nakers2

I'll go inside, doesn't mean I'll buy anything, but it's not a private club, you can browse, just prepare to have a hole stared through your head by the staff.

Kind of a cynical take. Nashville is a tourist mecca versus Charlotte. With that being said, Charlotte is/will eventually become a place people visit just because its a city they haven't been to, it's a place they've heard of (thanks to growth lists like we see year over year) and us talking negatively about our own city in a non-constructive way doesn't make outsiders want to visit.

That's a great point. For me, as someone with family in Europe, most people I know who live outside the city have cars, they rarely use transit, but they can walk to what they need in their neighborhood. I realize that's a bit far fetched for a lot of the more suburban developments in the US, but it's a start that will bear fruit in the long, long term. And in the city itself, in the shorter term.

I was reading on some other forums about the choices "Love is Blind" made in regards to filming location. It seems to have largely come down to where they can buy/rent a large swath of connected, or at least in close proximity homes for the contestants to live in. Of course most people are to narrow minded to think of it this way, but I feel that it speaks to how hot the Charlotte area market still is for them to have to go to this neighborhood far outside the city. On another note, and perhaps I'm showing my bias, but even "car dependent" townhomes are still better than single family development in my opinion. Ultimately you're putting more people into a smaller area. Admittedly my townhome is a bit more aesthetically pleasing, but not everyone can afford what I or many Charlotte residents can.

Spoke with Craig (owner) down at the Box a while ago and he said as long as the mall allows open container they'll look the other way if you bring one in.

Wow, a lot going on here since the last time I posted. I think Charlotte's population *does* matter to an extent. Charlotte is a transplant city, I'd compare it to a place like California or Texas or Florida in regards to the limited number of "natives", and an *especially* limited number of people with parents from the region. While identity can be a major driver to a city's positive perception and recognition on the national, and international stage, Charlotte is truly, as many have aptly pointed out, a city that most transplants move to because it has relatively cheap housing compared to up north, and to a lesser extent, out west. But someone who's from a more populous region typically isn't willing to give up everything they've left behind. As I've said before, Charlotte is quickly becoming a place that can't be ignored, it's a market that needs to be served. Population growth will continue to elevate Charlotte until it can stand on its own as a place with at least a regional draw. As far as people ragging on the city, take it on the chin, you go to a place like Cleveland or Detroit, you meet some proud and resilient people, Charlottians are too polite. We try to defend, overexplain, throw out stats to prove were a "real city" when we should take a page from most folks in the rust belt when someone craps on their town, and that's to say "go f yourself, I like it here"

I said this elsewhere, but Charlotte is on the cusp of shifting into the next level of urban development IMO. It's a city that has been growing like a weed for as long as most of us can remember, any great city in this world had its boom period, and then developed its culture. Very few great places grew *from* culture. Will Charlotte ever be as "exciting" as some peer cities? Maybe not, but as more people move here, they will demand a higher quality of life. Having visited Uptown recently and trying some of the new cocktail lounges, the caliber that people expect is higher than it once was by a longshot.

That view is becoming one of my favorites in the city, and it's not even the main skyline. Recently moved out to the suburbs and I joke that the benefit of no longer living uptown is that I get to look at the skyline as I come in on Independence or Monroe.

I went into that GAP for the first time ever recently and just by the shape of it I had a gut feeling this might be where it was gonna go. I didn't want to admit it because I agree its not the best location, but also why is it not? It's because there's nothing in that wing that really draws people. Zara will be a destination, and a far reaching one at that.

Though it seems likely this is the Zara space, it could also be expansion for other tenants that might be displaced by Zara? I asked only a few posts ago about the possibility of additional floors being added to the mall, this could easily be a proof of concept. I highly doubt the city would stonewall any attempts to increase zoning allowances for 2+ million sq ft.

