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Charlotte is the largest city in the state of North Carolina and the 20th largest city in the United States. It has a population of approximately 664,332 (2007 estimate). It is the county seat of Mecklenburg County,GR6 and is located in the south-central part of the state in the Piedmont region, near the South Carolina border. The city's economy has matured in the 1990s and early 2000s to become dominated by financial services, as well as retail commerce. According to 2006 estimates, Charlotte is the 5th fastest growing among large U.S. cities.
Nicknamed The Queen City (which it shares with Cincinnati, Ohio and Buffalo, New York), Charlotte (as well as the county containing it) was named in honor of Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg, wife of King George III of the United Kingdom. During the American Revolution the British Commander in the Southern Colonies, General Cornwallis, occupied Charlotte but was driven out soon afterwards by the fierce opposition of the city's residents to British rule. Cornwallis famously wrote that Charlotte was "a hornet's nest of rebellion", leading to another city nickname: The Hornet's Nest.
The Charlotte metropolitan area (MSA) had a census estimated population of 1,583,016 in 2006. As of 2006, the Charlotte-Gastonia-Salisbury combined statistical area (CSA) had a regional population of 2,191,604. A resident of Charlotte is referred to as a Charlottean.
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Downtown Charlotte Education
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The city's public school system, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, is the largest in North Carolina and 23rd largest in the nation. About 130,000 students are taught in 161 separate elementary, middle and high schools. Secular and religious private schools are prominent, from well-established schools with large campuses to others that are small and new. The relatively recent phenomenon of charter schools, independently operated public schools, are another education option.
Charlotte's largest higher education institution, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, is located in University City, as the northeastern portion of Charlotte is called. At 20,000 students and counting, it is the fastest-growing university in the state system. The area is also home to University Research Park, a 3,200 acre research and corporate park. Central Piedmont Community College has multiple campuses, all in the Charlotte metro area, and is the largest community college in North Carolina or South Carolina.[23] Charlotte is home to a number of notable private universities and colleges such as Queens University of Charlotte and Davidson College; the latter being 20 miles north of Charlotte.
The Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County serves the Charlotte area with a large collection of books, CDs and DVDs in 20 branches. Most of its locations provide free access to Internet-enabled computers and WiFi.
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Downtown Charlotte Employment
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Charlotte has become a major U.S. financial center, and, based on assets, both the nation's second largest and fourth largest financial institutions call the city home (Bank of America and Wachovia, respectively). Bank of America' headquarters, along with other regional banking and financial services companies, are located primarily in the uptown financial district. Thanks in large part to the expansion of the city's banking industry, the Charlotte skyline has mushroomed in the past two decades and boasts the Bank of America Corporate Center, the tallest skyscraper between Philadelphia and Atlanta. The 60-story postmodern gothic tower, designed by renowned architect Cesar Pelli, stands 871 feet tall and was completed in 1992.
The following Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in the Charlotte metropolitan area:
* Bank of America
* Duke Energy
* Family Dollar
* Goodrich Corporation
* Lowe's
* Nucor
* Sonic Automotive
* SPX Corporation
* Wachovia
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Downtown Charlotte History
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The area that is now Charlotte was first settled in 1755 when Thomas Polk (uncle of United States President James K. Polk), who was traveling with Thomas Spratt and his family, stopped and built his house of residence at the intersection of two Native American trading paths between the Yadkin and Catawba rivers. One of the paths ran north-south and was part of the Great Wagon Road; the second path ran east-west along what is now modern-day Trade Street. In the early part of the 18th century, the Great Wagon Road led settlers of Scots-Irish and German descent from Pennsylvania into the Carolina foothills. Within the decades following Polk's settling, the area grew to become the community of "Charlotte Town," which officially incorporated as a town in 1768. The crossroads, perched atop a long rise in the Piedmont landscape, became the heart of modern Uptown Charlotte.
In 1770, surveyors marked off the new town's streets in a grid pattern for future development. The east-west trading path became Trade Street, and the Great Wagon Road became Tryon Street, in honor of William Tryon, a royal governor of colonial North Carolina. The intersection of Trade and Tryon is known as "Trade & Tryon" or simply "The Square".
Both the town (now a city) and its county are named for Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the German-born wife of British King George III. The town name was chosen in hopes of winning favor with the crown, but tensions between the United Kingdom and Charlotte Town began to grow as King George imposed unpopular laws on the citizens in response to the townspeople's desire for independence. On May 20, 1775, the townsmen allegedly signed a proclamation later known as the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, a copy of which was sent, though never officially presented, to the Continental Congress a year later. The date of the declaration appears on the North Carolina state flag. Eleven days later, the same townsmen met to create and endorse the Mecklenburg Resolves, a set of laws to govern the newly independent town.
Charlotte was a site of encampment for both American and British armies during the Revolutionary War, and during a series of skirmishes between British troops and Charlotteans the village earned the lasting nickname "Hornet's Nest" from frustrated Lord General Charles Cornwallis. An ideological hotbed of revolutionary sentiment during the Revolutionary War and for some time afterwards, the legacy endures today in the nomenclature of such landmarks as Independence Boulevard, Independence High School, Independence Center, Freedom Park, Freedom Drive, and the former NBA team Charlotte Hornets.
