Seabreeze

Welcome to RV, I have been working there over a year and must say it is a great company if you can handle the pressure !! You are correct on all of the locations. Charlotte is mainly the headquarters for corporate and the launching pad for new businesses within Red Ventures. As the separate businesses get established, they typically move to other cities to allow for room for new programs to develop here in Charlotte.

Thanks for clearing that up, makes a lot more sense now. And now that everyone mentions it, it does look a lot nicer now that the utilities are buried. Now if someone would just consider opening a late night diner to replace Athens on this stretch, I would probably visit more often!

Yeah, they really should have thought this job through better... The time line on the project was ridiculous, they should have began laying the tracks closer to uptown first and completed this phase at a later date. Talk about jumping the gun, why lay tracks there before the rest of the line started construction?! I'm assuming this project was privately funded. If not, it would make much more sense to have the tracks installed from the government district to uptown first.

Have been talking with the owner of On the Roxx in Ballantyne, he will be opening a location in the vacated space by Target Golf next to the Aveda Institute in the next month or 2.

DEF was a joke... it was just funny b/c I was flipping through QNotes and saw that right after I read your post, was most ironic.

Well if you pay a little more attention to the media, you would see that your guess is not accurate The March 21, 2009 issue of Q-Notes has an interview with sales manager Rob McCrorey on page 27. It states they are now at 65% sold. He also stated the tough economy has "definitely slowed down the pace of sales" but they are still getting sales. Another cool mention I haven't heard before is that the building will be using bio-metric finger-print controls.

I took a friend there going on and on how the coolest decor of a restaurant was the upside down furniture mounted to the exposed rooms above, only to arrive and find tacky light fixtures This neighborhood is having its funky identity stripped away. I don't see why they would remove this and not add a loft or something for dining. Revolutions food may be better but the character is now generic and will never draw me away from the other generic pizza joints with decent pizza near my place. Nothing special. Especially with the competition with dining in this town.

I've seen advertisements for Reid's inside of the vehicles and there is a billboard by the interestion of Woodlawn you can see from the train with a Nike advertisement I believe right now. Other than that, haven't noticed much else.

Excellent point. My roommates mother was riding for the first time, and luckily she still thinks the light rail is pretty 'cool'. However, I doubt the other woman that was in the heat of it all will.... Not to mention countless others that can drive alternatively. While replying to this, I actually received a call from CATS apologizing for the incident. I just expressed that I understood that much couldn't be done about the situation at the time, however, I recommended that since they are exceeding their expected ridership goals, possibly heightening security just for a little while in the beginning so that people atleast know they are being protected... I guess that was a pretty good show of faith to receive a call and know my concerns are being addressed (maybe they read this site . As for seeing security on the actual trains, again I have rode many times and have not seen them. Possibly they are working earlier in the day or on a set schedule. Who knows.... I guess I will have to adjust to this kind of ignorance (although I have ridden the bus MANY times and never witnessed anything this intense.)

There are, but I don't think the conductors have access to the feeds. The lady at 311 said they were going to review the incident, hopefully they pull the footage

I was on the Light Rail this past Friday and witnessed a rather horrible incident. 4 teens between 12-20 that were acting like thugs were in the back of the train using every curse word in a very derogatory manner. A woman with her son that looked to be about 8 asked them to stop, and the situation escalated from there. They were speaking in 80% cursing and threatening to beat her, and finally people came up and pulled the 2 women apart... her son was crying and ran to the front of the train. The girl who started the incident started after the woman that was now being pulled by her arm down the train by another thug that was amazingly on the side of the antagonizers. At this point I pressed the emergency button and stood up and told the one girl to stop, that there were children on the train. Her response was "Oh, I will break you a peice of this off for you too, you (@*& @#&*^*&( *@#&*$(&@ (#@&*()@!!!". The train finally stopped at the Archdale station and the doors were delayed from opening. A voice came over the emergency asking what the problem was, and I informed him that there was a disturbance in the back of the vehicle. I then exited as it was my stop, and heard over the trains P.A. system "Ladies and Gentlemen, the emergency button is for actual emergencies. Please do not press the button unless an emergency occurs." I was so taken back that I called 311 and filed a complaint. There is absolutely no excuse for this. I have ridden the train now over 12 times and I have not once seen one of the police officers assigned to the light rail on the vehicle. When this line was under construction I was one of the most excited that it was opening, even relocating for the sole reason of having access to it. I now question whether Cats can operate this line properly, while ensuring public safety. If someone feels threatened, there is no excuse someone to judge the situation from the front of a train without knowing the situation. These people could have had knives or guns (and from the looks of them, they probably did). My question for anyone that may be connected with CATS is this: What is considered an emergency, and what will it take for security to be provided properly?

A few months ago I woke up and looked out of my window, only to find lude graffiti on the Archdale Station walls. I went to work extremely frustrated, as I was having people over after work and it was a bit embarrassing. I went home early at noon, and to my surprise the graffiti was already gone. I don't think this will be a major concern at all.

The Fire Dept. has just confirmed that one person is dead as a result of the collapse

http://www.charlotte.com/209/story/393869.html The parking deck just collapsed at SouthPark

The worst part is when we arrived at the Scaleybark station, the conductor announced "There will be a slight delay as we move a train onto another track." That turned into 10 minutes of pure torment. "I hope we don't miss Hannah!!! Ahhh!!!!!"

I am noticing that special events uptown are a major feeder for this line. I have rode the line about 6 times, and the 2 trips that stick out the most are: 1. Being on a train with 90% people in Panthers outfits and 2. Being on a train full of Hannah Montana obsessed children. It is really cool that people are looking at this as a viable alternative to the parking situation uptown. I think it will become even more popular as our wonderful surface lots slowly disappear.

I would even be satisfied if it announced which train was approaching in 2 minutes...Instead of "train approaching in 2 minutes" have it say "Northbound train approaching in 2 minutes"...

ummm... i'm guessing they will have a slight assortment of orchads.... given that this is probably for grow lights and hydroponics... I'm sure Cheech and Chong will be frequent shoppers.

Just because this website is silent about this project, does not mean this project has been innactive. I have been by the site several times and each time there has been a major improvement to the site over the last time I visited. And when I spoke with one of the architects, she said the House of Blues is still scheduled to open in this project.

just drove by the site, steel is now going up the concrete structure they have been working on.

Drove by today and 2 of the houses are now piles of rubble, appears that 2 more are next.

The answer to your question is Burger King.

SoDa???!?? Haha, that would be uber lame! Maybe we could use that name to lure CocaCola's and Pepsi's headquarters and start a carbonated beverage district.

The family that owns Athen's stated that it would be replaced with a parking deck. The news also confirmed this. Edit* After looking at Dubone has posted, I am less convinced it will be a parking deck. I remember thinking how horrible of an idea it would be! Maybe the family was confused. And the news seems to always be wrong

Well everyone, I have a sad post !!! Tonight I saw on the news how CPCC had finally purchased Athens and were moving forward with a parking deck there. I told a friend and we decided to eat there, as we have been long time patrons (he had actually been going there occasionally for 26 years). We spoke with the waitstaff and found out that tonight will be their last night, and will be closing down for good tomorrow. I know it isn't the greatest, but it is one true Charlotte landmark gone. Even sadder, the plans of moving the restaurant to Matthews have failed, and there is no place they are moving as of yet. Just thought I would let everyone know now in case someone wanted to go have one last 3am cheeseburger