Thank You Charlotte

Howdy y’all,

So I walked out of Charlotte about a week and a half ago after spending about 6 days in the Queen City. Apologies for this taking so long as it has been go go go getting to Durham and seeing other cities since then. I was fortunate to be hosted by some great folks while in town, so thank you to Marlee, Mari, Caleb and Jordan. Also a huge shout out to the Charlotte Urbanist’s for showing me around town. An absolutely wonderful organization and if you are the least bit concerned with walkability, transit, bikeability, housing affordability and so on in Charlotte, I’d highly recommend getting involved with them and following them on social media.

I felt like I got to see so much of the city in only a short period of time. Got to hit up plenty of spots while in town like the little Sugar Creek and Mallard Greenways, Optimist Hall, South End (along the rail trail), NODA, Uptown, and Charlotte Motor Speedway. Was also fortunate to get to bike around virtually the whole city with some of the folks from the Charlotte Urbanists (never saw the “Jesus Saves” guy though). Maybe my favorite spot that I got to visit while in Charlotte wasn’t even in Charlotte. South of Charlotte in Fort Mill, SC there is the remains of The Heritage USA theme park, a Christian theme park started by televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. Which at one point was the third most attended theme park in the country behind the Disney parks. The site has been redeveloped and is now owned by a church and a retirement community. I’m sure plenty of folks in the area are familiar with the site, but if you aren’t I would highly recommend biking down (from Charlotte) to go see it.

I know the meme in Charlotte is that the city has no culture, but my takeaway is that Charlotte is just trying to find its identity. Charlotte’s image is definitely shaped by banking, televangelism, and NASCAR which were not strong forces in other cities, but none of which solely defined Charlotte either. Having the opportunity to walk through a number of other cities that had large transplant populations, I think what is cool about Charlotte, compared to those, is that Charlotte has much more of a blank canvas to define itself. The city is clearly growing quickly and with the influx of folks that canvas will inevitably fill with color and defining features. In the meantime the city has lots of painted parking garages that have cemented themselves firmly in my mind. I do think it was funny that I saw more Yankees merch than any other team while I was there.

Something else that made Charlotte unique was the affinity towards Jeff Jackson. Throughout my walk, rarely has a congress person been mentioned in the cities or states I’ve walked through. But Jeff Jackson was brought up a lot while I was in town, and never in a bad way. I’m sure he has his detractors, but it was pretty cool to see an elected official connect so much with his constituents. Maybe he’d want to meet up when I get to DC lol.

Overall, I had a wonderful time in Charlotte and was very fortunate to pass through your lovely city. Thankful to my hosts and also a special s/o to Jacob from the Charlotte Urbanists who was a wonderful tour guide. If anyone is interested in supporting and learning more about AmericaWalks, check them out at AmericaWalks.org. If anyone is interested in learning more about my walk or following along, the best place is walk2washington.con or walk2washington on IG/FB.

Thanks again and hope to return someday Charlotte,

HMR