Vitamin_N

Ha, that's my Twitter! And the picture I posted was pulled from UP.

According to the Agenda, Charlotte is now the front-runner to host the RNC in 2020 because nobody else wants to. "Default? Woohoo! The two sweetest words in the English language!" --Homer Simpson

Continuing the "who will rent all the apartments" theme: "New luxury apartments offering massive deals as Charlotte apartment market hits turning point"

The developer, if they wanted to, could build a much lousier building that would still add traffic, have no affordable housing, etc. But instead they're making an effort to reach out and build something decent. This is something from the developer, one of the pictures shows what they could build if they took the path of least resistance: http://ww.charmeck.org/Planning/Rezoning/2017/175-190/2017-177 community report.pdf Also, if you need on of those "man on the street" quotes from a Cherry property owner, feel free to hit me up.

I live in Cherry and in fact would literally be able to see this building from my front porch and I don't understand the opposition either other than knee-jerk resistance to change. Part of the attraction of living here is proximity to urban areas. Under current zoning the developer can build a much crappier-looking building which would still have a big impact on the area. If you can't put a 20 story building along a transit line next to a college, a hospital, uptown, Independence, and 277 then where the heck can you put it? Charlotte will continue to grow for the foreseeable future so the question is not whether there's going to be more traffic and so forth; it's whether we're going to get a high-quality built environment.

But we were so close to deciding which was better--Charlotte or Atlanta...

I got to go to the dining room about a decade ago. It is a heck of a view from up there.

The 20-story building at 3rd & Baldwin is still moving forward. I noticed the office space is now 529K sq ft in the latest site plan revision (it was 550K originally) but besides that I didn't notice any big changes. There's a neighborhood planning staff meeting this Monday followed by the city council public hearing on 4/16.

Possibly relevant to the thread: the #1 most popular female baby name in New Hampshire is Charlotte.

Or maybe a pumpkin patch?

Apparently the Metropolitan Cherryberry has closed. I guess the froyo trend is over?

Fascinating photo essay in the Atlantic... Apparently China is a bike sharing dystopia. I have never seen so many bicycles in one place before.

*sigh* Midworth is sooo yesterday... true hipsters call it "MiWo".

The O on the on the new Regional Realtors Association building, plus an update on the rest of the site: The association has agreed to sell its holdings to Pappas for a total of $20.1 million. So far, Pappas has already spent $14 million assembling land for the planned mixed-use development around the Realtor association building. Previously approved plans show the development would include about 200 apartments, additional new office space, a hotel with up to 150 rooms, shops, restaurants and changes to Pearl Street Park. But CEO Peter A. Pappas said at Wednesday's groundbreaking that those plans are still in flux. Now, in the next phase, Pappas is planning to build a 215,000 square-foot office building, shops, restaurants, a parking deck and a full-service hotel, followed by another office building. Apartments are still possible, but Pappas said his company is responding to strong demand from potential office tenants and changing market conditions. There are more than 600 apartments already under construction across Kenilworth Avenue, in addition to 500 more on Morehead Street which have opened in the past few years. "It's market-driven," Pappas said of the shifting plans. The full development will take about four years to build. "We've gotten a lot of interest from office users."

I went to Bang Bang Bites over the weekend. The food was very similar to the original Bang Bang, except in slider form, plus they have different sides (still have the same fries, though). Which is to say, it was pretty good. We were there Saturday around 1:00 and the place was almost completely full despite the fact that they're still in a soft opening.

I've been to McD's for quarter pounders a couple of times in the last week and KJHBurg is right on. It's a particularly big difference the first time you try it since you're expecting the usual McDonald's taste and you get something different/better. But yes, for the money it's a respectable value.

Are you referring to Raj Chetty's study? It's got some methodological issues, I wouldn't put too much stock in it.

The Pearl Park Way entrance to the Realtors building has been fenced off and it looked like they were tearing up the parking lot. Maybe they're ready to get going on this one?

Not arguing for or against, but we already do have these 8-story buildings in Eastover. When did these things get built anyway? Were they controversial at the time? https://www.google.com/maps/@35.1925312,-80.8233911,3a,75y,325.43h,95.43t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s8C-S9913V0NbqULbJNcWbw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Not really urban planning but possibly of interest: the city of Houston has a volunteer program where anybody who wants to can get training to write parking tickets and upon completion of the course has authority to write tickets to people parked in handicapped spaces without permission.

I was just listening to a course on urban life in ancient cities and in the lecture on ancient Rome the lecturer mentioned they had apartment buildings called "insulae" that took up an entire city block (I think there would have been a courtyard in the middle). When he mentioned that I immediately thought of some of Charlotte's recent projects.

It may be a storage facility but I just can't shake the feeling that they offer a complementary breakfast.

Interesting... looking at this on google maps, there are no McDonald's from uptown through midtown, Elizabeth, and all the way down Randolph and Providence. Almost every other chain can be found in that area.

I finally made it to Southbound over the weekend. I've seen a lot of negative reviews but my wife and I both loved it. We tried several different tacos and they were all excellent. I'm not sure if they've changed things since they opened or what but we'll definitely be back.

We drove by there around 10:30-11 pm Saturday night and the line still looked something like that.