Perception of Charlotte Nationwide

[HopHead]

I find it interesting that the article mentions Raleigh-Durham as being more tolerant or open minded, which I find arguable if you don't include Chapel Hill, right after mentioning the passage of Amendment One. Does the author not realize Charlotte and Raleigh are in the same state? North Carolina shot themselves in the foot as a whole with that Amendment. No disagreement that CLT still has work to do to attract the more creative class types, but it also starts at the state level. After all, Amendment 1 came from the state capital.

[southslider]

^Gays and their allies not only add to Charlotte's struggling tax base, but we also add to its small businesses. Common Market South End, which is its own creative-class engine, is owned and operated by a gay Charlottean. Can you imagine South End without this asset? How about Plaza-Midwood without Dish (Lesbian-owned)? But that the Chamber said nothing about protecting this human capital speaks volumes about the corporate culture here.

[Urbanity]

Thought all might get a kick out of this: My site Visit Gay Charlotte in a collaborative effort with the CRVA got a feature article on Charlotte as an LGBT worthy destination in an international LGBT travel magazine. I'm going to cross post this on the Charlotte Pride thread, but three takeaways:

1. Charlotte as an LGBT destination is pretty cool for the city's rep as a diverse and growing urban city

2. Who would think of Charlotte listed on the same cover as Helsinki and Frankfurt as must know-about spots?

3. It's Charlotte minus the N.C. on the cover!

The image doesn't have mag masthead but it appears on our FB page https://www.facebook...430312996992068

[rugger62]

At least the internet is positive about Charlotte today.

http://www.whatdoest...?s=charlotte nc

[Guest]

At least the internet is positive about Charlotte today.

http://www.whatdoest...?s=charlotte nc

It would behove those of you interested to not search the Charlotte bobcats. 100% negative :-(

[ScottCLT]

I was reading this month's issue of Charlotte Magazine, and 3 pages in, there is an ad for Wet Willie's, with locations in "Atlanta GA, Savannah GA, Charleston SC, and Charlotte SC..." You'd think that advertising in Charlotte Magazine, they'd at least get the state right.

[ah59396]

If you've ever wanted to get an opportunity to gauge that perception, it's this week. I've been following twitter to see how people have been reacting to Charlotte as they've arrived and the reviews have generally been very positive. CarolinaFest appeared to be a big hit, even with the rain, and brought a good buzz to uptown as the "whos-who" of media and entertainment have arrived. I saw comments on Charlotte from everyone, Ashely Judd to John Leguizamo.

I did however, notice a scathing article about the desolate nature of some of Charlotte's less attractive hotels. Apparently many in the media were "assigned" the Knights Inn. Now I don't know which Knights Inn they are referring to, but I've also stayed in Knight's Inn's before I can attest to their general crappiness. Many refused to stay and are now in Marriot in South Carolina.

Anyways, the whole point of this is the article discussed Charlotte being the smallest city to host a DNC outside of New Orleans and us not having enough hotels to handle an event of this size. Obviously New Orleans trumps us in hotels as it is a huge tourist destination, regardless of population. Hopefully this will be a minor hiccup in an otherwise great week for the city and it can truly showcase its "readiness" to host an event of this size. And hey, maybe we don't have enough good hotels and we get a couple new ones in uptown. I'm all for it.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/315765/crack-hotels-dnc-john-fund

Keep in mind where the article is from...but the perception still exists.

[kermit]

I saw some DNC folks looking very uncomfortable at the Roadway Inn at Beatties Ford and I-85 yesterday.

I hope it was at least cheap.

[nonillogical]

I'm really surprised that none of you guys have already posted about last night's Daily Show, the first broadcasting from Imaginon!

It was cool to see the graphics of the skyline and everything. Jokes at our expense included everyone knowing that calling downtown 'uptown' is stupid, every food being served on a biscuit, and just a general sense that nobody has heard much of us. There were some flattering shots of uptown streets during the correspondant interviews with passersby (surprised that none of them were portrayed as complete idiots), but the green screen of uptown that John Oliver stood in front of was a desolate prison-like concrete-walled section of Stonewall under the lightrail, with nothing but fencing and groups of cops walking by.

And yes, almost every instance of Charlotte was followed by North Carolina, even though references to Tampa were just Tampa. Don't take too much offense though, because the fact is we don't have the same name recognition yet, and hey, maybe it will help at this stage so people don't keep thinking we're in South Carolina! Plus, everywhere else in the state loves to hear North Carolina repeated and I think there is generally more NC pride than city pride around the state, so it was either in respect to that or a conscious dig at our inferiority complex.

[kermit]

I'm really surprised that none of you guys have already posted about last night's Daily Show, the first broadcasting from Imaginon!

We definitely took less of a beating than Tampa did. The jokes about the queen city were funny, and fair (other than John Olliver's bashing of NC bbq -- what a moron). I thought the best line of the night came from Tom Brokaw: when Stewart and Brokaw were discussing the very high level of security in town, Brokaw deadpanned "its to keep the bankers from leaving."

