Charlotte Off Topic

[Guest]

3 hours ago, SentioVenia said:

Our fine city made a Sporcle quiz today: http://www.sporcle.com/games/william2/c-cities-slideshow

 

I got 60% ugh, that was hard.

[SentioVenia]

10 hours ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

I got 60% ugh, that was hard.

Yep, that's what I got.  Not as many great "C" cities....I'm glad Charlotte made the cut.

[Crown]

14 hours ago, SentioVenia said:

Our fine city made a Sporcle quiz today: http://www.sporcle.com/games/william2/c-cities-slideshow

 

So. Many. Hours. Wasted. In. College. On. Sporcle.

[grodney]

On 7/10/2016 at 0:25 PM, kermit said:

Anyone know how they identifed the locations for the Pokemon? My best guess is from user photos posted to google maps, but have not yet identified a close correspondence.

I wondered the same thing.  Apparently they are user-submitted sites from a different augmented-reality game called Ingress by the same company.

Somewhat related, on my train home yesterday I noticed the old Queen Park Cinema sign is a pokestop.  I barely had time to grab the screenshot below as I had some kind of damn bat flying outside my train car for 3 or 4 stops until I finally hit him with like my 17th pokeball.....and then my phone froze before I got credit for capturing him.  Pokefail.

 

[cltcane]

On July 15, 2016 at 7:11 PM, grodney said:

I wondered the same thing.  Apparently they are user-submitted sites from a different augmented-reality game called Ingress by the same company.

Somewhat related, on my train home yesterday I noticed the old Queen Park Cinema sign is a pokestop.  I barely had time to grab the screenshot below as I had some kind of damn bat flying outside my train car for 3 or 4 stops until I finally hit him with like my 17th pokeball.....and then my phone froze before I got credit for capturing him.  Pokefail.

 

Call me a crotchety old man, but I don't get this whole Pokemon Go craze. Someone finally explained the concept to me a few days ago, and I'm still trying to understand the point.  And it's potentially dangerous.

[SgtCampsalot]

8 minutes ago, cltcane said:

Call me a crotchety old man, but I don't get this whole Pokemon Go craze. Someone finally explained the concept to me a few days ago, and I'm still trying to understand the point.  And it's potentially dangerous.

It's basically just nostalgia for the video game many played as kids, except combined with the real world. Which, I don't know about y'all, but all I ever wanted as a kid was to have my imaginary world and my real world brought together.

Disclaimer: I haven't played P-Go yet, and probably never will. (Adulthood!)

Edited July 16, 2016 by SgtCampsalot

[urbanlover568]

9 hours ago, SgtCampsalot said:

It's basically just nostalgia for the video game many played as kids, except combined with the real world. Which, I don't know about y'all, but all I ever wanted as a kid was to have my imaginary world and my real world brought together.

Disclaimer: I haven't played P-Go yet, and probably never will. (Adulthood!)

I'm a adult and I play it! It's awesome and networked with others playing it also. Brings people together in a way

[CLT704]

I thought we could play a fun little game, called "Steal a Skyscraper". Basically you have to choose a skyscraper, or multiple, from another city that you would like to see in Charlotte. 

So for me: 

-Bank of America Tower (New York, NY)

-Chrysler Building (New York, NY) 

-10 Hudson Yards (New York, NY)

-US Bank Tower (Los Angeles, CA)

-Wilshire Grand Center (Los Angeles, CA)

-Comcast Center (Philadelphia, PA)

-Devon Energy Center (Oklahoma City, OK)

-Salesforce Tower (San Francisco, CA)

-The Scapel (London, UK)

-One Canada Square (London, UK)

-122 Leadenhall Street (London, UK)

-20 Fenchurch Street (London, UK)

 

Could you imagine what Charlotte could look like with all those buildings? 

[Skyybutter]

On 7/17/2016 at 0:45 PM, CLT704 said:

I thought we could play a fun little game, called "Steal a Skyscraper". Basically you have to choose a skyscraper, or multiple, from another city that you would like to see in Charlotte. 

