CLTranspo

Is this another crane hiding behind that communications tower?

@1020AM and @225x704 thank you for your comments. I always cringe when people refer to the transit center and other locations that way - it definitely lets on more about their thoughts and biases than they may realize. Everyone deserves access to uptown's amenities whether they arrive by car, bus, or train. Trying to remove or reduce a group or collection of people does not solve the underlying problem.

Making progress!

Progress from the light rail

Pre-Thanksgiving lull

“Right now” - that’s why Charlotte needs to pour its developmental energy into infill development and rapid transit imo. It’s so easy to see how Charlotte can and will become Atlanta, Dallas, or Houston in the future if our development in suburbs is allowed unthwarted. That’s why I think the rise of tolls and managed lanes and the historic underinvestment in freeways within the Charlotte metro by the state has been/will be a good thing for dense urban growth.

It feels like the only thing that will get him to actually shift out of neutral (or is he in park?) would be a lawsuit since the city clearly isn’t doing much, if anything

Love that this street wall is now continuous

Site progress for apartments by Pollack Shores

For example at Mt Mitchell, at 88.4 miles away, the drop in curvature of the earth should be 5211 feet according to the calculator you linked. However Mt Mitchell is at 6684 feet elevation, and Trade & Tryon lies at 746 feet elevation. The difference in elevation is approx 5938 feet, compensating for the curvature of the earth with about 727 feet to spare. Even if the relative elevation couldn’t completely compensate for the curvature of the earth at some mountains located at even greater distances, you could still see the tops of some buildings. (BofA is 871 feet tall). The above is an over simplified explanation. Looking into actual line of sight calculations that take the curvature of the earth into account, The equation for the distance to the visible horizon in miles is 1.23 x the square root of the observer’s height in feet. Using the relative height I mentioned between Mt Mitchell and uptown Charlotte (5938 feet), the visible horizon would be ~94 miles. That is greater than the distance of 88.4 miles and doesn’t even take into account the height of uptown’s buildings above the ground level.

Denver definitely does it too!

Wood framed apartment units going up

Lol growing pains - both personally and for the city

There was (still is?) a wine and painting shop right on the corner of Camden and West. My husband and I had one of our first dates there.

Also, I guess the BLE has a major job and housing generator on the other end of it in UNCC, but the BL doesn’t have anything like that on its terminus.

I would include the townhouse development at Arrowood station - almost 300 townhomes - additionally, I’ve heard that they will also build apartments (different developer) just behind the townhomes, south of the station and fronting the light rail

Dirt moving at Pollack Shores apartments and at the Scaleybark station development. Photos from light rail

If only we could fund a really long pedestrian bridge over the rail yard. Maybe the Matheson Ave improvements can help with multimodal connectivity to the light rail somewhat.

I can see why people are sad but it’s currently such a god awful use of urban space. I’ll be sad about the inevitable bland luxury apartments and parking deck. It would be awesome if whoever buys it could tie into the street grid and develop more of a town center vibe. Connecting Sunnyside across the tracks to Commonwealth would be even more amazing and would help tie it in to the future streetcar stop.

The point is the gas tax isn’t currently high enough to fund transportation projects and maintenance. So if we build improvements to our road and transportation system, we are going to pay for it one way or another. If our gas tax doesn’t go up, other taxes and tolls will.

Just because there are a few dense neighborhoods in Charlotte that are walkable and passably bikeable doesn’t mean the city as a whole is anywhere near walkable.

I live beside Arrowood and it fills up every day. Not sure for Scaleybark but seems like it’s usually full as well.

They’re going to be required to have some shoulder width as well on either side of the barrier. But you’re right, the two lanes in each direction would’ve been a good idea! Allow express lane traffic to pass any less-than-express drivers

I believe it’s because that section works fine for buses to have two lanes in each direction (they can control the bus speeds), but it does not have median separation which would be required to have regular commuters going 60+ mph in each direction. And adding in that median plus any access points/merging areas would require more right of way.

Exciting news for ongoing development in U city along the light rail. Developer to tear down some of the big box retail along the lake at JW Clay and replace with office, apartments, possible new library. Link to business journal article (paywalled)