Perception of Charlotte Nationwide

[kermit]

2 hours ago, KJHburg said:

weak Canadian dollar and usually these surveys use the US dollar in comparisons.  But that is just a guess.  Yes one Canadian dollar cost 75 US cents right now.  

Yea, but still, even at a 25% discount,  real estate alone should push Toronto well above Charlotte.

Edited December 17, 2023 by kermit

[KJHburg]

10 hours ago, kermit said:

Yea, but still, even at a 25% discount,  real estate alone should push Toronto well above Charlotte.

I agree Toronto is very expensive in terms of housing.  

[davidclt]

On 12/17/2023 at 9:12 AM, KJHburg said:

weak Canadian dollar and usually these surveys use the US dollar in comparisons.  But that is just a guess.  Yes one Canadian dollar cost 75 US cents right now.  

Here's another article breaking it down: These are the most expensive cities in North America (economist.com)

Quote

Cities in America’s south are generally cheaper than those in the north: Atlanta and Charlotte share the 16th spot in the North American rankings. But money goes even further in Canada. Montreal, Calgary and Toronto are among the cheapest cities in the region.

Die-hard New Yorkers will stick with their city as long as they can afford it. But some may be tempted to move north of the border. They will find life to be cheaper there. They might also find it rather more pleasant: the most liveable cities in North America happen to be in Canada. Some may even have bins.

 

Edited December 18, 2023 by davidclt
Quoted the final paragraph where they did at NYC for having just recently discovered bins in spite of the high cost of living.

[LKN704]

Is there a reason Charlotte can sometimes be perceived as more conservative than Raleigh domestically?

I met up with two friends last night and we discussed holiday travel plans. Each have family vacation homes in North Carolina (Bald Head Island and Asheville) and have visited Charlotte and Raleigh multiple times. 

Both raved about Raleigh and how "hipster" and "cool" it was. They agreed that Charlotte was nice, but said the city is more for "people who drive around in Chevy Suburban's affixed with megachurch bumper stickers."

Now granted I don't get hipster vibes in any part of Charlotte, but I certainly don't get them in Raleigh, either. What gives the perception? 

[tozmervo]

1 hour ago, LKN704 said:

Is there a reason Charlotte can sometimes be perceived as more conservative than Raleigh domestically?

I met up with two friends last night and we discussed holiday travel plans. Each have family vacation homes in North Carolina (Bald Head Island and Asheville) and have visited Charlotte and Raleigh multiple times. 

Both raved about Raleigh and how "hipster" and "cool" it was. They agreed that Charlotte was nice, but said the city is more for "people who drive around in Chevy Suburban's affixed with megachurch bumper stickers."

Now granted I don't get hipster vibes in any part of Charlotte, but I certainly don't get them in Raleigh, either. What gives the perception? 

I mean, depends on what areas of the city you drive around in. I think for a lot of people their experience of Charlotte is the South Park Mall area. That description would be fitting. 

[davidclt]

1 hour ago, LKN704 said:

Is there a reason Charlotte can sometimes be perceived as more conservative than Raleigh domestically?

I met up with two friends last night and we discussed holiday travel plans. Each have family vacation homes in North Carolina (Bald Head Island and Asheville) and have visited Charlotte and Raleigh multiple times. 

Both raved about Raleigh and how "hipster" and "cool" it was. They agreed that Charlotte was nice, but said the city is more for "people who drive around in Chevy Suburban's affixed with megachurch bumper stickers."

Now granted I don't get hipster vibes in any part of Charlotte, but I certainly don't get them in Raleigh, either. What gives the perception? 

I think the presence of multiple universities in the orbit of downtown, combined with a "college" street (Hillsboro which reminds me of Telegraph in Berkley, Franklin St. in Chapel Hill, The Ave in Seattle). Charlotte and UNCC have nothing equivalent. While I would say JWU and Queens are near, their presence doesn't meaningfully impact the rhythm of the city. UNCC is too far away. Additionally, Charlotte has traditionally been a buttoned up kind of town (with a seedy underbelly).

[kermit]

4 hours ago, LKN704 said:

Is there a reason Charlotte can sometimes be perceived as more conservative than Raleigh domestically?

