I found this article about how the North Carolina Real Estate Market is holding up better than anywhere in the country.... With charlotte emerging as the anchor the rest of North Carolina is following in its footsteps. For more about this article check out
TIME LIFE Magazine.
In 1791, George Washington called Charlotte, N.C., a "trifling place." In 1941 an author scoffed that the city had as much use for high-rises "as a hog has for a morning coat." By 1991, Charlotte was still a minor-league city without major-league sports, a cultural wasteland with a central business district that died every weekday after work. "No restaurants. No nightlife. Nothing," recalls seven-term Republican mayor Pat McCrory. "You could lie down in the street and never have to worry about getting run over." A local planner gained notoriety by proving it was impossible to find a Snickers bar downtown after 5 o'clock.
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"To understand Charlotte, you have to understand our ambition," says chamber of commerce head Bob Morgan. "We have a serious chip on our shoulder. We don't want to be No. 2 to anybody." Civic leaders often compare their city to New York, Chicago, and even London. On Sept. 11, 2001, McCrory notes, with a sly grin, that local banks swiftly evacuated their skyscrapers: "Everyone in Charlotte assumed we were next."
The business of Charlotte was always business. The city began as a trading post at the intersection of two Indian trails, hosted America's first gold rush and first mint, and later blossomed into a transportation and textile hub. Charlotte's white leaders agreed to desegregation relatively early, concluding that turmoil was bad for business. And local banks exploited North Carolina's liberal acquisition laws to build the conglomerates that now dominate headlines. Today Charlotte's nine FORTUNE 500 companies help run the city, not only by writing checks--Bank of America and Wachovia have pledged $15 million apiece to build new cultural centers--but also by helping to write plans. "We're a pro-business city like none I've ever seen," says Center City Partners head Michael Smith. "It's true about Southern hospitality, but there's a real hunger here."
It can be jarring to hear Charlotte's power brokers explain that it's important to improve their city not for its own sake but for the sake of its businesses, which need high-quality culture to attract high-quality talent. But even if they sometimes make Charlotte sound like a New South wealth-generating machine that happens to contain people, their boosterism is producing real progress. Charlotte still has problems with smog, schools and sprawl, and a few condo projects have stalled in the credit crunch. But Charlotte's mix of climate, cheap housing, new urban amenities and old habits of materialism are attracting a new generation of workers, including a reverse migration of black professionals from the North. "If you have a solid résumé and you're willing to work hard, you'll be rewarded here," says Keith Parker, a 41-year-old African American who runs the city's wildly successful transit system. "It takes away the stereotypical fears about Southern cities." Charlotte might not be New York or London yet, but it's over its Snickers problem. "We don't mind when the competition thinks we're Mayberry," says McCrory. "We're happy to be America's best-kept secret."
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