Charlotte Night

^^^ Ouch! When simple statistics hurt as bad as an insult! If it's of any consolation, at least one of the city council members who voted yes on Phase 3 (June 2022) realizes this: “Right now, the streetcar is not really a more appealing option to folks than getting into a single passenger vehicle,” Egleston said. For more context: But Egleston said he won’t vote in favor of expanding this line if the streetcar stays in traffic. He wants it to be more like light rail and operate in its own right of way. That idea is backed by Councilman Malcolm Graham. Source: Next phase of Charlotte streetcar to move forward – WSOC TV

This is an intriguing idea that makes some amount of sense in my amateur opinion, though it spits in the face of all the planning and work done so far at Gateway. I'm gonna set the (many) engineering points aside for this and go back to what I think I remember being a major reason why CATS/city planners did NOT pursue this strategy years ago: They felt the CTC area of Uptown was congested enough as is and preferred to bring the new commuters and development opportunities to a cheaper and less dense part of Uptown. Thus, we got Gateway. They could link in Amtrak (which badly needs new infrastructure) this way too. Also, at the time, I think there was greater optimism (naive perhaps) that Norfolk Southern would play ball, and the red line north could link in alongside Amtrak. Feel free to correct me here. I wanna say this was a conversation maybe back in 2017 or so.

I know we've all seen the view from Fahrenheit before, but this time I circled in blue all buildings to my knowledge that are standing now that were not yet built at the time I first came up to this rooftop in 2016. For reference, the old Charlotte Observer building was still under demolition back then. I try to list them below, roughly working from left to right: Lowe's Technology Hub (South End) Home2 Suites by Hilton Charlotte Uptown Embassy Suites by Hilton Charlotte Uptown The Francis Apartments (formerly Novel Stonewall) LendingTree Headquarters (South End) JW Marriott Charlotte Ally Charlotte Center Duke Energy Plaza Museum Tower (to be fair, this one was under construction at the time) Here's the original. And yes, my finger is at the top left because I was gripping my phone so I wouldn't drop it off the roof XD EDITS: Sorry there were so many edits, moderators. I had to learn how to post images =/

I somehow missed the news that Centene is no longer coming to Charlotte (this was announced over two months ago; sorry if I missed previous discussion in my points below) and I am hoping that the sudden supply of office space in the city doesn't jeopardize this project. In my amateur opinion, I am not worried for two reasons: 1.) I question Centene's press release statement that the primary reason for pulling out is "remote flexibility trends" when meanwhile they are reserving $1.1 billion for potential future lawsuit settlements. Sounds like maybe they chose to divert new HQ funds to a litigation war chest, but what do I know. I think some (many?) other companies will NOT cancel new office projects, keeping demand strong (enough). 2.) Urban, central South End is a completely different animal than suburban-fringe University City, so the two areas might not really be competing with each other for most buyers anyway. Any thoughts or discussions in the Centene context?

In July, city manager Marcus Jones hired a consulting firm to evaluate the extensive struggles of CATS buses. I am thinking the consultants have probably already begun looking into things by now, which makes me curious as to whether any of their findings led Lewis to leave before anything became public. Not saying Lewis did anything unethical (I liked him once upon a time and I'm happy to give him benefit of the doubt) but either way the TIMING is curious here; maybe there is an embarrassing leadership failure, etc. Speaking of the consultants, didn't Jones miss some Lynx planning/presentation deadlines without explanation earlier this year last year too? I wonder if that will come up again. EDIT: Accuracy; see strikethrough. Linking article: Charlotte’s mobility plan goes missing as city manager misses deadlines for providing cost estimates (wbtv.com)

I'm sorry if this has been asked here a million times, but it's been driving me NUTS as I look at this building every day and compare it to BofA Tower (formerly Legacy Union). What is the actual height of this building? Charlotte Biz Journal / Emporis (SIDE NOTE: OMG RIP EMPORIS! Did you all know it shut down last month?) say 598 feet. Skyscraper Center / Council Urban Habitat Tall Buildings say 629 feet. Seems pretty close at first, but the thing that is driving me crazy is nearby BofA Tower's height is 632 feet, which all above sources above agree on, and this building looks ALMOST the same height to me, from various angles, and not a full 30 feet shorter, if I had to guess. Also, if it is the 629-foot height, Charlotte can add another 600-footer to its roster, for nerds like me who care about something like that. Thank you to anyone who addresses my quiet anguish over this.