I thinking of moving to Charlotte sometime next year. I was wondering if anybody out there has any opinions of the city.
The people who live there seem to like it, and the economy certainly is doing well, although it has traffic problems. Politically and socially it’s somewhat conservative, one of the reasons I prefer Raleigh-Durham.
I am thinking of moving there or Raleigh too. Lets hear some more info.
Well, since I don’t particularly LIKE it down here, I will respectfully suggest you check out some websites on the area. They are bound to be writen by someone other than this guy who misses New York City and wants desperately to get back sometime…
Yer pal,
Satan
Hey, I used to live in Charlotte. Before I moved…but anyway. The city is decent, though I would warn you about some traffic problems (half of it seems to be the streets, the other half is the stupid morons on the road these days…) plus right now they have some major problems about school assignments. So if you’ve got any school aged kids, I would say don’t move any time soon. Other than that, good town.
People could make the world a nice place to live…if there weren’t so goddamn many of them.
-Clayton Heafner
I’ve checked out some websites on the area and it seems like a nice place to live. I like the fact that it is fairly close to the mountains. Anyway, I don’t think the traffic and city can be any worse than than Memphis.
Any input on the colleges?
My father-in-law is the director of the Mint Museum in Charlotte. (It’s an art museum housed in an old money mint.) He and my mother in law seem to love it down there. But, yes, they do butt heads with the conservatives down there.
You realize Jesse Helms would be representing you in the Senate, right? 
Leslie Irish Evans
http://leslie.scrappy.net
Yep, plucky little Charlotte (the “Queen” city, named after Queen Charlotte from Mecklenburg, after which its county was named) used to mint coins back when it was little more that a wagon rut.
Same with Dahlonega, GA, a little town in the middle of nowhere in northern GA.
Those were the days when money was “real money.”
But to the OP, I’m only 90 miles south, and I love Charlotte, but I have a prejudice against NC in general for some philisophical reasons:
Primary enforcement of “occupant restraint” laws. Doesn’t affect me–I were 'em anyway.
Guilty per se. Also, doesn’t affect me. I don’t drink.
Higher gas taxes. It’s about a 10¢ jump when I cross that line.
OK, that’s nit-picking on some irrelevant stuff.
On the bright side, it’s not far from Charlotte to Mt Airy and Pilot Mountain, the models for “Mayberry” and “Mt Pilot.”
Actually, I like Charlotte–they even get snow occasionally.
Well, I live in Charlotte. It’s an easy city to have mixed feelings about. Yes, it does have a conservative leanings, but in the last elections for the City Council and the County Commissioners the most conservative elements just got booted out on their flabby butts.
Part of the problem is Charlotte can’t decide whether it wants to be a small town, or Atlanta.
The traffic problem is overrated. Yeah, there’s traffic, for an hour in the morning and an hour and a half in the afternoon, on a few roads. Compared to Boston (where I grew up) this is vehicle paradise.
There’s a symphony, an opera company, a dance company, two large amphitheatres, the coliseum, the performing arts center, a couple of smaller halls. If you like rock music you’re in luck, less so for country, almost SOL for folk music. Very active theatre groups (amateur and professional) although the larger groups avoid controversal plays (many receive some gov’t funding and don’t want the BS that goes with rocking the boat). Growing visual arts community. Wide variety of resturants.
As was mentioned, there is a great deal of confusion about school assignments right now. It’s still to soon to tell how this will shake out, but the next couple of years are going to be interesting, at the very least.
Despite the whinning you might hear from some people, the local taxes aren’t bad, and the government we get for it is pretty good. They tend to be very amusing, and since both the city council’s and county commissioner’s meetings are televised live, you can get your laughs without leaving home.
If you want to look in on the local paper, check out www.charlotte.com .
There might be better places to live, but you could do a whole lot worse.
Yeah, Charlotte may be on the conservative kind, but if you’re looking for liberalism anywhere in North Carolina, you’re pretty much stuck with Chapel Hill/Carrboro or Asheville. Both fine towns IMHO (even for this slightly right-leaning guy)
A&E recently listed Chapel Hill as the best place to live in the US on their top-ten show. But then again, they thought there was affordable housing here. Hah!
I’ve spent a lot of time in N.C., and especially in the Charlotte and Triangle areas. Docandjean has a good handle on things. I’d say the biggest difference between CLT and RDU is that RDU is generally perfectly happy with what it is, whereas CLT is very self-conscious, insecure even, about how it measures up against other cities. Charlotte civic leaders keep crowing that they don’t want their city becoming another Atlanta, when in fact that’s exactly what it’s turning into.
