I Visited the World Capital of Sprawl, and I Have Thoughts 

out of all places, charlotte is essentially what got me into urbanism. it was the furthest place i had been by myself and the light rail was the first public transit i had used and it completely changed my mind on cities. it kind of goes to show how little urbanism there is for people to see here but also how important just the slightest bit of urbanism can be in changing peoples minds

It was great to meet you at the conference! I totally agree that even though Charlotte is sprawling there's a lot of good progress in the right direction for building better neighborhoods there.

I lived there for 35 years. In 1979, when I moved there for work, I said Charlotte was a sprawling mess. It is the L.A. of the South in so many ways. The reason it sprawls is, everyone with a little bit of money wants a neighborhood with cul-de-sacs and half-acre or larger lots. NC is the land of the American Dream for a lot of people. Charlotte is a modern American boom town that EXPLODED in population from the mid-1960s until now. We were there today, to visit my wife's elderly Mom, and traffic was gridlocked. What a surprise. But ALL of Piedmont NC is a giant sprawl. Even more sprawled than Metrolina (The correct name for Charlotte and all of the surrounding towns), is the Piedmont Triad of Greensboro, High Point, and Winston-Salem, with about a dozen small towns adjacent and in-between. It will fill in just like Charlotte did, over the next few decades. This is one of the most pro-business states in the nation, and it attracts people like flies to a picnic table. 20 years ago, people from NY would sell their little $500,000, 1500 square foot bungalows on Long Island and move to Lake Norman where they would build three times that much house for the same money, with a 3/4 acre lot. They didn't mind the 40-minute commute to uptown. But hey, getting ANYWHERE in Charlotte seems to take half an hour or more. I drove 12 miles to work every day in 25-30 minutes, and the same route home took 45-70 minutes. We are happy to have moved to the Piedmont Triad, where the roads are mostly empty, by comparison, and real estate is still semi-affordable.

I walked all over Charlotte for a year. Some neighborhoods have huge oak trees lining the streets. Beautiful and unique.

As a Charlottean, it's surprising to see us turn up here! Charlotte is a really young city, it built up extremely quickly in the 90s and 2000s, and the city really wasn't prepared for that. CATS is chronically underfunded and has to build out its infrastructure itself (Norfolk Southern refuses to share lines), so setting up the networking to reduce car dependency is slow going. Those neighborhoods like NoDa and South End that ARE walkable are a really deliberate effort by the city and community to try and start creating an urban core and to prove out the system for skeptical NIMBYs. Raleigh also hamstrings us from time to time, like with the Cintra controlled toll-lanes on 77, or the byzantine CATS management structure required due to state anti-union policies. The Charlotte-State Gov't relations really are awful, despite the fact that it's unambiguously the crown jewel of the Carolinas. We're trying our best to catch up with the massive economic and population boom of the last few decades, but that's the big thing, we're trying. There's a chance to build something really special here, and turn this sprawl into a home, we just need time to put that into action.

This is one the best videos you've done recently! It was inspiring to see the good patches of urbanism in otherwise sprawling suburbia

I lived in Charlotte for seven years, and while it was a nice enough place to live, I ended up returning to dense, walkable New England because I missed public transit. Individual neighborhoods in Charlotte are fairly walkable, but driving between them is extremely hazardous. And as other people mentioned, it was strange living in a place that had zero identity on the national or global stage. Many people thought for years that I lived in Charleston, SC because they forgot that Charlotte even existed.

During college, I dated a girl from a distant suburb of Charlotte. Then after college, I lived in Asheville and had to go to Charlotte a few times for work or networking. What's so crazy about watching this video is that every single time I went, everyone always took me to the locations depicted in this video. I have been to each place exactly once and was also pleasantly surprised each time. Whether there for work, play, or something in between, I was brought to a place with urban amenities by people who like Charlotte for the space.

As a Canadian, Charlotte is a weird city because it has zero international presence. It's so strange because it's a city you never heard anything about, despite it's quite large size. The average Canadian might have some lose but there conceptions of comparabily sized cities like San Diego, Austin, Detroit or Baltimore, but Charlotte is just a blank space honestly. I wonder if anyone else feels the same way, whether you are from the US or not.