I met up with two friends last night and we discussed holiday travel plans. Each have family vacation homes in North Carolina (Bald Head Island and Asheville) and have visited Charlotte and Raleigh multiple times. 

Both raved about Raleigh and how "hipster" and "cool" it was. They agreed that Charlotte was nice, but said the city is more for "people who drive around in Chevy Suburban's affixed with megachurch bumper stickers."

Now granted I don't get hipster vibes in any part of Charlotte, but I certainly don't get them in Raleigh, either. What gives the perception? 

As someone who grew up in Durham, and lived in Charlotte for almost 25 years, I’ll agree that Charlotte -feels- much more conservative than the Triangle. I don't really use the term 'conservative' in a political (red vs. blue) sense, instead I am referencing more of a vibe.  Keep in mind, I grew up in Durham and have really only spent time in Raleigh as an adult, primarily on business trips. 

When I am back in Raleigh for work I feel a much more relaxed vibe than in Charlotte in restaurants in downtown and Five Points. I attribute the vibe to a) fewer kids / families (I have not checked the data); b) a more academic culture (in contrast to the very corporate vibe of Charlotte); c) more businesses that cater to non expense account folks (it feels like a higher percentage of professionals in the Triangle make less than six figures).

The hippie scene that I grew up in is entirely gone from the Triangle, younger hippies/hipsters have been priced out of Triangle housing, and the boomer post-hippies that remain in town now spend much of their time watching fauxnews.

Immediately after arriving in Charlotte, I developed the sense that Charlotte was VERY developer friendly (in contrast to a pervasive and very hardcore NIMBY culture in the Triangle), and very corporate oriented place. I considered that vibe to be much more conservative than what I grew up with in Durham. This is not to say I found Charlotte to be particularly republican, but there was MUCH less of the Marxist/Socialist/commune vibe of places like Durham and Carrboro (which I feel like is mostly gone from the Triangle now).

I will say that the Triangle has become MUCH more conservative over the past decade as housing prices have skyrocketed. I am always shocked by the degree that academics hold on tightly to car culture and are able to remain so NIMBYish.

 

 

Edited December 19, 2023 by kermit

[LKN704]

On 12/19/2023 at 3:20 PM, kermit said:

As someone who grew up in Durham, and lived in Charlotte for almost 25 years, I’ll agree that Charlotte -feels- much more conservative than the Triangle. I don't really use the term 'conservative' in a political (red vs. blue) sense, instead I am referencing more of a vibe.  Keep in mind, I grew up in Durham and have really only spent time in Raleigh as an adult, primarily on business trips. 

When I am back in Raleigh for work I feel a much more relaxed vibe than in Charlotte in restaurants in downtown and Five Points. I attribute the vibe to a) fewer kids / families (I have not checked the data); b) a more academic culture (in contrast to the very corporate vibe of Charlotte); c) more businesses that cater to non expense account folks (it feels like a higher percentage of professionals in the Triangle make less than six figures).

The hippie scene that I grew up in is entirely gone from the Triangle, younger hippies/hipsters have been priced out of Triangle housing, and the boomer post-hippies that remain in town now spend much of their time watching fauxnews.

Immediately after arriving in Charlotte, I developed the sense that Charlotte was VERY developer friendly (in contrast to a pervasive and very hardcore NIMBY culture in the Triangle), and very corporate oriented place. I considered that vibe to be much more conservative than what I grew up with in Durham. This is not to say I found Charlotte to be particularly republican, but there was MUCH less of the Marxist/Socialist/commune vibe of places like Durham and Carrboro (which I feel like is mostly gone from the Triangle now).

I will say that the Triangle has become MUCH more conservative over the past decade as housing prices have skyrocketed. I am always shocked by the degree that academics hold on tightly to car culture and are able to remain so NIMBYish.

Thanks. Really insightful post. Based on my conversation with my friends, I agree that the "conservative" label they gave wasn't in a political sense, but a sentimental type of feeling. 

I lived in Charlotte for less than 10 years, but I am just realizing years later after I moved away that Charlotte lacked a granola/hippy commune type neighborhood. Best way I could describe it is the type of vibe that you would find in a city that is a designated "peace" city or a nuclear free zone, like Takoma Park (MD) or Berkeley. Davidson kind of comes to mind, but it isn't in Charlotte. 

