deaconator

Improper Pig has been in Cotswold for about 5 years - worth checking out but I’ve never loved it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Theoretically yes but the Gold Line is a freaking cluster and is almost never running at the 15 minute intervals it is supposed to. It would be unfair and dishonest to advertise a connection to a glorified Disney ride that is closed or running at double their stated intervals a significant portion of the time. I think CATS is just punting on Gold Line until Phase II opens. What a waste. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You don’t know anyone? Who gives a hoot who you know. No one. Congratulations you are one of the most ignorant, selfish, out of touch people in all of North Carolina. I’m glad you live in North Carolina and you’ve only been to Myers Park and Chapel Hill in your time here too. If you are so fortunate to never have to rub elbow with someone in the other 95+% then I would suggest you look into some service opportunities to broaden your horizons. Oh and you don’t need to know anyone. Just do some basic math. Look up what minimum wage is, and figure what expenses might be for say a single mom with 3 kids and take it from there. Could $30 make a difference? What percentage of their net income is that? apologies for getting off topic more but dang...

Yes the Publix finally looks different than what it did in the pictures above. I’m sort of surprised by the success of that HT wine bar. It doesn’t have a cool location, windows/views/decor. It just kind of sits there next to the frozen foods. I was expecting something at least sort of along the lines of the SP Whole Foods or the Myers Park HT. But I guess if people need wine to shop at this death trap of a grocery store, I can understand. Publix should do great here...just hurry up already. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Meck, Gaston, Cabbarrus, Union, and who else? If SC is getting in on this, they better pony up some serious cash for a joint bid. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The map is cool but pretty pointless in terms of the true market that the team would really serve as fans/spectators. It looks like the area for Charlotte though, would be pretty close to the exact shape of NC/SC combined minus a few areas around the borders and add in a few spots in SW VA. So you're talking 15 million people which is the upper half of that list. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Why would Charlotte let an aquarium in a discount mall in the suburbs stop it from opening up an urban aquarium (thinking along the lines of Chattanooga?) if that's what they (or someone) wanted to do? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Publix construction started below grade and is now just cracking the surface with some rebar and concrete walls - hopefully it will come along quickly at this point. Seems to have been a long time coming! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good point - and I'd be in the same boat as you. And maybe that is good enough, I don't know. But from what I am picking up from the tone of all those involved - McPhillamy, City/County government, Smith, soccer fans on here and on Twitter than actually know something about soccer - I really think that Smith needs to work with the community to build something successful here. His crapty interviews and YouTube videos are not going to cut it. He already has a lot working against him. Thought the exact same thing, and that was an easy one. He doesn't get it.

I was excited that there was a YouTube video....until I watched it lol. That being said I really hope they get their act together and win the franchise. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think the Smiths would have been well-served to bite the bullet and actually partner with the Charlotte Independence group in making their bid. I'm not sure which side was at fault for not forging this partnership, but this COULD be yet another deal-killer. Look at all the other bids and how they are strongly linked to a lower level team, their organization, supporters, season ticket holders, etc. But instead, the Smiths opted to alienate the most loyal soccer-focused investors and more importantly, the biggest soccer fans in the city which could have been your ground game of activists to galvanize the rest of Charlotte to become future MLS fans. At this point, you may end up with a team that has no fans, or at least no educated, passionate fans. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

See the article from the CBJ last night - the mayor more or less says don't expect the city to give any money towards a 2017 bid, but they'd talk about a bid in a future year. Meanwhile, seems like the Smiths aren't saying a word about where that money would come from "if" the city doesn't pony up the cash. But why would the city put it cash now? Smith went forward without them so he needs to find a way to make it work, and I'm sure at this point that will be the story from the city. From the MLS perspective - I'm guessing that if they don't get more clarity from the greater Charlotte bid situation in the coming weeks/months, they will eliminate it (if it's not already out). A lot of the bids are flawed though, so I think the Smiths need to get things ironed out and go for it. I just worry that we are gonna end up at a financial standoff and it's going to kill this thing. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm confused - the county didn't pull the rug...the voted yes. And the city needs to make a decision about what? They killed the deal (as far as getting city money anyway). This whole thing has worked out very strangely...I think most citizen's would be much more opposed to property tax revenues being used on this than the tourism tax - which is specifically supposed to be used for something like this. Really strange to me too that the city let the county go ahead and vote and then ten minutes later, the mayor kills the whole thing. I guess that's politics for you? She'll be able to say she saved us all from being taken advantage of by Smith and the MLS.

