Scribe

A pretty substantial upfit and a new pedestrian bridge over Stonewall with a picture window. The entire Stonewall side should not look like a warehouse by the airport but have large windows...

I think the Main Library project and the -- pretty awesome -- direction that's headed has changed the direction of the rest of Spirit Square block and the block across 7th.

at 175 sq ft / employee you can fit ~4100 employees in 725,000 sq ft of office -- that is a huge jobs announcement!

^^ and the Tryon stop will be on the Marriott side of Tryon St, so less then 1 block away.

The home site for this - with a ton of detail - is here https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/efac99c9c4034704949ae06479074c3d Really neat tool!

Not as much as I would like... up to 1500 sqft of retail space.

As I posted in one of the other threads, the zoning plan for this project was approved in June of 2018 and can be found here http://ww.charmeck.org/Planning/Rezoning/2017/175-190/2017-177%20approved%20site%20plan.pdf Since the zoning was already approved, I do not see much issues being posed by either the Elizabeth or Cherry residents.

I thought the re-zoning for this was approved already sometime last year? Or am I thinking of a different project? Yup, just checked again, the zoning was approved in June of 2018... so, there is very little Cherry folks can do about it now.

CLTDevelopement seems to use a lot of images that look like @ricky_davis_fan_21 work... Never mind, just checked twitter profile and it says it is run by @ricky_davis_fan_21 lol

You asked for it ... Because it was nerdy and cheaper, I built my own charger from a kit @ https://www.openevse.com/ The nice thing about these is that they have all kinds of options where you can track your charging efficiency and lifetime power usage (if you're into that). In the 4 years of full EV driving I have charged 54 MWh (54,000 KWh) with Charlotte electricity rates at $0.11 that turns out just under $6k ($5940 or $1485 per year). I used to track my gas spending pretty closely (that is what justified the switch to EV's) Our monthly spend would fluctuate in the mid $500's (so taking $550 for this calculation) With $550 /month for gas we spent $6600 a year for gas (over same period of time that is $26,400) - if you want to round down to $500/month that is still $24,000 across 4 years or $6000 per year. The second car is a Tesla (Tesla makes road trips a dream - and Model S and X get free supercharging for life, so outside of home I rarely pay for charging). 4 yr gasoline budget - $26,400 4 yr of EV charging - $5,940 Disclaimer: Your savings on fuel will vary! Because of our jobs, we drive a LOT! But we also have 2 kids that need to go to all kinds of events/programs/clubs. Across both cars, we roughly put 53k - 55k miles per year. All road trips fall on the Tesla so it ends up taking a bigger chunk of the mileage. Across all EV's that I've owned, we have driven just shy of 250,000 EV powered miles. First EV was a Leaf with a < 100 mile range per charge... don't get any EV that does not give more then 250 miles of range per charge the bigger the battery, the less charging cycles charging cycles is what affects long term battery life is measured in 2nd is Bolt with ~240 mile range (great for commuting without stress and short trips) 3rd is Tesla with >300 mile range (great for everything - especially for road trips)

It is time to switch to 100% battery electric vehicles. The US power grid has been getting cleaner over the past 2 decades (and will continue to get cleaner as solar and battery storage get cheaper) and BEV's don't spew out toxic waste as they go. Lastly, batteries can be re-used for energy storage after their life in EV's and after re-use recycled. Within the last few years they've advanced in recycling of Li-ion batteries where the vast majority of material can be recovered. one example: https://www.greenoptimistic.com/finland-battery-recycling-20190412/#.XLW8GzAzaHt

why would they spend the money on the concrete then??? You can go 7 stories with stick built.

^^^ how did you get behind the fence?!

Ground floor retail at this will be better then most. Along 8th St it is 2 story concrete then 5 floors stick built, allows for more unique ground floor usage. Also, the part facing the light rail has extra tall ceiling section in the middle.

LU2 really looks "better" driving South on Tryon, more pronounced

Company doing a 2020 kick-off event Uptown today, I was hoping to walk around, but this weather is NOT inviting. 2nd crane is working its way up...

