSJ article and they mention the Greensboro museum. I do think the Greensboro museum though has some real problems beyond the existing ones (debt issues primarily) which is going to likely get worse with the Atlanta museum and the soon to open Charleston, SC museum and the sure to be impressive Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture that will be on five acre on the National Mall in Washington. Frankly all three are major domestic and international tourist destinations in themselves so the question will become - why go to Greensboro? This is not a knock but a serious question.

^I don't know about re-grouting per se, but waterproofing (which re-grouting is usually a part of) is not uncommon/standard.

I would think we would be worried. If you think about it - wouldn't that give companies even more reason to locate across the border if their workers could just commute via light rail from their homes in NoDa (soon), Uptown, and South End? In all honesty I think Charlotte has to build commuter rails at some point though I can't imagine the timetable and costs now. In the interim though I do hope that this is then used as an opportunity to refocus rail development within the city of Charlotte and work on increased bus service for the Meck towns in the North.

^saw that as well and hope we'll see renderings soon. I looked up a number of AC hotels (I already know Residence Inn) and I don't personally have great expectations. This is not to say that I'm not estactic to finally get a building there, and it will certainly be better that the ghost floors that brood over the epicentre but I'm preparing myself for the building to look somewhat similar to the ALoft Epicentre.

^^^ Here you go

Actually - I prefer the more abstract and green version originally presented by Ricky Davis Fan. In a city that others bemoan is too commercial and without soul - I think having a art for arts sake (along with urban beautification) without logos, ads, and the such would be better....

I didn't know common sense was the same as tone deaf. In all honesty this is a real urban issue - why should drivers who live outside the city in most cases expect more lanes for free?

I believe there is plans for at least one other UNCC building on site (probably at the blank wall side of the current Uptown building.

^Agree - particularly in the area of South of Scaleybark comparison. I think Uptown to NoDa is going to see the most transformation and real estate upswing with some positive movement in U-city area, but I really don't think there will be much of anything between 36th and University CIty/Ikea station for a long time.

"“If you don’t want to drive on the tollway, don’t,” he said. “There will still be free lanes next to it.” I'm loving this quote from Rep. Bill Brawley, (Rep) who is co-chair of the House Transportation Committee in regards to all the outrage about the toll roads.

I think it was funny that the press release (and subsequent media coverage) all said it was going to be a "historical event" meaning one that took place in the past. Maybe that was meant as a play on words as I'm guessing it's Paul McCartney with maybe Ringo Starr. EDIT: The Twitter page shows the Union Jack: https://twitter.com/Gbocoliseum I was kind of joking about Paul McCarthy (ok I stole it from a comment on the N&R site) but this would be kind of really embarrassing to Greensboro if they made all this hype about the biggest event in 55 years to happen in the city is Paul McCartney...

^I'd also add that I wouldn't mind that parcel (parcel - that's an understatement) being developed last if there was a real master plan that excited me about what could go there. As it is now I feel like I'm just holding my breath for a some South End type condos and maybe a hotel...