Some on here will likely find these either comical or offensive (maybe even very offensive), but I found these comments on a Reddit thread to be an interesting read:

[kermit]

^ I think it is spot-on to say that Charlotte lacks anything resembling a hippie / creative / weird neighborhood or community. I suspect that Tarhouser would say that Dilworth in the 1980s was that (and perhaps NoDa in the 1990s), but that was before my time in Charlotte and any semblance of that sort of vibe is long gone now.  Even if those folks were not priced out of Charlotte, I don't think the local culture would not be particularly supportive. I will say there was a pretty good alternative music scene in Charlotte in the 1980s,(Fetchin Bones, Mitch Easter, Don Dixon, even REM recorded their debut album in an Elizabeth studio) but I only knew of it from afar as a college radio DJ.

About 12-15 years ago Creative Loafing had a really interesting critique of the local art scene. It said that the blandness of the Charlotte arts community was a product of arts funding (mostly from the Arts and Sciences Council)  being corporate controlled. The arts community was reluctant to do anything to weird so as not to offend the bankers who were raising the funds. Even today, if you look around Charlotte there is very little edgy art in town, particularly in comparison to the Triangle. Mary Newsom followed up on that critique with an editorial in the Observer calling out a lack of protests and activism in Charlotte by saying bank culture made us a “city of squelchers”. 

I will say that when I arrived in Charlotte, up until the end of the great recession, I saw a very strong culture that I would characterize as progressive Southernism. Busing might have been the most visible expression of that. But folks like Hugh McColl were very active in working to make Charlotte a modern city (a gleaming Uptown, transit, urbanism) with a modern community (integration, equity, interaction between classes) and there was some ‘world-class city’ stuff wrapped up along with that. Its tough to describe in a few sentences, but it was a desire to build a community that was both substantial and lasting (and also clearly Southern) and that desire seems to be entirely gone now. It was replaced  by the chaos of unfettered and uncoordinated development. This sense of broad community pride (and a sense that everyone was expected to contribute to that community) was a really cool thing to be a part of, and was something that was entirely absent from the Triangle (IMO) where the academic culture bread a more inward-looking, individualistic, community.

Edited December 21, 2023 by kermit

[CLT Development]

1 hour ago, kermit said:

About 12-15 years ago Creative Loafing had a really interesting critique of the local art scene. It said that the blandness of the Charlotte arts community was a product of arts funding (mostly from the Arts and Sciences Council)  being corporate controlled. The arts community was reluctant to do anything to weird so as not to offend the bankers who were raising the funds. Even today, if you look around Charlotte there is very little edgy art in town, particularly in comparison to the Triangle. 

 

You just aren't going to the right places, there is so much edgy art. The BIPOC art community is making strides in Charlotte and I went to a 50,000 sq foot Art Fair just this last Saturday. People say there is no culture in Charlotte, but in reality they are looking in the wrong places and in most cases not looking at all and just complaining.

Edited December 21, 2023 by CLT Development

[Crucial_Infra]

2 hours ago, kermit said:

but it was a desire to build something substantial and lasting (and Southern) that feeling seems to be entirely gone now. This sense of broad community pride (and obligation) was a really cool thing to see, and was something I felt was entirely absent from the Triangle where the academic culture breeds a more inward-looking vibe.

As a Chapel Hill native, this is what initially attracted me to Charlotte in the 90s. Everyone felt on the same page as opposed to the fractured nature of the Triangle. Also as suburban as Charlotte is, it doesn’t touch the sub in the Triangle. And I wanted what little urb was here.

I will say this about Raleigh particularly — not the Triangle as a whole — but Raleigh still feels a bit like a cow town to me. Despite its more educated populace, it’s got a much countrier vibe than Charlotte imo. Perhaps it’s the eastern NC influence. The crowds at a Carolina Hurricanes are not the same as the crowds at a Charlotte Hornets game. 
 

 

 

[kermit]

9 hours ago, Crucial_Infra said:

I will say this about Raleigh particularly — not the Triangle as a whole — but Raleigh still feels a bit like a cow town to me. Despite its more educated populace, it’s got a much countrier vibe than Charlotte imo. Perhaps it’s the eastern NC influence.