CATS is missing out on a ton of revenue on the light rail. It is great to provide the service, but it would be even better to not leave good money on the table. They need to rethink fare collection altogether, possibly to combine with the rest of the Blue Line platform expansions for 3 car trains. P.S. know someone who used to live in Mint Hill would take the 40X - Lawyers Rd Express. He said, on average - he would pay 3 times out of 10 trips a week because the fare boxes in the bus were so janky! If the fare box is down, your ride is free. So, he cancelled his monthly parking uptown and rode the bus for free and this went on for several years! I know that this should be now rectified with the updated fare boxes, but this is just one example of how CATS doesn't give a $#!t about fiscal responsibility.

Just imagine, there will be two of these side by side! This is going to look awesome.

Now, if you change the subject whether gas/diesel should be banned as a fuel source, I'm all ears! I will be first to sign that petition and I will show up for any debate that needs a show of support! That is a public health, environmental and a geopolitical crisis all wrapped up in one nasty little liquid!

First, these are simply inaccurate statements. Looking from economic impact point of view, roads allow for the most diverse set of uses. Emergency services (would you like your EMT's relying on public transport) All goods based businesses. All time critical businesses. On location service based industries. Roads are the single method of transport that allows the gov't to spend only on half of the infrastructure (just the road - not the vehicle) everything else requires both. they offload the capex, opex and insurance for all private cars on the user. Can you provide the same services with just light rail and bus service? In a growing metro like Charlotte, you need a good balance of different modes of transport. There are some on this forum (not limited to @kermit ) that are anti-road to the point that they are blinded to all other economic factors that are in play. For example, take the statement below: With a blanket statement like that there is a lot to cover, but I will hit only 2 points: completely lets off the hook all the previous City and CDOT planners that neglected sidewalks all together. (it wasn't until mid 2000's that there was even a funded plan to actually get sidewalks in 'all of Uptown', but that is somehow ROADS fault) Taking everyone into consideration must start at the very beginning of any project - this includes taking into account private vehicles. Good planning goes a long way... about the extra cost of parking - has anyone here ever wondered how much more in property tax you would be paying to cover the huge capital and operating costs of a much larger system CATS is 80% (according to the 2020 budget) dependent on taxpayer funds and the number seems to go up ~1% every year. Also, if you "made cars legal only in few places" like the tweet that started this discussion, you are basically creating a class system in your city. Those that live near enough to benefit and all the rest that are left to take a 90 minute bus ride.

It is difficult to see how CATS can be successful when, they plan on losing 7% in revenue for FY2020. In a year that has a fully (and hopefully smoothly) run Blue Line and updated bus routes with higher frequency. What am I missing here folks? OpEx going up by >20% yet fare revenue going down by >7% Who's going to pickup that slack?

@ImWithHER welcome to UP... I have not seen any future Charlotte Water projects listed but my bet would be on these upgrades being lumped together as part of Silver Line construction.

Looks like a huge sidewalk with trees, and patios from ground floor retail opening up to the sidewalk. Have you walked Mint St in the past decade? Or am I missing something?

You know, I would love for all utopian urbanists to come together, "put their money where their mouth is" so to speak, and start their own Town/City. Don't ride on the back of someone else's "dirty" work, but build from the ground up. Attract talent, generate a tax revenue, deal with crime (oh wait you have no crime in a utopia) and make it a self sustained place. Here's a primer on how to incorporate your own town: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2005/11/how-do-you-start-your-own-town.html This past week, I was driving my Bolt down Park Rd (yes, I only own EV's and the Bolt is a fine EV), and stopped at a light behind a Volvo with the following bumper sticker I did not know at that particular moment whether I wanted to laugh or cry. Reading your posts and some responses, I am taken back to that exact moment. So, go on, make a self sustaining utopia, prove all the naysayers wrong.

Holy $#!t people twisting themselves into knots trying to sound urbanist. WE would not have ~90% of mainland US development if freedom of moving (that is provided by a personal car/van/truck and horse before the age of auto's) was not a cornerstone of the US economy. That freedom gives individuals the ability to provide goods and services that otherwise would not be there, to explore new places - that are not at a Rail Station - for potential business ventures. Or sometimes just the simple freedom to not be a slave to a timetable! Want to tax the $#!t out of gas/diesel for polluting the air, do it! But that is not at all what those twitter profiles are about. There are plenty of alternatives to fossil fueled cars. Good EV's are available form many manufacturers. But clean air is not their goal - they just hide behind it as a cover. They want you to accept their world view or shame you every which way if you do not abide (in this case compare every non-smoking American to a smoker).