I think the worst part of this variety of development, is that despite living in the Charlotte metro area (Matthews), I've experienced about as much of the actual urban areas of the city in the last decade as you probably did just being here for a little bit. Those areas are nice to be in, but from the outside looking in they feel like little walled pockets of unattainable life. I've lived with family for over 30 years, I used to fire rockets off in a field that the 485 ring road goes through now, and while they've started building some denser housing out my way now, I'm no closer to affording moving into my own space now than I was when dense housing was an afterthought. I know friends who have lived in the Plaza area for going on 10 years now who've had roommates the whole time. If you're not one of the bankers here, a lot of the urban elements of Charlotte are an ethereal thing you experience on the fringes of your mostly strode centered day to day.

Im a charlotean, a cool project you didn’t talk much about was the greenway which makes my favorite mode of transportation (biking) a lot more enjoyable and extends my range. Still got a longggg way to go but I think all the new development is going in a decent direction.

As someone who grew up in Mecklenburg county it's worth noting that what is circled as "Charlotte" is a bunch of smaller towns and communities. My town unincorporated to get a highway built without having to pay for it then reincorporated when it looked like Charlotte was about to take over. It's going to be hard to get the metro area to plan transit together when so many of those communities try so hard to be "not Charlotte".

Longtime Charlotte resident and ‘urbanist’. My biggest frustration with charlottes great nodes is just that they’re all very upscale. It is still very much a city where good urban living is a luxury, and while the growth around downtown is good it has unfortunately pushed a ton of longtime residents out and concentrated poverty in inner ring subburbs around the city. South end for example has become mind boggling expensive in the last 10 years or so. If the city ever gets around to expanding the light rail hopefully enough walkable units can be built that they become an option for working class people in Charlotte rather than a luxury.

I can feel the Atlanta Beltline video inching closer and closer since you're covering the south.

As someone who's lived in Charlotte most of my life, I was always unhappy with the city, but I could never put words to why. After visiting Boston for a week back in March of this year and seeing just how much more developed transit and walkability was, not just in the heart of the city, but far out into the outskirts, it absolutely blew my mind, and really helped me to understand what I'd been missing and wanting for all this time. I really do hope that this city can improve, but right now even the proposed improvements never seem to make any progress (I've lived here 13 years and that whole time they've continuously said the Light rail line from Matthews to Huntersville would be done in five years - afaik they still haven't even broken ground.) Keep making great content- Cheers!

I was born and raised in Charlotte, and I still live here. The more I’ve traveled, and come back home, the more I think to myself, damn this city is like the size of some metro areas. It’s insane. No joke it could take you almost an hour to get from one side of town to the other.

I moved to Charlotte this year and I could've sworn you were stalking me. Lots of those pictures are of places I bike and walk constantly. It's definitely a work in progress, but when your baseline is suburbs, even Charlotte is a paradise of walkability.

A video about red lining and the way it affects cities would be really interesting. The city I grew up in was really affected by it. Part of what made my neighborhood great was that no one cared enough about it to force it to be only single family housing so we had multifamily housing and a bunch of restaurants, a library, corner store and other small businesses. But on the flip side there was a lot less investment there compared to other areas. If you look at the performance of elementary schools there's still huge disparities that fall on almost the same barriers as the original red line maps. I would love to see more investment in this area but not as the loss of the character of the neighborhood.

Charlotte may be sprawling but it really is a beautiful city and it's definitely improving. It's has some bright spots like the developing South End and Uptown.

I think it's funny that there are so many people in the comment section bashing on Charlotte for being bland with bad city planning and a lack of culture who come from places that aren't much better ie Raleigh, Birmingham...

I've actually found Charlotte not that terrible to get around. It's far from ideal, but I didn't find it as challenging as say places like the greater Phoenix area.

the thirsty beaver is an institution! that was a story where they tried to strong arm the bar out of their plot and they held strong and forced the aparment complex to build around it, given, maybe not the most urbanist decision, but that place held their ground against the "luxury" apartment developer mafia.

I like your section on Camp North End, it sums up the mentality of a lot of folks who live here in Charlotte. "Oh its a 20-30 minute walk...guess I'll uber/drive" is how a lot of people here roll. My girlfriend and I lived in South End for more than a year, from there we could walk to Uptown and watch the Knight, Hornets or Panthers easily but people looked at us like we're crazy. Another thing to note about Charlotte is they have an extensive network of "greenways" that follow some of the various creeks in the area. With the greenway i live on, i can now bike or walk all the way to uptown or even go all the way to South Carolina (little sugar creek Greenway). They're only adding to these and they are beautiful! Great video and very informative!