[ah59396]

The DailyShow rocked. Jon Stewart was hilarious and gave Charlotte a good ribbing. Nothing I didn't expect. But holy cow is that guy sharp.

[ScottCLT]

The Colbert Report, though not filmed here, is also having a "People's Party Congress of Charlotte" thing running this week as a comparison to the Democratic People's Public of Korea. Synchronized marchers in front of an Obama image...pretty funny.

And on another subject, Morning Joe on MSNBC is filming inside Black Finn. They were out and about in the city some today, too.

[15895]

http://m.usatoday.com/article/news/1860341?articlePage=1

Not many NC tags In articles including this one by USA Today. The reason I Mention this article is because it refers to us as the Queen City.

I think our previous "we have no identity" dilemma is dead. I believe our city is now very confident in ourselves and we dont seem insecure anymore. Big change from as early as 2005.

I think "Queen City" has potential to be a nationally known nickname such as the Motor City. I've seen several articles reference queen city. It's very catchy.

[Urbanity]

^ I do think that thanks in particular to the DNC we are now more than ever on the map and people know about Charlotte.  I would love to see "The Queen City" gain more national use as well.

 

BTW - on a related matter on what the DNC did for us - I love the location  tag for the Washington Post story on the RNC gathering here.  "CHARLOTTE - "  No N.C. is required.  

Edited January 26, 2013 by Urbanity

[HopHead]

I usually hate these lists, because they are a dime a dozen, but Charlotte has been cited by Forbes as one of the 10 best cities for job growth: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-10-best-cities-for-job-seekers-195522601.html. We're in some good company though, at least in this one list.

Edited January 28, 2013 by wend28

[nowensone]

Saw this, what struck me was that our median income was higher than all of the Texas cities on the list, most of them significantly so.  But, unemployment rate at the highest makes our inclusion on this list of Best Of for job seekers a bit counter-intuitive.

[Guest]

Saw this, what struck me was that our median income was higher than all of the Texas cities on the list, most of them significantly so.  But, unemployment rate at the highest makes our inclusion on this list of Best Of for job seekers a bit counter-intuitive.

While our unemployment number is high, we are adding more jobs per capita than most cities in the country. The problem is we also have the fastest growing urban area in the USA. 

[nowensone]

Seems like both Charlotte and Austin shared a common theme here, in that the fastest growing urban area was also coupled with significant area increases.  Maybe I dreamed that.  It's too bad SC taxes are not skyhigh, then our state border would act much like a river or ocean and force densification from at least one side.  Though overall a larger urban area not necessarily bad.  I'm on painkillers atm, I apologize for this post being gibberish.

[Guest]

Seems like both Charlotte and Austin shared a common theme here, in that the fastest growing urban area was also coupled with significant area increases.  Maybe I dreamed that.  It's too bad SC taxes are not skyhigh, then our state border would act much like a river or ocean and force densification from at least one side.  Though overall a larger urban area not necessarily bad.  I'm on painkillers atm, I apologize for this post being gibberish.

Actually we only gained a marginal amount via annexation (I swear it was like 4000) last year, and added 40k total people. 

[mallguy]

Seems like both Charlotte and Austin shared a common theme here, in that the fastest growing urban area was also coupled with significant area increases.  Maybe I dreamed that.  It's too bad SC taxes are not skyhigh, then our state border would act much like a river or ocean and force densification from at least one side.  Though overall a larger urban area not necessarily bad.  I'm on painkillers atm, I apologize for this post being gibberish.

If NC- and particularly Charlotte/Mecklenburg- would LOWER its taxes below South Carolina's, then the state border could act like a river or ocean and force densification from at least one side.

[15895]

If we lowered taxes we couldn't invest in our city which is causing a flood of new residents for the entire region

[Urbanity]

To add to the tax discussion (but tie in to this thread's title) Charlotte has no control over the state corporate and income taxes.  

 

The few taxes we do control (local sales, hotel and dining) are what funds a lot (whole or significant part) of the investments that are becoming part of our national reputation from the arena to mass transit.   I think Charlotte as a city has valued investment in the city as being more of value for its growth and sustainability than lower (local) taxes and I think it has paid off to a great deal.

[rjp212]

We are in the top 10 cities for Urban Forests

 

http://www.americanforests.org/newsroom/american-forests-names-the-10-best-u-s-citiesfor-urban-forests/

[Temeteron]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2013/02/06/most-literate-city-washington/1894511/

 

Charlotte is 50th most literate city?  HUH?  

[nowensone]

We are in the top 10 cities for Urban Forests

 

http://www.americanforests.org/newsroom/american-forests-names-the-10-best-u-s-citiesfor-urban-forests/

This I am proud of, and seems to gel with the places I have visited/lived in.