For this drive, I entered the city of Charlotte from the north end of town, which is the worst end of town. As I came down Tyron Street, there was a noticeable homeless encampment on the outskirts of town, which we’ll revisit later. But this was only one of a few sore spots in the downtown Charlotte area. It was a beautiful day for a drive - mid morning on a crisp autumn day. It was Saturday, October 17 at 11 am.
Now, downtown Charlotte can be broken up into two distinct areas - South End, and Uptown, which is Charlotte’s original downtown area. We’re going to begin on South End and then cross the highway into downtown and check that part of the city out.
So this is Charlotte’s South End. Now this part of town is all the jam for all the up and coming younger and successful folks. They call this Historic South End. It was kinda forgotten about with a bunch of abandoned factories, but the city ran the light rail down this way which renewed interest and NOW look at the place. It’s all modern condos and expensive places to shop and dine and drink. This is actually the fastest growing neighborhood in the COUNTRY for apartment growth. This is also the second-most expensive zip code in the whole state of North Carolina for apartment renters, where it’s about $1,400 a month for an apartment.
People on the west coast and the northeast are like I WISH my apartment was $1,400 a month. I pay three times that and I have bums and druggies all over.
Charlotte spent $2 billion bucks on making this place all fancy, and there’s another billion set aside for more. It’s really revitalized the whole Charlotte downtown region in general. Most of the people who live here are wealthier professionals, and most of the tourists who come to Charlotte wind up making their way down to this part of town by the end of their stay.
Anyways, this is South End. Then we’ll cross the highway into the very DIFFERENT part of Charlotte, uptown.
As we cross the highway back into downtown proper, you’ll notice a big difference. This is the city center for all the business happenings in the Queen City. There’s a huge banking industry here - New York City is the nation’s banking capital, but Charlotte is the country’s second biggest banking hub, just ahead of even San Francisco. There’s also some technology here and other leading industries. Downtown has an arena where the NBA’s Hornets play, and is also home to the NFL’s Carolina Panthers.
Charlotte has close to 900,000 people, which is nearly twice that of Atlanta. But Charlotte isn’t even in the top 100 when it comes to crime. It’s a very safe and clean downtown, for the most part, but when there’s trouble, folks do riot from time to time. I spotted security guards and police at many bank doors or hotel entrances, almost guarding against any looming trouble that might surface.
Downtown, or Uptown as Charlotte refers to it, is home to a majority of the hotels, too. And for, like ever, THIS was the hub for entertainment. All the bars and restaurants were here, but then when South End sprang up, just about all the business moved two miles south to take advantage of the explosive growth and wealth THERE. Now, downtown is really uninspiring. You have to walk blocks to find a place to get a drink or eat. While the South End is where mostly white folks congregate, in uptown, it’s mostly the black community that gathers at night. Many of the groups that come to this part of downtown smoke pot in their cars and then wander around downtown at night or stand around in large groups. In fact, walking around uptown at night, you can’t help but notice the lingering smell of weed everywhere. Our Uber driver’s car - or our Uber driver’s clothes, totally smelled like weed. There are also pockets of homeless folks on benches and on sidewalks in this part of town. But they aren’t allowed to pitch tents downtown proper.
Uptown’s big saving grace was supposed to be the Epicenter, a multi tiered entertainment venue with bars and restaurants and shopping right smack dab in the middle of Uptown. But only after about 10 years, most of the Epicenter is closed now, perhaps for good. You can see how dead it is now. Look at the list of closed businesses here. That’s because the police were constantly called here, and there were too many shootings. No one knows what’s going to become of the Epicenter, but some speculate it may be turned into an outdoor mall type destination.
Anyways, this is Uptown. Here’s a tour.
So as we leave Uptown, and the downtown Charlotte area, we get another quick glimpse of the homeless encampment on the far north side of downtown. But overall, downtown Charlotte is a very clean and safe area. It’s just that at night, in Uptown, not only is there not much to do, there’s a lingering sense that you can’t let your guard down. And that’s a shame.
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