I went for the first time last year. I was stunned at how dead this supposed "bustling metropolis" was. Only one street had any kind of activity going on after 6pm; the rest was just empty offices and parking lots.

Really great video! I appreciate the fresh take, i.e. not "dunking" on an easy target. Focusing on "green shoots" is arguably more impactful than highlighting places that we already know are great. Reminds me of your video about Los Angeles, which I love. Keep up the great work!

I'm genuinely shocked at how much progress Charlotte is making. It's incredible. The city I live in is like Charlotte in a lot of ways, but much smaller. It makes me think that if we started doing the same thing, we could have similar progress.

Maybe I'm biased because I'm from the sunbelt but it was really encouraging and hopeful to see what these sprawling cities are doing WELL, vs. just dunking all over what they do wrong, which most of us who live here are already well aware of. Thanks for the video!

I'm a Raleigh area person originally from just outside NYC. Sooooo much sprawl here. Walkable cities seem to be such an after thought. Build up the new subdivisions and deal with the after math later. Charlotte has potential but if Raleigh is any indication of anything, the entire state with just be suburban sprawl with farms just outside of them. True urbanization isn't happening as much as tiny walkable areas within a city.

The younger of an urbanist you are, the more optimistic you can be about a place like Charlotte. But NYC/Chicago/other places already have meaningful urbanism and if you’re an older urbanist, you would rather be there.

I am really impressed by that "rail trail" and the development around it - this really serves as a very long pedestrian area and is something you don't see every day, even in Europe.

A little to the side of this video, but recently went through Charlotte's airport and came away highly impressed. It's become a major hub that brings money to the city and maks it more attractive to certain types of business. At the same time, it was easy to connect to other flights, was lively without seeming too congested, and had lots of restaurants.

Charlotte is a wonderful city and has a ton of history. The problems Charlotte faces are mostly due to the state it resides in. Though a large portion of the state’s GDP comes from Charlotte, you wouldn’t be able to tell just by looking at its state funded infrastructure especially when you compare the roads in and around Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, and Winston Salem to Charlotte. Charlotte has a closer relationship with South Carolina than it does with North Carolina in my opinion when you look at the highway interchanges in Rockhill, SC (due to its proximity to Charlotte) to soon as you cross the boarder into North Carolina, you can instantly recognize how much the state cares. Far as history goes, Charlotte has tons. Only reason it’s not on display is because 1, you may not know where to look. 2 you better hurry up and look because we love location over structures, so we’ll demolish a historical building to construct something new and shiny. So, all the history lives in memories, museums, and social media posts and forums. I love Charlotte, My parents moved here in 1973 and I came three years later and the change and growth I’ve seen in my life is nothing short of miraculous

Montreal has really been improving. New numbers coming out suggest that downtown, the bike share went from 1.8% in the last 10 years to approaching 5%. Quebec City's second year of bike share has had 10 000 trip in the 2 first weeks. Here's to everyone fighting the good fight in North America. The only way to change things is to push for change at the lower levels so the high levels have their hands forced.

I’d like to see a video on how Great Lakes cities make use of their waterfront.

A few years ago I had a layover in Charlotte. I was like what is this city? I know nothing about it and it's bigger than Cleveland? I was impressed.

I moved to Charlotte in 2020, my family and I absolutely love it. It's by far the cleanest big city I've seen and is also a great place to raise a family.

Thanks for this! I had the pleasure of attending your panel during the Strong Towns gathering and loved it! I moved to Charlotte in late 2021 from San Jose and it’s inspiring to see all the progress I’ve seen in just that little amount of time. Glad you were able to visit all of the areas adding density including my neighborhood of Plaza Midwood. As much of the city is still hand-wringing about adding more and extending light rail lines, the evidence of their impact can be seen all along the Blue Line. None of the development in NODA or South End would exist without the Blue Line. The city needs to prioritize new and expanded transit options, and give so many streets a diet, including Central Ave, which sees 4 lanes of 40 mph traffic blasting through a dense neighborhood with narrow sidewalks and bars and restaurants. Glad you enjoyed Charlotte! And thank you for highlighting all the good projects to while addressing areas where more work needs to be done.