Churches, mainly of the Presbyterian faith, but also Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, Lutherans and Catholics began to form in the early 1800s, eventually giving Charlotte its nickname "The City of Churches."
In 1799, 12 year-old Conrad Reed brought home a rock weighing about 17 pounds, which the family used as a bulky doorstop for three years before it was recognized by a jeweler as near solid gold and bought for a paltry $3.50. The first verified gold-find in the fledgling United States, young Reed's discovery became the genesis of the nation's first gold rush. Many veins of gold were found in the area throughout the 1800s and even into the early 1900s, thus the founding of the Charlotte Mint in 1837 for minting local gold. The state of North Carolina "led the nation in gold production until the California Gold Rush of 1848", although the total volume of gold mined in the Charlotte area was dwarfed by subsequent rushes. Charlotte's city population at the 1880 Census grew to 7,084. Some locally based groups still pan for gold occasionally in local (mostly rural) streams and creeks. The Reed Gold Mine operated until 1912. The Charlotte Mint was active until 1861, when Confederate forces seized the mint at the outbreak of the Civil War. The mint was not reopened at the end of the war, but the building survives today, albeit in a different location, now housing the Mint Museum of Art.
The city's first boom came after the Civil War, as a cotton processing center and a railroad hub. Population leapt again during World War I, when the U.S. government established Camp Greene north of present-day Wilkinson Boulevard. Many soldiers and suppliers stayed after the war, launching an ascent that eventually overtook older and more established rivals along the arc of the Carolina Piedmont.
The city's modern-day banking industry achieved prominence in the 1970s and 1980s, largely under the leadership of financier Hugh McColl. McColl transformed North Carolina National Bank (NCNB) into a formidable national player that, through a series of aggressive acquisitions, eventually became Bank of America. Another bank, First Union, experienced similar growth, and is now known as Wachovia after a merger. Today, measured by control of assets, Charlotte is the second largest banking headquarters in the United States after New York City.
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Downtown Charlotte Transportation
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Mass transit
The Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) is the agency responsible for operating mass transit in Charlotte, and Mecklenburg County. CATS operates historical trolleys, express shuttles and bus service serving Charlotte and its immediate suburbs. The 2030 Transit Corridor System Plan (updated October 2006) looks to supplement its established bus service with light rail & commuter rail lines called LYNX. Designed to carry passengers along five key corridors, the project is estimated to cost $8.9 billion. $4.6 billion are capital costs and $4.3 billion are operating costs through 2035.
A 1998 ballot measure was approved giving authorization to develop five rapid transit corridors by levying a 1/2 cent sales tax. Typically, as is the case with most cities throughout America, developing "rapid transit corridors" involves bus-only corridors. However, almost half of the revenue is being used to fund construction of a light rail and commuter rail system, even though this was not explicitly authorized on the ballot. Light rail has now become a major source of controversy in Charlotte-Mecklenburg. A measure to repeal the 1/2 cent sales tax will be placed on the November 2007 ballot. Refer to Charlotte Area Transit System for more information.
CATS has nearly completed work on the first line. It, so far, costs $462 million, when it was originally estimated to cost $221 million. It will run from uptown south to I-485, 9.6 miles, largely paralleling South Boulevard, called the South Corridor Line. Plans for LYNX will connect uptown Charlotte with some of its immediate suburbs along four additional key corridors. It will be completed and become operational, regardless of the result of the November 2007 election.
Air
Charlotte/Douglas International Airport is the 11th busiest airport in the world, as measured by traffic movements... It is served by many international and domestic airlines, and is the largest hub of US Airways. American Airlines, Air Canada, Continental, Delta, Northwest, United, AirTran Airways, JetBlue and Lufthansa are some of the major carriers that serve the airport. Nonstop flights are available to many destinations across the United States, Europe, the Caribbean, Latin America and Canada.
Highways
Charlotte's central location between the population centers of the northeast and southeast has made it a transportation focal point and primary distribution center, with two major interstate highways, I-85 and I-77, intersecting near the city's center. Charlotte's beltway, designated I-485 and simply called "485" by locals, is partially completed but stalled for funding. The new projection has it slated for completion by 2013. Upon completion, 485 will have a total circumference of approximately 67 miles. Within the city, the I-277 loop freeway encircles Charlotte's downtown (usually referred to by its two separate sections, the John Belk Freeway and the Brookshire Freeway) while Charlotte Route 4 links major roads in a loop between I-277 and I-485.
Intercity rail
Amtrak's Crescent and Carolinian and Piedmont trains connect Charlotte with New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, and Raleigh to the north, and Atlanta, Birmingham and New Orleans to the south. The Amtrak station is located at 1914 North Tryon Street.
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Downtown Charlotte Weather
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Downtown Charlotte is located in North America's humid subtropical climate zone. The city has mild winters and hot, humid summers. In January, morning lows average around 32 °F and afternoon highs average 51 °F. In July, lows average 71 °F and highs average 90 °F. The Downtown Charlotte's location puts it in the direct path of subtropical moisture from the Gulf as it heads up the eastern seaboard along the jet stream, thus the city receives ample precipitation throughout the year but also a very large number of clear, sunny, and pleasantly warm days. On average, Downtown Charlotte receives about 43 inches of precipitation annually, including some Winter snow and more frequent ice-storms due to its inland location.
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