So for me: 

-Bank of America Tower (New York, NY)

-Chrysler Building (New York, NY) 

-10 Hudson Yards (New York, NY)

-US Bank Tower (Los Angeles, CA)

-Wilshire Grand Center (Los Angeles, CA)

-Comcast Center (Philadelphia, PA)

-Devon Energy Center (Oklahoma City, OK)

-Salesforce Tower (San Francisco, CA)

-The Scapel (London, UK)

-One Canada Square (London, UK)

-122 Leadenhall Street (London, UK)

-20 Fenchurch Street (London, UK)

 

Could you imagine what Charlotte could look like with all those buildings? 

I would love to zee them all but I would have to go with the Comcast Building in Philly. Being a bit biased as I lived in philly , in my defense the Comcast building is a sexy tower. Its like an Alpha tower. Its tall , big, and in charge. It would be seen from so many parts of the city that currently cant see any of the uptown towers.  My 2 cents.

[Guest]

I have about a dozen, mostly historic, buildings in mind. 

1. Terminal Tower, Cleveland

2. Metropolitan Life Building, Manhattan

3. Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago

4. One Detroit Center.

5. Aqua, Chicago

6. Westin Book Cadillac Hotel, Detroit

7. Lincoln Financial, Greensboro

8. Great American Tower at Queen City Square, Cincinnati

9. Bank of America, Baltimore

10. Baltimore Trust Building, Baltimore

11. Wells Fargo Tower, Minneapolis

12. Capella Tower, Minneapolis.

[SgtCampsalot]

OT:

Does anyone else regularly fantasize about getting out of dodge from this big city- with its sprawling MSA, terrible wealthy upper class, and tearing down more interesting buildings every year- and living in any one of the hundreds of wonderful small towns around our beautiful state, region, and country, enjoying their good bones, and the human-scale architecture and character, and local mindset, BUT, just can't bring yourself to do it because you know it won't exactly provide the activities, dynamism, and "culture" (or whatever the heck you want to call it) that you'll want from a home?

Granted, I'm a young guy. Maybe I'll retire in a small NC town, if retirement is still a thing in 50 years.

Where would YOU move in North Carolina if you could have your cake and eat it too?

Edited July 21, 2016 by SgtCampsalot

[nonillogical]

On 7/21/2016 at 10:31 AM, SgtCampsalot said:

OT:

Does anyone else regularly fantasize about getting out of dodge from this big city- with its sprawling MSA, terrible wealthy upper class, and tearing down more interesting buildings every year- and living in any one of the hundreds of wonderful small towns around our beautiful state, region, and country, enjoying their good bones, and the human-scale architecture and character, and local mindset, BUT, just can't bring yourself to do it because you know it won't exactly provide the activities, dynamism, and "culture" (or whatever the heck you want to call it) that you'll want from a home?

Granted, I'm a young guy. Maybe I'll retire in a small NC town, if retirement is still a thing in 50 years.

Where would YOU move in North Carolina if you could have your cake and eat it too?

I intend to move out of the state next year and live in some different places (hopefully out of the country too at some point), and mostly would be focusing on cities larger than Charlotte, because that's where my career is going to thrive and where my tastes are at the moment, but my wife and I have every intention of coming back eventually and living in Asheville. Granted that's not exactly a small town, but has a balance of urban amenities/vibrancy and country appeal in the area that I can see keeping us happy in the long run. 

[jednc]

12 hours ago, nonillogical said:

I intend to move out of the state next year and live in some different places (hopefully out of the country too at some point), and mostly would be focusing on cities larger than Charlotte, because that's where my career is going to thrive and where my tastes are at the moment, but my wife and I have every intention of coming back eventually and living in Asheville. Granted that's not exactly a small town, but has a balance of urban amenities/vibrancy and country appeal in the area that I can see keeping us happy in the long run. 

If I moved to any small town in NC it would be Morganton. I grew up there and still love it. Very proud to be from there, but do enjoy the things a bigger city offers.

[SgtCampsalot]

8 hours ago, jednc said:

If I moved to any small town in NC it would be Morganton. I grew up there and still love it. Very proud to be from there, but do enjoy the things a bigger city offers.

I just spent 30 minutes street-viewing Morganton. There are so many great little nodes for activity there! Love it. I've gotta stop there next time I'm going to western NC.

