video: Justin Ritchie; view this video on Vimeo

Charlotte and the greater Mecklenburg County metro region has yet to gain a devoted local milk, cheese and yogurt source. North Carolina has only one commercial cheese processing plant (in Jefferson, NC) and 11 milk processing plants (8 large commercial and 3 producer processors). A recent report assembled by the NC Dairy Industry Stabilization and Growth Program referenced the fact that Pennsylvania experiences $14,000/year of economic benefit from each dairy cow. And as local economies look to diversify, dairies are an excellent investment in the community’s economy and health, essential to the well-being of the citizens of the area.

The advantages of focusing on small-scale local agriculture was exemplified by economist E.F. Shumacher’s essays on how economics would work as if people mattered, Small is Beautiful,

The most striking thing about modern industry is that it requires so much and accomplishes so little. Modern industry seems to be inefficient to a degree that surpasses one’s ordinary powers of imagination. Its inefficiency therefore remains unnoticed.

As the local farm infrastructure begins to grow, a crucial piece will be the stages between the farmer and consumer. The butchers, the dairies and the markets that withered and died due to the past decades of regulation and corporate expansion will be the key to overcoming that massive corporate inefficiency. Charlotte’s local food infrastructure is on the verge of a major step with the addition of a dairy out in western Rowan County thanks to local farm owners Chuck Moore and Rick Parker.

Chuck Moore is the owner of Honey Mountain Farms and hosts the site of the future dairy on the land he bought in 2003 from the owner of Lazy 5 Ranch. This piece of land has a tremendous history: the farmhouse on the site was built in 1898 and when Chuck was digging up the foundation a few years back he found a cannonball!

Photos by James Willamor view the original on Flickr

Keeping livestock is no new challenge to Chuck who grew up on a farm in Troutman, NC while developing a background in show horses.

When the Moore family started Honey Mountain Farm, they milked 30 goats by hand every day just to see if they could handle it. Milking a goat can take 1-2 minutes and a good goat will give you 1 gallon a day. After getting the small scale under control, they were ready to pursue automation for larger numbers of goats. They were ready to start a larger operation. A moderate supply of goat’s milk for the region will be a new commodity and is a great option for those that are lactose intolerant but want to enjoy milk.

When Chuck got his dairy plans kick started, he went to Maryland with Rick Parker of the nearby Mary L Farms to look at equipment, during the trip Rick and Chuck hit it off. From that point on, they and decided to pool their resources to build the dairy. Everything that has happened so far has been because of the collaborative mindset that Chuck and Rick share. One example: Goat milk isn’t great for butter because it is so low in fat, so the dairy will use Rick’s cow milk to produce a steady stream of butter.

The dairy will include a storefront and will employ about 16 people. Five hundred gallon trucks will transport milk to and from local markets. Yogurt will be produced 300 gallons at a time in a yogurt machine procured from Israel. The milk will be sterilized in vat pasteurizers, the old style of pasteurizing. This old-style method will heat milk for a longer period of time at a lower temperature to ensure that beneficial enzymes aren’t damaged by the hot and fast methods used by all mass produced milk while still removing potentially harmful microorganisms. When milk flows into the vat pasteurizer, it will be heated to 140 degrees Fahrenheit for thirty minutes and will be pumped into a 600 gallon storage tank. After pasteurization the milk will be stored in a cold cellar from Cottonwood Brewery in Mooresville, brewers of Carolina Blonde. They can bottle 600 gallons/day with quick plans to ramp up to 1200 gallons/day. Water will be supplied from a fully operational windmill, which can pump 1500 gallons. This water will be pumped using very little electricity as gravity will do most of the work. The definition of implementing smart solutions for a low-impact production style.

Even though the dairy is on Chuck’s land, it won’t just be bottling for his goats. He’ll also be bottling for Rick Parker of Mary-L farms who plans to sell milk under the Two Buckets label.

Mary L Farms owned by Rick is now in its 5th generation of ownership. With over 170 acres, the farm milks over 152 cows every day.

Initially all the milk will sell at places like Earth Fare and Poppy’s in Brevard.

Everything was on track until the financial slowdown occurred, driving previously secured loans away. So the project remains stalled for now. Once loans, grants or other funding can be secured, they’ll be operating in 45-90 days. What do they need? About 300k more to finish construction and to begin operating. When I was out at the location, I couldn’t stop thinking about how important it would be for venture capitalists and other investors to look for slower, lower margin opportunities like agriculture. The investment in local agriculture isn’t as sexy as a tech company or web startup but is sustainable and based on real wealth. Bubble mentalities aren’t going to destroy money returned on local dairies and farms.

For a more in depth look at why local food and farms are the most profitable investment for communities and individuals you can check out , Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money by career venture capitalist or 35+ years Woody Tasch.

If you want the 30 minute summary of Mr. Tasch’s ideas, you can find the interview on Seattle’s KEXP 90.3 Sustainability Segment.

With a little help Charlotte will have a great source of local milk just down the road.

Photo: James Willamor see the original on Flickr

The Queen City gets ready to bike over the next ten days as BIKE! Charlotte kicks off tomorrow morning with the Mayor’s Ride and Bike to Breakfast, 7:30am at the Dowd YMCA where bikers will meet behind the building to bike with Mayor Pat up to the Wachovia Atrium for a delicious breakfast provided by Lola’s.

