Show Off Things From Other Cities

It’s all subjective. I’m not going to dig through lists and lists of stats and rankings to have something to argue about.

My point was regarding the one posters whowas saying that Charlotte is better because they have more pro sports teams. I guess if you are a huge sports junkie that may be the case. But to claim that everyone would want to move there just because of sports, is just plain false.

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Don’t be coming on here with all this grounded, level-headed logic!!! :joy: I kid, great points, I agree with you! Charlotte has a lot of cool stuff/food, a GREAT skyline/collection of architecture, and the Panthers! Come on!

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The Triangle’s sports scene is one of the most unique in the country. More people see major college football and basketball here than any other metro besides maybe LA. If you want to give Charlotte bonus points for the Hornets, I mean go ahead. But sports is not something we are slouching in.

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Fantastic first post, welcome!

You raise some really good points here, and I love the idea of putting aside the “rivalry” for the sake of elevating North Carolina as a whole. For being the ninth largest state in the US, we really don’t get enough love down here. Both cities have things they can learn from each other. Love your perspective as a Charlotte native and hope to see you posting more in the future. As you can see, I tend to fall into the Raleigh echo chamber a lot, so it helps to have that put in check.

I do think that there are ways to grow while still maintaining character. There are a lot of factors that go into making that happen, from policy decisions to festivals to “shop local” campaigns. I think the main thing is really pressing into the concept of neighborhoods. There are plenty of large cities that have lots of culture simply because of the diversity of the neighborhoods. The tricky part of all of this, of course, is pressing into neighborhood character without falling prey to NIMBYism. I’m not entirely sure what that looks like, but I believe that some of the policies that our current council is pursuing (such as affordable housing and corner stores) will help.

More than anything, I think neighborhoods build character from being walkable. That’s what makes Charlotte neighborhoods like NoDa and South End interesting; you can get there by light rail, then walk anywhere you’d like to go. Walkability leads to things like street markets, becoming a “regular” at a local business, interacting with your neighbors… and all those things build community and character. Being on foot changes how you view your neighborhood and, ultimately, your city. It makes you more present in the place that you live because you aren’t whizzing by everything in a metal cage (as I’ve said before, cars have their use, but they did a lot of damage to the character of American cities).

So again, thanks for speaking up. Hope to hear more from you on this. I said this yesterday, but I think this forum enables us to pool our different perspectives and brainstorm ideas on how to help this city reach its full potential. I’m going to try to dial back the anti-Charlotte rhetoric from now on and instead see their various policy decisions and cultural elements as learning opportunities. Cheers.

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Welcome to our site!

I agree that we should acknowledge that effect more, but I don’t think that will inevitably “take over” the good things about Raleigh.

A lot of the corporate nature of big cities, sprawl etc. happen because of America’s historical habits. If it was inherent in cities in general, Tokyo wouldn’t have its nooks and crannies filled with local restaurants, Barcelona’s “superblock” experiment would have failed, and cities as a concept wouldn’t be as sustainable as a hub of the public imagination. But none of those cities have single-purpose zoning, a historic addiction to cars and single-family homes, and a tendency to not appreciate shared spaces as much as other cultures; that’s a result of intentional behaviors, and we can change that if we gave a damn.

For our purposes, I think it means there are ways Raleigh can avoid those traps -things we are already doing. Denser, walkable developments and overlay districts, more robust affordable housing policies, more purposeful and deliberate city and small area plans, community outreach that actually brings people together in the built environment… there are very concrete things that we’re doing that will hopefully fight back against that trend of soullessness, things that could make us unique in America if done right.

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Lol, well NC State has a few things up our sleeve that will keep that from happening anytime soon.

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Charlotte has long had bank HQs and they’ve invested that money in the city. First Citizens doesn’t seem to have any interest in following suit.

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Can we just make a Charlotte vs. Raleigh thread that I could mute?

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Here’s my take:

Suburbs: Both places are nearly identical in terms of quality of life and built environment. Both places are equally atrocious. No need to split hairs.

City: Charlotte has a leg up on Raleigh in nearly every category. Everything that is talked about on this forum that people want for Raleigh, Charlotte is doing better. skyline, transit, and pro sports. Lets not kid ourselves here, Dix Park is never getting built, MLS isn’t coming, and BRT will undoubtedly be half-assed. There are just too many people here with a small town mentality.

Digression: Every downtown in America will struggle until people decide its time to crawl out of the hovels and rejoin society. WFH is going to kill cities, I’m not very optimistic.

Conclusion: Raleigh wins because its closer to the coast.

Edit: :grin:

WFH will only kill cities if said cities are only filled with office buildings. Cities need people living in them to thrive, and there are several projects in the works that will be adding lots of new residents to downtown Raleigh over the next few years. If those new residents are working from home, that’s actually going to be a great thing for downtown.

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The one thing I will say Charlotte kills Raleigh on… I have never had a better bahn-mi sandwich than at Crispy Banh-mi in Charlotte. Kokyu na’mean in Durham comes close, but good god Crispy Banh-mi is to die for.

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WFH will kill RTP, not Raleigh & Durham. RTP has no other purpose than to be a place for people to tradtionally work, and there’s nothing there to entice people to want to be there other than not being at home. Unfortunately for RTP, a growing number of people don’t mind being at home when they work.

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There are a lot of science jobs in RTP though that need most people physically present. That, along with the HubRTP project, I think will help RTP evolve, not die. Hopefully? I know my company is moving into a much larger facility in the heart of RTP in the next few weeks, and most people are needed in person much of the time.

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The heart of RTP might have a future if it successfully migrates to a walkable mixed use model, but most of the RTP campuses will remain car dependent. That’s the differentiator.
Those in a bio lab, data center/lab, or product design might come to their campuses more, but a good number of employees will not need to always be there.
Companies are going to need to choose whether to entice them with goodies (like Apple and Google do), be more flexible with their workforce, or risk losing their employees to companies that implement a different model.

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Banh-mi game is pretty weak here for sure…

Too be fair even in Vietnam the bread quality has suffered due to industrialization of bread.

Crispy French style Banh is hard to find in Vietnam unless you know where to look.

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I will say Idle Hour Coffee (new-ish place on Oberlin) has a pretty damn good banh-mi, and a great vibe all around

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Bread no good there as well. Unless they recently fixed it.

Absolutely. I think RTP will become more life science focused in the future. Wet lab work simply cant be done from home. There are already a ton of new life science buildings cropping up all over on my drive home from work.

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Wow. I thought the one at na’ mean was life changing. I will have to make a special detour for that when I am in Charlotte next time. Thanks.

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People love kissing canopies with dinning in the street. It is hard to not enjoy places like that.