One of my most vivid memories of sick days as a kid in Durham was watching the farm report at noon on WRAL. It was a completely foreign language for a kid who spent all his time in industrial Durham. The Triangle was seriously torn between high-tech labs and the pervasive smell of tobacco in all of its forms, 

Edited December 21, 2023 by kermit

[CLT Development]

12 hours ago, CLT Development said:

You just aren't going to the right places, there is so much edgy art. The BIPOC art community is making strides in Charlotte and I went to a 50,000 sq foot Art Fair just this last Saturday. People say there is no culture in Charlotte, but in reality they are looking in the wrong places and in most cases not looking at all and just complaining.

if people are confused ask questions, happy to tell you where to go and who to follow, and will start adding art events on Urban Planet so people know where to go.

Edited December 21, 2023 by CLT Development

[Durhamite]

13 hours ago, kermit said:

One of my most vivid memories of sick days as a kid in Durham was watching the farm report at noon on WRAL. It was a completely foreign language for a kid who spent all his time in industrial Durham. The Triangle was seriously torn between high-tech labs and the pervasive smell of tobacco in all of its forms, 

Lol, I still love Durham (and the Triangle) and moved back here from DC after a stint in Charlotte...no problem with Charlotte either.  Durham probably has the most unique African American culture in the state (mix of a bit Mid-Atlantic and Southern).  It'll be great one day when growing sunbelt cities get the who gives a damn personality like NYC or Philly.  Who cares what they think and to not take it so personally, we ain't everybody's cup of tea (or sweat tea)....this is who we are and what we are becoming.  The only constant is change which includes the place and person, hell, have fun because it's a great time to be in the South and experience this whirlwind of change.   The ole "there's nothing to do there" is hackneyed, get over yourself.

[Hushpuppy321]

Happy New Year’s!!  Been a trying 12 hours though with 5 Shot in Romare Bearden Park and David Tepper drink throwing incident….   Charlotte already starting off on a bad footing in 2024…

[nakers2]

I said this elsewhere, but Charlotte is on the cusp of shifting into the next level of urban development IMO. It's a city that has been growing like a weed for as long as most of us can remember, any great city in this world had its boom period, and then developed its culture. Very few great places grew *from* culture. Will Charlotte ever be as "exciting" as some peer cities? Maybe not, but as more people move here, they will demand a higher quality of life. Having visited Uptown recently and trying some of the new cocktail lounges, the caliber that people expect is higher than it once was by a longshot. 

[Norm2]

I think in modern cities and the rise of the internet, you don't see neighborhoods like you did decades ago, like a Chinatown, Greektown, a gay district or hippy district. NoDa used to be our hippy district, but the people there were priced out and moved on to....somewhere.  On the one hand, because our modern society is much more accepting than it sued to be, people can live where they want to rather than concentrating in certain neighborhoods like in the past. On the other hand, this causes a more homogenous feeling among neighborhoods and creates less unique neighborhood spaces.

[davidclt]

While not about Charlotte specifically, The Economist comes to "the Carolinas" to examine a case of cereal killers. Courtney Evans and Greg Collier from Leah & Louise are interviewed.

The cereal killer (economist.com)

[Tyrone Wiggum]

I was listening to The Right Time with Bomani Jones and Domonique Foxworth Friday, and they were discussing David Tepper and the future of the Panthers.  Dom made a comment along the lines that Charlotte can support a football team, but just barely.  It wasn't out of step with several other articles and talking heads I've seen discussing the idea that Charlotte is somehow in - a wide range of - danger of being a one sport town, whether that's even remotely true given whatever goes on between Tepper's ears.  And, it's not out of line with comments I've seen on this website talking about "peer" cities such as Jacksonville, Nashville, or Portland.

It's kinda ludicrous.  

Charlotte's MSA will be bigger than St Louis and Baltimore at the end of the year (and perhaps St Louis already), and bigger than Denver's by the end of the decade  given current population trends.  Not for nothing, Denver had a baseball team before it had 2 million people. Also, before people jump on CSA, the Triad isn't part of the Charlotte CSA because the Triad isn't nearly the same demo profile as Orlando/Tampa or the way the I-15 corridor works in Utah, among just two examples; tons of people from Winston and Greensboro get down to Charlotte for stuff given that I can get from downtown Winston or Greensboro in the same time it takes me to get from Pyramid Scheme Arena to Ray Jay, or Provo to downtown Salt Lake.