And you don’t have to look like the bikers in the picture above to participate, most of the week’s events are for all ages and all skill levels. In past years, even unicycles can be spotted amongst the crowd at the mayor’s bike ride.

From Sunday May 3rd to Saturday May 9th, bikers get free rides on CATS bus and rail.

Some other highlights throughout the week include,

Saturday, May 2nd Tour de Yoga – 8:30am – ride to power yoga class and then lunch

Tuesday, May 5th Airport Loop Ride – 6pm – ride around the airport in style

Saturday, May 9th Cycle Charlotte and Crank it Up Music Festival at Amos’ Southend – 5:30pm to 7pm – ride around the city and end up at Amos’ for food and live music!

For the full week’s schedule check out the official BIKE! Charlotte website.

Multiple environmental groups protested Duke Energy’s expansion of the Cliffside Steam Station about 60 miles West of Charlotte at Duke’s Uptown headquarters. CLT Blog’s @rhibowman will be posting more in-depth info later but you can catch some of the first photos from the scene after the break.

photos: Justin Ritchie; view these photos on Flickr

Charlotte Clean and Green on the campus of CPCC hosted a great turnout today as Charlotteans prepared for Earth Day this Wednesday. Local farms provided food and education to the community while local businesses offered products to support your responsible lifestyle.

This was just the first of a few Earth Day related events this week in the CLT area,

Monday 4-20: Multiple environmental organizations host a peaceful and non-violent awareness session against the expansion of the Cliffside coal plant in Western NC. The groups will meet up at Duke Energy HQ on S. Church St. in Uptown Charlotte at 10am and will disperse around 3pm.

Earth Day, Wednesday 4-22: UNC Charlotte will host its annual Earth Day celebration with booths from tons of community organizations and businesses devoted to mitigating your environmental impact.

Gateway Village on Trade St. will host “displays and information to support Earth Day”.

Contact CLT Blog so that we can add your event to this list.

Tons more photos from today below.

photos: Justin Ritchie; view these photos on Flickr

video: Erik Button; watch this video on Vimeo

Justin Ruckman and I made official appearances as CLT Blog editors in last Thursday’s presentation to the semi-final round of UNC Charlotte’s Five Ventures competition. We were selected as semi-finalists after submitting our executive summary, and prepared the presentation excerpted above for a shot at the finals.

Our eight minute talk contained 81 PowerPoint slides and a ton of information packed into a small amount of time. A huge opportunity for a new approach to journalism is enveloping the community of Charlotte and CLT Blog. Frankly, we are just along for the ride.

Fortunately for us, our judges saw the potential of distributed journalism and we were notified this weekend that CLT Blog is a Five Ventures finalist. Being a finalist means we have a shot at $100,000 along with other business services, and we’ll have the opportunity to review our models and improve our pitch with a small panel of coaches. We couldn’t be more excited about an opportunity to work hard at building a platform that can enable everyone’s ability to share local information.

The video above is heavily edited down from about 13 minutes. Some of our specific plans are excluded due to the sensitive nature of the competition, but we hope to be discussing them at more length soon. Feel free to shoot us any thoughts you have on the presentation. The audio is a little tough to hear when the speaker isn’t looking at the camera; but we weren’t trying to make a fuss with a proper recording setup.

Our hope is to help build a future for community journalism. A future where writers can be fairly compensated and where citizens can be rightfully informed (and entertained).

photo: James Willamor; view this photo on Flickr

In just a few short weeks Charlotte will finally have a dedicated source for European style peasant food: simple, inexpensive and rich in flavor. In the site that Addie’s Jamaican Cuisine occupied before Addie moved back to New York, co-owners Jeff Tonidandel and Paul Manley are dedicating NoDa’s newest eatery, Crêpe Cellar Kitchen & Pub, to the gastropub ideal, a concept that has yet to be realized in the Queen City.

Savory and sweet crêpes will be on the menu, but primarily as a compliment to the rosemary chicken, pumpkin gnocchi, fish and chips, pesto french fries and french bread pizzas. To wash it all down Crêpe Cellar intends to offer carafes of wine from RayLen Vineyards in Mocksville, NC, as long as the paperwork allowing the purchase of barrels of wine is authorized with the NC Alcohol Beverage Control. When warm weather descends, street-side windows can be opened to fill the surrounding area with ambient chatter from the restaurant and Crêpe Cellar patrons with the cool night’s air. Combined with a commitment to no-smoking throughout, Crêpe Cellar promises to innovate Charlotte’s restaurant culture. A bar with delicious food, inexpensive wine, that is smoke free? I think it is just what Charlotte’s been waiting for, even in an economic downturn.

Jeff and Paul wanted to do Crêpe Cellar in NoDa because the area has so much potential, but it took a few months to work out all the details. Seeds for the restaurant were planted after Jeff and his wife toured Europe for nine months following his work with NASCAR, where Jeff managed sponsorships between Lone Star Steakhouses and (what was then) Chip Ganassi Racing. Starting in London, Jeff was able to spend a few weeks with his previously unknown Italian family in Fai Della Paganella (imagine a beautiful North Italian village of 900 people) before heading through Bordeaux, France.

Be sure to follow Crêpe Cellar on Twitter and to check back with CLT Blog for our video preview towards the end of March.

photo: Kevin Harbin; view this photo on Flickr

Much of my undergraduate career was devoted to building student support for football at UNC Charlotte through the Student Government Association and as ’07-’08 Student Body President.

