Silicon Dogwoods

In the post WWII era until 1970 or so, the federal government handed out lots of money for "urban renewal." Charlotte's then-leaders wanted to remake Charlotte into The City Beautiful, helped along by a master plan from A.G.Odell. Mostly, we've gotten what they wanted. Much of it is good but there are glaring holes and disruptions still today. I grew up here and I can tell you that much of the space that was razed was not worth saving, except that it was a community of people. To me, that's the thing to lament. Not the marginally few buildings of interest. Charlotte hardly stands alone in this space. San Francisco razed much of the Fillmore District for Geary Expressway. New York's Robert Moses destroyed the South Bronx. Atlanta created a huge scar to build the Downtown Connector and destroyed a chunk of Buckhead for Georgia 400. Were these actions taken good or bad? In Charlotte, Marshall Park is pretty much a bust and even today, few want to build anything in the old Second Ward. But Third Ward was filled with ramshackle slums and now they're gone. In San Francisco, the Fillmore was split in two and the southern half has never really recovered. The Embarcadero was shrouded by its namesake double-decked freeway that might still be there were it not for the Loma Prieta quake in 1989. After many years, the South Bronx has begun to show signs of life. Georgia 400 and the Downtown Connector? Atlanta probably couldn't exist without them. So, as with everything in life, there's good and bad.

Of the 3 surviving legacy carriers, Delta has long been the most stable with the least amount of disruption as it acquired other carriers and went through bankruptcy. So it's no surprise that their pricing and service is the best. United has a wonderful franchise but the resignation of Doug (who's the ugly girl now, huh?) Smisek and the disastrous merger with Continental has left both passengers and employees disgruntled. American has just completed (well, there's Day 2 stuff) its merger with US Airways and so pricing and services have nowhere to go but better. But if not, fly Delta. The legacy carriers do compete with each other. The idea that they are in collusion seems pretty far-fetched to me.

Not good but not devastating, either. This is a roll-on/roll-off collection of operating companies so they are nomadic by design. We have other companies like this so it's a good reminder not to become too reliant on them.

If you're raising kids, Old Navy is great. The threads will last about as long as your kid's size doesn't change. Otherwise, no.

Hideous Maximus.

Pentagon + Norfolk Ship Yards.

Nothing wrong with a little pandering, er, marketing for bidness.

Yes, I knew that. The last 3 years I lived in California, Trader Joe's was my nearest and therefore default grocer.

It's convenience for me, too. 4 different Teeters are closer to me than the nearest Publix. But I still think Publix' in-house breads are simply wretched! Oh, how can you bear them! I like Trader Joe's on occasion, too. Aren't we spoiled in this town?

Yes, just 26. I wince at remembering my 26-year-old self! But still... During the 2 week hoopla run-up to the game, I read about Denver's defense and I thought we'd have trouble. But not this much trouble. Oh well...always next year!

That, and walking off the presser. (Though I initially saw neither, having given up on it at 16-7 and already 4 sacks.) He finally did something I'd scold him for doing. If you're going to prance, strut and lark like a teenager when times are good then you have to man up when it all comes crashing down.

I have none of these. But I have a story. I.M.Pei, whose firm Pei Cobb Freed designed what is now called the US Bank tower in Los Angeles, personally submitted a design for the-then NationsBank headquarters in Charlotte. Supposedly, he said something to Hugh McColl along the lines of: "I've designed a very nice building for you. But you'll never be Atlanta." So Hugh showed him the door and chose Cesar Pelli instead. Good choice. Cesar Pelli is known for neo-classic designs, like Salesforce Tower in San Francisco and Carnegie Hall Tower in Manhattan. At that moment in time, neo-classicism was the right choice for Charlotte, even though I prefer modernism. I've always had the impression that Hugh and Ken wanted to give Charlotte its own Rockefeller Center, with Bank of America Coporate Center playing 30 Rock and the Blumenthal playing Radio City. But Founders Hall is a dead ringer for the Winter Garden at World Financial Center (now called Brookfield Place), another Pelli design.

Publix' bakery is not as good as the Teeter bakery, especially for breads-Publix' in-house breads are just embarrassingly laughable. They're from 1965. Teeter, at Morrocroft anyway,has a much better selection of wines. Publix is higher priced on some items, lower on others. So that's a wash. Teeter deli is better on higher-end items. Lower end, like prepared picnic items, Publix is better. Being from Florida, Publix has access to some fruits that Teeter does not. But vegetables are better at Teeter. Too many pre-bagged items at Publix. I live closer to Teeter than to any Publix. But I don't think I'd choose Publix over Teeter if they were equidistant.

