Silicon Dogwoods

I think if you scroll back a bit in this thread you'll find a rendering.

Very sad. This is the high cost of theocratic ignorance and stupidity.

I think CLT will always play second fiddle to ATL and nothing wrong with that at all. First fiddle is gigantic and had a lengthy headstart with a major airline hq at its doorstep. Second fiddle is merely very large, built with gumption, bootstraps, luck and leadership. If you can remember CLT before the current terminal opened in 1982 and it became a Piedmont hub, you're astounded and have to pinch yourself every time you approach Charlotte Douglas International Airport.

Newspapers aren't dying but they are having a painful metamorphosis into something much different than what they once were. No, they haven't figured it out (yet.)

That's a shame.

I'm just telling you what any political scientist would tell you. Old, white conservative church-goers vote overwhelmingly for Republicans not just in North Carolina but in all 50 states. It isn't 'prejudice garbage'; rather, it's just basic fact upon which many political campaigns are based. My characterization of our current government in Raleigh as a fiasco is shared by many. I'm guessing you like and approve of our current government in Raleigh. I don't. It's inarguably true that more than any other demographic group in North Carolina, old white conservative churchgoers are the primary reason people like Berger and Moore and Brown and Hager are running the General Assembly. Development is a political issue. An assertion that it is apolitical is totally erroneous and completely untrue. Your insinuation that I feel unwelcome because I am a native contrarian is in fact the real prejudice. As a native southerner, I can spot our reluctance to discuss or acknowledge things that make us uncomfortable a mile away. A friend of mine calls this the seersucker closet. We all know what's going on but nice people don't talk about these things, of course. In other words, because I don't agree and line up with traditional southern and conservative religious views on an array of social and political issues-because I refuse to cower ashamedly in the seersucker closet- there is no place for me here and I should leave. Congratulations! Your wish will be granted in just a few weeks. You may have the last word.

Those who rig the system are counting on you to not participate. Makes things easier for them. Old, white conservative church-goers vote in extremely high proportion to their numbers in the overall population. This is why we have the fiasco in Raleigh that plagues and embarrasses us. The LGBT community also votes in high proportion to our numbers but it's difficult to make any headway because our overall numbers are relatively small. You can't possibly change the political system if you abandon it. Abandoning it only makes things worse.

Young people are notoriously unreliable voters.

Because they don't want North Carolina to be the 'new' south. They want North Carolina to be the old south. They're simpletons.

Thankee sweet Jesus! They're dumb as day-old dog dirt, but they don't care. Planes brought all those Yankees here and they hate that, surely do. These are guys (they're nearly all guys) who think North Carolina's last good year was c. 1954.

Not a southeastern bank. Based in Minneapolis. But I'd love for it to be them instead of Regions. No one is ever going to acquire US Bank.

You don't say.

I would love it but I doubt it. I've read other articles in the business media that suggests the hq will not leave Detroit, period, the end. And in any case, until HB2 is resolved, a high-profile hq relo like this is unlikely. Think of the protests that would accompany such a move!

That's just so unbelievably boneheaded. There are lots of charming towns in America with urban rail service.

Where they're not feeling it is downeast and in Rockingham County. Can't account for Dan Bishop.

That's the winning argument. Most of HB2 is a gross violation of the 14th Amendment.

Yeah, I've said that for years.

You forgot Boston and Austin. I think they'd all rank ahead of our Triangle. Mark Harris and Tami Fitzgerald thrill to the pain they are causing North Carolina. Most, but not all. Chad Barefoot, son-in-law of and water carrier for Tami Fitzgerald is in the Triangle. Dan Bishop will represent the south Charlotte suburbs.

I sold my house this past week and yesterday, I went to a couple of open houses. I asked both realtors if they had noticed any drop in activity in the last 2-4 weeks. Both said that activity had decreased significantly in that period, which is when HB2 has been flooding the news and our lives, of course. They added that no one offered HB2 as a reason for not going forward and who knows-maybe the weather wasn't favorable or Mercury was in retrograde. But still...this is prime buying/selling season and a drop off in activity? I've also noticed when I search on line for a new place that there is a decrease in listings that go under contract in a day or two. Now, a good many are lingering. Realtors and developers are a powerful political voice who frequently vote GOP. If their business goes south, HB2 might start swirling the drain.

We are not alone. Maybe there is hope.

I didn't call you a name. But if you could think of something to call me right now and I wouldn't like it, you've all but verbalized it. Now, haven't you? Goon: a stupid, oafish, or deliberately foolish person. I think that accurately describes those who support HB2 and many of the politicians who pimped and voted for it as well, including the governor. In fact, I can't think of a better descriptor for someone who has run off millions of dollars in business and held North Carolina up to national scorn and opprobrium, all to monger fear to get back on Jones Street one more time and backhand Charlotte. What would you call them, illustrious public servants? Savants? Strategic geniuses? (well, perhaps but in a malevolent way.) Visionaries? Leaders? Statesmen? I actually pulled a verbal punch. My preferred descriptor for them is church goon. Church goon: a stupid, oafish or deliberately foolish theocrat.

That news will make the goons shout for joy.

Not a hoax. Drat. Hardly a surprise, still dreadful.

Charlotte! Has a whorehouse in it! (chorus) Lord have mercy on my soul! (apologies to Best Little Whorehouse in Texas) You're correct. Barclay Downs, my former 'hood, is completely misplaced. It's too far west and too far north.

That news site is a hoax, I think. It's the same one that said the All-Star game would be pulled last week.