I go to college in the Charlotte suburbs and have tried to explore the region from a perspective like CityNerd’s. It is a wonderful place with nice people, great weather, neat culture, and a lot of growth recently. However, while you looked at the old suburbs and areas tight to city on the light rail line, the northern suburbs going up I-77-Huntersville, Mooresville, etc-are all car-centric hellscapes with just as much population growth. The old freight line that runs north out of Charlotte has seen interest for passenger service for years, but I think bc it’s a single rail and still owned by Norfolk Southern, it would take an enormous amount of money to get the project going. Don’t even get me started on the express lanes on 77…

I live across the border on SC side and drive into all these urban locations on a weekend.. Find a spot to park and then walk the streets up n down for hours and soak in the urbanism and go back to my rural country

One of the things Charlotte needs most is bike infrastructure. The city has a ton of creeks that run mostly in the right directions vis-a-vis uptown, and reach into every neighborhood. There is a plan to make greenways along every creek, but it is seen as a part of recreation rather than transit. I think that is largely a mistake. Charlotte could be world class in this area

Lived in Charlotte for the past 5 years and yes it is stuck in limbo between a sprawling mess scarred by ghosts of American urbanist past and progressive high density hopefully soon more transit oriented development, NC has to share resources with many mid to large sized cities in the state so getting large infrastructure projects off the ground is challenging but in the works fingers crossed..

Cities like Charlotte and Atlanta that have no real geographic limitations (mountains and rivers) just invite the sprawl which becomes worse with every freeway built to accommodate the sprawl (GA 400 would be a prime example in Atlanta)

I'm from Charlotte! I appreciate the density of our urban areas, i still have to find to these areas but love them!

Great video. I've lived in Charlotte 41 years and had the lucky foresight to move to South End 16 years ago. At the time, was a traveling sales rep so very car dependent. Now, by fate, I have an office a 5 minute walk away. I drive my car maybe 10 miles per week. I'm fortunate and I absolutely love it.

Similar topic: I'd love to see a video about how older cities can undo bad planning from the last century, especially rust belt cities that have good bones but decided to destroy their downtowns and build freeways, etc.

I would love to see a video like this about Jacksonville, FL. It’s the largest city (by land area) in the continental U.S. Basically anywhere you want to go is 20+ minutes away, and public transit is almost nonexistent. Occasionally I’ll bike to a destination near me, but the massive stroads (like Beach/Atlantic Blvd) and lack of good bike infrastructure make it super hostile.

Charlottes main issues came from its crazy growth during the 90s and 2000s. I grew up in a small town just west of Charlotte during that time and you could see the city getting closer day by day. Nobody was prepared for a population explosion like that.

Just went to Charlotte for the first time. I was actually quite impressed by a few things: 1) As you mentioned, the South End is a very unique bit of urbanism. I can’t think of another example of what is basically a linear, several station long, contiguous, vibrant TOD. The light rail making up the spine, with walking/biking paths on both sides, flanked by condos and apartments of all masses, bars, restaurants, and shops. 2) I did like that the Gold Line streetcar is an actual linear line and not a weird, circuitous “modern” streetcar linking random places (ie Atlanta, OKC). It actually seems like a useful bit of transit infrastructure, linking densifying areas to the urban core, and not just an inherently useless tourist attraction or development catalyst. 3) Blue line seems pretty well designed as far as a having a good amount of grade separation. It seemed like at the few grade crossings, the light rail had full priority. Definitely faster than light rails I’ve taken in Denver, Portland, Houston, Dallas, etc. The things I really hated: the great walking/biking paths of the south end did not connect to the great walking/biking paths of uptown. Once you get to I-277, the paths abruptly end and to get between downtown and the south end , you have to get on the scary street grid. How is there not a pedestrian bridge over the 277?? And a hated how painfully slow the Gold Line was through Uptown. Come on, give this thing it’s own lanes already. I know street car technically doesn’t get its own lanes but really at that point it’s just a slightly more comfortable articulated bus that cannot get around something that may be blocking it. Overall, I was very impressed. Great to see a city doing so much right after decades of doing everything wrong. Once the light rail is built to the airport, I think CLT will be quite easy to live car-free.

Camp North End reminds me A LOT of "The Foundry" in St. Louis - which is more walk-accessible than CNE, but it's so clearly designed with nearly 100% car-usage in mind. It seems like the newest evolution of the Shopping Mall Dream of the 60's. I wonder how many other similar projects around the country there are?

