The 2017 Charlotte Neighborhood Bracket: What is Charlotte’s best neighborhood?
Note: Voting for the first round has closed. Vote in the third round here.
Charlotte is passionate about its neighborhoods. Don’t believe me? Our top two stories from February both centered around neighborhood drama: “I should have never moved to south Charlotte” (but is Cotswold south Charlotte?) and “RIP South End.”
One of our most commented on stories from last month was about the coming Common Market OakWold, with people debating whether it should include the Cotswold reference in the name.
And you wouldn’t believe the amount of email, Tweets and Facebook response we get about neighborhood names and locations. (You better not say Amelie’s or Birdsong is in NoDa.)
So, in the spirit of March and brackets, let’s settle this neighborhood debate once and for all. Presenting: The 2017 Charlotte Neighborhoods Bracket.
Here’s how it works
Over the next five days, you, wise C5ers, will be voting round-by-round to determine the best neighborhood in Charlotte. The round of 32 is today, with the round of 16 following Tuesday, the quarterfinals Wednesday, the semifinals Thursday and the finals Friday.
You get one vote per day (ballot is at the bottom of this post), and you should vote in every matchup each day.
The polls close each day at 8 p.m.
The seeding
To make this as fair as reasonably possible, a panel of five Charlotte Neighborhood Experts* convened to determine the 32 neighborhoods included.
*i.e. the C5 staff. We’ve all lived in Charlotte neighborhoods for at least a year, so that makes us experts. Right? Right.
The process:
– Together, we compiled a list of nearly 40 neighborhoods. (We limited it to Mecklenburg County, but did include all of the suburb towns.)
– From there, the panelists rated each neighborhood on a 1-5 scale, with 1 meaning “This neighborhood is totally lame” and 5 meaning “This neighborhood is LIT.” We based the ratings on things like restaurant/bar scene, shopping, location, potential and general coolness.
– Those ratings were added up to determine the top 32 neighborhoods, and their seeding, which you can see below. (This means, of course, that several neighborhoods didn’t make the cut. If your favorite isn’t on the list, that’s probably why.)
(1) Plaza Midwood
(2) NoDa
(3) Downtown Davidson
(4) Elizabeth
(5) Fourth Ward
(6) Montford/Madison Park/Park Road Shopping Center
(7) Third Ward
(8) Dilworth
(9) LoSo (the area around The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery, aka Lower South End aka Queen Park)
(10) Downtown Matthews
(11) SouthPark
(12) South End
(13) First Ward
(14) Myers Park
(15) FreeMoreWest (area around the intersection of Morehead and Freedom, including Wesley Heights)
(16) Midtown
(17) Cotswold
(18) Cornelius
(19) West End (area around Johnson C. Smith University, including Biddleville)
(20) Villa Heights
(21) MoRA (Monroe Road area, from Sharon Amity to the border with Matthews)
(22) Oakhurst
(23) Second Ward
(24) Plaza Hills (area around Hattie’s Tap and Tavern)
(25) East Charlotte (outside of Plaza Midwood)
(26) Ballantyne
(27) Belmont/Optimist Park (Belmont the neighborhood, not the town in Gaston County)
(28) Quail Hollow
(29) Arboretum
(30) North End
(31) Steele Creek/Ayrsley
(32) Downtown Pineville
One last thing
If you have any problems with voting, shoot me an email corey@charlottefive.com. But if you’re emailing me to complain that your neighborhood didn’t make the bracket/is seeded too low/etc. just … don’t.
This is all just for fun. There’s nothing really on the line here (though we do have some cool ideas for little ways we can honor the winning neighborhood).
Now, the bracket:
Click on the image to enlarge, or you can view the whole bracket here. You can vote on each matchup below the bracket image.
Note: Voting for the first round has closed. Vote in the third round here.
Photo: Mark Hames/Charlotte Observer file
This story was originally published March 13, 2017 at 1:19 AM with the headline "The 2017 Charlotte Neighborhood Bracket: What is Charlotte’s best neighborhood?."