Welcome to Charlotte...

This is my favorite Charlotte story.

Back in 1940, the census count pegged Charlotte's population as 94,501. This upset city leaders. They had expected that the count would show at least 100,000. To them, a six-digit population meant Charlotte had made the big time.

So the city set out to make it so. The Chamber of Commerce sent people into neighborhoods to look for anyone who'd been missed. Both local papers - the Observer and the News - published coupons you could send in to be counted. The city asked the Census Bureau for a recount. And six weeks later, the new official figure came out: 100,327.

Charlotte has always worked its butt off to be noticed. We have lacked many things over the decades. But we have never lacked for ambition.

If you're reading this, there's a good chance you're a newcomer. You have lots of company. There's a great passage in the book "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" about the first question people get asked when they arrive to a new town - the question in Savannah, Ga., is "What would you like to drink?" Well, in Charlotte, the icebreaker question is "Where are you from?"

The answer is, you're from everywhere. Newcomers still pour into Charlotte from the Rust Belt and the Northeast. (Have you heard of halfbacks? They're people who lived up North, moved to Florida, decided it was too hot and moved halfway back.)

But they're also from other parts of the country and other lands beyond our borders. Go out Central Avenue sometime and it won't be long before you run into a dim sum place and a Vietnamese pool hall and a Dominican street-food joint. Just off the avenue is an apartment complex that's home to Bosnian refugees. The world comes here.

Our history centers on business. Trade and Tryon streets, which intersect in the middle of uptown*, follow the route of two ancient Indian trading paths. That's why Charlotte is here, instead of closer to the Catawba River or the mountains. That intersection, hundreds of years ago, was like an exit on the interstate. Commerce happened there. And people followed.

*We call our downtown uptown. Charlotte is not exactly hilly, but Trade and Tryon do intersect at the top of a slight rise. Then again, at times we've also called uptown downtown. Part of living here is being flexible.

Over the years the Charlotte area has been a hub of gold mining, railroading, textile production and TV preaching. (Billy Graham, who grew up here, is one of the city's favorite sons; Jim Bakker, who ran the PTL Club from here, is not.)

We've been the home of stock-car racing since moonshiners took their souped-up rides to local dirt tracks. These days many NASCAR drivers live here, and the NASCAR Hall of Fame is uptown. The big race teams have shops that are open to the public. You can go up there and see cars being worked on and maybe buy a used lug nut.

But the real driver of Charlotte's fortunes is banking. In the '70s and '80s, banking leaders helped transform our banks from local businesses into global properties - especially Wachovia (now part of Wells Fargo) and Bank of America.

The banks' growth brought thousands of jobs and millions of dollars of wealth into town. But the banks' mistakes led to a financial crisis nationwide - and whiplash in Charlotte as our growth slammed on the brakes.

I've lived here for 22 years, and this is the most interesting period I remember in Charlotte - we're trying to figure out if we're still the ambitious city we've always been, or whether it's time to set a different course.

You can be a part of those decisions. Charlotte has always been a place where you can put down stakes and get involved. Go ahead and jump in.

I could talk a lot longer about what I love about Charlotte - the crape myrtles in the summer, the buzz outside the stadium before a Panthers game, a brownie at Amelie's bakery at 2 in the morning. But the other folks in this publication will tell you plenty.

I'll just end with this: Charlotte is always changing. Make this place your own. Be counted.