Streetlights. Transit. Late-night food. What Charlotte needs to be a ‘world-class city’

With Charlotte’s growth come big and small questions.

How can the city ensure people have access to affordable housing? Are there enough streetlights? And why aren’t there more late-night food options?

City leaders grapple with these questions frequently. Questions like these also attract attention on popular social media sites like Reddit, home to countless discussions on a range of topics.

This month, users grappled with two big ones in Charlotte: What does Charlotte need to become a world-class city? And another post asking: Charlotte seems to underwhelm or disappoint some people. Is Charlotte going downhill or did these people just have high expectations like other big cities?

Hundreds of comments came pouring in. We felt like there was some worthy back-and-forth on both questions. We also ran some of these thoughts by a couple of local urban design and architecture experts to get at the question of Charlotte becoming a world-class city.

What do you think would make Charlotte a world-class city? Let us know.

Here’s a peek at these big questions and what people are saying.

Charlotte’s aspirations for world-class status

The question of Charlotte becoming a world-class city goes back decades, said Terry Shook, founding partner and principal of local design firm Shook Kelley.

Shook has been a Charlottean since he was 18 and a freshman at UNC Charlotte. Almost 70 now, Shook remembers that world-classterm being used as an aspirational term back in his college years.

There’ve been more recent examples.

In a 2018 Charlotte Observer editorial, contributing columnist Amy Chiou proposed scrapping the idea of being a world-class city. She described a vision from Charlotte from the 1980s when business leaders set out to be a “world-class city.” Instead, the city should set sights on becoming a decent city.

During Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit here in 2021 to celebrate the passage of the administration’s infrastructure bill, she used the term in connection with the Queen City.

In a tweet, she said, “World-class cities like Charlotte, North Carolina, deserve world-class transit systems, and our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will make the most significant investment to fix our roads and bridges in 70 years.”

“Charlotte has always been a place that’s had great aspirations,” Shook said in an interview with The Charlotte Observer. But he doesn’t think it does much good, saying it’s not an inspirational line people should be going after.

“Places become what they become based on the people that are there,” Shook said. The reality is that people are looking for great places to live while, yes, maybe looking for a city to have some amenities found in cities like New York, London or Paris.

What does being ‘world-class’ even mean?

So what would Charlotte need to become world-class?

To start, let’s try to define what that means. A world-class city is one that’s inclusive and provides a standard of living with prospects for economic mobility, according to a 2014 article from the Stanford Social Innovation Review. The magazine is published by Stanford University.

But there’s a range of characteristics that can define a world-class city.

It could be a city with great parks, open spaces and art museums, according to a 2009 Forbes article titled “What makes a city world-class?” It could mean a city has an extensive public transportation system, good libraries and distinctive architecture.

For Charlotte, some people in the Reddit thread said they like the way Charlotte is.

But what would the city need to become world-class?

“Reflective paint to be used in marking the roads,” one Reddit user wrote.

“Gah!” another wrote. “Let’s get even more basic. Streetlights! I moved here recently from the Chicago suburbs where navigating at night is a breeze. It’s scary around here!”

Why are there purple and blue streetlights in Charlotte? Here’s what to know

Maybe being a world-class city means folks won’t have to add “North Carolina” after saying they live in Charlotte, another wrote.

Another person thought uptown needed more storefronts at the street level. Many felt that the city needs better late-night food options.

One of the more consistent answers in the thread of nearly 400 comments was transportation. Some users wanted better public transit, including out to the airport and a system that expanded to more parts of the city and suburbs.

Defining Charlotte’s appeal

Another Reddit post that gained traction was about people moving here from other, larger cities and expressing frustration about living in Charlotte.

One user posted that they moved to Charlotte from New York City nine years ago. They love it here.

“If someone is looking for dim sum in Chinatown at 3 a.m., then Charlotte isn’t your city,” the user wrote. “But great quality of life, solid career opportunities, excellent weather, a convenient airport and nice people make it a fantastic place to live.”

Another person questioned why anyone would want Charlotte to be like New York, Los Angeles or Chicago. Those cities are expensive and congested, not to mention see a large numbers of tourists.

“The appeal of Charlotte is getting out of those cities, living more affordably, and still having a good percentage of the perks that come with living in a big city,” the user wrote. “If you move here for those reasons, you should enjoy it here.”

The same can’t be said for someone looking for 24/7 attractions or a new and trendy experience every week.

Charlotte is a work in progress

The important thing to realize is that every city is a work in progress, said Deb Ryan, an architecture and urban design professor at UNC Charlotte.

“They’re never done,” said Ryan, a former chair of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission

The question, she said, is what direction is the city moving in. Is it moving toward a more inclusive city with more diversity and vitality? Or one that has residential neighborhoods that you have to drive to?

Ryan believes Charlotte is making good decisions around its planning but that it takes time.

“We’re an adolescent city,” Ryan said. The exciting thing for Ryan is that Charlotte provides an opportunity for residents to be part of the energy around helping the city move to adulthood.

Things like late-night food options or the corner store staying open in New York past 10 o’clock are the result of density, Ryan said. Those stores aren’t staying open here because there’s not the critical mass of people that wants to eat that late.

Ryan doesn’t see Charlotte as becoming as dense as places like New York but there are certain areas being targeted for that growth. She points to uptown and how it’s evolved from having hardly any housing units to thousands today.

“My message would be have patience,” Ryan said.