Nevertheless, despite the might of the downtown (uptown?) skyline (In North America, only Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Austin are in the same vein of, wait, how big IS this city versus its population, with Austin pulling way, way away in the last five years) and all the positive population trends, there's still a perception of Charlotte being a glorified Cow Town in the sports space, especially when people talk about baseball expansion, the viability of the Panthers, or asking why the Hornets are so sorry (but we should feel fortunate to have their sorriness!).  

So here's my question: you're in charge of marketing Charlotte as absolutely not a peer city of Sacto, OKC, Jax, Portland, Nashville, etc - outside of the Mayor's welcome message at the never ending construction project on Billy Graham - what three things would you do to change public perception?

Cuz, the perception is Charlotte is an also-ran.  It was. It's not now.  It won't be in twenty years when its peer is Seattle. But, how would you accelerate that perception?

End rant

 

 

[CLT2014]

^In my opinion... to change perception... we need more museums, more attractions, more unique dining, parks that are outstanding (Greenville SC gets outsized press for Falls Park for example), more music, more nightlife, more things that are interesting / different than other places in America. Population and a skyline isn't the only way people measure how big a city feels / relevant / interesting. Really the vast majority of people don't care and aren't keeping score on population and number of skyscrapers. Nashville has built an incredible brand around music for example... their New Year's Eve festival had millions of eyeballs watching the city party on the TV and there were 200,000+ people in attendance. While cities like Nashville and Austin are smaller than Charlotte... their bigger influence it has on culture leads it to feeling bigger in size / relevance too.  Music, food, museums, parks, et.. THAT is what most people are interested in and talking about... not bank towers.  

Charlotte hasn't really picked who we want to be when we present ourselves to the world. IMO population is not the right thing to rest your hat on... especially when at the end of the day we are still a mid-sized city. Austin started as the weird / unusual place in Texas where you wear cowboy boots and have tattoos while listening to music and eating TexMex. Nashville has country music, which evolved into mainstream music too.  Charlotte just presents itself as "Bank Town" (only interesting to people in banking) and unsurprisingly... we market ourselves like bankers. Why does this city's tourism authority keep introducing ourselves with numbers only bankers care about like how many Fortune 500 companies are here? Like cool, let's go visit the Fortune 500 lobbies? And don't even get me going on Page 11.... where our first theater / arts sponsorship in our visitor guide is NarroWay Christian Community Dinner Theater with volunteer actors in a warehouse in Fort Mill... doesn't exactly scream metropolis. I honestly don't blame others for thinking what they think when we are presenting ourselves this way.  https://view.publitas.com/charlotte-regional-visitors-authority/2024-charlotte-city-guide/page/6-7

Compare ours in link above to Austin's.... https://digital.milespartnership.com/publication/?m=61521&i=804662&p=2&ver=html5

No question, Austin is better at presenting a focused message to the world. They want to be seen as cool. They manage that carefully. 

Edited January 7 by CLT2014

[LKN704]

1 hour ago, CLT2014 said:

^In my opinion... to change perception... we need more museums, more attractions, more unique dining, parks that are outstanding (Greenville SC gets outsized press for Falls Park for example), more music, more nightlife, more things that are interesting / different than other places in America. Population and a skyline isn't the only way people measure how big a city feels / relevant / interesting. Really the vast majority of people don't care and aren't keeping score on population and number of skyscrapers. Nashville has built an incredible brand around music for example... their New Year's Eve festival had millions of eyeballs watching the city party on the TV and there were 200,000+ people in attendance. While cities like Nashville and Austin are smaller than Charlotte... their bigger influence it has on culture leads it to feeling bigger in size / relevance too.  Music, food, museums, parks, et.. THAT is what most people are interested in and talking about... not bank towers.  