It's important to remember that most of these "lousy" cities like Charlotte, Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles etc. are barely 100 years into their urbanization. European cities are 1000+ years old, they've had time to rebuild and try different development approached. There's always the option to rip things down and try again and most places in the US probably will.

My friend, I'm from the south and Charlotte is a breath of fresh air if you want to don't want to move up north. Sprawl is ridiculous in South Carolina, specifically Charleston. There are basically only suburban communities. So, when I visited Charlotte, I was so surprised that it felt like an actual city. I think it's just now catching its stride. They're doing a good job of making sure the city is well-balanced and not leaving anybody or communities out. While it may not look like much compared to other built-out cities, I think they have an excellent urban planning team. At least they're giving consideration to what the citizens want. In Charleston, and most cities in SC, they basically cater to tourists now and the affluent. Great video and I'm glad you visited our city!

Lived in NC most of my life and city sprawl is just normal to me. Love living in Charlotte...well, 30 minutes outside of Charlotte. All the best stuff 45 minutes away at most, airport 25 minutes away, and yet I still can live rural/suburban life. Love it

I'm right there with you on the walking. I would often take walk breaks when I worked at a Tempe office, even in 110° F heat (with a sunbrella). By the end of my walk, I was brimming with new ideas. Even now that I work remotely from Lincoln City OR with a view of Devil's Lake and lots of wildlife, I still desire to trek into the woods at least once a week.

I walked some of those same spots when I was in Charlotte and it was stark how different the friendliness to walkers was between wards. They are really making great strides. I really liked downtown Charlotte and the tree canopy they used. Great video as always!

Paying an artist to paint a parking garage is much better than the parking garage underneath. Art always looks better than bare concrete. Art even looks better than a few bricks thrown on the exterior of parking garages here and there, which looks better than bare concrete, but not lots better. Underground parking would be better but it is expensive. The cost is basically only viable in new construction in very dense urban areas.

Have to admit am geeking out that you were here in Charlotte! I’ve lived here since the 70s the growth and change has been significant. Not always for the good, but also not always bad. I’m glad you picked up on the good with the bad. Charlotte is unique in that the corporate leaders here took an interest in the growth of the city and have been visionaries the potential. What you see happening uptown, south end, light rail and even sports complexes and pro sports acquisitions and other cool neighborhoods are because these corporations want a city that is attractive, fun ,vibrant to attract world class talent and that is exactly what is happening. With that, the area and surrounding communities have also experienced growth and they all have grown into each other. This sprawl. The Charlotte Airport is also a product of city leaders with a mindset of build it and they will come, which has been huge for the city. All this to say, it’s not perfect, but something special is happening in this ever changing melting pot we call Charlotte. Glad you were here, as historically this town has always thought it was destined for greatness, and is open to recreating itself.

For thirty seconds of the video, starting at 10:28, CityNerd became CityPentUpRage. It was exhilarating yet mildly terrifying at the same time.

As someone who's been following your channel for a few months, and lives in Charlotte, it's exciting to see my local places in one of your videos. We have a *long* way to go in the urbanist route but progress is being made. The rail trail counter that was in one of the shots tallying people has rolled over 4 times this year, it's about 4.3 million walking or biking trips past that sign since Jan 1 as of now. It's really the last 4 or 5 years that South End has transitioned from the mid-rise apartments to building more of the higher rise buildings that you discuss, and that is entirely the result of the initial investment in the rail and initial urban amenities that are now in a positive feedback loop. The effect of transit from the blue line turned South End from the "abandoned warehouse district" 30 years ago to the most dense, walkable, popular, and growing part of the city today. I was surprised to see Charlotte the bottom of the sprawl list compared to cities like Atlanta or Pheonix, I wonder if some of that is due to statistics being applied against city limits rather than metro areas, Charlotte's actual city limits cover many areas that are often legally separate suburbs in other metros. Regardless, I really want to see us continue to make progress, preferably faster when it comes to urban infrastructure projects like protected bike lanes. I don't live in South End anymore, but I am in another close in neighborhood where I am able to live a car-light, urbanist lifestyle. Many of our neighborhoods have so much potential with a little bit of investment, but the further out you go the more sprawling, stroads and suburban style subdivisions take over. We do have some vocal and growing groups pushing for better urban growth patterns, and if it can happen here, it can happen anywhere. I don't know if it helps any, but the parking deck you saw near the 36th street light rail stop is part of an apartment building and primarily for residents (though I'm sure there will be some paid parking for people driving into the neighborhood. It's not really for park and ride with the light rail (We have plenty of park and rides, they are just further away from Uptown on the line) Edit to add: most of those gravel parking lots you mentioned are absolutely placeholders for future development. I seen several in both uptown and south end get transformed into something better. I'm pretty sure there all just investors making a bit of income while waiting for the right price to sell and have something built.

