stang_esq

I wonder about the pedestrian experience of visiting these developments on the east side of South Blvd. As of now, it's a PITA to cross because the few crossings we currently have tend to feel pretty hostile. For example, if you cross at Clanton, then you either have to run in order to make the very short crosswalk signal in time, or you have to cross halfway, stand on a very small pedestrian refuge by the tracks, and then wait for the next red light cycle to cross the second half. Not a good pedestrian experience at all, and it certainly favors those inside cars. With several new apartment buildings and a growing retail presence (anchored by Lidl) on the east side of South Blvd., I wonder if this will *feel* comfortable to cross back-and-forth for someone on foot or bike. It'll require some adjusted crosswalk beg button signals, and I would expect the City to also add an additional pedestrian crossing between The Platform and Lidl. Otherwise I envision people just sticking to the west side of South Blvd. because crossing is too much trouble.

I'm confused. I was under the impression that the gigantic parking deck that's currently being built on the South Blvd. frontage was the entire project, and the builder would be wrapping the parking deck with apartments and placing about 9k sqft of retail on the ground floor. Now I see that the South frontage is simply the tip of an iceberg, and most of it will be happening behind the South Blvd lot. Wow, this involves a lot of surface parking considering its location. My immediate impression is to be very disappointed by that. Am I missing something? The beer garden is pretty hidden to the public, being behind a 5-story tall parking deck from a South Blvd. perspective. So I'll bet it's just a resident-only amenity. Meanwhile, I'm expecting 2 or 3 retail tenants in the 9-10k sqft, which I'm hoping fronts South Blvd.

Axios published this story about the arcades last Fall. One of them had moved from South Blvd over to South Tryon a few weeks before the story. I figure the owners are just hopping around to whatever buildings are cheap, with plans to hop again when rents rise. https://charlotte.axios.com/280659/exclusive-those-skill-games-arcades-feed-off-of-charlottes-lower-income-neighborhoods/

I'm guessing there won't be retail since this is a few blocks away from South Blvd. The good news is this will make something like ~11 multifamily projects in Loso, which will create some great residential density for more urbanization of this local area and making it a complete neighborhood.

Your post is music to my ears. Glad I'm not the only weirdo in the neighborhood.

I'd love to see that. You'd be fighting the War On Cars, which I suspect would upset quite a few folks in the Car Estabslishment inebriated with driver subsidies. But you'd be taking a really positive step toward encouraging folks to choose to live in walkable areas, which would reduce developers' incentive to build in insular, suburban locations, as well as increase the demand for transit and bike infrastructure. Regarding the Collinswood parcel, this land sits 2/3 mile from the Scaleybark train station (and bus stop). That seems like a pretty prime location for people to live densely because a fair % of urban-minded people are willing to walk that distance to hop on a train. If you traveled a little farther down Scaleybark, then I would admit that folks wouldn't walk that far. But with a decent-sized parcel like this, I feel it would be a missed opportunity if we didn't go dense.

Parking would be fine so long as drivers paid a reasonable price for its use. Donald Shoup has pretty much completely solved the parking problem, and we would do well to listen to what he has been saying for decades. I'd love to say carrots are a good solution. But we've tried it, and people didn't respond enough. Free Lyft rides to complete first mile / last mile trips to train stations. Free scooter rides for work commutes. Transit is already incredibly inexpensive and essentially subsidizes the decision to leave the car at home. And yet people still drive because it's a much more attractive option for most people, and also since it's ingrained in our culture. Sticks are the only real solution, unfortunately. Driving needs to be much more expensive and much less convenient. We provide the "expensive" stick by way of pricey parking, higher gas tax (this is a state level thing, of course) and congestion pricing. We provide the less convenience stick by way of no longer adding lanes, allowing congestion to occur, utilizing bollards to force people to drive around (rather than directly through) certain neighborhoods, and using road diets and traffic deterrence measures on streets that would be good options for cyclists to use for commuting purposes.

Maybe so. It's certainly a necessary evil for the time being. In the next 2-3 years, I see a few thousand apartment units coming online, along with a few hundred more semi-dense (townhouse) residential developments. Then there's the Scaleybark Station and adjacent semi-dense node encompassing Loso Station, Loso Village, Platform, and eventually some stuff across South Blvd. I envision Loso as becoming the next node down the Blue Line. You have the primary Southend node running from the Bland Station down to Tremont. Then New Bern is kinda a node. But Loso will eventually become more significant. Parking will always be there, of course. But it has the potential to be a cool walkable neighborhood if we can avoid the temptation to provide parking for everyone, and instead encourage people to get there by other means or just live there.

Cool video. If I understand correctly, the owner of the Protagonist building now has plans for expansion into office space for the rear portion of that building. Is that what he meant? Loso has a bright near-term future (2-3 years), but I hate to hear so many comments about the wealth of parking, parking to square footage ratios, etc. Then in the next sentence he talked about the new density in Loso, which doesn't really combine well with lots of parking. I should also point out that it's all surface parking except for the new apartment buildings. I'm really hoping to see some of that surface parking disappear so that we can enjoy more density, more walkability, and more safety since there won't be as many cars motoring around looking for spots.

Don't forget the renovated building that looks to be a future restaurant space just to the left (north) of Ski Country Sports. Sorry for bad pic. I can't bend far enough over my balcony to get a shot from home office and don't feel like walking down there at the moment. So I found an old pic with the building sorta in view. Regarding the big lot at Loso Station, my buddy who works at Beacon says the big building dropped from the conversation. Nothing is currently underway on that project. Plus, there is an Edifice construction trailer sitting within the fenced area of that lot, and Edifice is the contractor building Loso Station Buildings 3 & 4, which are currently underway. Both will be 5 story office buildings with something like 25k sqft of retail on bottom floor. Based on a rough calculation, the immediate area surrounding the Scaleybark station will have the following *new* retail square footage: Loso Station 1: 5,000 sqft (Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee) Loso Station 3 & 4: 25,000 sqft Loso Village: 50,000 sqft (https://beacondevelopment.com/properties/business-park/4816/loso-village) (Not sure if Loso Village includes the Urban Mvmt building, but I don't think so.) Weathered Souls Brewing (currently Urban Mvmt): 10,000 sqft South & Hollis: 9,000 sqft The Restaurant Building in photo: Guessing around 5-7,000 sqft Northwood Ravin: No idea That's roughly 100,000 sqft of *new* retail not including Northwood Ravin. I'm thinking that will make Loso more of a retail/restaurant node than the New Bern Station area of Southend.

Thanks! I'm right in the middle of things in Loso, with Loso Station right out my front door and Loso Village just next-door. Very exciting time to be here. It's been fun lurking and seeing what you all have to say.

There will be a new animal hospital called Loso Veterinary Hospital located next-door to Lower Left Brewing, across the street from Dogs All Day, in the Zespa building. Expected opening Late 2022. The landlord is planning to move the grain tower (I'm probably mis-identifying this structure) from the rear courtyard to the front along Nations Crossing Rd. I believe there are either 1 or 2 apartment buildings currently planned or under construction immediately behind this parcel.