The Bad News Report

[JHart]

I've read through the thread discussing the issues with ParkScore and agree that some of their methodology promotes a different style of park than what Charlotte focuses on, but to say it is a worthless metric is being obtuse. Charlotte's "destination" parks like McDowell or Latta Plantation have to be driven to. There are not any public transit options to get to these facilities. Other nature preserves like Reedy Creek is over an hour and a half trip with a bus and 40 minutes of walking. It is nice to have these facilities nearby for those with cars to visit, but are inaccessible to many low income residents. Same thing goes for the neighborhood facilities that would "put public parks to shame", they are great facilities if you can afford to live there but inaccessible to a large segment of the Charlotte population.

Many of the small neighborhood parks located closer to the city have no public restrooms. Many dog owners here know there are very few dog parks in a metro area the size of Charlotte, and if you want to go to one, you're looking at a long drive. I know Charlotte is a driving city, but even if a family does have a car or two, what about when they are working during the summertime?

I love Charlotte parks! I think for the most part, they are well maintained spaces with good amenities, but I would hate to have our residents seek out flawed methodology in the studies and turn away instead of thinking about ways of improving our already great park system! And feel free to debunk the statistic of $48 spent per resident versus the average of $90 per resident, but I will always support increased parks and public amenities budgets. 

[Scribe]

28 minutes ago, JHart said:

I've read through the thread discussing the issues with ParkScore and agree that some of their methodology promotes a different style of park than what Charlotte focuses on, but to say it is a worthless metric is being obtuse.

I won't bother reading the rest of your response since you did not bother reading ParkScore's methodology and the forum topic you say you read.

For the uninitiated:

• ParkScore's bulls-eye is to have a park within a 10 minute walk... but ParkScore
  • Excludes all HOA (voluntary or otherwise) park amenities
  • Excludes all private parks open to public
• This method favors a bunch of tiny "parks" which makes a city like Seattle look really good, yet Seattle has way less park land then Charlotte.
  • If you've been to Seattle and seen their 1/4 acre parklets, all those count... but its no different then a persons front yard with a bench.
• The best example of their crap data is to list Eastover and part of Mayers Park as having "Very High" park need! talk about being clueless.
• Take a look for yourself... https://parkserve.tpl.org/mapping/index.html?CityID=PS3712000
• Notice how "the wedge" all the way into Ballantyne  is mostly in "high" to "very high" need of parks?
  • if you look deeper vast majority of these areas are neighborhoods with HOA maintained "not"-park land. That the neighborhood surely can access in <10 minutes. And has better amenities then many public parks.
  • Now, is that where CharMeck really should be spending money on parks?

Edited May 29, 2019 by Scribe

[Bikeguy]

7 minutes ago, Scribe said:

I won't bother reading the rest of your response since you did not bother reading ParkScore's methodology and the forum topic you say you read.

For the uninitiated:

• ParkScore's bulls-eye is to have a park within a 10 minute walk... but ParkScore
  • Excludes all HOA (voluntary or otherwise) park amenities
  • Excludes all private parks open to public
• This method favors a bunch of tiny "parks" which makes a city like Seattle look really good, yet Seattle has way less park land then Charlotte.
  • If you've been to Seattle and seen their 1/4 acre parklets, all those count... but its no different then a persons front yard with a bench.
• The best example of their crap data is to list Eastover and part of Mayers Park as having "Very High" park need! talk about being clueless.
• Take a look for yourself... https://parkserve.tpl.org/mapping/index.html?CityID=PS3712000
• Notice how "the wedge" all the way into Ballantyne  is mostly in "high" to "very high" need of parks?
  • if you look deeper vast majority of these areas are neighborhoods with HOA maintained "not"-park land. That the neighborhood surely can access in <10 minutes. And has better amenities then many public parks.
  • Now, is that where CharMeck really should be spending money on parks?

...by all definitions IMHO  one of these is a park, the other is not....

[JHart]

55 minutes ago, Scribe said:

I won't bother reading the rest of your response since you did not bother reading ParkScore's methodology and the forum topic you say you read.

Doesn't read response -> You clearly didn't read the methodology and forum topic...? Try reading what I said.

There can be an issue with their methodology because it does not fit into the style of parks that Charlotte has, but we shouldn't ignore the report of low public park funding, lack of facilities, and low walkability that a large portion of Charlotte has. The issues with classifying HOA maintained spaces and claim about Myers park and Ballentyne needing public funding for parks are valid complaints, but I highly doubt anyone is proposing public money needs to be spent in those areas. But if you look at the other highlighted sections from ParkScore, plenty of their highlighted regions closely align with low income, higher crime areas of Charlotte that could definitely use a public park or facility. 

 

[Scribe]

47 minutes ago, JHart said:

There can be an issue with their methodology because it does not fit into the style of parks that Charlotte has

It is not just about a style of park. It is about the fact that hundreds of acres of "park land" that is paid and maintained for outside public money (yet serves the public that lives within 10 minutes) is completely ignored -- de facto becoming a negative.

On the subject of spending...

Has a thought crossed your mind that Charlotte - with its "abysmally low funding" - maintains more then 2x the park land of Seattle? If we can maintain our mega parks efficiently, and utilize the "park-land" that our citizens already pay for in their HOA's as part of the calculus we can focus the tax dollars on the areas that really need to be focused on.

To borrow a quote from Bill Gates:

~my edition of the quote for this subject~

Quote

“Measuring ParkScore progress by dollars spent per capita is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.

Original quote:

Quote

“Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.”

How EFFICIENTLY you manage the money should have a higher priority then how much money you are spending!

[DH17]

We can debate the relative methodology all we want - both sides have made valid points. ParkScore has flaws, but there is definitely a gap in our metro. The fact remains that may communities need better park amenities in Charlotte.

