A NYC writer trashed Charlotte. ‘It’s no New York.’ Duh. That’s a bad thing? | Opinion
The New York Post published a column this week with a real groundbreaking premise. The headline: “Charlotte is a nice town — but it’s no New York.”
My first thought: It isn’t? Color me shocked.
My second thought: Nice … town?
Condescension aside, no one who actually lives in Charlotte would compare it to New York City. This is a mid-sized city, not a megapolis. Try telling that to Cindy Adams, a longtime columnist for the Post, who seems to have been under the false impression that Charlotte was supposed to be some vibrant concrete jungle paradise. In the column, she describes a friend’s recent trip to Charlotte, where he suffered untold horrors such as a Starbucks mishap and North Carolina’s antiquated alcohol laws.
“He recently entered a foreign place. Charlotte. It’s in a state named North Carolina,” she wrote. “Culture shock. Despite returning to us here where the cost is as high as an elephant’s eye, he is still in recovery.”
Ah, yes, the foreign land of Charlotte. Bring your passport!
Everywhere this friend visited, he had complaints. At Famous Toastery, he was given plastic utensils. Gasp! At Ruby Sunshine, there was a gentleman in a “Batman” cape and excessive use of hollandaise sauce. At Tupelo Honey, the lights were too bright and the menu had too much fried food. (Does he not realize he’s in the South?)
He tried to eat dinner outside, but “music blared from the house speaker, a street guitarist kept plinking, cars whizzed by blaring music.” (Because outdoor dining in New York is such a quiet and peaceful experience.) He lamented that there was nothing to do besides hit up a brewery or the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
So, to review: This writer’s friend — not the actual writer — stayed in Charlotte for a day or two, visited Starbucks and a few chain restaurants in Uptown and decided it wasn’t for him. That’s like judging New York City off of the restaurant inside the Empire State Building or the Olive Garden in Times Square.
Yes, there are plenty of people who would rather live in New York than Charlotte. I’ve had at least half a dozen friends move to New York City in the past year. But there are also a whole lot of New Yorkers moving to Charlotte, so there has to be something appealing about it. It’s different, for sure. It’s quieter, smaller, more spread out. That might just be what some people are looking for. Despite how much the city and its demographics have changed, Charlotte is a Southern city at heart. This is North Carolina, not New York.
It would be tempting here to take a tour of New York City’s shortcomings. It’s easy, as the Post shows, to feel better about your own choices by denigrating someone else’s. I’ll pass on that. Besides, there are plenty of ways Charlotte could stand to be a little more like New York. Better walkability and public transit, for one. I hope we continue to revitalize Uptown. It would be nice to have a winning football team (oops, New York doesn’t have that either). But there’s also plenty about Charlotte that I could never give up: the trees, the cheaper rent, the weather, the small-town feel. When I visit friends in New York, it does feel a little bit like visiting another land. I see why people love it. It’s just not for me.
So it’s fine if Charlotte just isn’t for the author or her friend. But don’t bash Charlotte for what it’s not if you haven’t taken the time to appreciate it for what it actually is. If you want the places you go to be like the place you came from, then what’s the point of traveling? And if you limit your Charlotte travels to just one segment of South Tryon, then you’re really not trying very hard at all.
The author is right: Charlotte is no New York, but it’s also not pretending to be. And most of us who live here are perfectly OK with that.
This story was originally published November 15, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