Charlotte has always been one to buck trends, the city is often touted as being a "boom town" but I've always seen Charlotte's growth to be more akin to a freight train or diesel truck. Steady, powerful, slowly but surely building momentum. Although it is far from an objective analysis, the quality and quantity of development around the city, and even in areas deemed less desirable in the past (such as around the airport or near the interstates) indicates to me that developers or all kinds see Charlotte as a good and safe investment. In places where growth has already occured in the past decade or two, the degree to which that growth has supercharged in notable as well. Growth in Charlotte compounds itself. To put it another way, Charlotte is quickly becoming a city where a retailer will ask "why don't we have a location in Charlotte?" It seems like the default southeastern major city for growth. Atlanta already has a lot, but growth there is stagnated, and on a state wide basis, assuming Southpark remains the regional draw that it is, NC/SC, and even portions of VA and TN can open a pool just as large, if not larger than what Atlanta can attract regarding regional travelers.

Haven't seen it mentioned here, but there's a MASSIVE new distribution center in/near China Grove right off i-85, the signage on the outside? Macy's-Bloomingdales. I find it very hard to believe that they would not only build a Macy's distribution center, but at the same time put the Bloomingdale's brand, a brand largely unfamiliar in this region, on the exterior. As someone who works in logistics it would make very little sense for them to build to this scale if there were not plans in place to expand Macy's footprint, and create a footprint for Bloomingdale's in the region, and Southpark seems like the first logical contender for a location.

Can we start talking for real about South Park getting an expansion? The waitlist for retailers seems to indicate it could support twice the square footage. I know that's unrealistic, but I see so many places here doing active expansions/remodels while remaining open (the airport being a great example) how hard would it really be to add a level and/or consume some of the surface lots?

"Maybe Charlotte gets a Nobu up there"-My girlfriend and not me who doesn't like sushi

I recently visited Oregon and Washington, as well as lived in California when I was younger (in other words, my adult interactions were limited) and the reactions I generally got when I told people I was from North Carolina were at best, apathy, and at the worst, negatively opinionated. I just think our state gets lumped in with the rest of the South, and I suppose I'm too proud to just throw the rest of the South under the bus to make us seem better even though I do sometimes want to. I think NC does small towns, and natural beauty just as good as any other state, but when it comes to our cities, they're largely new and developing beyond what folks from more established cities expect. My brother and I ran into each other in NoDa the other day, and he lamented as he often realizes how "small" Charlotte is sometimes when that happens, and I had to remind him that NoDa is like a small town within a city, similar to Plaza, or parts of Southend. If I'd decided to go elsewhere that night our paths might never have crossed. In a city like NYC or DC, that is far less likely to happen, though I'd still argue more likely in DC as I could absolutely see myself running into a friend if we both were in Georgetown or Adams-Morgan, etc. As far as your friend, I didn't want to make too broad of an assumption, but you said it yourself, she's making major sacrifices by living with four others, meanwhile I just bought a home that could house four (or more) people in Stallings (just outside Charlotte in Union County) which to your friend might as well be hell on earth. Albeit 55k still won't afford you a super nice home, a decent apartment, or maybe just one roommate would be necessary in Southend, for example, Regarding the last part of your post, I have to push back on the fact that the question ONLY affects Asian Americans. My girlfriend is actually from China (in other words, just Asian) so she often feels conflicting pressure to either say the truth, which to be more specific would be Wuhan (obviously not a good answer to have in recent years) or play the coy "I'm from {insert adoptive family's home city here]" it also doesn't help that she's Jewish which leads to even more uncomfortable questions, especially in the past few days. Also, if I'm not being as pedantic, I could point to the numerous Latin Americans in my life, including my brothers girlfriend and sister who are often hit on with that same classic line. They are both white passing so it almost always is followed by "oh wow, I'd have guessed Spain!" or some variant thereof. Last but not least, my Belgian mother is still asked to this day where she's from, and even if Belgium is a first world country, she was fired from her first job here because she biked to work and couldn't run home to change her shirt. Is the latter example as extreme as the racial component your friend experienced? No, certainly not, but it's a microagression nonetheless.