slipperypete

I had heard the hype for years and gave it a try in 2023 for the first time. The bathroom was truly next level clean and nice. But the food wasn't for me. The brisket sandwich was extremely sweet. A strange amount of sugar in that sauce. And my first one was inedible - mostly a huge chunk of pure connective tissue and fat. I asked for another one and got it, but couldn't eat more than a third of it before giving up. It should be a crime to represent TX BBQ that way. Plus with so many soft drink fountain options - not one was water. I walked in with an empty water bottle and left with it still empty. At least they have some cut fruit?

Pretty sure this was previously part of Seigle Ave Presbyterian. The Lab School took over one of their buildings when the church sold their property for redevelopment.

Skyland? At any rate, on many visits, B's has never been as good or consistent as Skylight Inn for me. Love every visit to Skylight. And Sam Jones BBQ (son-of-Skylight, but with brisket and beer; and also present on that list) is in the same ballpark of quality, and now has an outpost in Raleigh. So I agree wholeheartedly that Charlotte is far behind. I'm personally hoping for a Jones family invasion in Charlotte. I'm also hoping for only 'on' days for Sweet Lew's, since they are really fantastic when they are dialed in. FWIW I am also team Alston (though the sign at Red's is really excellent and I appreciate that). I'm a little afraid though, that Noble's is the 'cue that Charlotte deserves. Big, conservative and corporate feeling. Too expensive for regular folk. Not as genuine or satisfying as the real deal, but flashy and nicely presented. Seems sadly appropriate.

So weird. Didn't they originally propose a huge video billboard atop the Ervin building? I seem to remember that getting shot down. This developer must have a thing for ad revenue.

Evidently this was true for Tepper, the county and the state, but not for the city. Rock Hill couldn't or wouldn't issue the bonds they promised. Based on the public information I've seen so far that is the fault of Rock Hill. It will be interesting to see what other disclosures are made as this drama continues to unfold, but it's telling that Rock Hill is a defendant in this York Co suit.

I think you're right. Here's a much blurrier 1950 map showing more of the grid developed around the airport. It's bounded by Thrift on the N (the section now called Freedom Dr), Roylston on the E, Marlborough to the SE, Greene (now a continuation of Ashley) on the SW, and the tail end of Tuckaseegee to the W. By 1954 that section of Thrift has been renamed Freedom. In the 1962 map it was no longer marked - just empty space near the new i85 corridor. In the 1975 map the Freedom Village shopping center is marked there, and in 1982 Freedom Mall is added as well. Oh, and here are the runways in the 1950 aerial photos. The road overlay shows that it would be pretty well bounded by modern-day Ashley, Freedom and Alleghany: https://timemachine.mcmap.org/#-80.88568210601808/35.2386091217919/15/-599616000000

No scoop, but looking at the property records it was purchased in 2018 by an entity connected with a dental practice in NE Charlotte. Wouldn't be surprised to see a dentist office here.

I'll bet this will end up a good bit more affordable than the places south of the tracks. But it will probably be a car-dependent community. Their parcel doesn't provide access to 16th Street, so all pedestrian activity will involve N Tryon. And it's on such a difficult section of N Tryon - with a pretty unpleasant rail underpass and long stretch of i277 underpass to get to uptown, and the foot traffic between Roof Above and the Urban Ministry. Seems like it would take a fairly determined pedestrian to do a regular foot commute uptown from here. On the plus side, increased business for the Auto Bell on the corner I guess.

Now this is the kind of in-depth analysis I appreciate! Totally agree on the seats.