Disclaimer: I think that the collegiate athletic scene in the United States is ridiculous. I prefer the international model of investing in students as opposed to sports. But a simple reality check demonstrates that quality institutions like Charlotte won’t be able to gain any sort of quality notoriety locally or in the south without a football team. Additionally, students and alums want to pay for it so why not?

If you are new to Charlotte and want to know the history and story behind UNC Charlotte football, check out this great interview with Charlotte 49ers Athletic Director Judy Rose and WFNZ’s Mike Collins. At 23 minutes in, Judy and Mike talk about the Student Government vote on football that was close to my heart.

watch this video on YouTube

Meck Charlotte pointed me towards this video of Courtney James’ April 28th, 2008 speech to Charlotte City Council about the attempted robbery of his house.

Sure, Charlotte isn’t the safest city in the US but the reasons why are even more frustrating. Proven criminals in the city are caught and released on a regular basis, and in Courtney’s case, the number of releases are astounding. New police chief Rodney Monroe has been doing a great job lowering incidents with his new policing tactics, but the real problems lie in the court system where the state government fails to provide enough district attorneys to even prosecute the perpetrators. Essentially, there exists a small group of criminals that continually cycle through the judicial system that are neither rehabilitated or held continually.

Hopefully our new governor Bev Purdue can help out, but my guess is that until Bev’s new Charlotte office is broken into nothing will happen.

photo: Justin Ritchie; view this photo on Flickr

Uptown Charlotte is already an attraction, luring crowds from across the Carolinas by offering the NBA, NFL, nightlife, arts and culture, and fine dining. Yet the Center City still lacks personality. The humanity and convenience of storefronts along the streets can replace the faceless glass of what was once nothing more than a 9-5 neighborhood.

Built in the early days of Charlotte’s rise to national banking prominence, our buildings at Trade and Tryon make for a glittering but unfulfilling core for the city. That can change according to a vision from Charlotte Center City Partners (CCCP).

After posting a few images last April from the 2008 announcement of CCCP’s plans for Uptown, I wanted to follow up with the Center City Partners to see how much closer we are to obtaining the vision. Like every other development opportunity in the US, retail in Uptown Charlotte is currently at a standstill due to the inability for retailers to finance improvements. Even if store owners were able to get loans, few are looking to expand in a recession.

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image courtesy of: Center City Partners

Many buildings in the city’s center were clearly not built for street-level store fronts, requiring significant improvements to house shopping options for pedestrians. Even though Trade and Tryon was once home to a Belk’s department store that opened in the early 1900s, the cheap gasoline and inexpensive vehicles of the 1960s drove shoppers and their stores to areas like the now defunct Eastland mall. Another 60 years may be required to reverse the trend.

Center City Partners has been meeting with its stakeholders to start building certainty around the cost of upgrades but without an interested developer those barriers aren’t likely to be removed any time soon. In tough economic times building owners are more focused on retaining office tenants than expanding offerings.

However, the old saying for retailers goes, “retail follows rooftops” and with a significant number of housing developments slated for completion over the next two years, a burgeoning Uptown residential population may be reason enough for retail developers to take a chance. As additional attractions and infrastructure are completed, the annual average of 25 million unique visits to Center City will only increase. Planning and Development Analyst for Center City Partners said, “We only need one retailer to take a chance for everyone to discover the vast success awaiting store owners willing to enter Charlotte’s center.”

Unfortunately, unique local retail would be initially priced out of expensive redevelopment, limiting initial offerings to national names only. And sometimes even the big guys find rent costs for dense areas too high, as demonstrated by the recent closing of the Home Depot design center.

Out of the existing space in current buildings, CCCP found that 1,374,203 square feet is used for retail with 250,000 SF available for consumer or retail goods without significant upgrades. If you want a feel for how much street-level space is wasted, walk inside many of the uptown lobbies with their lofty ceilings and open spaces. By bringing banks and developers to the same table, Center City Partners will hope to be ready for any impending economic upswings.

Ultimately, Center City Partners wants Uptown to be the living room of the region and nothing would be finer than another reason to linger in the most exciting urban area of the Carolinas.

video: Justin Ritchie; watch this video on Vimeo

Even though the ’08-’09 basketball season has been rough on the Charlotte 49ers with injuries and close losses, the team’s hard work finally paid off Thursday night with a big win over the #17 Xavier Musketeers. Before tonight, Charlotte was winless against the Muskies, dropping every contest since joining the Atlantic 10 in 2005. UNC Charlotte students were released from the season’s disappointment with the victory and took to the court in celebration. Nationally televised on ESPN2, the Niners picked up their first home win against a ranked team since beating #16 Cincinnati in February 2005 on the way to the school’s most recent NCAA tourney appearance.

Photos below the fold.

The crowd packs in at the JCSU location.

In six years Charlotte could become a shining beacon on a hill or a skeleton of failed potential, the choice is up to its citizens.

That in essence is the premise behind the Crossroads Charlotte initiative which held the world premiere of its film, Crossroads Charlotte: The Movie, last night — showcasing four future scenarios for our city: failure, stagnation, success and utopian equity. Funded by the Knight Foundation and the Foundation for the Carolinas, Crossroads Charlotte kicked off its mission of community engagement by holding the film premiere in style.

