on Monday. Starting on page 201 of the linked pdf (conveniently buried in the council agenda).

http://charmeck.org/city/charlotte/CityC....02.15.pdf

Quote:(pg 201) There are no federal laws that expressly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender expression, or gender identity. However beginning with an ordinance adopted by the City of Minneapolis in 1975, and according to the attached FAQ from the Human Rights Campaign, seventeen states (North Carolina is not one of them), the District of Columbia, and more than 225 cities and counties have passed laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. (pg 201)

(pg 203) The proposed amendments would simply add “marital status, familial status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression” to the list of protected characteristics in the passenger vehicles for hire and commercial non-discrimination ordinances as well as the list of protected characteristics that the Community Relations Committee is authorized to make recommendations for legislation or other actions to eliminate or reduce discrimination and to approve or disapprove plans to eliminate discrimination through the conciliation process.

With regards to the public accommodations ordinance, the proposed amendments would not only add these five characteristics to the general prohibition of discrimination, but would also add “sex” to the general prohibition and delete the separate section dealing with sex. This would bring the City’s ordinance in line with the trend across the country of not carving out “sex” in an attempt to preserve the right of businesses to provide separate restroom facilities (i.e., it is not discriminatory to provide separate men’s and women’s restroom facilities).

Regarding the concerns expressed at the November 24 meeting, the Human Rights Campaign asked me to provide the attached document that provides some perspectives from twelve states.

Apparently "trend across the country" = 12, mostly liberal, states. They're also referencing "media matters" in this meeting agenda which makes me want to vomit on it's own.

The only good thing about this is that it seems they're going to allow private businesses to do as they please. However, I'd imagine this will cause some confusion for the already confused.

My position is that you should be required to use the restroom where your plumbing physically matches other people's plumbing. How this can be warped as "discriminatory" is honestly beyond my comprehension. Transexual men are not men, they are women. Transexual women are not women, they are men.

If we allow them to get their way on this there is a very slippery slope to follow. Who is to say where you draw the line? If I wake up tomorrow and decide I feel like a woman is that OK for me to dress like one and use the ladies' room? Who is to say that I can't feel like using the ladies' room? I mean, God forbid we offend somebody, especially if they don't look very feminine.

Any pervert can get away with a sexual offense simply by lying.

Sounds like quite an emergency.

Quote:it is not discriminatory to provide separate men’s and women’s restroom facilities

The fact that the above would ever be questioned is asinine.

True story: It is illegal to prune your trees in Charlotte city limits. And yea, they have fined people four figures for breaking that "law".

It's a shame ...... because Charlotte has a lot of potential as a city. I'm sure South Carolina is quite happy to continue picking up tax base from people wanting to live or work near Charlotte but not deal with the higher taxes and particularly super liberal city itself. The explosion in York County of Charlotte suburbs and exurbs is what ultimately did in Jim Spratt, former Dem Chairman of the Ways and Means committee. That was a good year for the SC delegation in 2008/10 or so. We dumped Bob Inglis and Jim Spratt for Trey Gowdy and Mick Mulvaney.

(02-27-2015 09:42 AM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  True story: It is illegal to prune your trees in Charlotte city limits. And yea, they have fined people four figures for breaking that "law".

It's a shame ...... because Charlotte has a lot of potential as a city. I'm sure South Carolina is quite happy to continue picking up tax base from people wanting to live or work near Charlotte but not deal with the higher taxes and particularly super liberal city itself. The explosion in York County of Charlotte suburbs and exurbs is what ultimately did in Jim Spratt, former Dem Chairman of the Ways and Means committee. That was a good year for the SC delegation in 2008/10 or so. We dumped Bob Inglis and Jim Spratt for Trey Gowdy and Mick Mulvaney.

Agree with all of any of this in bold. The way Charlotte-Mecklenburg is run is a joke. I actually chose to live in Cabarrus County (one county North East of Char-Meck) because the taxes are less, the schools are better and you don't have to put up with this kind of nonsense. We considered SC but my work is in Northeast Charlotte so the commute would've been a nightmare.

