The Naked City Blog

My buddy Joe (and earlier, Tom Hanchett) shared a fascinating, though lengthy article in The New Republic by Alan Ehrenhalt about urban “inversion” — not the kind where hot polluted air settles over a city — but a demographic shift.

His point is that Chicago and other cities are seeing more middle- and upper-income people moving to the center, and low-income families and immigrants moving out to the far suburbs. He attributes it to several factors: de-industrializaton, less crime, young people eager for urban life, and traffic.

It includes several mentions of Charlotte, which is experiencing the kind of inversion he writes about. Here’s one:

In downtown Charlotte, a luxury condominium is scheduled for construction this year that will allow residents to drive their cars into a garage elevator, ride up to the floor they live on, and park right next to their front door. I have a hard time figuring out whether that is a triumph for urbanism or a defeat.

In Atlanta, he says, “the middle-class return to the city is occurring with more suddenness than perhaps anywhere in the United States,” and most people say it’s due to traffic and gas prices.

Jerry Fleeman of Gastonia e-mails with this (sarcastic) query:

“Given the many past columns and blogs surely you will write on the evils of the McMansion built by the TV show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” in the Windsor Park neighborhood of Charlotte.

A 1,900 square-foot single-story house was transformed into a 5,100 square-foot multi-story mansion. Surely this house now adversely impacts the neighborhood. Some quotes from the Observer story: “At 5,100 square feet, it barely fits on their Sudbury Road lot. “
And, “Its tall roof soars over the Windsor Park neighborhood, where modest one-story brick homes are the standard.”

Whaddaya think?

I’ve been wondering how much thought went into making the house as energy efficient as possible. Does anyone know? I’ve not been following it closely. Is there daylighting? Passive solar? Any solar panels? Geothermal heating? Recycled materials?

I hope some provision is being made to help this family with what are likely to be much higher utility bills (unless the house is “green”) and higher property taxes.

I’m taking a vacation day today and possibly tomorrow, so no new Naked City news for now. (Try saying that 5 times, fast.)

To the readers asking how to set up an RSS feed: When I use Firefox as a browser there’s an orange box in the window where the URL shows. Click on it and you’re asked how you want the feed to work.

Naked City is listed under the “blogs/columnists” link that shows only if you scroll your cursor over the “Opinion” tab at the top. The blogs/columnists link showing when you open the new home page give you only “News” blogs/columns because the “News” tab automatically opens. For Sports, Editorial Page, Entertainment or other columnists you have to click on the appropriate tab.

Meantime, what’s the reaction to the Observer’s newly designed Web site? It’s now charlotteobserver.com instead of charlotte.com. The charlotte.com URL will keep working for a while but it will disappear at some point, so be sure to fix your bookmarks.

Cheers.

Some folks are aghast that Charlotte Center City Partners President Michael Smith would cast aspersions on the Overstreet Mall system uptown of sidewalks and hidden shops. In an Observer article published Thursday, Smith said the overstreet system “is dilutive to creating a vibrant center city.”

One of those aghast is Bill Little, who owned the BB&T Center — home to many interior retail spaces — until selling to an REIT a couple of years back. He consistently defends it. Here’s a portion of a letter he wrote to the Observer:

“Mr. [Michael] Smith fails to see the big picture. Overstreet Mall is more than a series of pedestrian bridges connecting coffee shops and newsstands. Think of it, rather, as effectively bringing millions of square feet of office space under one roof. I know of no other U.S. city east of the Mississippi where more office space — not to mention hotels, parking, retail, performing arts centers, and residential buildings — can be accessed under cover.”

I’m on Michael Smith’s side. People who say they want more stores downtown aren’t going to get them until at least three things happen.

First, better designed retail space has to be available — the kind where you can walk past the store windows, see inside and go right in. You know, like old storefront buildings (example: inside the Latta Arcade) and like stores in shopping malls. Those mall folks understand window shopping. Architects who design office towers and grudgingly throw in required ground-floor retail space do not.

Second, uptown needs a retail cluster. People like to shop where other shops are. Again, the shopping center developers understand this. Uptown not only doesn’t have this cluster, there’s little hope it will get one. The retail spaces built in recent years (required by the uptown zoning) are too scattered. The older retail spaces that might have served to link them together have almost all been demolished for the new towers. The only solution would be building a sort of outdoor-air shopping mall uptown. That’s expensive.