If you RSVP’d ahead of time, at your arrival you were greeted with a video link between all the screening locations across the city, UNC Charlotte, Ballantyne, Johnson C. Smith, Davidson and Uptown.

At UNC Charlotte, the RSVP was clearly necessary as the few hundred seats in the Storrs Building of the College of Arts + Architecture were filled. No room to spare! After a brief introduction, spoken word artists at each location performed the various scenarios for Charlotte’s future, hitting nerves of layered inequities and igniting hope for future success. The video link made the event feel like an important occassion that integrated the community. The primary message: imagine our tomorrow, act today. After all the locations waved goodbye to each other, the DVD queued up and we were off!

Writer Alan Moore famously said in the Watchmen that the best way to engage your audience in a piece of fiction was to start out with the most tragic thing you could imagine. And Crossroads Charlotte: The Movie did just that. Starting with a scenario entitled Fortress Charlotte, gang members were involved in a drive-by shooting, an eight-year old girl was checked for weaponry via metal detector and an Iraq war veteran was denied entry into a homeless shelter … in the first few minutes. Ouch.

I never thought I would know what it would be like to live in Detroit, but now I think I do.

At the end of the pain, actual stats about city problems were displayed as we transitioned into the next scenario, lending creedence to the possibility of such a world coming to fruition. A trend that continued between each scenario.

After depressing scenes of our failed, hypothetical, community we transitioned into a world where Charlotte has become a great place to live but lacks social equity. In the Class Act portion of the film, Charlotte has excelled in maintaining a strong financial cluster and has branched out. But despite financial success for some of citizens, the majority of social equity is still controlled by stuffy white people. The city council holds a meeting using a “poll the audience” type of technology but a city council member that looked like Rush Limbaugh and spoke like Keith Larson (or a Larson/Limbaugh love child) complained that using the technology was, “a mis-use of our tax dollars”. Eventually we end up with a bittersweet feeling as the dejected youth dream of a day when they can feel comfortable in South Park and the rich white people celebrate their diverse background, being both Anglo and Saxon.

Then … in the next scenario … nothing happens. The Beat Goes On. Charlotte fails to expand past dominating the financial sector. People are frustrated. A news reporter in the background mentions that a tech manufacturer thought about moving here but passed us up for, “the eastern part of the state”. Probably because Fayetteville finished that loop road. Basically all the trends that concern us play out in the worst way possible and everyone is unhappy.

Ending with a note of optimism, Crossroads Charlotte: The Movie closes out with Eye to Eye, a QC where our city government has grown to embrace our diverse community, outreach programs develop youth that love the world and stressed out corporate people actually want to know the office janitor’s name. That might all sound good until the twist ending. Charlotte becomes so awesome it  gets on the shortlist for the 2024 Olympics. Yeah, we’ve become a great community and all but Atlanta was cool too before the 1996 Olympics.

I think the movie missed some opportunities for dreaming big. We didn’t have any Charlotte Rocks! moments (even if it would have been tounge-in-cheek). References to high speed rail between ATL and DC, light rail between SC, Salisbury and Gastonia, UNC Charlotte football beating Ohio State, baseball uptown, 485 geting completed and President McCrory were all non-existent. Yeah, those things will probably never happen but when making a movie about an alternate future it never hurts to aim for the fence.

Regardless of how we turn out, Crossroads Charlotte: The Movie was a great start to the Crossroads Charlotte initiative.  It was fun way to get the audience thinking about issues of equity and community involvement. Following the film, the audience was led to discuss the principles of Crossroads both in small groups and via members who volunteered to share their thoughts from the mic.

If you weren’t able to see the film last night, you can view all of the footage from the four different stories of future Charlotte on the newly launched CrossroadsCharlotte.org. There’s a wealth of other content and interactivity on this site as well that begins the next phase of the Crossroads initiative, so check it out and get involved in building the community of the future!

We’re curious what everyone thinks of the film. Were there issues over-emphasized? Issues not given enough representation? What do you think about the Crossroads philosphy? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

photos from the JCSU premiere location, credit: Justin Ruckman; view these photos on Flickr

The surrounding airwaves are filled with little more than top 40 pop, rock, hip-hop and country. Queen City music lovers frequently lament the lack of radio options available. Is there any hope for local genuine music on the radios of Charlotte?

Much like Uptown, Charlotte radio has been dominated by corporate entities for far too long. As our banks grew bigger, gobbling up smaller independent banks, our radio stations followed suit. Now FM options are relegated to nothing but popular music streamed straight from the programmers at Clear Channel. Aside from occasional breaths of fresh air from NPR stations 90.7 WFAE and 89.9 WDAV along with classic rock  from 95.7 THE RIDE, the city needs a radio station that embraces local roots.

Enter the re-emerging WNCW based at Isothermal Community College in Rutherford County. Broadcasting from Clingman’s Peak, one of the highest points east of the Mississipi at 6,499 feet, this little station with only twelve full time staff members is prepared to shake up the radio offerings in Charlotte. Already covering much of Western NC, from west of Waynesville to SC’s upstate in Spartanburg and Greenville, WNCW is finalizing expansion plans for a Charlotte broadcast frequency.

Starting early next year, WNCW will become Charlotte’s home for local NC music. From americana to bluegrass and the independent music of NPR’s World Café, Charlotteans will finally have some non-corporate radio options.

