Jennifer K's message about Charlotte made me not to move to that city. I am not interested in malls, Target, trader jack or joe whatever. I like a cultural town with cosy coffee shops, book shops, jazz clubs...an intellectual atmosphere. I am hard core European and the average, plain boring, conformist American life bores me. Are there any places in Charlotte there I can find independent movie clubs, local jazz places, cosy coffee shops? Please answer me because I was about to move there due to a good job offer but there is no way on earth I move there if it is a place like SU k described
Alphonse | Okemos, MI | Report Abuse

Hey Lauren. It's really hard to understand exactly where you come from. I've lived and traveled all over the US. I would have to say that Charlotte traffic is not bad at all. That's typical city living. Want bad traffic, go to LA, NY, or Atlanta. Charlotte's no different than any regular city in the US. But you don't have to worry too much about the economic growth of Charlotte. With more incomers, the city increases in enough revenue to make it supportable for more people. However, statistically, Charlotte hasn't changed that much, so it can only be the population increasing in general. I went back now, 2010 and 2011 (I visit twice a year now; lived there in my early childhood). It's really improved. Many districts has plazas now. Housing rates have down since much of the expansion over the last 5 - 10 years. I really don't know how I feel about southern culture and people. I'm more on the liberal side of things, but people are clean there. There's quite a few normal intellectuals. It's not totally barbarous. It can get a bit too sporty. The culture is hard to find, more so diverse culture is hard to find. Nifty coffee shops and acoustic shows--I always hear are hard time come by, but when you find them, they become like hidden gems. Many of the 20s-30s hipster-trendy people I know like Concord, Dilworth, NoDa, South End, and Plaza Midwood. Weather, humidity, ya really sucks. At least it's not Texas, Alabama, or Georgia. NC is on the kinda nicer scale of things in the south. Many people I know who live there are loaded and live quite quaintly compared to the rest of the country. Is NC my favorite state? No, I'm more of a West Coast (CA, OR, WA) and Minneapolis--Chicago kind of guy. Could I see myself living there? Definitely. I would make the best of it. Two hours from the mountains and two hours from the beach. It's quite a family-oriented place to live. That's the big plus. This is even coming from someone who's in their mid-twenties.
Abhd | Northridge, CA | Report Abuse

That is so sad, I live in Charlotte in a new area by Emerald Homes and I love the community and people here. I have been surprised by the traffic here, it is much better then what I am used to in NYC. I love Charlotte.
Diane | Charlotte, NC | Report Abuse

Charlotte is a place for those who want a bland, style, housing plan with no soul or character. It's a place of homogeneous sprawl of mediocre America at it's worst. A place where average boring Americans with no character would see themselves raising an average boring American family with little excitement or culture EDUCATION IS THE WORST ,CONSTANTLY SUCCUMBING TO LOBBYISTS DECIDING WHO SHOULD WHAT,AND WHO PAYS FOR IT......I am shocked at how people even call it a ''good'' place to raise a family?!........oh well!,now I know.
SU | Charlotte, NC | Report Abuse

I am very dissapointed to hear all the bad news about Charlotte we want to move out of Orlando, Fl because of many problems and want to move my familiy to a nice town. I am having second thoughts
Gabriela | Orlando, FL | Report Abuse

I 85 and 95 sill run north bound lanes last time I checked, and we have a surplus of one way U haul rentals available for north bound travelers. When I am forced to travel North I hardly ever meet southerners who decided to pack it up and head to the beautiful ultra liberal NE US. I Hate it for ya!!
hubert | Charlotte, NC | Report Abuse

Here is the deal Charlotte is a town that is growing into a city with a govenrment structure that is not aware or incapable of deal with big city problems. Charlotte is eventually get the large items under control but it will take a new government struture and more people from outside the region to help facilite the new growth. I moved here 10 years ago from New York and understood that I was moving to a city with growing pains, but I did the research upfront. As far as not finding good starter homes less then $250,000 you must not have gotten the right agent, because there are tons of great neighborhoods. I suspect that you should look in the Northlake area, huntersville, eastfield area, etc.
James S. | Charlotte, NC | Report Abuse

I don't know where Lauren moved from, but we moved here 1/07 from Maryland. After growing up in Maryland, and living in the DC/Northern Virginia area, Charlotte is a dream. We love it here. Low crime, you might hear of a murder on the news once every two weeks compared to multiple every day, a robbery every couple of days, but violent crime is very low. The news stories are also positive, not all negative like in DC/Baltimore. There are great schools. Don't listen to everyone who tells you South Charlotte is where you have to move to. Unless you want townhome/condo/city living, or can afford to live in the expensive, historic neighborhoods, or an up and coming (border) neighborhood. South Charlotte is nice, but North Charlotte is wonderful too once you get up to exit 18 on I-77. The mall is just a few years old, very nice stores, every store around that you need in multiple directions, and we're getting an Ikea next year. Trader Joe's is around the corner. We live in a quiet, tucked away neighborhood, like many in this area, and have 9 grocery stores, 2 Lowes, 1 Home Depot, 2 targets (1 super target), 1 walmart, 1 mall, 1 outlet mall, soon to have Ikea, many restaurant options, multiple office supply stores, and four major shopping areas all within 10 minutes, with low traffic. They don't tear down and throw up here. They plan nice shopping centers, and have a requirement for leaving trees up. They have finished the majority of the outerbelt (beltway) here, and there are two major highways for North-South travel. You can find plenty of starter homes in new or in more established (i.e., unique, colonial style homes, with beautiful landscaping) for under $200K. You can even buy townhomes near Uptown Charlotte in decent neighborhoods for around $100K. Traffic can be heavy near rush hour, but rush hour here is like a 20 min to an hour window and you'll still be moving at a moderate pace, not like every hour of the day except maybe from 11-1 on occasion in DC/VA/MD. Yes, we had a drought over the last year, but that is atypical and water restrictions have eased. It's not difficult to water your yards on one of the two days per week allowed. Car jackings, assaulted robbery happen very seldom. This is a city, and with a city there is more crime, but nothing like many areas of the country. The landscaping throughout the city is gorgeous and it is a very clean city. Everything is close by, Uptown, shopping, the lake, Nascar, Football, Basketball, the airport, etc., with the mountains less than two hours, and beaches 3-5 hours. Taxes are average, the economy is good, teachers salaries are average, and they open new schools every year. Multiple accidents every hour is an extreme exaggeration. There are at least 5 major undergraduate schools here, and graduate schools. Temperatures are about the same to 10 degrees cooler in the summer, about the same in fall/spring, and about 10 degrees warmer in winter than DC area. There are tons of parks, greenways, and walking trails. There are three lakes nearby. There are many cultural opportunities, including art museums, galleries, sports, opera, orchestra, theatre, etc., and lots of nightlife. Last summer was pretty hot, but this summer was very nice. Humidity is average, and what pollution? Someone mentioned pollution; there is no air pollution here that I've seen.
Jennifer | Charlotte, NC | Report Abuse

I'm thinking of relocating to Cincinnati, Ohio from Madison, Wisconsin & i was wondering how is the crime, schools, housing, jobs, dating, & is the enviornment a good place to bring three teenagers to live?
Latricia | Madison, WI | Report Abuse

If you moved from LA traffic is HORRIFIC... I did both my undergraduate and MBA in Los Angeles. If you are referring to the state of LA... come on... that state is bottom of the US scio-economic continuum. Come now.
Adrian | Beverly Hills, CA | Report Abuse