Southeast you mean? Maybe after stonewall is built out, the skyline will take a left around McDowell and head back up towards East Trade? Brooklyn Village would kinda help with that if it can get off the ground Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I was already finding it hard to believe that all parties involved would be able to get their act together by January 31st. After reading that article, they actually made it sound logistically impossible that this will happen in time? There must be more to the story behind closed doors though, because why would they be wasting their time otherwise. Maybe multiple cities are asking for an extension..who knows. Seems like it would be in the best interest of the MLS to extend the deadline unless they already have a good idea of what what they are going to with their franchises.

Just to kind of bridge the conversation going on over on the BLE thread - there seems to be a fair amount of agreement that the Hal Marshall site would be a bad use of the property and 4 stadiums inside 277 is basically overkill (not quoting just kind of summarizing what I got out of it) - and also that Memorial is our only option right now but NODA or optimist park could be even better in a perfect world. Here's what I'd add - let's dig up the whole Queens Park concept and orient everything else around it. It would be the greatest thing to ever happen to Charlotte - integrating a huge urban oasis park, the Blue Line, ultimately linking with Amtrak and Gateway and future rail destinations, hopefully a progressing 1st ward/north end, an MLS site.... Let's nail this down in two weeks so we can get that soccer stadium ...[emoji108] And all of a sudden Charlotte is a world-class, transit oriented, urban euro feeling, tourist destination, queen of the south. [emoji14] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Agreed, go_vertical. Time is running way too short for scrapping the plan and starting over with a new (vastly inferior) location just so they can fix their Eastland dilemma. They'd be better off finding a site in the north end with light rail connectivity and potential to revitalize the area. Although there's probably not time for that either. Does anyone know if there are any good active MLS forums out there discussing expansion in general? Glad to see that one blogger likes our chances but I'm interested in others perceptions. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't think the point would literally be to get a bunch of people from Fort Mill to UNCC anyway. And even for that though, it wouldn't be terribly worse than driving in rush hour Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ok well let's start these conversations with other counties now because good luck selling huge property tax increases to meck residents (as high as they already are) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is awesome. I'd be interested in one of these for the NODA area or somewhere along the BLE. Any chance you could make one of these for the area just west (or north really) of the 36th street station - it could have access to the BLE, North Tryon, and the Greenway there Memorial is ideal in a lot of ways - but can being on the gold line really be considered 'transit' accessible? You would have a lot more access to people on the blue line, especially over time. Maybe this is more what Smith is thinking at this point - he definitely doesn't seem too high on Memorial/Elizabeth. Side note: Count me out if its a Speedway site

That is in Fort Mill Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Does anyone have any info on if something is planned for a huge tract that has now been cleared on Wendover between the police station and the medical office complex? I think there may have been some old houses and such that faced the other direction previously but now it looks like they have a bunch of acreage oriented toward Wendover to develop? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wow - Stonewall has its own skyline! Interesting visual - the skyline is going from linear to L-shape. And you can't even see 3rd ward from here Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That is awesome that they have all those imaginary rail lines to all those places, but it really sucks that our only light rail line that actually exists won't have any direct connection to any of them. No expert here but it seems pretty inefficient (or just lacked long term planning) to have gateway and the blue line be separated by 7 blocks. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Noticed driving by that they have blocked off the entrances at the Publix site and they are ripping out insulation from the building. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk