I have lived in Charlotte for four and a half years, longer than I've lived anywhere since graduating college.
How long will I stay?
I don't know.
But I will tell you this, my column today makes staying put sound pretty good. It's about a family's arduous cross-country move from Park City, Utah to Charlotte. I challenge you to come up with a better moving tale of woe. Got one? Let me hear it. Post it hear and send me a copy at abaldwin@charlotteobserver.com.
Oh, and how long do you plan to be in Charlotte? Tell me that too. Thanks!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Can't wait to get out of here? Or, never want to move again?
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My husband and I have realized that we're gypsies. Charlotte is the 5th we've lived in in 10 years. We're thinking of moving again in another year.
My moving tale of woe happened on our move to the Queen City from Jacksonville, FL. My husband was in charge of driving the U-Haul and informed me that his co-pilot, our 75lb mutt, would have to ride with me and our other 70lb mutt and our 2 cats.
I drive a Honda Civic hatchback and when the dogs breath heavy, the car moves in rhythm. I was not looking forward to the 7 hours I was about to spend with my furry friends.
We had a late start to the day and left during afternoon rush hour. After about 10 minutes of speeding on I-95, one of my cats decided to climb on my lap. This had always been the norm when going for rides and so I thought nothing of it until I felt and then smelled that he was eliminating the contents of his bladder on me.
My husband called at that point to see how the ani-pals were doing. All I could do is quickly yell expletives, hang up, and get to an exit to turn around to go back to the old house.
At the old house, I found that I had quickly forgotten that we had just cut the water off and so washing myself off took more than just cutting on the faucet. I was also without an extra set of clothes.
I got to smell like a crazy cat lady until we arrived at the house here in Charlotte. It took a few months for my car to get rid of the smell and my cats now ride in a carrier.
We've been thinking of moving to Chicago but I'm not sure if I could spend 12 hours in the car with my four-legged children.
I am DONE moving from city to city- now planning on one more final move from Dilworth to Uptown.
I have been in Charlotte now for 7 years- and I don't have that 7 year itch other than to move uptown and ditch needing to drive a car again. I would rather pay higher priced condo fees than put nearly 4 bucks a gallon gas in my gas guzler! At least those fees are not going to the oil companies nor polluting the air.
I like Charlotte....and look forward to permantely residing here.
I like it too, I moved here from Atlanta and think that the future here is brighter than my previous home. Charlotte has learned atleast some from Atlanta and has realized the importance of it's downtown. In Atlanta they don't care where things are built and mostly things are built outside of downtown.
For now I am staying put, but hope to eventually move to a smaller city, perhaps Greenville, SC or something similar. Charlotte is way more congested than I ever expected, crime is growing, the schools are kinda bad, and the cons are simply starting to outweigh the pros. It just doesn't have much "personality" for a city, either. Met my husband here, and had a great time, but just don't think it's a good place to raise a family.
It's a better place to raise a family than Greenville... talk about sheltering your kids.
We moved here from DC (Arlington exactly) and think we'll stay another yet, at least. Our condo we sold in Va is now worth $80k less than we sold it for. Our home here in (uptown) CLT is worth $50k more than we bought it for. If we can keep asinine individuals from filing lawsuits and they can build the uptown baseball stadium it will be worth a lot more and we may stick around a little longer. The city needs to get a handle on the crime the city and the drunk drivers we will be in good shape.
I'm not saying that I'm motivated by money as far as staying here but the year before I moved here we had 3 murders in Arlington, which was a spike within 5 years.
Living uptown is good. I think if I were a commuter I would have fled long ago.
Apologies for the typing errors. You can't always see everything you enter on the iPhone.
But another thing - if my wife were to get pregant there's no way in hell we would raise a child in CMS much less NC.
According to the numbers, it seems like most people want to move here rather than leave.
My first husband and I moved to Cabarrus Co. in 1985. Our children came in the 90's. The marriage went in the 2000's. Moved to FL for my 2nd husband. Lived there for 4 years... made BUKU $$$$ on the house down there (which is now worth NOTHING), moved back to Charlotte.
So sorry we moved back to Charlotte (Meck. Co.) and not Cabarrus. The schools were HORRIBLE for my children, even dangerous! Sold the house in Charlotte and moved back to Cabarrus Co. Ahhhhhh.... back home.
I love it here in Charlotte, and wouldn't want to move!
The only doubt that I have is the amount of crime here. For a city this size the number of incidents is crazy. Plus it seems every time they arrest one of these guys, he's been arrested 100 times in the past, and keeps making his way through the revolving door. I don't blame the cops, who mostly do the best they can - it's the rest of the system that is failing us, and ultimately putting us in harm's way.
