I think Charlotte is a great incubator city / roots city. It was conservative to the point of a stranglehold on growth <30 years ago. It's really opened up in the last decade and we're seeing a tremendous amount of vitalization all over the area.

Suburbs, north of the city is concord/lake norman, south is lake wiley/fort mill, south east is matthews & weddington. East is Mint Hill or farther out Albermarle. I don’t know the west side that well, Belmont comes to mind.

Charlotte has a smidge of nightlife but it’s a far cry from most cities. I think we’ll develop culture before we develop some party mentality.

Check out Urban Planet / Charlotte, http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.php?s=4a6231ebf21c825bd21bcd5bf322b997&showforum=253

Good forums on the development of the area.

Happy Hunting,

-a

I dont think it is a good place to raise a family. There is always somebody getting killed. The school systems director doesnt know what they are doing. Like they want to keep contol of the whole county of schools and it is very hectic. In my opinion, a good place to raise children is just outside of charlotte in gaston county. It has a small town feel but, it is 15 minutes away from just about anything in charlotte. The schools are better.

I think it depends on where you are. As with most other cities there are parts of town where it’s not so great and other parts where it’s idyllic. Mecklenburg County is expensive in taxes, so more and more people are flocking to the surrounding counties – Gaston is but one of them. There are a lot of cracks about Gastonia but really, it ain’t that bad :) There’s also Union County in the south-southeast, Iredell to the north, and since Charlotte is so close to the NC-SC border, there are a lot of people who work in Charlotte but live in South Carolina too. There has been some turmoil in the Mecklenburg school system lately. You do have to pick your schools with a critical eye and choose to live in the right places at the moment, IMHO. To the north, people are congregating in Huntersville, Mooresville, Cornelius.. there’s also Davidson, which is a small college town – quiet, and great access to the arts via the college, if that’s your thing. South of Charlotte, there’s Matthews (still Meck.) and Weddington, Stallings, Mint Hill, Indian Trail, Waxhaw (Union) with good schools.
Party city? Not reeeeally. I don’t think there’s enough of a ‘personality’ to this city yet.
Sometimes I complain there’s not enough to do in Charlotte.. but it’s in a good middle-ish spot to travel to other places. The Blue Ridge Mtns are just a few hours away, as is the beach.

Q: Is it known as a “party city”?
A: No. By no means. Definitely not.

Q: Is it mostly conservative or liberal?
A: Fairly overwhelmingly conservative.

Q: Is Charlotte a good place to raise a family?
A: Possibly. What kinds of opportunities are you looking for, regarding raising your family?

Q: What are some of the good suburbs within 30mins of the city?
A: Again, depends on what you’re looking for.

If you are looking for a more conservative, “clean-cut,” don’t-rock-the-boat lifestyle, you will have many opportunities.

If you are looking for a more creative, interesting, diverse range of opportunities, this could also be just the right place for you. As others have already stated, the seeds of change are beginning to sprout, and a broader range of lifestyle opportunities are beginning to grow.

Check out the NoDa (North Davidson Arts District) part of town, SouthEnd, and the Plaza-Midwood area for signs of the creative life in town.

However, if you’re looking for a quieter neighborhood that would support a lifestyle with a focus on jobs, kids, schools, etc, several of the outer ‘burbs would probably fit the bill.

I have spent a little time visiting Charlotte so don’t take my words as anything but my own general impressions. I live in the Raleigh-Chapel Hill-Durham “Triangle” area of NC, about 2.5-3 hours away. I find the Triangle is much more interesting, with more to do in terms of cultural events. The Charlotte downtown is architecturally attractive, there are some good museums, and I’ve found good restaurants to eat at.

I’ve been here since 1989 and it’s really not a bad place to live. Yes, we have crime and slums but no worse than other big cities. There is too much urban sprawl but the uptown is revitalizing rapidly. The traffic would seem bad, if I hadn’t seen worse in Pennsylvania before moving here. However, we have a great library system and ALA agreed in 1995. Both my husband and I have done well with jobs here and can’t find anything to compare elsewhere in the country. Although it wasn’t easy raising 2 daughters here, now they are grown I really can’t complain, they both turned out to make me proud. They even are doing well in college after the basic public education so there’s a hole in that complaint some might give as well.

Oh, some complain about the taxes but I have seen much, much worse there too. I figure a tax rate of less than 15% isn’t too bad. Here it’s less than 5%.