Love the Richmond, VA shoutout in there! I just keep reminding myself that there is hope.

I love that you want to do more of this. More detailed breakdowns of individual cities, the bad and especially highlighting areas that are improving is content I would love to see.

I thought Atlanta was the worst.

Seen a bunch of your videos but I think I actually like this format the best. It's a more in-depth look at one place through the lens of urbanism, and if you did more it might even inspire my travel plans.

Thank you Ray! Long time fan, first time poster. As a local I was thrilled to hear from friends that you were enjoying your time in Charlotte. I would also say many of us Local Urbanists really enjoyed hearing that what we have been working towards for the last 25 years or so was appreciated by some of the thought leaders (influencers?!) We frequently view our shortcomings as we strive to re-imagine Charlotte as a walkable/equitable city accessible to all, it felt great to hear back that at least we were doing some of it from the experts. And yes as a 25 year bus rider we have much to improve on the transit front, but I think we are finally making some headway. Thank you Again! Come back in a few years I bet there will be more to like!

Loved the on-location commentary, would love to see more like this. Awesome content!

I know you've already covered countries like Mexico in previous videos, but I think it would be great if you could talk about Latin America a little bit more. I live in Recife, Brazil (a 4 million people metro area), and we have an interesting paradox here and in most major Brazilian metro areas: while our cities are, in fact, very dense and we tend to have apartments in skyscrapers right next to commercial buildings, most people prefer to commute by bus or by car (if they can afford one) due to the heat and fear of violence, so we still get massive traffic jams just for people to travel 1Km and park their cars at work.

I lived in NoDa right when the real population explosion happened Being literally the only blue collar guy living in a near uptown had massive advantages in that I was always driving against traffic headed towards the power plants I worked at.

That particular Park and Ride deck you are talking about is mainly to support people coming into the city from the north for events or work. I live closer to Raleigh, and when I head to a Panthers or Hornets game, we always park there and ride into the city. This cuts down on the parking needed around the entertainment areas in downtown and is extremely efficient. Speaking of Raleigh, that is a great example of sprawl and I wish they would implement a similar light rail system in the area and then further build out a local rail network between Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, and Charlotte. This would give most of the state access to public transportation, link the major airports, and reduce the amount of cars on I-40/85.

Your content just keeps getting better and better. I stumbled across casually as virtually nothing more than a Cities: Skylines fan (I'll withhold from future beltway design), but you've gotten me genuinely intrigued by city planning, and I've learned so much along the way. Keep it up!!

Charlotte came up with a comprehensive transit plan in 2020 that included rail, bus frequency, bike lanes, and greenways. They would, however, need the state to approve a referendum for the people in the city to vote for a 1% sales tax for the plan. This was what the Republican Speaker of the House had to say about it "Asked about a possible tax to help pay for a $13.5 billion plan that includes light rail, better bus service, bike lanes and greenways, Moore said: What I want to see us talk about when we talk about transportation is not more of these bike lanes, not more of the rail, all those things that cost so much that really only serve a limited purpose, but really increasing the capacity when it comes to our roads and our thoroughfares.” Doesn't look like there is much hope for Charlotte transit when the state is going to micromanage it. Why cant the city decide what it's tax structure is going to be?

You literally walked right by where I live when you took the video of the delivery robot, I feel that the area has been blessed by your presence. In all seriousness, it’s crazy how much Charlotte has grown in the 30+ years that I’ve lived here. Half of uptown was parking lots. The surrounding area, including Plaza-Midwood, NoDa and South End weren’t places that attracted visitors, to put it nicely, and now they’re highly desirable to live, work and play in. Charlotte still has a long way to go, plans to expand the light rail have stalled for a over a decade it seems, but the amount of development that keeps springing up to feed all the transplants moving in has to make me believe that Charlotte’s conversion to urbanism will continue for many, many more years to come.

I visited Charlotte as a random side trip. I walked away thinking this is one of the few places I could live relatively happy in the south. It’s an interesting place!