I'm sure both CATS and the City of Charlotte have plenty of vision. What they lack is money. Part of that is the city's own dang fault. Another blame bucket can be thrown at an indifferent electorate that can muster only a 15% turnout for municipal elections. But mostly it's the fault of a state government, Democratic and Republican goober alike, that hates Charlotte and would like for it to die. Dunce Goober and Knave Goober will never, ever let Charlotte have the autonomy that most cities in most states have. This urban loathing dates to the state's earliest days and with the current cabal on Jones Street, the urban loathing is having a big ole renaissance. It's a freaking miracle that Charlotte as we know it today exists at all.

It will be a long, long time before AP drops 'N.C.' after our name. If I recall correctly, AP didn't drop 'Ga.' after Atlanta until it had crossed the 4 million mark for metro population. We're 1.5 million people away from that. I'd love to drop the 'N.C.' stink, er, sticker. But we may as well forget it and move on.

Charlotte is home to lots of bankers and ex-bankers and until a recent wave of acquisitions, a number of mid-market investment banks were headquartered here in addition to Wells' big footprint and Bank of America. So there's a talent base in place. Add in Charlotte's many other attributes and their expansion here makes sense.

If we win-fingers crossed! -I'd say a crowd of 250k is a much more realistic number, especially in a metro of 2.5 million. Gay Pride in August draws a crowd of 100-125k and Tryon Street is crowded. Now imagine that doubled. Few will be able to see anything if they're on the street. 500k seems like the attendance projections for the NASCAR thingie.

Jayvee, isn't the unacknowledged elephant in the room that they need a tenant? And they don't have one?

^^ That's been my understanding, too. I've never been particularly bothered that he did not move here. He made clear Boston was home for his family. We live in a very mobile, interconnected world.

It's also who gets the money and how it is spent. For example, Mississippi might be spending a lot to lower student tuition costs but doing that for students whose academic profiles indicate they're going to have difficulty graduating. They may not spend it on well-regarded faculty who can generate research dollars. High spending does not necessarily indicate excellence, but it's hard to achieve excellence without spending money.

All it takes is money. UCLA was nothing before WWII. Today, it's renowned. We don't have California's money but we didn't need to hand out tax cuts willy nilly, either. It's Raleigh-Cary and Durham-Chapel Hill. Yes, they're separate.

UNC Chapel Hill is a top 50 school on most lists and was chartered in 1789, opening in 1793. Even so, GE didn't go to Raleigh. UC Berkeley, the UC flagship, was founded 1868. It doesn't really matter whether they're public or private. When you have Harvard and MIT, there's a halo effect. Wonder why GE didn't come to Charlotte, then? What's your point?

It's not for nothing that GE exited Connecticut for Boston. Although GE didn't like its tax situation in Connecticut, Boston is hardly a low-tax haven, even with incentives GE may have been given to come there. It also has a high cost of living and less than pleasant weather. But Boston overflows with highly educated talent. GE clearly said that they chose Boston to have a steady flow of talent from the many universities in that city and state. Boston and the alums of its schools invested big in the region. Our own Research Triangle is another example of this, though on a smaller scale. In other words, you have to spend money to make money. But the current regime in Raleigh has completely rejected this excellent business strategy in favor of chasing the lowest possible taxes. Well, you get what you pay for. We will be very sorry-if we're not already-that they ever came to power.

It's clear that we import a lot of people who may not be ready to compete successfully in the labor market. Charlotte may seem more welcoming to these people than Raleigh, with its very high level of educational attainment and higher cost of living. By nearly every measure, Raleigh grows more quickly than Charlotte. I attribute this to the kind of jobs that the national economy creates. More of them can be found in Raleigh than in Charlotte, which points to the critical need for Charlotte (the state will not even hear of doing it) to develop UNC Charlotte into something more, much more than the nice regional university that it is. It's not that Charlotte is in danger of 'becoming Detroit,' as the right-wing likes to shriek. It isn't. It's that places like Raleigh will do so much better because of the concentration of higher education. Over time, that builds enormous wealth and intellectual capital that won't get built here. Charlotte's ace in the hole in CLT. Charlotte's Achilles' heel is the lack of a major national research university and seemingly no urgency to create one. I probably wouldn't swap CLT for the Triangle universities. Education may be done very differently in the future than it is today and with 2 of the three Triangle universities funded by the public in a parsimonious, low-brow state and deep-in-debt nation, having these public institutions in the future may not be the boon that it is today. And that would be too bad. But it's a very close call.

Pardon my schadenfreude.