wilmore

In hindsight, I wish we could take back the AvidXchange Music Factory and put it somewhere else.

not on Mint, behind it, the former Salty Parrot and some other brewery. the 1501 S. Mint seems to be crushing it

I'm considering that area a different area, though of course if stuff is built out in all these under construction buildings plus the panthers logo lot it could merge into one continuous district. However if we think of what makes sense for an event-focused bar/restaurant, they have to be open pretty late for post-soccer/concert, which is what the Slingshot/etc. block does well (the rest of Charlotte, not so much). Might be tough to get this in an apartment building?

Is it though? There are basically no bars or restaurants around for several blocks (the brewery to the West of Mint has gone out of business twice); the DOG HOUSE, which I do not understand at all, is only open on very select event days, so it seems like the evidence to date shows this area actually isn't a very good location for this type of stuff. Currently it's a bit of a strange no man's land, though that is subject to change once the apartment buildings currently under construction get completed. The CLT HUB business down the street is also really weird, and seems like a half-hearted attempt at such an event-focused bar space.

Not sure if I buy this, the study is using "capital-backed companies" for some reason, which are not even close to the typical "SF tech salary" payers. Most people are thinking of FAANG engineers or other front-office roles when they talk about SF/SV pay rates (~$200K for a lot of entry-level roles), and I'm not aware of any major Charlotte employer coming close to that. That said, working for an SF-based company and living in Charlotte is an amazing combo!

Any chance a taller building would go up here, or would that be an issue for the historic district?

Yes, the junkyard really needs to be turned into a large project. The current tenant has really been driving in massive crowds to 1501 Mint; while some of the racist neighbors are less enthused, they have entirely changed the feel of those blocks in a mostly positive way.

Well, that sucks. Summit is the edge of the historic district, correct?

Bokhari? Disingenuous? Never!

Kask is on Summit

Classic stuff from our local urbanist "experts" who have no actual role in the process, besides getting some leaks from developers and posting it.

Yes, this should be the way to proceed. Does any large city with an actually useful transit system use the central bus station model?

I flew on the PKB flight a few times; once Beckley wasn't open and it was amazing, maybe like 45 minutes, with like 10 people on a 30-seat layout which already has an enormous amount of space (because it's a 50-seater with only 30 seats installed). When it stops at Beckley, not quite as good, but they are still way better than the previous EAS providers (although EAS seems mostly unnecessary for places like that where you are only a few hours from a true hub).

Hmm maybe with that Summit station they can put in a way to cross 77 there on foot?

I think what I'm getting at is the residential stimulus is a big part of the value here; with only the current, or a moderate level of additional development, the "get to the airport" benefit won't be even close to worthwhile. The gentrification is the point, for better or for worse. As someone who lives in Wilmore (hence the handle), a potential light rail airport trip for me in the future is a choice between: Pay for whatever Uber/Lyft costs, 15 min. Get dropped off or drive, parking costs + 15 min + tram each way. Walk to the East/West station, ride blue line to transfer, additional silver line to airport. I think in the "Charlotte does transit right" scenario, I could see this being an hour trip. No way I would ever choose this. If it's 30-40 minutes for the trip, sure, let's make the trip, but it is unlikely they will be running frequently enough to allow this to happen. I do live in an unusually convenient spot to drive to the airport, but overall, I just don't see a ton of decent-time-to-the-airport train trips to be added here. The train needs to be a good enough option that a significant number of people will choose it over other options. Most business travelers have way *less* appetite for waiting around than I do in this model. In the old Charlotte urban model, where everyone wants to get dumped on Tryon/Trade, an airport train right into the middle of Uptown is pretty valuable. In a hypothetical 2040, is this network even doing much?

Compared to most cities with airport transit, our airport is both super close and super accessible to uptown. It's really a 15 minute drive at most - the train needs to be really frequent to compete with that.

That didn't last long at all!

Interesting, some of those condos were listed from time to time, but didn't seem like nearly enough to actually market a decent % of the building. Related, does anyone know what the 2-story building by the gas station on Tryon is? Probably right across the street from the food hall posted above, it's a nice looking building but no idea what it is

Agree with this - we are basically the *opposite* of successful convention markets, and should not try to fight that.

saw it at Pasta & Provisions, Mint St. location, on Friday

Will this be the third brewery to go to 0 in this location? In related area news, Hopfly is *excellent*. Probably the best overall brewery in Charlotte, and their ordering system is great - order online via QR code and they bring the beer.

South End is just straight up a better location now IMO. There's not that much Uptown to really draw people there every day.

To save one block in each direction?

This is the huge advantage of Tesla at this point compared to all other EVs. There are superchargers in Parkersburg, Charleston, Beckley, Huntington, etc. which make it easy to even go anywhere through WV.

We need to stop building transit for the past and start building it for the future. I don't have much of a concept of what this would entail other than high frequency + overlapping lines, but some questions I have about the existing plans include: Will the number of people commuting from outlying areas into downtown ever approach what is needed to make a full hub and spoke style system work? I doubt it. It also doesn't make a lot of sense to me that an airport train is truly needed for visitors to Charlotte. If it can get enough workers to the airport, it might be worth routing it there, but can you seriously tell me you would take the train to the airport frequently if you don't live within a tiny radius of the line? The most common trip served by such a line would be airport to downtown, which is like a 15 minute Uber ride. Business travelers will not be hopping on a low-frequency train to avoid what is normally 15 minutes, $15. We shouldn't assume that "rush hour" will ever be what it once was, especially as more and more people moving to Charlotte are specifically moving while working remote.