I would fully support the city buying up a certain number of small vacant lots around the city )but mostly not in the Wedge for the reasons stated above) and converting them into small parks. Nothing extravagant but I think it would help fill a definite need in our city, especially for lower income residents.

[KJHburg]

From CMPD twitter feed about illegal parties and wonder what was happening here. (I think I know) 

Promoters will do a short-term rental on property and then hold an "illegal party." Usually, Tickets and/or alcohol are sold without permits. Remember: If you are paying and it’s in a residential area, be skeptical. If it’s in a business park and not a club, Be suspicious!

 

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[Seaboard Fellow]

13 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

From CMPD twitter feed about illegal parties and wonder what was happening here. (I think I know) 

Promoters will do a short-term rental on property and then hold an "illegal party." Usually, Tickets and/or alcohol are sold without permits. Remember: If you are paying and it’s in a residential area, be skeptical. If it’s in a business park and not a club, Be suspicious!

 

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Looks like a damn good party to me!

[Bikeguy]

On 6/5/2019 at 11:25 AM, Seaboard Fellow said:

Looks like a damn good party to me!

Gotta love the Windex. 

[kermit]

Suburban office tenants showing some signs of struggle:

Wal Mart is laying off almost 600 in accounting and financing office in Water Ridge (wtf is that name about?). Other suburban tenants taking a big hit over the past few months include  Sealed Air, Mass Mutual, Lowes and Family Dollar.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2019/06/14/walmart-laying-off-nearly-600employees-in.html

 

[SoDoSoPa]

3 hours ago, kermit said:

Suburban office tenants showing some signs of struggle:

Wal Mart is laying off almost 600 in accounting and financing office in Water Ridge (wtf is that name about?). Other suburban tenants taking a big hit over the past few months include  Sealed Air, Mass Mutual, Lowes and Family Dollar.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2019/06/14/walmart-laying-off-nearly-600employees-in.html

 

Outsourcing to GenPact, just another reason not to shop at Walmart. 

[KJHburg]

in other news Mama Ricottas is on fire according to Channel 9. Customers fleeing. 

Update the FIRE is OUT according to MR twitter and CFD

Edited June 27, 2019 by KJHburg

[Guest]

Apparently the "Crime in Charlotte" thread was closed and archived 12 years ago. So yea, here it goes, can people stop killing each other please? I'm trying to move to Charlotte, and I'm tired of people murdering one another. 

[UrbanCharlotte]

9 minutes ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

Apparently the "Crime in Charlotte" thread was closed and archived 12 years ago. So yea, here it goes, can people stop killing each other please? I'm trying to move to Charlotte, and I'm tired of people murdering one another. 

Amen. Another three people shot, 1 fatally, at the Steak and Shake by the 485 blue line station. 

[Guest]

On 6/5/2019 at 11:25 AM, Seaboard Fellow said:

Looks like a damn good party to me!

Hah, I never thought about the fact that the parties I went to in College (and then would post on UP after) were illegal not just because my age, but because they weren't permitted.

[jednc]

The people who are killing each other in Charlotte are not likely to read your pleas on this board.

[kermit]

Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.

 

 

 

Edited July 17, 2019 by kermit

[KJHburg]

^^^^^  Costar was looking at 615 South College Regions building at the time I have heard and they would had paid greatly for that brand new space.  

What they found in Richmond is a newly built Westvaco building just built downtown that was being vacated by them in a merger with an Atlanta company.  Westvaco moved all the jobs out of that building to Atlanta.  Costar is based in DC and in the business of real estate data and so when this huge new building became available for sublease at a price much lower than any newer building in uptown Charlotte they jumped on it.     plus this location was closer to their HQ in DC only 2-3 hours away depending on traffic. 

I truly wish people would stop always talking about what we may have lost but how about what we have gained since then.  Honeywell, Truist Bank HQ, major expansions by Lendingtree, Lowes, AvidXchange etc.  

Read about office market in downtown Richmond and Costar's bargain there. 

https://richmondbizsense.com/2016/10/26/costar-deal-its-more-of-a-tenants-market/

Edited July 17, 2019 by KJHburg

[JHart]

3 hours ago, KJHburg said:

I truly wish people would stop always talking about what we may have lost but how about what we have gained since then.  Honeywell, Truist Bank HQ, major expansions by Lendingtree, Lowes, AvidXchange etc.  

Right but this is exactly the place to talk about what we may have lost, I mean this is the bad news report.. 

[Hushpuppy321]

44 minutes ago, JHart said:

Right but this is exactly the place to talk about what we may have lost, I mean this is the bad news report.. 

Agreed - We lost a lot.  PayPal included

[Bikeguy]

48 minutes ago, JHart said:

Right but this is exactly the place to talk about what we may have lost, I mean this is the bad news report.. 

And lest we forget, one of the sponsors of this bill in the NCGA is now a candidate for the US House.  

[Dale]

Charlotte lowest social mobility among metros study. Distilled: born poor here, stay poor ...

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/08/raj-chettys-american-dream/592804/

[CLT>]

24 minutes ago, Dale said:

Charlotte lowest social mobility among metros study. Distilled: born poor here, stay poor ...

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/08/raj-chettys-american-dream/592804/

Are you new to Charlotte? 

[Dale]

4 minutes ago, CLT> said:

Are you new to Charlotte? 

No. Point ?

[CLT>]

1 minute ago, Dale said:

No. Point ?

Charlotte being 50th in Economic Mobility has arguably been the biggest news story in the city for the past 3 years. That The Atlantic story was more a profile on Chetty and the tools they are creating to help Charlotte and other cities move forward and change that.