Charlotte has always seemed separate from the rest of the state. Compared to the other cities in N.C., fewer Charlotteans (Charlatans?) are natives, fewer have Southern accents, and fewer follow college basketball, for example. It’s telling that many “powers-that-be” have tried to convince the Associated Press to drop the “N.C.” from “Charlotte” in datelines, allowing Charlotte to enter the club of “stateless” cities such as Denver and Chicago. The problem with this is the nagging CH-factor, where Charlotte is confused with all the other Southern cities that start with CH. A fine example of CLT’s self-consciousness.
One funny thing about Charlotte is that few people rent, for a number of reasons. Remember this if you’re looking for an apartment and can’t find too many.
Charlotte is closer to the mountains than Raleigh is, but Atlanta and Nashville are just as close to the Smokies as Charlotte is.
As far as airline service goes, hope you like USAir. It’s funny how all the other airlines are shoved into a forgotten corner of CLTs airport with one gate apiece. Compare this to RDU, which has good, cheap air service thanks to the presence of Southwest.
Raleigh will always have better roads than Charlotte because the capital is where legislators work. There are far worse places to get around in than Charlotte, however.
For me, Charlotte falls into the been-there-done-that category, but I wouldn’t mind moving back if work took me there. The mountains, though… wouldn’t mind retiring to HIghlands!
Finally, this is my big chance to plug my Web site. Visit ncroads.com. Thanks.
Charlotte, “conservative???”
Charlotte, NC???
I welcome any expatiation on this matter.
Other than that, I agree pretty much what the other posters have said.
Oh, Charlotte is one of the most Republican cities I’m familiar with. Charlotte’s has historically been split into two congressional districts, white and black. The black district nowadays is the infamously gerrymandered District Twelve, but the white district (District Nine, covering most of Mecklenburg County) always goes Republican. Currently the Rep. is Sue Myrick, the former Charlotte mayor. Charlotte usually elects Republican mayors, too, with the notable exception of Harvey Gantt.
Charlotte was under consideration to hold the 2000 Republican convention, but the GOP chose to go somewhere else in the end.
When your city’s econo-political landscape is dominated by two really, really big banks, and has a general pro-business attitude, it’s gonna end up pretty Republican. Not gun-toting, bomb-the-foreigners Republican, but don’t-raise-my-taxes, gotta-get-my-kid-into-private-school Republican.
Mjollnir asked Charlotte, “conservative???” I welcome any expatiation on this matter.
Notice that Mjollnir lives in Columbia, SC, a somewhat sleepy town where the confederate flag still flies over the state capitol building. So by those standards Charlotte may look like a pretty wide open place. But within NC most of the western half of the state is thought of as having the more conservative Republican leanings, compared with the rest of the state.
I don’t think there is any place in SC as liberal as Chapel Hill/Carrboro. Chapel Hill, home of the University of North Carolina, is sometimes jokingly refered to as “The People’s Republic of Chapel Hill”. And Carrboro is a town for people who think that Chapel Hill “is a little too conservative”.
Oh, yeah, Carrboro–they have a big “adult novelties” distribution plant there.
It was interesting seeing a segment on it one time on HBO or some other channel–with these little old ladies packing up all sorts of “marital aids” for shipping.
BTW, I’m not sure of the connection between “conservatism” and the “Flag.”
Chapel Hill, liberal???
Only by North Carolina standards. Last I looked, the local progressive bookstore was slowly starving to death and the one and only activist in town was G. R. Quinn, the guy who gets his kicks from standing on street corners with a sandwich board saying “HUNT THE WHALES.” Sadly, it is not entirely clear what he is reacting against. For the most part, people 'round here are profoundly apathetic.
Which goes to show that you shouldn’t believe everything Jesse Helms says. Who knew?
(To respond to the OP.) According to a friend who teaches public school in Charlotte, it’s a nice town but the schools leave a LOT to be desired. (This was the case even before the current state o’ confusion set in.) Worth keeping in mind if you have kids.
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My parents live between Chapel Hill and Durham.
I remember years ago, when The Deer Hunter came out, and my dad and I were standing in line for it at the movie theater in downtown Chapel Hill. We were pamphleteered by the local chapter of the Maoist party (!). They didn’t like how the Viet Cong were portrayed.
On the other extreme, a couple of years ago I saw a group of skinhead scowling their way down main street. All this in the same state that inflicts Jesse Helms on us every 6 years.
The point is that the “Triangle” area is a small pocket of cultured liberalism in an otherwise redneck, right-wing state.
There are lots of good colleges and universities in NC. Basketball and barbeque (that’s pulled pork with a vinegar sauce and NO tomatoes, BTW) are the state religions.