Charlotte hasn't really picked who we want to be when we present ourselves to the world. IMO population is not the right thing to rest your hat on... especially when at the end of the day we are still a mid-sized city. Austin started as the weird / unusual place in Texas where you wear cowboy boots and have tattoos while listening to music and eating TexMex. Nashville has country music, which evolved into mainstream music too.  Charlotte just presents itself as "Bank Town" (only interesting to people in banking) and unsurprisingly... we market ourselves like bankers. Why does this city's tourism authority keep introducing ourselves with numbers only bankers care about like how many Fortune 500 companies are here? Like cool, let's go visit the Fortune 500 lobbies? And don't even get me going on Page 11.... where our first theater / arts sponsorship in our visitor guide is NarroWay Christian Community Dinner Theater with volunteer actors in a warehouse in Fort Mill... doesn't exactly scream metropolis. I honestly don't blame others for thinking what they think when we are presenting ourselves this way.  https://view.publitas.com/charlotte-regional-visitors-authority/2024-charlotte-city-guide/page/6-7

Compare ours in link above to Austin's.... https://digital.milespartnership.com/publication/?m=61521&i=804662&p=2&ver=html5

No question, Austin is better at presenting a focused message to the world. They want to be seen as cool. They manage that carefully. 

Bingo. 

It reminds me of the cringe announcements that play in the airport that welcome folks to "America's 15th largest city." In reality,  unless you are the largest city in the country, no one in the general public cares about population size in terms of a city's overall perception. Frankly, those announcements that play show that Charlotte has an identity crisis and the city feels insecure about its perception - you would only advertise emphasize being the 15th largest city if you have literally nothing else to advertise for.  

That diagram is something else. Advertising how many public art murals are in Charlotte or how many NASCAR drivers live in the city really doesn't attract the masses. 

The reality is that Charlotte needs to figure out how it wants to differentiate itself from its peer cities of Kansas City, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, and Columbus. At this point, Charlotte can't do anything to catch up culturally or compete with Austin and Nashville - that ship has sailed. Portland also has a much more vibrant cultural scene, better public transit, and better access to nature, so I really don't consider it a peer city, either. NoDa and South End aren't unique - lots of cities have similar neighborhoods. Lots of cities have a few art museums. Lots of cities have major professional sports teams. Folks talk about the Whitewater Center as being a gem and that Charlotte should better advertise that - but that in itself isn't culture and like NASCAR, only appeals to a small subset of the population. 

People here will likely get butthurt in me saying this, but I honestly don't think Charlotte can change its perception, and frankly why does it need to?

There are scores of people moving to Charlotte who don't care about culture or Charlotte's perception and are only attracted to the warm weather, lower COL, and endless sprawl where they can buy a cookie cutter house for a fraction of the price compared to where they used to live. 

[kermit]

In terms of sports specifically, Charlotte was viewed as a spectacular sports town back in the late 80s and 1990s when the Hornets had 24,042 people at every single game for the better part of 14 years -- this town was a shining beacon of basketball enthusiasm to the entire South back in those glory days on the West side.  More recently, Jordan made a ton of money on his Hornets investment with a middle-aged arena without any threats to move.  I would also argue that the Panthers were often (but not always) viewed as one of the NFL's financial success stories in the Richardson years -- and the team valuations published in Forbes certainly showed us punching well above our weight in terms of dollars coming in.

IMO any concern about the viability of pro-sports in Charlotte is artificially driven by wins and losses (and incompetent management). A few Panthers games with 7,000 people in the stands will leave a mark on public perception. However, Charlotte has demonstrated many times over that it is happy to support teams that try. Having said that, Charlotte fans have had a short fuse with misbehaving owners (thinking particularly of Shinn here, but the same applies to Johnson, Richardson and Tepper, only Jordan got a pass, but just barely). Perhaps  bank town lacks patience with rich dudes? Did some of that Gaston County Marxism seep across the Catawba?

It is also possible that Charlotte is a crappier sports town now than it was 20 years ago since our transplant-driven growth diluted much of the local enthusiasm that existed back then (but more money is here) -- I dunno. 
 

Very off topic Edit: The Gaston Communist stuff is not a joke. The county for many years was rumored to have had the largest Communist Party membership in the country (although I think there was a conflation of party membership with union membership). The National Textile Workers Union was operated by the American Communist Party, and the party was able to quickly get a foothold in the mills due to widespread poverty and a lack of upward mobility. The 1929 general textile strike was brutally broken in Gaston by the National Guard in part due to the Communist Association of the Union.   Widespread blacklisting following the strike largely turned the proletariat against unions as well as Communism. 
https://www.gastongazette.com/story/news/state/2019/03/29/90-years-ago-gastonia-strike-was-world-news/5582546007/

 

 

Edited January 8 by kermit

[RANYC]

3 hours ago, LKN704 said:

Bingo. 