(02-27-2015 09:53 AM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(02-27-2015 09:42 AM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  True story: It is illegal to prune your trees in Charlotte city limits. And yea, they have fined people four figures for breaking that "law".

It's a shame ...... because Charlotte has a lot of potential as a city. I'm sure South Carolina is quite happy to continue picking up tax base from people wanting to live or work near Charlotte but not deal with the higher taxes and particularly super liberal city itself. The explosion in York County of Charlotte suburbs and exurbs is what ultimately did in Jim Spratt, former Dem Chairman of the Ways and Means committee. That was a good year for the SC delegation in 2008/10 or so. We dumped Bob Inglis and Jim Spratt for Trey Gowdy and Mick Mulvaney.

Agree with all of any of this in bold. The way Charlotte-Mecklenburg is run is a joke. I actually chose to live in Cabarrus County (one county North East of Char-Meck) because the taxes are less, the schools are better and you don't have to put up with this kind of nonsense. We considered SC but my work is in Northeast Charlotte so the commute would've been a nightmare.

Depends where you live in Cabarrus County. I pay a lower tax rate than a Kannapolis resident. Concord pays 10 cents per $100 less than Charlotte, or a whopping $200/yr on a $200,000 house. If a person living in Concord to escape Charlotte taxes commutes into the city for work, they're spending more on the additional gas than they would if they just owned a house closer to work in the city.

Obviously that isn't the case for you since you work in NE Charlotte and not Uptown, Ballatyne, Tyvola, or SouthPark.

I wouldn't call Charlotte super liberal. Is it a liberal city? Sure, virtually all cities are. It's not super liberal though.

(02-27-2015 10:39 AM)Niner National Wrote:  

(02-27-2015 09:53 AM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(02-27-2015 09:42 AM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  True story: It is illegal to prune your trees in Charlotte city limits. And yea, they have fined people four figures for breaking that "law".

It's a shame ...... because Charlotte has a lot of potential as a city. I'm sure South Carolina is quite happy to continue picking up tax base from people wanting to live or work near Charlotte but not deal with the higher taxes and particularly super liberal city itself. The explosion in York County of Charlotte suburbs and exurbs is what ultimately did in Jim Spratt, former Dem Chairman of the Ways and Means committee. That was a good year for the SC delegation in 2008/10 or so. We dumped Bob Inglis and Jim Spratt for Trey Gowdy and Mick Mulvaney.

Agree with all of any of this in bold. The way Charlotte-Mecklenburg is run is a joke. I actually chose to live in Cabarrus County (one county North East of Char-Meck) because the taxes are less, the schools are better and you don't have to put up with this kind of nonsense. We considered SC but my work is in Northeast Charlotte so the commute would've been a nightmare.

Depends where you live in Cabarrus County. I pay a lower tax rate than a Kannapolis resident. Concord pays 10 cents per $100 less than Charlotte, or a whopping $200/yr on a $200,000 house. If a person living in Concord to escape Charlotte taxes commutes into the city for work, they're spending more on the additional gas than they would if they just owned a house closer to work in the city.

Obviously that isn't the case for you since you work in NE Charlotte and not Uptown, Ballatyne, Tyvola, or SouthPark.

at calling Charlotte super liberal. Is it a liberal city? Sure, virtually all cities are. It's not super liberal though.

Like I said, I work in the Northeast corner of Mecklenburg Co. I'd pay more in taxes in South Charlotte (the only place I'd consider in Meck) and have a longer commute.

As far as Charlotte being Liberal... Reference the 1st post and agenda / meeting minutes. The makeup of the town council 9 Dems / 2 GOP. The Char-Meck school system is a train wreck compared to Cabarrus. That's coming from an in-law that's spent her entire career in NC education.

The only heavily conservative area of Charlotte is in the South, far from where I work and less affordable with smaller lots than what I've got in Cabarrus. Basically the same house would cost me at the VERY least ~$50K more than what I've got now (4 bed, 2 bath, 1/2 acre). I literally just ran a search in zillow and came up with 5 hits in an area that I MIGHT consider.