Agree with 11:32pm. Honestly, I think I'd rather have my kids "sheltered" in a smaller town than worry about them being shot in the halls of one of the CMS schools...
I've lived in and around Charlotte for all my life, with the exception of the five years I was in Raleigh for college. The next move I plan to make is when I retire--I'd like to move to the Space Coast of Florida and become a tour guide at the Kennedy Space Center.
Charlotte is a great place to live. Yes, it's got crime, traffic, and various other problems, but that's the penalty for being a big city. There are 19 cities more populous than ours that deal with much worse. I don't want to move anywhere else, mainly because this is home to me, but partly because it's a pain in the butt to move, period.
good luck uptown without a car
We've been here about 2.5 years. For the most part we like it a lot. It's clean, affordable, with mild winters. There's a lot of growth still... I can see us moving in a couple years. I've been considering trying a year or two abroad and seeing how that goes. I might try the northwest.
Major complaints: fitting in as a godless, liberal Yankee. :) The city can be pretty uptight and boring at times. The schools suck out loud. The government seems to do nothing. And boy, do people love to complain! As long as it's not to your face.
There are days when I'm ready to pack up the car and go. Whenever I visit friends in Mass or Jersey, I come back renewed and refreshed. So, we'll see what happens.
All of these generalizations about Southerners, Yankees, Liberals, Conservatives, Charlotteans, Christians etc. are closed-minded, unproductive and extremely boring.
CMS definitely has a lot of improvement, but I feel like many people are way too down on it. CMS has some excellent schools (Providence, Myers Park), some average schools, and some not-so-good schools. You can't paint the whole district as one that is suffering and crime-ridden. I think CMS needs to work on how it relates to each type of school - CMS can't treat every school in the district the same way because every school is different. Once CMS is able to realize this and implement necessary changes, the district as whole will improve dramatically. I survived CMS and now I'm attending a great university. I was well-prepared.
After college I'd love to move back to Charlotte, but we will see where life takes me. Charlotte has a bright future, and I want to be a part of it.
I have been here 10 months. I bought my home here 16 months ago once I sold my home in Naples, Florida. I was able to sell it for a profit of $180k and buy a great one here. I feel bad for the new owners of my FL home because they paid at the peak and are 100k in negative equity. Guess I was lucky.
I moved here also with 10 years teaching experience and teach 1st graders. I am impressed with CMS so far. It is two thirds larger than my District in Naples, Florida, but overall I am very excited about being here. I grew up in MI and feel I have the best of both worlds in terms of weather. The city is much cleaner than most larger cities and everyone I have met so far has been very friendly.
I plan to stay here until retirement. Being 37, that will be 20 years and then I'll head back to Naples. LOL
I personally think Charlotte is great and I have many more friends here than I ever did in Metro D.C. (where I grew up and lived for 30+ years). Sure it has it's ups & downs - what place doesn't? - Live & learn! The relatively small size of the job market and the corresponding "talk" between folks [it's not six degrees of Kevin Bacon here, it's more like 2 or at most 3] can be one thing and the traffic is worse than I expected) but hey, you have to balance all of the positives vs. the negatives and Charlotte and the people here have been terrific to me. I'll stick around for awhile and I'd hate to leave.
I'm a Charlotte native and travel extensively around the country as part of my career. No matter which of our amazing U.S. cities I find myself visiting, I find myself happy to return to Charlotte.
I've lived and worked downtown for 8 years. During the last 3 years it has become increasingly clear that I no longer require a car to manage my daily routine. As the downtown/center city continues to grow, the need for a car will continue to deminish.
On average, I purchase a full tank of gasoline about every 6 to 8 weeks. I'm thankful about that and mindful of the savings. I'm also mindful that my living experience doesn't appeal to everyone, nor is it available to everyone.
It has proven to be a worthwhile exercise to examine how I live the daily routine of life and recognizing and reducing excess related to transportation costs. This is even more critical when many economic factors seem to be working against us...not for us.
I challenge my many downtown neighbors to step through the same exercise and truly consider how to reduce their dependence on their cars. I actually know people who live and work downtown, but insist on "driving" to work and paying all the additional fees related to parking a few blocks from where they live. A shocking example of laziness, in my opinion.
No matter what side of the "growth" issue you lean toward, you must admit it's an interesting conversation. I do have to admit I'm always disappointed by the amount of venom introduced in these blogs instead of healthy debate. I'm also disappointed by the number of people who continue to take the bait of the negative comments.
"Whenever I visit friends in Mass or Jersey, I come back renewed and refreshed." I feel the same way, and I was born down here. Altough I'm an Oriole fan, a good way to get away for a few hours is to go out and watch a Yankees or Red Sox game in one of the bars where their fans hang out. Funny how I used to hate anyone who fell into that fan category, now I'm glad to see 'em.
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