Finally — you knew I’d get here — Overstreet Mall should transition to business support tenants: Printing companies, shoe repairs, cleaners, etc. I’d say it has to go, but the city in its infinite wisdom granted what amounts to perpetual rights-of-way over the streets. So the tunnels will be with us for years to come.

Why do you think shopping malls locate at interstate interchanges? Traffic. Uptown, the traffic is feet. In Charlotte too many feet are diverted into the overstreet system. Or conversely, too many feet are people on the sidewalks with no clue the overstreet system exists or how to get there. In either case, potential retailers suffer.

Yes, I confess I use the overstreet system when it’s pouring rain or I need to get into one of the buildings. I understand some symphony-goers were shocked and appalled that they were expected to — gasp! — set foot on the sidewalks and walk when the overstreet passage between the Blumenthal and its deck was taken down. But it’s perfectly possible to have an excellent shopping district without those tunnels.

If you want strong retail uptown, not the half-hearted retail we now have, eventually Overstreet will have to change.

Spotted having lunch today at Mimosa: City Council member Anthony Foxx (right), a Democrat, and former City Council member Patrick Mumford (left), a Republican.

Maybe they lunch together often and it’s no big deal. Who knows? But I stopped to greet them and when I asked what they were talking about (hey, I’m a journalist and it’s my job to be nosy) they just smiled and didn’t answer.

The common denominator for Foxx and Mumford — other than their council experience — is that both have been the subject of speculation about mayoral ambitions. Charlotte’s current mayor is running for governor. The next mayoral election isn’t until 2009. If Pat McCrory moves to the Governor’s Mansion in Raleigh, who succeeds him?

I’m not an expert at this moment in how a mayor gets chosen if one leaves office, but I’m pretty sure that if a Republican leaves, a Republican must be appointed. If recent council history is a guide, council members would rather appoint someone who doesn’t plan to run for the office. That’s how Greg Phipps got appointed to the council in 2005 after Malcolm Graham was elected to the state Senate.

Mumford left the council in 2007, saying he wanted time with his family. Might he be a candidate to be appointed mayor if McCrory wins the governorship?

Foxx, of course, is considered likely to run for mayor regardless of whether is opponent is McCrory, or any other Republican.

Mumford, by the way, had a pizza and Foxx had a bowl of chili. Bon appetit!

Interesting story in today’s newspaper about the city’s semi-annual statistical study of neighborhoods. It’s called the 2008 Neighborhood Quality of Life report. If you want to see the map I think you have to see the on-paper version (at 50 cents still cheaper than a cuppa coffee), as I can’t find an online link. But here’s a link to the report itself. Warning: It’s a slow-loading PDF file. Here’s a link to the page on the City of Charlotte’s Web site about the report.

I haven’t read the report yet — it’s 246 pages — so don’t kick me around for “endorsing” it; I’m simply sharing it for those who might be interested. I hope to find time this week for some reporting, with luck for my Saturday column.

One quick thought: I find its terminology unclear. The report says that in 2006 it changed its classifications from Stable, Threatened, and Fragile (also unclear — which is better, “threatened” or “fragile”?) to Stable, Transitioning, and Challenged. But Transitioning is applied to neighborhoods in “an improving or declining position.” So if the number of “transitioning” neighborhoods has increased, is that good news for the city or bad news? Who can tell? And is this because the city wants only happyface news about its neighborhoods? Or because these kinds of reports are done by geographers and academics, not writers or editors? Who can tell?

Anyway, happy reading. Check back with you later.

Excellent question at the end of the previous comment string, from “Tom” from Nashville.

“Suggestion for your next blog topic: Is it possible to “retrofit” a suburb, particularly the middle-ring suburbs that are struggling, to be more connected and urban? Can a ’60s-style neighborhood be made to behave like a ’30s-style neighborhood?”

You won’t be surprised to hear I have thoughts. But this afternoon I have other tasks. So I’ll toss out the question and let others take it on. Maybe Dan Burden of Walkable Communities Inc., can weigh in, or someone from the Congress for the New Urbanism, or some developer/designer who’s done a retrofit project and can talk about how it went.

See you later.