It reminds me of the cringe announcements that play in the airport that welcome folks to "America's 15th largest city." In reality,  unless you are the largest city in the country, no one in the general public cares about population size in terms of a city's overall perception. Frankly, those announcements that play show that Charlotte has an identity crisis and the city feels insecure about its perception - you would only advertise emphasize being the 15th largest city if you have literally nothing else to advertise for.  

That diagram is something else. Advertising how many public art murals are in Charlotte or how many NASCAR drivers live in the city really doesn't attract the masses. 

The reality is that Charlotte needs to figure out how it wants to differentiate itself from its peer cities of Kansas City, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, and Columbus. At this point, Charlotte can't do anything to catch up culturally or compete with Austin and Nashville - that ship has sailed. Portland also has a much more vibrant cultural scene, better public transit, and better access to nature, so I really don't consider it a peer city, either. NoDa and South End aren't unique - lots of cities have similar neighborhoods. Lots of cities have a few art museums. Lots of cities have major professional sports teams. Folks talk about the Whitewater Center as being a gem and that Charlotte should better advertise that - but that in itself isn't culture and like NASCAR, only appeals to a small subset of the population. 

People here will likely get butthurt in me saying this, but I honestly don't think Charlotte can change its perception, and frankly why does it need to?

There are scores of people moving to Charlotte who don't care about culture or Charlotte's perception and are only attracted to the warm weather, lower COL, and endless sprawl where they can buy a cookie cutter house for a fraction of the price compared to where they used to live. 

I'm not butt-hurt, but I don't think some of your characterizations are fair or accurate.   Plenty of people moving here "care about culture," and culture isn't this monolithic thing either that manifests in just one set of engagements or formats.  I also know a number of corporate leadership execs and business founders/owners who have decided to operate or expand here because they felt Charlotte would be marketable to talent they need to source or retain, so yes, there is a large contingent of people here who care quite a bit about how Charlotte is perceived.

Having said all that, I do think you raise fair points about a city "telling its story."  I have my own story about why I'm here in Charlotte, but I think it interesting to ponder how one might frame the story of Charlotte - where it's been / why it is where it is / where it's going?

 

[Durhamite]

13 hours ago, RANYC said:

I'm not butt-hurt, but I don't think some of your characterizations are fair or accurate.   Plenty of people moving here "care about culture," and culture isn't this monolithic thing either that manifests in just one set of engagements or formats.  I also know a number of corporate leadership execs and business founders/owners who have decided to operate or expand here because they felt Charlotte would be marketable to talent they need to source or retain, so yes, there is a large contingent of people here who care quite a bit about how Charlotte is perceived.

Having said all that, I do think you raise fair points about a city "telling its story."  I have my own story about why I'm here in Charlotte, but I think it interesting to ponder how one might frame the story of Charlotte - where it's been / why it is where it is / where it's going?

 

Charlotte is more akin to Houston or Dallas, etc than Nashville or Austion with respect to identity or tourist destinations, and obviously Houston and Dallas are twice the metro size.    IMO, it never pursued that kind of attention, so be it.  Talking radio heads are often ignorant about metro populations, growth etc that dictate sports team expansion, etc.  Though Bomani who is from Houston and use to live in Raleigh (master's from UNC and get his big break on ESPN while working on station here), his dumbass should know better.  Charlotte is a high grown city with a hefty number of corporate sponsors, in a high growth region of the country.   I do think city leaders could me more progressive with adding a few tourist trap amenities natural to the area or build a doom down the road.    It'd be hard pressed to pull the plug on the Panthers, could it happen, sure, just like it did in Houston.  However, the city would bolt directly to the top of the list for expansion or relocation.    I do think the term "culture" gets co-mingled with tourist destinations or a few things for out of towners to do other than bowling, shopping, etc.  South Dakota and Montana have "culture", so does everyplace.   Create a tourist trap or two and let it somehow go viral on tik-tok, the place will never be the same for better or worse...it might actually stymie growth.   

[TheMightyBK]

Anyone want to buy some PSLs?