Silicon Dogwoods

Not complicated. Complex. Like a fine wine.

Johnny Harris has been a great Charlottean. But his architectural taste and urban planning chops are...how can I say this?....dull. Boring. Severely traditional. Lacking. Oh well. It leases up, no problem. Ballantyne annoys me every time I have to drive out there.

I always confuse the two! Atlanta is such a dead ringer for San Francisco. The Google has informed me it's no longer called that. It is now called Buckhead Atlanta. So original.

Bigger than the Streets of Buckhead? (or whatever they're calling it now)

Bite your tongue! That's exactly what was being said around here in 2007. I wish Charlotte could secede from North Carolina. So tired of the hatred, contempt, ridicule and scorn created by Republicans. [We now return you to your Ascent discussion.]

I could even see a second CBD along the river. More than one person has puzzled why our founders settled where they did instead of along the river. I know it's an elevated escarpment (hence 'Uptown,') but it seems like the river would have been a better site for newborn Charlottetowne. Or maybe they did scope it out but the two ridges east and west presented too much of a challenge for early settlers?

It isn't now, but it could be. The river will be a big draw.

Really. Some 'liberty.'

I agree with you. Here are a few reasons why that is so: 1) The dreaded CH factor: Charlotte, Chapel Hill, Charleston SC & WV, Chicago, Charlottesville,VA, Charlotte County, FL, Chattanooga, TN. Throw in the "Cs": Columbia, Cincinnati, Columbus GA & OH, Cleveland, 2) The relatively late blooming of North Carolina and even more so, Charlotte. The state was once known in the 19th century as the "Rip Van Winkle State"; the "Vale of Humility Between 2 Mountains of Conceit." North Carolina had no natural harbor so it grew later, really not at all until a generation after the Civil War. North Carolina's population and wealth is in the Piedmont. We behave much like an inland, landlocked state. Those cities/states are always harder to find and remember 3) Our cities were similarly late bloomers. Charlotte did not become the largest city in North Carolina until the 1920 (maybe 1910, I forget which) census. Then the state did everything it could to discourage cities. Look at history, up to and including today. 4) Charlotte had no signature industry until banking took hold about 30-35 years ago. We were a distribution and wholesale center. 5) Indifferent geography. No port, no navigable river, no coastline, not even Atlanta's favorable location for a train to head west.

So you're in favor of running off businesses? Please stop cutting off our nose to spite our face. We can't afford it. PS: There is most definitely a witch hunt against the LGBT community. The wording of the bill could not be plainer in its exclusions of legal protections for the LGBT community. It's now officially open season on gay people and transgendered people in North Carolina. This piece of church goon legislation is a back door RFRA.

I think Charlotte could sue the state on a 14th Amendment claim: the state is forbidding the city to provide equal protection to all its citizens. Or an individual could sue the state on a similar claim: the state does not allow equal protection for all its citizens. Or my preferred solution: Charlotte secedes from North Carolina and forms the 51st state. Highly unlikely, but still...this is just another in a long list of ways North Carolina has damaged Charlotte since we became the state's largest city some 100 years ago.

Back door RFRA.

We will.

Few people can say with certainty that Charlotte is in North Carolina. Once, that was painful. Now I'm glad, do you hear me?!?! Glad!!!

Thank you for the nice words.

This 'we' lives in Rucho's district and has never voted for him. But you're right, he's no friend of Charlotte. Dan Bishop is likely to be even worse.

I've fit in beautifully everywhere I've ever lived except here, my native city. Go figure. My house is under contract. Pray we get to the closing table. It may be time for me to exit again.

Nice for them. But the truth is that I don't give a ...fig about the rest of the state. I care only about Charlotte. So the General Dissembly's inattention to Charlotte's needs while taxing us for other counties, stealing our airport, obsessing over those scary transgender people, underfunding UNC Charlotte, trying to foist Cintra on us and failing to provide a meaningful incentives program makes me wish we could disassociate and form our own state. Charlotte will always be hobbled and diminished by North Carolina. It has been this way for 100 years. It will never change.

Or even Kyoto. Obviously, best practice is to bury power lines. That's why starting with Beverly Woods East in 1966, Charlotte developers started burying power lines. But Charlotte has lots of legacy poles and wires that will likely never be buried. Everyone will have converted to solar before Duke will bury the wires. David Frum, FWIW: http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/02/opinion/frum-buried-lines/ One other thing, in the spirit of putting money where mouth is: I buried the power line to my house not long after I bought it in 2007. Duke charged me $800 for that and I had to beg them to do it. But at least it's buried and I didn't have to punch a new hole in my roof when I had it re-shingled (old hole no longer met code.)

Charlotte isn't an impoverished town in India.

Except for the ghastly creosote poles and sagging wires.

Independence Tower is the gray-banded non-entity of a building across the street. It was the dreck we got to replace the Independence Building, North Carolina's first steel-frame skyscraper.

Yes, it would be cool if the Interstate Tower (is it still called that?) was twice as tall. And I wasn't complaining about our skyline, far from it. Charlotte is blessed with a beautiful skyline. But, you know...more, please.

I don't disagree, which is why the comparative silence around WalMart's new hublet here was so puzzling.