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

I’m not sure who would drive into Charlotte especially south end and see anything redeemable about it. If you want to live in New York then go live in New York stop coming down here and ruining our the south.

I've lived in Charlotte and I wouldn't call it the most car-centric in the world. I'd say that honor goes to Oklahoma City. Charlotte at least has sidewalks in most places. OKC doesn't.

To raise kids looks perfect and what about the jobs and the univerisities thats very good in CH. Hipsters stay away family folks love it.

I lived in Charlotte for two years in the early 2010's. There is almost nothing to do in the city and you needed a vehicle to get out past the highways that surrounded the city. That said, it's very pleasant to walk around, especially the small neighborhoods with two story houses. They also have decent transit. The Sprinter busses are cheap and run on a steady loop from the airport and strip mall to the hospital, straight through the center of the city and past the universities.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the pre-planning for vertical expansion. A lot of the buildings have open-air, un-used top floors. The idea is that when they have a need to expand, they can just build the new building right on top of the old ones.

Another reason for the sprawl is the municipal land. Back when I lived there, there were no parking garages but there WERE a bunch of large gravel (sometimes paved) lots. These blocks were still owned by the city who sold parking passes in 2-day, week, month and year increments. The idea was that the city could generate some revenue while waiting for someone to ask about buying the block for development. This worked out really well on game day for the Panthers, since most of the unclaimed land was near the stadium. As developers approached the city about these lots, they would figure out zoning and building requirements such as ground-level amenities, pedestrian through-ways and parking. I imagine this is where all of the small parking garages came from as well. The city probably required the the developer to replace some of the parking that they were taking away from that area.

Walking is not a waste of time! It’s the best medicine for the mind and body!

As I sit in my 0 walk score car dependent subburb in Port Charlotte, FL, Charlotte, N.C. doesn't seem so bad...

In my mind, Houston remains the undisputed world champ of sprawl.

Charlotte's looking good, might move there and open a new Bug Snack Shack

As a lifelong San Antonian used to a sprawling car-centric city with terrible public transit, I am so jealous of even just a single light rail line. Making it a goal to move away from texas in the next two years.

Do you have any reviews on Atlanta, GA? It’s very similar to Charlotte along with some developments to make it more walkable.

Can you do a visit to Nashville as well? I feel like it’s in the same boat as Charlotte but is further behind

if you want to see some of the worst urban design Canada has to offer, please visit St. John's Newfoundland and Labrador. I've lived and driven in so many places in the world (every major city in Canada, many in the states, England, Finland, Australia, NZ, Brazil, India, Italy, Cuba) and I was shocked at some of the road design choices in St. John's. Truly baffling.

Best line on You Tube, in this case, regarding checkered flag crosswalks on the block occupied by the NASCAR HOF:”maybe not the message you want to send to drivers.”

Oil lobby. America is slow to adopt public transit and to be honest Americans don’t want to share transportations-especially after Covid.

I don’t know if this channel is good for newer American cities. They aren’t walkable. This channel is for walkable cities

Considering it’s a city I know a little better, I’d love a video about New Orleans.

The bus station is disgusting

I love the CityVisit videos!!! Keep ‘em comin :)

I live about 40 minutes north of Charlotte, and I was really impressed with your video. I am a very big fan of public transportation.

Still better than El Paso

I guess massive construction is suppose to happen over night. Lol glad for the people who enjoy our little urban city and for those who visit and leave. I personally want less people here but know its not going to happen. Its growing faster than we can build these marked out streets for Stop lights, walkways and such... Thanks to social media INTERNET people can critique something overnight thats been a constant development. Do you know of how many people we have to outsource for construction work.. i can just imagine what would have been said about new York, san fran back in the 1700s 1800 when gold rush started..
Yet we are talking about transit when we should be more concerned about how much Homelessness this constant development has brought onto our little Urban city..

Can you please use your voice to help educate the viewers and possibly help our homeless population. Thank you 🙏😊

What? This is junk science. Check out Fairfax country VA (Wikipedia: Fairfax_County,_Virginia) and see it has about 1.2M people and about 1000 km2 in land, which gives it roughly the same density (2,941.82/sq mi (1,135.84/km2)) as Charlotte NC-SC, and nobody in Fairfax complains about urban sprawl (though it was designed for cars in the 1950s and the zoning does not allow for higher density as recently approved for in neighboring Arlington country, VA with the "MIssing Middle").

BtW household incomes in Fairfax for the Median/Mean are well over $100k per year, often closer to $150k a year, and for certain zip codes well over $200k a year. Wikipedia: "Fairfax was the first U.S. county to reach a six-figure median household income and has the third-highest median household income of any county-level local jurisdiction in the U.S.["

I'll take the "urban sprawl" with that kind of money. You can have your walkable cities.

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

Charlotte is a wonderful city and has a ton of history. The problems Charlotte faces is 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

Charlotte is a great place to live. We love the rapid growth happening all around us. Business is booming!

If every live in a rural area you don't want to live in a city, but want the city close enough so don't have to try as far to get things. Urban like area which has all shops, but u don't want to see neighbor in yard either.