WNCW is no stranger to Charlotte. Broadcasting through Mecklenburg County via translator at FM 100.7 starting in 1999, the station gathered legions of fans until the expansion of Susquehanna Corporation’s fully licensed radio station forced the FCC to order WNCW off the air. However, Susquehanna helped the station pay for the necessary equipment and permitting to obtain the 100.3 frequency in Charlotte. And 100.3 was WNCW’s home. Until the fateful morning of November 9^th, 2007 when the station’s home on the corner of Sharon Amity and Colwick was shut down because the new tenants of the broadcast tower’s home decided to remodel (which required the big ol’ tower on top to go away).

That sent WNCW’s General Manager, Dana Whitehair, out with the tower on his shoulder, looking for a new home and with only a year to do it. FCC laws require a station to begin broadcasting within a year of going silent, otherwise that station will lose its licensed frequency and will have to begin the lengthy process of permitting all over again. As Dana approached the one-year anniversary of the station’s shutdown, he realized that negotiations and permitting for a new tower location wouldn’t conclude until after the deadline had passed and the FCC never budges or grants extensions.

So Dana sent an email to Mecklenburg County’s Amateur Radio Society (MARS) one evening and by the time he returned to his office the following morning he had two emails and calls, one of them from Earl Fortner who offered up facilities that were able to host WNCW on 100.3 in the Charlotte area, preventing the permit from running out. Now located out on Orr Road, in the northeast part of the city, the 100.3 frequency isn’t very strong but just strong enough to keep the permit.

After the contract (currently in the final stages of negotiation) for a new broadcast tower location is signed, likely in mid-January, WNCW will set out to get the necessary permits from Mecklenburg County. Once permits are received, it should be a quick turnover for the tower to go up and the station will likely start broadcasting throughout the city in mid to late spring 2009. Much to the satisfaction of the many Charlotte area WNCW listeners that frequently email Dana to express their passionate desire for the station to return. As I spoke to him on the phone, he said two more Charlotte listeners emailed him to say that they wanted the station back! However, recently WNCW received even better news. Long ago the station applied for a construction permit to broadcast on another Charlotte frequency and the FCC just granted a permit for 99.1. Whitehair says that will eventually be a great addition to the north part of Charlotte, covering the University area and beyond.

When Charlotte is finally blanketed by WNCW, the station plans to start hitting the local music scene with freelance or staffed recording artists, re-broadcasting live shows on its popular Local Color program which showcases local artists (or during other separately scheduled times).

You can already pick up a faint WNCW signal on 88.7 FM in the west part of the city and in Uptown but things should get a lot stronger in just a few more months! Until then, listen live via the WNCW streaming feed.

]]> http://cltblog.com/1926/feed 4 http://cltblog.com/1739 http://cltblog.com/1739#comments Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:53:43 +0000 Justin Ritchie http://cltblog.com/?p=1739

Tippett shrugged off the criticism, saying whoever doesn’t get money is bound to complain. The Fayetteville project has been in the works for years, he said, and it’s more important now that the Army’s Fort Bragg is expanding.

“Those people who are going to the front lines are entitled to a safe commute,” Tippett said, “as much as those going to their banking and industrial jobs in the rest of the state.”

NC Transportation Secretary Lyndo Tippett has approved a $270 million state budget allocation to build a loop road around his hometown of Fayetteville as one of his last actions before leaving office. This project will significantly deplete incoming governor Bev Purdue’s transportation budget. Will the next governor stand up for Charlotte roads? Get all the details in the Charlotte Observer and weigh in below. 

watch this video on YouTube

How could the board vote no to football after this commercial?

Today marked an historic moment for the city of Charlotte and its public research university: college football is officially on the way. At the November 13th meeting of the UNC Charlotte Board of Trustees, the years of waiting and relentless work from 49er football advocates finally paid off in the form of a unanimous approval to kickoff in 2013.

photo credit: Justin Ritchie

The main concern for football supporters heading into the meeting centered around how the trustees would react to the changes in the global economic climate after UNC Charlotte Chancellor Phil Dubois presented his pro-football recommendation in late September. More sobering was Dubois’ report to the board at the start of the meeting where he stated that the institution was preparing for a likely 6% budget cut.

But the tone quickly changed when Dr. Dubois took to the podium to begin the football discussion later in the meeting. The trustees said in September that they would approach the decision with much hesitation if less than 1,000 seat licenses had been sold by November. The most recent numbers indicated that 4,169 Football Seat Licenses or FSLs had been pledged by 1629 people, an average of about 4 being sold per person. Seventy percent of those FSLs came from non-Athletic Foundation members, meaning that people who don’t usually support the university financially were those that had bought the seat licenses. Most astoundingly was that the university has not marketed the FSLs in the least, all of them were pledged by people who sought the FSLs out.

Next the Charlotte 49er football marketing campaign was revealed by Steve Luquire, the director of LGA.

Luquire spoke about the goals of the upcoming marketing plan: generating awareness, building an emotional connection between the city and UNC Charlotte football, informing the city about the process of adding football, building the brand of 49er football. One idea proposed to build the brand of the future team was through sonic marketing. Sonic marketing, as explained by Mr. Luquire, builds instant recall of a  idea through a distinct and recognizable tones.

But most impressive was the commercial that LGA, “threw together in a week”, shown at the top of this post. You can also view it on YouTube.

Board chair, Ruth Shaw, then took the podium and asked for questions. Trustee Jim Babb asked how the timeline would be altered if the fundraising results failed to meet the timeline required for kickoff in 2013. The general consensus was that this was a decision to do football no matter what. Dubois stated, “we will not bankrupt this university”, explaining that if the money wasn’t there, they would push the kickoff date back or reduce the scale of the vision at that time.

With an assurance of proper financial priorities provided to the board, the call for the historic vote returned a unanimous yes for the start of a team.

The cry of the football advocates had long been “The Time is Now” throughout the fight for a team which began with a student government vote over two years ago. And now, the time for Charlotte 49er football truly is now.

A question we’ve all asked from time to time and a perception that we have nationwide.

Is Charlotte just banking?

That concept is made even more important today as Citibank bought out Wachovia, betting on a federal bailout of US banks which may never come.

Let’s take a quick look at the local economy to see if it is robust and diverse enough to weather such a tumultuous nationwide financial storm.

Charlotte is home to seven Fortune 500 companies (Bank of America, Lowe’s, Duke Energy, Sonic Automotive, Family Dollar, Goodrich, and SPX) and 21 companies with more than $1 billion in annual sales. Clearly a business town. But is it all based on the financial sector? As the second largest financial center in the country we have easily earned a reputation as a banking center. But surprisingly the largest portion of the local economy comes from wholesale trade, closely followed by services, manufacturing and construction.

As of April 4th, 2008, out of the 565,415 people employed in Mecklenburg County, only 54,303 were in finance and insurance. While the banks have long represented us on the national spotlight, the Queen City is the heart of the fourth largest manufacturing center in the US. Textiles drove this manufacturing expansion initially, but now the optical tech, defense, plastics and medical equipment industries are building a new infrastructure of high-tech jobs.

One of the main problems with manufacturing is that most think of it as an assembly line, or a massive plant full of chemical laden air and dust with a vastly undereducated employee base. The new manufacturing revolution requires quite a different employee. Workers and technicians find themselves as a part of an intelligent assembly process for equipment and end products. High-tech manufacturing employees are working on multi-faceted complex control panels and machining systems that require an adept and talented workforce. Mecklenburgers might be surprised to know that some of the solutions for the 21st century are being designed and built in the their backyard. Two examples are General Dynamics which is developing chemical detection devices that are as small as magnets on a refrigerator while Sencera is creating the next generation of thin-film solar photovoltaics that will fuel the new energy economy.

But it is not just technology that the region produces — it’s also food, due to Pepsi, Lance, Frito Lay, one of the largest Coca-Cola bottlers in the nation, and the Compass Group.

Most dramatic over the last decade has been Charlotte’s transition into an engineering town with a global impact. The recent conflict in Georgia affected one local firm’s designers, as their project was a mixed-use development in the former soviet nation. An excellent example of why everyone should care about globalization. Areva, Shaw, the Electric Power Research Insitute (EPRI) and Duke Energy are working on solutions to energy challenges, while companies like Fluor are solving the most complex engineering problems in the world. Firms like the latter are building an energy economy center for the city as the national focus on the issues surrounding this business becomes stronger in focus every day.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Charlotte’s economy to those that regard the city as “banktown” (with all the stereotypical images of up-tight suits that indulge in only the expensive) is the booming local creative economy. Amazing national work has been done by local advertising and branding firms Boone Oakley and A3 while Charlotte Arrangements is the US leader in stage set-ups.

While Charlotte has received a tremendous economic contribution from banking institutions, it has grown far past its one dimensional mantra of the 90s. Now, as the most economically dynamic and energetic city of the southeast, we will face tough challenges presented by national financial restructuring. If a de-emphasis on banking is in our future, it will only reveal Charlotte as the multi-faceted business leader it has become.

While our next President (whomever that may be) gets ready for debating and the local electoral races heat up, it can be easy to forget that there is much more at stake for Charlotte and Mecklenburg county this November.

The mycommunitybonds.com site launched today aiming to educate voters, as part of a larger campaign, on the infrastructure improvements we need to enhance Charlotte’s growth and quality of life. On the ballot will be bonds for parks and recreation, roads and bikes, affordable housing and other neighborhood improvements. Get all the details on the bond packages at the official site.

Critics of the bonds will likely extend their blanket criticism that public projects are only building us a mountain of debt within the city. This may seem like a valid concern until you consider projects like the Lynx blue line. For a public tax investment of under $500 million we received $1.86 billion in private development investment and resulted in increased tax receipts along the line by over $6 million a year with a projected $24 million/year increase by 2011! The line will pay for itself in less than 30 years!

Public projects lead to a stronger community along with the ability for local businesses to attract and recruit the top global talent for their workforce.

So get out there and tell your colleagues, neighbors, friends, family and peers about the advantages of the bonds!

Starting this fall, Charlotte’s most ambitious entertainment district will begin opening its doors to those in the QC who crave a taste of something far from the often corporate feel of Uptown. While there are many quality options within the city limits for a night out, nothing will revolutionize CLT more than the addition of the NC Music Factory.

The facts

The first phase of the 31 acre “Uptown Village”, located on the edge of the Fourth Ward in Uptown, is the 9 acre North Carolina Music Factory (“The Factory” for short), which will be home to some diverse entertainment options.