Thanks so much loved this video! I feel like this one of your better ones :) - huge fan

As a Houstonian that just returned from a wonderful week in Boston, this video absolutely sings to my heart. I appreciate that you are able to see some major POTENTIAL for future development in these Stroad-ridden southern cities, and that you're willing to explore the small pockets where things are being done well or better than the majority of the city. Urbanism is always a series of choices, just like Sprawl, and we have the ability to steer those choices with more information and education. Here's hoping you'll consider a similar examination of Houston in the future!!

Really love the content, you were the first urbanist youtuber I saw and you have been the catalyst of me going down the deepest rabbit hole of all time. I don't know weather to thank you or hate you for that haha, ignorance was bliss. I grew up in the South Florida suburbs, you actually featured the stroad/highway interchange that I lived near in your strange highways interchange video (the Lyons road and Sawgrass expressway interchange in Coconut Creek.) In my opinion south Florida is the most car centric place in the US, excluding downtown Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Nearly all of the cities in south Florida only began development in the 50's or 60's after the everglades were dammed off. This lead to South Florida cities and infrastructure being built almost exclusively for cars, and not demolished for cars like other cities in the US. the city/town I grew up in, Coconut Creek was founded in 1967, the perfect time for pristine architecture and city planning. There isn't even a downtown in Coconut Creek, the "downtown" is a damn lifestyle center. I honestly didn't even know people could live without cars unless you lived in a place like Manhattan. Regardless, I would love to see you visit south Florida, and try to get around without a car and without staying in downtown Miami/Fort Lauderdale. A good city that you might actually have a chance of doing this in would be Boca Raton, but exclusively on the land surrounding the FAU college campus. Even that might be a stretch though, I took some classes there when I was in highschool and the only way I could get there was by having my older brother drive me. Also, the worst storad I've ever seen, Glades Road, is one of the main arterials that takes you through Boca, I have seen so many accidents, some of the worst traffic in my life the, and some of the most unfriendly pedestrian infrastructure there. I'd also recommend that if you did go, to take the trip in winter so you don't pass out from heat stroke, as I have nearly done. Thanks for the amazing content CityNerd and I hope you visit the abomination of my hometown soon!

I grew up in Charlotte, on what was then the outskirts of the city. (Just barely in the city limits.) I haven’t had a chance to go back in several years, but it was the best place in the world to grow up in the 1970’s!

Thank you so much for touring and reviewing Charlotte! You are absolutely right about all of this, and we (or at least me) would greatly like to see more walkable developments.

Great video! I saw this on RU-vid, but as a recent Nebula subscriber I'm excited to dig more into this series. As someone who gre up in a North Charlotte suburb and now lives in Plaza Midwood, I live how complicated the urbanization of Charlotte is every day. For my part, the reason I live in Plaza is that it's a place where all of my main needs are met within a mile of my apartment (most of which are meetable without walking along Central Ave). South End is certainly more expansive in this respect, but even neighborhoods like NoDa don't have grocery stores within walking distance, which hinders progress for car-free neighborhoods. As someone else mentioned, the public transport system has been gutted by state legislation and incompetence from the people in charge of running it FOR YEARS. While it's great to have the Gold Line up and running, the public rail system was slated to be much more complete by now and has been delayed due to funding moving to building highway lanes and Norfolk Southern holding on to rail lines for once-weekly trains. Charlotte being listed as one of the most unwalkable places in the country is a function of the scale of its city limits. As someone who travels for work and visits a lot of similarly sized cities, the walkability of Charlotte is better than many of the towns in the midwest and west ranked above it. The city is still far from being where it should've been by now, but there is a lot being done to rectify that. At the end of the day, though, I'm not sure that Charlotte will ever shake its tendency for having walkable neighborhoods that are disconnected from each other without proper work by the City to beef up the public transportation system. Thanks for visiting and I'm excited to watch more of your series!

I LOVE Charlotte. It is getting better every single year as far as transportation, walkability, etc.

I very much appreciate your perspective. I'm a second-year master's student at UNC Chapel Hill in City and Regional Planning, and I always value constructive viewpoints. I think yours are spot on about Charlotte. Thank you for taking the time to make this video, and really for your effort in all your material.

Great video! Would love to see you do more deep dives on any city you think deserves a closer look

I love the idea of videos where you are doing a deeper dive on a specific city that you have visited. I feel like you get and then portray a better sense of the city if you visit the city versus just doing online research.

Love the city visits! More, please.

