You Aren't From Around Here Are Yuh?

The Charlotte Observer did one of their "state of the city" articles today asking the question of the hour: "Is Charlotte Still a Southern City?" Anyone who has worked with me or reads my stuff knows that for a long time I've told people that Charlotte is a large modern city in the South, but not a southern city. Now thanks to the prodigious database editor of the Observer, Ted Mellnik, we have these numbers to prove my point, thanks Ted.
1. In Mecklenburg County, 57% of the folks living here were not born here, and 62% of those were born outside the South.
2. 88,000 moved to the area, summer '05 to summer 2006. After a few exports, we realized a net gain of 74,000.
3. Where do they come from? In Mecklenburg County, they come from:
Northeast 25%
Midwest 12%
West 6%
South 33% (includes Florida- is this really the South? South Miami maybe!)
Outside US 24%

4. The definitive answer: there are more pizza shops than barbeque shops listed in the Yellow Pages. And yes, you can get pie by the slice here.

Now be aware there is a 20 mile rule-- 20 miles out in any direction and you could be back in the Old South. But here in Charlotte things are different.

That doesn't sit well with some of the natives and at times they fight a rear-guard action, trying to put the genie back in the growth bottle so they can return to the good old days of the 70's and 80's when they ran things.

Ah well, here's to the future! Charlotte's best days are ahead of her! Never been here? Well have a look a the slide show below...


I'll see you in Charlotte! See the full Observer article here.