On another completely off-topic post:
My brother is visiting Tokyo right now. I pulled up the address of a venue he just checked into, and my jaw hit the floor upon seeing their street network:

I just can't stop thinking:  Here I am in America trying desperately to scrounge up any semblance of urbanism I can, like a sucker!

Edited July 23, 2016 by SgtCampsalot

[15895]

I'm working towards being able to move to Brazil. I would eventually be back in Charlotte. I loveeee Charlotte

[ChessieCat]

I was driving through Rock Hill this weekend and by total chance I saw this enormous tower in the distance and just had to explore further.  It seemed out of place.  I pulled up and did a quick search on my smartphone and read that this was Heritage USA, the Disney-like theme park that Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker once promoted in the 80's through their organization PTL.  For those of you old enough to remember the 80's, you know exactly who these people are.

Who in their right mind would decide to build a 21-story tower in the middle of a field in Rock Hill, SC?!!!   No offense to Rock Hill, even uptown Charlotte had some abandoned towers during the recession i.e. Hyatt Place. But when you realize the Bakkers were behind this eyesore, it kinda does make twisted sense.

I read that the tower has been an abandoned rusting hulk for decades now.  A sign next to it says the new owners want to make it a retirement community.  Does anyone know if it will ever get completed???

Photo credit: http://www.pbase.com/kappasigmapi/image/27223861

Edited July 25, 2016 by ChessieCat
photo credit

[grodney]

On 7/23/2016 at 1:06 AM, jednc said:

If I moved to any small town in NC it would be Morganton. I grew up there and still love it. Very proud to be from there, but do enjoy the things a bigger city offers.

We don't *exactly* fit into the original question by SgtCampsalot, but......we live in Ballantyne and when our kids are done with school (in 8ish years) there's a good chance we'll move to (or near) Morganton or somewhere similar.  We want more space, but definitely don't want to give up all that Charlotte has, so we can't go too far.  As for Morganton specifically, we've made a day-trip there the last two summers (and probably again next weekend), and it has been wonderful.

[ah59396]

1 hour ago, grodney said:

We don't *exactly* fit into the original question by SgtCampsalot, but......we live in Ballantyne and when our kids are done with school (in 8ish years) there's a good chance we'll move to (or near) Morganton or somewhere similar.  We want more space, but definitely don't want to give up all that Charlotte has, so we can't go too far.  As for Morganton specifically, we've made a day-trip there the last two summers (and probably again next weekend), and it has been wonderful.

 

I find that all of NC's best medium-small cities/towns are in the mountains.  Morganton, Hendersonville, Boone, Brevard, Bryson City and Franklin, Murphy! (if you want to go even smaller).  All great towns with good bones.  Pedestrian friendly, solid breweries, good coffee shops, biking infrastructure in many, and you can't beat the location.

 

It's a shame the cities of the Piedmont haven't undergone the same renaissance, but the tourism in the mountains is the real deal.  A lot of people escape the heat up there and love to spend their cash up in these towns that time was supposed to forget.  I'm happy for them.  I was in Bryson City last week for the first time in a longgggg time and I was floored by how fantastic it was.  Nantahala brewery is the truth.

[tozmervo]

2 minutes ago, ah59396 said:

I find that all of NC's best medium-small cities/towns are in the mountains.  Morganton, Hendersonville, Boone, Brevard, Bryson City and Franklin, Murphy! (if you want to go even smaller).  All great towns with good bones.  Pedestrian friendly, solid breweries, good coffee shops, biking infrastructure in many, and you can't beat the location.

It's a shame the cities of the Piedmont haven't undergone the same renaissance, but the tourism in the mountains is the real deal.  A lot of people escape the heat up there and love to spend their cash up in these towns that time was supposed to forget.  I'm happy for them.  I was in Bryson City last week for the first time in a longgggg time and I was floored by how fantastic it was.  Nantahala brewery is the truth.

To me the dividing line is typically I-85. Most towns west of 85 have some great character, east of 85 it's a tougher sell (with notable exceptions). Not sure if that has to do with old furniture/textile money helping prop up towns?

[rugger62]

Changing gears,

I was uptown Friday early evening from 5-7 with my son. Mommy was busy working so we were exploring the big city a little bit. Maybe it's because I haven't been uptown on a weekend night in a while, but I was shocked by the number of extremely intoxicated vagrants I saw walking around. We were on Tryon from 4th down to the DEC, then to the Epi Center, then to RB Park.