I'm not far: in the suburbs of Raleigh. I and my family love to visit Charlotte. I've had some work travel that allowed me to use Amtrak rather than drive or fly. I've taken the family on Amtrak and driven with the family for weekend visits. It's not amazing in every sense, but it is enjoyable and different than Raleigh, so it feels like a nice place for a short vacation. Having the LYNX is superb for these short visits; we don't have to drive to all the locations we want to visit, and we can easily find food halls to try a mix of cuisine choices to select from. I honestly wish Raleigh and the Triangle were learning the value of the lite rail and TOD from Charlotte and applying those lessons to the suburbs of Raleigh. I get around by bike on the greenways, but I would love to get a lite rail that could alleviate some of the distance and enable more exploring.

All those 5 over 1s are disgusting. These cities look the same.

To many humans on earth we cause our own problems.

For the record, it's Charlatans (jk)

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.

I live in Charlotte (4th ward) without a car. I share many of your sentiments. Future planning looks hopeful, but you can tell Charlotte was planned to be a driving/commuting city. The light rail is quite easy to ride without a pass or ticket, I often get on the rail with no one checking my ticket (which I do buy, but I think many don’t). There’s a lot of work to be done here to make Charlotte a better urban area with transportation/walkable options.

Your videos are consistently great. But I’m puzzled by the notion that Charlotte has the worst sprawl. I lived on the far north edge of the LA metro area in the early 1970’s. Now I live on the far north edge of Charlotte’s equivalent metro area. Even in the 70’s it took me longer to drive to LA metro’s south edge than it takes me today to drive to Charlotte metro’s south edge.

What's wrong with a little elbow room.

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.

I left Charlotte after living there for 10 years. The city lacks culture and natural beauty. It’s just urban sprawl with a young crowd of Clemson, UNC, and USC (Columbia ) graduates.

I moved to Charlotte 17 years ago. I wanted to live in a more urban neighborhood,but it was and still is significantly more costly to do so. Most of the mid and high rise housing options have amenity/HOA fees close to a mortgage payment. You can find a 2,000 sq ft house in a less urban residential community with lower HOA fees for less than a 2 bedroom condo with higher fees. Until that changes or space runs out, the sprawl will likely continue.

Houston should hold that title.

Some good points but honestly....does every city have to feel like NY, Chicago or SF (Disclosure: I have lived all of my life in the first two). Charlotte, at least to me, seems like a balance of new urbanism and new and old south charm. Beautiful homes in relatively walkable old neighborhoods, hi rise apartments probably catering to GEN Z and Millennials and maybe empty nesters and more distant suburbs for those (probably young famiiles) who want a quiet life. For a metro area of barely 3 million - the transit system is developing well and growing. Look at Phoenix, Nashville and some other "sunbelt" cities - their transit and neighborhoods are not, from what you show here, nearly as concentric as Charlottie's. Again - transit and density there will likely NEVER rival NY or Chicago but does it have to? For all our problems in the US - one thing we have is variety. Please - we don't need clones of every city where the only difference is in one you need a coat in January and the other a light sweater!

Just wait until you visit Phoenix, AZ. Phoenix puts Charlotte to shame. The Phx Metro stretches ~80 miles East to West and ~60 miles North to South.

I was expecting so much more from Charlotte, being a financial hub and all. I imagined it as a smaller version of Atlanta. It's not, it just feels like a big country town, Downtown has nothing going on, the surrounding neighborhoods are lackluster, the roads are not well maintained and confusing. I was just expecting more of a big city feel, it doesn't have that. The people were pretty nice though.

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

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

Feels like a more interesting version of Norfolk/Virginia Beach from what you're saying. I've been through it but never stopped in it. Freeways were very clean and downtown or maybe it was uptown seemed clean and pristine. Not sure about the actual city. The patches of urbanism reminds me a bit of Atlanta to be honest. I think a lot of the South is like this.

Towns and cities in Queensland, Australia are much the same for sprawl.

"How can you drive in from the suburbs to place like this and not think I could probably live here?"

Easy answer; some of us subscribe to the theory that "Hell is other people" and have no desire to live in an area were 2000 people live on the same block. It's not a question of "could you", yes, I could. But would you? No, I don't want to live in such a place (others might though). I live a bit beyond the suburbs (not in the Charlotte, NC area), it turns out that a 2.5 acre lot is about the right size for me. Small enough to the point where I'm not having to spend inordinate amounts of time on upkeep, but big enough that the neighbors won't be a bother, and whatever I do won't bother them, plus enough room for large patio, pool, and detached workshed/garage and still have a decently sized backyard. Do I have to drive everywhere? Yes, but it's a small price to pay for not having to deal with the kind of population density found in urban areas.

You want to see what happens when the sprawl dies off but all the space is still there… go to Detroit 😂 when they built the D they literally tried to make it so you couldn’t walk and you had to buy a car to get anywhere cuz you know we made them here at the time 😂

Phoenix is more car-centric. Hardly any public transport, so many freeways, and everyone drives. The grid system kind of induces sprawl, and there are no barriers to it. AND it's STILL sprawling. I think Phoenix, if it isn't on top for sprawl, then it will be soon. It's a poster child for sprawl.

Imagine being me and growing up there 😅 spent ~20 years there and was super bored.

Also, I thought Houston was the sprawl capital