Lots of light blue in that map. Very few dark blue spots. Like I said, it's liberal, but not super liberal. If it were super liberal, that whole map would be dark shades of blue. Hell, even the area I live in which is probably >50% black isn't a dark shade of blue.

Charlotte has a lot of potential? I'd say they've been realizing that potential for 15 or so years. If you are going to live in a Southern city, that would be the one to live in my book.

(02-27-2015 11:20 AM)fsquid Wrote:  Charlotte has a lot of potential? I'd say they've been realizing that potential for 15 or so years. If you are going to live in a Southern city, that would be the one to live in my book.

That just shows your book is flawed. If I were going the Charlotte route I'd go Rock Hill / Fort Mill, SC. Ones better than Charlotte:

Asheville, NC
Greenville, SC
Mt. Pleasant, SC
Wilmington, NC
Chattanooga, TN (If you can get out of the flood plain)
Virginia Beach, VA
Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, TN


Long long term I expect Walhalla, SC back into Cullowee, NC to spring forth another Asheville but far less hippy.


I suspect in another decade or two Kingsport/Johnson City, TN will be pretty good too.

(02-27-2015 11:20 AM)fsquid Wrote:  Charlotte has a lot of potential? I'd say they've been realizing that potential for 15 or so years. If you are going to live in a Southern city, that would be the one to live in my book.

(02-27-2015 11:52 AM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(02-27-2015 11:20 AM)fsquid Wrote:  Charlotte has a lot of potential? I'd say they've been realizing that potential for 15 or so years. If you are going to live in a Southern city, that would be the one to live in my book.

That just shows your book is flawed. If I were going the Charlotte route I'd go Rock Hill / Fort Mill, SC. Ones better than Charlotte:

Asheville, NC
Greenville, SC
Mt. Pleasant, SC
Wilmington, NC
Chattanooga, TN (If you can get out of the flood plain)
Virginia Beach, VA
Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, TN


Long long term I expect Walhalla, SC back into Cullowee, NC to spring forth another Asheville but far less hippy.


I suspect in another decade or two Kingsport/Johnson City, TN will be pretty good too.

No to Charleston, but yes to Virginia Beach?

I'd add Richmond to the list if you are into hipstery stuff.

(02-27-2015 11:52 AM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(02-27-2015 11:20 AM)fsquid Wrote:  Charlotte has a lot of potential? I'd say they've been realizing that potential for 15 or so years. If you are going to live in a Southern city, that would be the one to live in my book.

That just shows your book is flawed. If I were going the Charlotte route I'd go Rock Hill / Fort Mill, SC. Ones better than Charlotte:

Asheville, NC
Greenville, SC
Mt. Pleasant, SC
Wilmington, NC
Chattanooga, TN (If you can get out of the flood plain)
Virginia Beach, VA
Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, TN


Long long term I expect Walhalla, SC back into Cullowee, NC to spring forth another Asheville but far less hippy.


I suspect in another decade or two Kingsport/Johnson City, TN will be pretty good too.

Depends how you view a successful place.

For job growth, total numbers, not % growth since it isn't fair to compare Charlotte to small cities, there aren't really any cities outside of Texas or Raleigh that compare.

Charlotte is in the top 5 for virtually all metrics for major cities for job growth, cost of living, and quality of life.

Rock Hill / Fort Mill are nothing without Charlotte. They are beneficiaries of Charlotte's success and investments that wouldn't be anything more than small rural towns without the investment Charlotte has made in making the entire region an attractive location for business. Charlotte is a product of progressive higher education policies relative to the other sudden states.

Virtually every company that relocates to Charlotte cites the airport and other amenities in the city as their reason for locating to the area. Fort Mill and Rock Hill don't contribute to those investments financially, but they definitely benefit from them.

(02-27-2015 11:52 AM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(02-27-2015 11:20 AM)fsquid Wrote:  Charlotte has a lot of potential? I'd say they've been realizing that potential for 15 or so years. If you are going to live in a Southern city, that would be the one to live in my book.