Nobody is disagreeing with the points you've made. The point that was being articulated several times, which was not at all opposed to your point of view, was that there are some situations in this city, right now, for some people, where transit is a poor option. That's a fact. Some people are not riding the blue line home from a large uptown event until they're confident they're stacking trains. They're making a pragmatic decision for them and their family. That's not wrong of them to do that. And I suspect that a typical poster on here will change their mind if/when CATS improves that service. The general public? Maybe, but they'll probably return more slowly than transit champions. You have a threshold too. If you know that transit for a certain trip would add some number of hours to your trip, and if you have an alternative, then there is a point where you will choose the alternative. Everyone's time and cost thresholds for that will differ. It can change based on a person's budget, level of mobility, presence of small children, weather and other factors. And this was what I got from @go_vertical's comment about MTA vs CATS, to which you responded so negatively. Their comment didn't negate your point, nor did it agree/reiterate. It added a nuance. The MTA rider simply doesn't have reasonable alternatives in most cases. They are hostages to the system and advocacy is the one and only thing to be done (beyond complaining, which is a good outlet). That's ok, since they are hostages to a mostly functional system. The point was that CATS doesn't have that same captive audience. Many Charlotte riders have relatively inexpensive alternatives. So for some trips right now, some people will say no to the blue line or a bus line or whatever. That doesn't make them non-transit-supportive or anti-transit. It doesn't mean they're not patient or constructively engaging to help CATS improve. It just means riders have alternatives. For full disclosure, one of my thresholds is crosstown bus to bus transfers for a short errand somewhere. Meaning a transfer away from CTC or one of the hubs. Best case scenario my trip is 3x the time of a drive, and it's just too likely that I'm going to be stranded for 30+ minutes somewhere at least once on the trip. Hopefully there's a time in the future where headways are shorter and this is a better option. I think it's also likely there will be growth and economic and possibly even policy changes that make car trips more painful/expensive and which will move our thresholds. I support that! But for now? I'll drive my car for a trip like this. TL;DR: It's good to champion transit! And also, not everyone can justify taking transit for every trip in Charlotte right now. That's ok and doesn't make them not a champion of transit!

You make some interesting points (and some not) in this thread. But with this kind of response you make it very clear that you have no interest in really reading and honestly engaging in others' points of view. Too bad.

Attacks? I never said that. What on earth are you reading? It's not what I've written. Each time I said "came across as downplaying others' concerns." I don't feel attacked at all. Don't think the other poster did either. They said they wouldn't ride the blue line to big events to avoid being stranded for a long time after. Pretty reasonable response. But I guess your comment that a totally different transit mode on a different line works fine is helpful? Ok then, thanks for your help! I appreciate all this patience and grace you're modeling for us. And not spending a nanosecond on perceived offenses. It's been cool.

CATS Blue Line (which is our highest ridership park & ride option) gave a poor experience to a lot of riders after the first two MLS home games. Agree? That is not an assertion that anything is systematically flawed, and I certainly didn't say it was. The only reasonable transit option for many people to a big uptown event is blue line park & ride. The blue line specifically is stressed after events due to that park & ride volume. This is predictable, and pre-pandemic it seemed to be handled better. My point was: CATS should go back to providing more capacity before and after big uptown events. This is what I got from the other people sharing their poor experience, and I don't think it's a controversial point. Based the CATS twitter feed they agree and have said they'll do better. That's cool. They wouldn't have had a chance to improve (or at least to voice their plan to improve) if people didn't complain. The streetcar experience you shared was unrelated to the discussion (and the whole blue line thread we're on here). Different mode of transit. Presenting it the way you did came across as downplaying others' concerns. Particularly since you did it twice! "But it didn't happen to me" you said the second time. And... Your "come on people, a bit of grace and patience" comment seemed to be doubling down on that. It struck me as a fairly snotty response to this discussion which also seemed to be downplaying at least their responses, and possibly also their concerns. Particularly since you seem disconnected from the point of it being a problem specific to the blue line. And you don't know how they reacted as part of the crowd that night (possibly with more patience and grace than most!). This discussion board is a good place to share disappointment and discuss how we can hopefully provide feedback to CATS and hold them to a higher standard. If that wasn't your intent then cool.

And just because you had a good experience on the streetcar (which wouldn't be as overwhelmed for a special event, since it doesn't have park & ride ridership), it doesn't give you the right to downplay many others' poor experience. Maybe a little grace? CATS should absolutely be considering uptown special events in their scheduling and adding capacity. They have done this before for the Panthers. At minimum they should be communicating a plan that will get this kind of rider a better experience. Otherwise they're going to alienate people from transit as an option for this kind of event. And that would be really unfortunate.

I absolutely agree that special-interest events will draw a different set of people. And they will come based on the merits of the event itself, not the city it's held in. We should go after that stuff (with a reasonable amount of civic investment). But I was providing an opinion on a different question - does Nashville have greater draw for tourists in general, and if so, why? I think it does. So it's not to say that Charlotte can't draw with events. It's just that in my opinion we're starting from a lower leisure travel floor vs a city like Nashville (or Austin, or Denver, or Atlanta) when we add those things on. So I would expect our peak leisure travel to still underperform in comparison. As long as we don't overspend to attract tourists I think it will be good for the city and lead to more organic growth in both business and leisure visitors.