The Factory will include a 5,000 capacity outdoor amphitheater along with a smaller outdoor venue that will hold up to 1,500. It’s not just outdoor stages either, a 2,000 capacity live music hall with state of the art lights and sound operated and booked by one of the premier concert promoters in the world will be sure to catch the many acts that currently bypass the Charlotte area. Crobar, a nightclub with locations in Chicago and South Beach, will open next summer along with Butter from Manhattan and a 10,000 square foot Wet Willies Daiquiri bar. Other revolutionary additions to Charlotte’s music and nightlife scene at the Factory will include an indie rock bar, an underground house/dance club and a coffee lounge focused on music.

Who’s already here

The Factory is currently home to Creative Loafing’s new offices, Silver Hammer Studios (of Talladega Nights and Shallow Hal fame) and several other creatively oriented tenants. The first nightclub, The Garden and Gun Club, opened to fanfare just last weekend. This club is the brainchild of Andy Katsanas, who helped to kickstart the party scene Uptown with Mythos years ago, and his goal is to “bring the underground dance music scene back to Charlotte”.

Inside The Factory

Ken Thomas, VP of Entertainment for the Cornelius based ARK Group which manages the NC Music Factory, took CLT Blog editors Justin Ruckman, Matt Tyndall and myself on a tour of the site last week. And we weren’t just impressed, we were floored. One of the projects in the works includes stars from popular shows on TLC (we can’t say which show as of yet). Another project involves NY restaurant innovator Scott Sartiano who aims to give Charlotte a taste of a Manhattan soiree as he will open his second location of Butter. The Manhattan location has been the toast of the town for over six years now with celebrities and anyone else fortunate enough to get in. You’ve probably seen them featured in People Magazine, US Magazine, and E! TV. Butter will bring a new level of quality to the nightlife in Charlotte.

Inside an old and now rejuvenated factory, the NC Music Factory is keeping all the original wood and brick to enhance the site’s historic feel. Nothing about this place feels manufactured which is refreshing, considering that the majority of the tenants in EpiCentre are extensions of national chains, the same things you could find in Dallas, Atlanta or Cincinnati. The Factory hopes to build a unique regional draw which people will drive in from around the Carolinas to experience. As Ken explained during our tour:

“Right now Charlotte draws regionally for Panthers games and NASCAR but not really for entertainment. At this point, cities like Raleigh and even Greensboro have pretty much the same entertainment options that we do. With the music factory, we hope to create a destination that will offer so many diverse options in one centralized location that people will travel an hour or two to experience and end up spending the weekend in Charlotte. You can only achieve that by bringing world class entertainment and events that people don’t want to miss. That’s what we will bring to the table.”

Outside The Factory

Envisioned as a “stroll district”, every restaurant, club and bar will have an outdoor area. Once everything starts to open through the summer 2009 a grand opening party will be planned to fully introduce the site to the public. At that time, a quick evening drive through the area will reveal people everywhere as they take in the entertainment culture offered by this unique setting. If all the exclusive venues won’t be enough to get you out to the Factory, North Carolina’s only outdoor beer and wine license might seal the deal. Nowhere in NC have you been able to walk outside with alcohol from place to place until now. Maybe the state is finally coming around, independent liquor store anyone?

Having so many stages and musicians in one place will make the Factory a natural home for music festivals that counter the mass consumerism of Charlotte’s largest festival, Speed Street. The festive atmosphere will always be considered first and foremost, exemplified by ideas like placing giant inflatable pumpkins and spiders on top of the buildings so that they will be visible from I-77 for Halloween.

The local music scene will see tremendous assets in the practice and recording space along with the quality of the venues. The main amphitheatre stage is complete and very impressive. It will play host to 20 to 30 national concerts a year starting in the spring of 2009. 2,000 fixed seats and room for 3,000 in the lawn. The intimate feel of this “boutique amphitheater” in an outdoor setting should bring in national bands that want to be closer to their fans. Visits from creative individuals will lead to intense interest in the upcoming condo development around the site

Location

It seems strange that all of this is going on inside 277 while few are noticing. That’s because the only way to the NC Music Factory is via a drive by the Circle K on the corner of Graham and 10th, passing by the old industrial silos, crossing over the multiple sets of train tracks, and passing old dilapidated buildings. More than enough to deter even the most curious urban explorer.

But accessibility has changed drastically with the Seaboard Rd. extension, a crucial portion of the NC Music Factory Project. While the site has been a gleam in owner and Charlotte nightclub entrepreneur Noah Lazes’ eye for nearly a decade, it has taken five of those years to complete the additional road access project because of the required state and city permits. As of last week (Friday, September 5th) the extension to Seaboard Rd. is open and ready for action! Plans are in the works for elaborate LED lighting and sculpture along the entrance and under the 277 overpass.

With all this and more, the NC Music Factory looks like it will set Charlotte apart as truly one of the premiere nightlife centers of the southeast.

Check out the embedded slideshow below for a lot more pictures from our tour, or click through to view them on Flickr. This won’t be the last time we talk about the NC Music Factory, you can count on it.

Brief upcoming timeline

Opening of Garden and Gun Club: September 5th
Seaboard St. Extension Opens: September 5th
More cool stuff gets built: Winter 2008 and Spring 2009
Grand opening: Summer 2009

The Charlotte Chamber is holding its annual CLT skyline photo contest!