I expected to see some people hanging out on the benches or asking for money, but there were around 1/2 dozen guys stumbling around, 1 of them in the middle of 3rd street. Even saw a couple of guys drinking from a brown bag in the park. It put me in defensive mode - God forbid a drunk mess with my boy. I had to actively avoid several.

Was this something rare, or is this more of the norm in uptown these days?

[ScottCLT]

20 hours ago, ChessieCat said:

I was driving through Rock Hill this weekend and by total chance I saw this enormous tower in the distance and just had to explore further.  It seemed out of place.  I pulled up and did a quick search on my smartphone and read that this was Heritage USA, the Disney-like theme park that Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker once promoted in the 80's through their organization PTL.  For those of you old enough to remember the 80's, you know exactly who these people are.

Who in their right mind would decide to build a 21-story tower in the middle of a field in Rock Hill, SC?!!!   No offense to Rock Hill, even uptown Charlotte had some abandoned towers during the recession i.e. Hyatt Place. But when you realize the Bakkers were behind this eyesore, it kinda does make twisted sense.

I read that the tower has been an abandoned rusting hulk for decades now.  A sign next to it says the new owners want to make it a retirement community.  Does anyone know if it will ever get completed???

Photo credit: http://www.pbase.com/kappasigmapi/image/27223861

There is an interesting urban exploration tour of the whole facility, including inside the tower here:

http://illicitohio.com/SBNO/heritage/heritage01.html

 

[Scoopbth]

On 11/18/2014 at 9:05 PM, rjp212 said:

So with the recent uptick in Rental prices, it got me thinking about how much affordable it would be to live near the Blue Line if there was a car-sharing program in Charlotte.  When I lived in DC (even in the burbs) many of the apartment complexes, set aside a few spaces for ZipCars for the residents who wanted to live car-free.  While I know we aren't at a tipping point where it's easy to navigate Charlotte without a car,  I think ZipCar or Car2go would be a good transition.  Has anybody heard any rumors about the programs coming to Charlotte?

I am surprised that there hasn't been any posting or news on the fact that Zipcar is uptown! Perhaps I missed something on its arrival (not sure how long it has been uptown). Granted its only 1 car (located in the Element apartments on Romare Bearden). Both my wife and I have used it several times and it is great for our needs. I also periodically track the availability of this car and have been pleased to see that it has been unavailable several times due to reservations from other people. 

[ChessieCat]

On 7/26/2016 at 5:25 AM, ScottCLT said:

There is an interesting urban exploration tour of the whole facility, including inside the tower here:

http://illicitohio.com/SBNO/heritage/heritage01.html

 

Thanks.  Those photos are somewhat eerie.  

Maybe we can start a gofundme campaign to get Banksy to create a new Dismaland at Heritage USA:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dismaland

Only then may it finally become the tourist attraction it was meant to be

Edited July 27, 2016 by ChessieCat

[jednc]

On 7/27/2016 at 4:53 PM, ChessieCat said:

Thanks.  Those photos are somewhat eerie.  

Maybe we can start a gofundme campaign to get Banksy to create a new Dismaland at Heritage USA:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dismaland

Only then may it finally become the tourist attraction it was meant to be

It was a huge tourist attraction before things fell apart. The water park attracted people of all stripes and the stuff dedicated to Christianity def. appealed to people who wanted to vacation in that type of environment.

The tower itself would have been fine if not for timing. If the tower had been completed before the legal actions began, it would have been sold as an operating hotel along with the rest of the property and would most likely still be a hotel or residences of some sort. My understanding is the rest of the property is solvent, just not as grand as it all once was.

[KJHburg]

Interesting news from San Francisco one of their tallest and highest priced condo towers home of Joe Montana is sinking big time! Talk about value engineering this building could totally collapse in an earthquake. http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Millennium-Tower-in-SF-Has-Sunk-Tilted--388867452.html  http://temblor.net/earthquake-insights/liquefaction-leaning-tower-san-francisco-1048/   Anybody going out be wary of being near this building if the earth starts shaking.