That just shows your book is flawed. If I were going the Charlotte route I'd go Rock Hill / Fort Mill, SC. Ones better than Charlotte:

Asheville, NC
Greenville, SC
Mt. Pleasant, SC
Wilmington, NC
Chattanooga, TN (If you can get out of the flood plain)
Virginia Beach, VA
Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, TN


Long long term I expect Walhalla, SC back into Cullowee, NC to spring forth another Asheville but far less hippy.


I suspect in another decade or two Kingsport/Johnson City, TN will be pretty good too.

are those even cities? Do they even have 100k in population?

(02-27-2015 11:20 AM)fsquid Wrote:  Charlotte has a lot of potential? I'd say they've been realizing that potential for 15 or so years. If you are going to live in a Southern city, that would be the one to live in my book.

This guy gets it.

Big city with awesome opportunity, yet can still feel like a small town if you are fortunate enough to live in the city instead of commuting your life away to the suburbs.

Charlotte's business community has always been very invested in Charlotte's success. Our homegrown companies have grown far beyond what anyone ever would have expected for what used to be a small southern town. The pioneers of these businesses have been very kind to the community and have donated hundreds of millions of dollars to foundations and charities in the city and have invested billions into growing Charlotte's primary centers of business (Uptown, Ballantyne, Tyvola, University Research Park, and SouthPark).

Our business leaders that have made Charlotte what it is today are largely products of the public university system in North Carolina. For whatever reason, the Charlotte business leaders, and even average people themselves, have always had a great sense of pride in Charlotte that you don't commonly see in other cities. The people here have always believed that Charlotte was more than it was and could be more than what they already overhyped it to be in their heads.

This has lead to people making fun of Charlotte over the years, but having such a great sense of pride and taking ownership of your community is a good thing. It's when people stop caring that your city starts to die.

(02-27-2015 01:07 PM)fsquid Wrote:  

(02-27-2015 11:52 AM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(02-27-2015 11:20 AM)fsquid Wrote:  Charlotte has a lot of potential? I'd say they've been realizing that potential for 15 or so years. If you are going to live in a Southern city, that would be the one to live in my book.

That just shows your book is flawed. If I were going the Charlotte route I'd go Rock Hill / Fort Mill, SC. Ones better than Charlotte:

Asheville, NC
Greenville, SC
Mt. Pleasant, SC
Wilmington, NC
Chattanooga, TN (If you can get out of the flood plain)
Virginia Beach, VA
Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, TN


Long long term I expect Walhalla, SC back into Cullowee, NC to spring forth another Asheville but far less hippy.


I suspect in another decade or two Kingsport/Johnson City, TN will be pretty good too.

are those even cities? Do they even have 100k in population?

Virginia Beach is big. It's like 400,000 I think. The rest are mostly small tourist locations or suburbs, with Greenville being the only other exception (it isn't a large city, but it has a large and important manufacturing presence).

(02-27-2015 01:08 PM)Niner National Wrote:  

(02-27-2015 11:20 AM)fsquid Wrote:  Charlotte has a lot of potential? I'd say they've been realizing that potential for 15 or so years. If you are going to live in a Southern city, that would be the one to live in my book.

This guy gets it.

Big city with awesome opportunity, yet can still feel like a small town if you are fortunate enough to live in the city instead of commuting your life away to the suburbs.

Charlotte's business community has always been very invested in Charlotte's success. Our homegrown companies have grown far beyond what anyone ever would have expected for what used to be a small southern town. The pioneers of these businesses have been very kind to the community and have donated hundreds of millions of dollars to foundations and charities in the city and have invested billions into growing Charlotte's primary centers of business (Uptown, Ballantyne, Tyvola, University Research Park, and SouthPark).

Our business leaders that have made Charlotte what it is today are largely products of the public university system in North Carolina. For whatever reason, the Charlotte business leaders, and even average people themselves, have always had a great sense of pride in Charlotte that you don't commonly see in other cities. The people here have always believed that Charlotte was more than it was and could be more than what they already overhyped it to be in their heads.

This has lead to people making fun of Charlotte over the years, but having such a great sense of pride and taking ownership of your community is a good thing. It's when people stop caring that your city starts to die.