Super interesting. Great video (and attitude).

I really enjoyed this. Thank you!

Such a great way to look at a city others would write off, I’d love to see this be a series with different cities!

Great video. I've lived in the Charlotte metro for more than 20 years and have experienced it's incredible growth. The bad: I think I've seen continuous highway construction for the entire time I've been here. The good: While neighborhood walkability is rare, there are a number of greenways in CLT, and they are constructing a 30+ mile greenway through the city, which should be finished in four years. The hope: if they would spend less on asphalt and more on light rail, it might actually catch on someday. As for the residential density issue. It was going in a good direction until the 2008 crash. In the early 2000s, I was working on marketing for some high-rise condos in and around uptown that subsequently became rentals when the economy tanked. Back then, people were putting deposits on these condos like they were buying lottery tickets, thinking they would flip them before the buildings were even completed. If 2008 hadn't happened, there's a good chance that condo ownership would have boomed in and around uptown. Now it's mostly new apartment rentals to house the 20-somethings who work for the big financial companies. That is certainly spawning a lot of dining and entertainment development, which is great, but that's why we need all of these parking garages.

The picture of the pickup truck rolling through the intersection. That's Tryon St and Kingston Ave, right near where my AirBnb was for the Strong Towns conference. That intersection was relatively not busy car-wise so it was easy to cross whenever I needed to. I'm glad you saved the South End for the last section of the video. I was also impressed by the large buildings. The restaurants are pretty nice, too, there. Thanks for the interesting videos!

11:56 should have been the thumbnail IMO

Charlottean here; Firstly, I appreciate seeing the notable neighborhoods in your video. Charlotte is easy to dismiss as a car-centric city (which in some ways is definitely true), but we also have smaller mixed use neighborhoods. I'm fortunate to live in NoDa. Where I can walk, ride my bike, or use the light rail for anything I need. My partner lives near the ligh rail in South End, so between the two of us we rarely have to drive. Another gem off of the light rail is the Independent Picture House; Sugar Creek station + 5 minute walk. One day, I would love to live in a "proper" mixed-use urban city. But for now, Charlotte is just fine.

keep in mind that charlotte is basically the home of auto racing in America...in this particular region you arent going to break the love for the automobile

ive been looking to move somewhere across country. currently i live in pomona, california. the city in between the inland empire and LA. your videos really opened my eyes to how important walkability is for me. i love your channel and youre helping me choose where to move. thank you and keep posting!

The word for people who live in Charlotte which you couldn't find is Charlatan. I live 25 miles north in Davidson, a town of 15,000. I can walk to everything I need except a big box store (need?) and a hospital. My car often sits for 3-4 days at a time and then I drive to visit my family in another town. In Charlotte there's a place where a bus stop is mid-block across from a large apartment complex. To get home from the bus stop it's necessary to cross a busy 6-lane highway OR walk more than 1/2 mile to a cross-walk, and then back. Really encourages mass transit.

I appreciate how you were more positive on Charlotte. It's got a long, long way to go, but I love what they're doing with the light rail and heavy TOD. It's a relatively easy way to start transforming sprawling, hostile urban environments into welcoming, vibrant places that people actually want to go to and spend time in. More Sun Belt cities should follow suit.

This is my favorite video you have made yet!

The Dilworth area is pretty cool. It’s right next to south end. It has lots of historic homes and a restaurant row along East Boulevard.

charlotte resident here! i wish i knew about this conference, myself and my brothers all love your videos and we're really passionate about a lot of the stuff you talked about in this one. a lot of us here in charlotte are optimistic about the ongoing and prospective projects here and i hope that some of the problems you discussed can turn around

Would love to host you in Taipei (Taiwan) if you ever get a chance to visit East Asia. This is probably one of the world's most underrated and overlooked experiments in "urbanism". Impeccable metro, bike-sharing network expansion, and super-high density in a relatively compact 250 square km (roughly) surrounded by mountains and bisected by rivers, and littoral to a massive body of water (the Taiwan Strait).

Dallas feels like it has way less urban areas. The ones you showed in Charlotte made me want to move there

This is a city I have been intrigued by, thanks for showing me what's on the ground. We need to send you around the country to do these field trips.

Fun fact about Charlotte, the hazard placard with the blue, red, and yellow diamonds you see on buildings and fuel tanks is called a 704 placard. The 704 placard was created and named after the area code for Charlotte.