Entries must be submitted via 35mm slides, transparencies or hi-res digital files on CD by September 30th at 5pm. You can either deliver them in person  at 330 S. Tryon St. or mail them to PO Box 32785, Charlotte NC 28232 Attn: Art Director.

The winning image will be featured in the Chamber’s electronic newsletter, eVentures, and will be offered as signed limited edition prints while appearing on full color posters. The winner will also receive $500 and the image will be the official skyline shot for 2009!

Get out there and get shooting!

In their yearly “Best Cities for Singles” listings, Forbes Magazine has rated Charlotte the 18th best cities for singles. After being removed from the rankings in 2007 along with the other NC cities of Greensboro and Raleigh-Durham for having too little residents in its center city, Charlotte now qualifies along with the other 40 cities on the list.

Also highlighting the QC, Forbes has tabbed Charlotte as the top city for online dating, the #2 city for “Cost of Living Alone” and the #8 city for job growth. Hurting the city was its last-on-the-list ranking for nightlife and the very low rating of culture.

Topping the list at number one was Atlanta, while San Francisco, Dallas, Minneapolis and Washington DC rounded out the top five.

On Saturday, August 24th, Staying Ahead Carolina hosted Charlotte’s Master Plan, a panel discussion on the next five years of Queen City development. Participating in the panel were members from across the various development sectors which will determine Charlotte’s infrastructure and cultural future. In a small room packed to capacity, the energy of Charlotte’s development was palpable in the air.

Starting the discussion, CATS CEO Keith Parker outlined the intense reversal the Charlotte community has experienced in its attitude towards transit. A year ago at this time, there was serious effort to cripple the bus infrastructure and rail transit growth in the form of the “Vote For Repeal of the Transit Tax” campaign. Now, the Charlotte transit system is experiencing bus ridership levels that are its highest in 60 years (when streetcars ran throughout the city) and the rail line is seeing almost 17,000 daily trips, the usage predicted for the year 2025.

Parker discussed the new face of  Charlotte transit. As an international example for land-use tied to transit,  groups from Ontario, Tampa and Seattle are coming to tour the success of the Lynx light-rail line over the next few months. To ensure that the future of the transit system will meet Charlotte’s needs, CATS will embark on a local listening tour so that the upcoming transportation budget can be built “from the ground up”. Additionally, the continued commitment to a quality bus service is evident as Charlotte has around 400 buses while Atlanta has around 600 with nearly four times the population.  A new route between uptown and the airport will incorporate hybrid buses for energy efficiency with GPS tracking technology at each stop to display the amount of time between each bus arrival. CATS will also review the opportunity to build rail instead of bus rapid transit (BRT) along Independence Blvd. over the next few years, however there are no national examples of rail in the center of a road as busy as Independence.

Next, Mark Hahn of Mecklenburg Real Estate Services talked about how Charlotte’s unique collaboration between public and private partnerships have led to some special development over the last few years and will lead to more in the future. As Mecklenburg county looks to sell land uptown to high-profile developers, quality projects will unfold. Hahn’s biggest focus over the next few years will be public buildings utilizing LEED standards. The new county offices in the renovated Freedom Mall will include floor level air circulation units which ensure that A/C stays near the people that need it and that heating will rise in the winter. All the new projects in Mecklenburg county will shoot for at least some level of LEED certification as construction firms in the area gain experience at meeting the city’s new focus on constructing environmentally sensitive buildings.

As Senior Vice President of the Arts and Science Council, Robert Bush spoke on Charlotte’s art and culture growth, it was apparent that the Queen City is truly a creative community. A newly introduced website will provide a central focus for local and cultural events as CharlotteCultureGuide.com indexes multiple public and private sources. With over 93 public arts projects developed sine 1981, 45 are currently in progress with many more in the works. By tallying the attendance at all cultural events in any given year, Arts and Science Council monitored events bring in 40% more attendees than athletic events if all games and races were sold out. Beginning this year, Charlotte will add itself to a national creative index so that we can compare with other creative communities like Portland, Nashville and Seattle.

To end the outline of Charlotte’s Master Plan, Moira Quinn of Center City Partners pointed out that people in Charlotte don’t realize they live in one of the most vibrant and exciting urban areas of the United States. She discussed examples of how people in Denver, Portland, Pittsburgh and New York constantly wish to have the economic and cultural growth that Charlotte is experiencing. As Charlotte’s center grows along with the city, the next few decades will see a population expansion equivalent to the entire size of a city like Cincinnati or Pittsburgh. By hiring directors of retail and transportation, Uptown will see increased options for shopping and parking. With consistently the lowest downtown vacancy rate in the nation, (Charlotte at 2%, Manhattan at 5% and Atlanta at 19% rounding out the three least vacant US city centers) new projects like the upcoming Wachovia tower are quickly being fully leased. With over $7 billion of investment in Uptown over the last ten years, effective city management has ensured that over 90% of that has been through private sources.

The panel then discussed what was essential to Charlotte’s future, like the upcoming fall 2008 vote on the $250 million for public parks. The bond package will include Bearden Park, a piece of land to honor the 3rd ward native and revolutionary jazz artist with green space that will be aesthetically optimized by local artists. Replacing the New Year’s Celebrations of the past will be a return to First Night, a community-wide and family-friendly way to ring in the new year. With a local call for artists to participate, First Night 2009 is sure to reflect the talent and beauty of the city.

As the after panel reception wrapped up the crowd was energized and excited about the future of our community.