Downtown and South is really nice so I'll give Charlotte a lot of credit for that. I really like the fact that Downtown is a lot cleaner than most cities of similar size. The other areas of Charlotte, however, are either industrial park, strip mall, shithole or some combination of the 3.

"Commuting your life away" for me equals a grand total of 10-15 mins one way.

(02-27-2015 01:14 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(02-27-2015 01:08 PM)Niner National Wrote:  

(02-27-2015 11:20 AM)fsquid Wrote:  Charlotte has a lot of potential? I'd say they've been realizing that potential for 15 or so years. If you are going to live in a Southern city, that would be the one to live in my book.

This guy gets it.

Big city with awesome opportunity, yet can still feel like a small town if you are fortunate enough to live in the city instead of commuting your life away to the suburbs.

Charlotte's business community has always been very invested in Charlotte's success. Our homegrown companies have grown far beyond what anyone ever would have expected for what used to be a small southern town. The pioneers of these businesses have been very kind to the community and have donated hundreds of millions of dollars to foundations and charities in the city and have invested billions into growing Charlotte's primary centers of business (Uptown, Ballantyne, Tyvola, University Research Park, and SouthPark).

Our business leaders that have made Charlotte what it is today are largely products of the public university system in North Carolina. For whatever reason, the Charlotte business leaders, and even average people themselves, have always had a great sense of pride in Charlotte that you don't commonly see in other cities. The people here have always believed that Charlotte was more than it was and could be more than what they already overhyped it to be in their heads.

This has lead to people making fun of Charlotte over the years, but having such a great sense of pride and taking ownership of your community is a good thing. It's when people stop caring that your city starts to die.

Downtown and South is really nice so I'll give Charlotte a lot of credit for that. I really like the fact that Downtown is a lot cleaner than most cities of similar size. The other areas of Charlotte, however, are either industrial park, strip mall a shithole or some combination of the 3.

"Commuting your life away" for me equals a grand total of 10-15 mins one way.

Again, I'm not referring to you or anyone specifically, but people that live in S. Charlotte, Union County, or SC and commute into Uptown or SouthPark have terrible commutes. The people to the Northeast don't have it too bad because I85 has an adequate amount of lanes. My parents live in Union County and commute to the border of NC/SC (just barely on the NC side). It takes them about an hour in the morning and over an hour in the evenings to get home. That's terrible.

S. Charlotte has been overbuilt and built very poorly by funneling way too many people onto too few roads. Huge neighborhoods with poor connectivity to surrounding roads bottlenecks everything. While connectivity doesn't have to be a strict grid pattern, integrating a neighborhood with the surrounding roads can definitely help lessen this problem. It's nice in the sense that the houses are big and everything is new, but it has its fair share of issues.

Most cities are mostly strip malls and other **** like that. That's pretty much all the suburbs are too.

If you don't think the neighborhoods that surround Downtown (unless you are including them in your statement of downtown) aren't nice, then you've clearly never driven around them. Myers Park, Dilworth, Elizabeth, Chantilly, Wesley Heights and Plaza Midwood are all really nice. NoDa has quickly transformed from a run down mill area to mostly nice homes with upper middle class residents. Wilmore, Sedgefield, and some of the other inner ring neighborhoods near uptown have seen tons of investment as well, mostly due to proximity to light rail. When I moved to DC in 2010, you could buy a home in Sedgefield for $140,000 (a decent, livable home). Today, you can't really find anything that isn't a dump in Sedgefield for less than $300,000.

My generation is picking up these inner city homes rapidly, so the demographics in many neighborhoods is rapidly changing. White college educated people in Charlotte and around the south are pushing low income minorities out to the fringes that were once the desirable areas. The once "luxury" apartments on the fringes of the city are less desirable as they age, rents drop, and those become the new communities for low income residents.

Obviously the burbs aren't going away, but there has been a major shift in where people are choosing to live and that will have a positive impact on cities as home values in previously depressed neighborhoods are suddenly many, many times higher. That injects a lot of extra tax revenue into the city. Added density + more valuable property helps keep the city's finances healthy.

I lived in the South Park area and used to walk to work, was really nice.