8 money-saving escape-the-RNC getaways
Plus: Nature Museum officials criticized for 'lousy job' but press ahead with expansion; Catching up with VisArt Video; Rock Hill to become the world's cornhole capital?
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RNC week: School’s out, weather’s nice, vacations are cheaper — and free of protestors and riot police
By Nicholas Felten
In the last week of August, Charlotte residents will have the magical opportunity to experience the wonders of representative democracy up close: Republicans will converge on our city the week of Aug. 24 to nominate their candidate for president.
However, the Republican National Convention could bring its share of headaches — especially for the 116,000 people who work uptown. Hassles might include motorcades that block traffic, riot police, security barriers and people flipping each other off and screaming while holding obnoxious signs.
Smart time to leave? Consider this: The weather will be favorable. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools doesn’t start classes until the following week. Summer vacations have all but ended everywhere else, so many hotels throughout the Southeast have dropped their prices from their summer peaks. And if you leave Charlotte, odds are low that some roving “man-on-the-street” interviewer will push a microphone in your face and ask for comment on the president’s latest tweet or whether property damage by protestors is justified.
“It seems like the perfect time to take off,” says Lisa Worf, co-host of “Morning Edition” on Charlotte NPR station WFAE. She is co-hosting a new podcast about Charlotte hosting the RNC that debuts on Thursday and acknowledges some people will want to avoid the hassles: “If you work uptown, there’s not going to be much getting done that week. It should be pretty easy to get out of town.”
Here’s a helpful list of places not located in Charlotte but that still aren’t too far away. Who knows ... if your house fetches a high enough price on Airbnb, you might even turn a profit on this trip:
Amelia Island, Fla.
WHY: It’s the peaceful, underappreciated northern tip of Florida, about 5½ hours away.
WHAT: Beach-lovers can visit the municipal beaches or check out Little Talbot Island State Park for something more secluded, while history and nature lovers will want to try Fort Clinch State Park and maybe see a dolphin or two. Fernandina Beach is a quaint small town.
STAY: Hampton Inn & Suites Amelia Island-Historic Harbor Front. Just $131 a night RNC week ($48/night less than Fourth of July week). If you’re a high roller, or merely a pretender living beyond your means, check out the Amelia Island Ritz Carlton at $460/night during RNC week ($186/night less).
Asheville, N.C.
WHY: Because NoDa and Plaza-Midwood aren’t enough for you. Also, mountains.
WHAT: Late August is apple season, so stop at Sky Top Orchard in Flat Rock on your way up. Hit the Asheville Pinball Museum while you’re there; the entrance fee gets you unlimited play on their considerable collection. For exceptional people-watching and the true Asheville vibe, don’t miss the Friday night drum circle downtown. You can hit the Blue Ridge Parkway for some scenery, or head to Cherokee for some gambling. And make sure you take the scenic route by Lake Lure on your way back.
STAY: Beats me. Asheville is expensive. Maybe you have some hotel points saved up?
Beaufort, S.C.
WHY: Because you couldn’t decide between Charleston and Savannah so you picked somewhere in between, or possibly because Hilton Head Island is a little too ritzy for your taste. And also so you can smugly tell your friends it’s pronounced “Byew-fert”, not “Bo-fert,” like the one in North Carolina.
WHAT: Hunting Island State Park has a beach as well as the only publicly-accessible lighthouse in South Carolina. A $2 admission fee gets you inside and to the top, if you’re up for a climb. Beaufort has a small but scenic antebellum downtown on the water. And you can learn about Gullah culture on nearby Saint Helena Island.
STAY: Beaufort Inn, $154/night RNC week ($8/night less than Fourth of July week)
Blowing Rock, N.C.
WHY: A sensible base for exploring the mountains that also has a cute town with shopping and restaurants. Plus, the refreshing mountain air might be a few degrees cooler than Charlotte and have no trace of tear gas.
WHAT: You’re close to Tweetsie Railroad (open Friday-Sundays during the RNC), Linville Falls, Grandfather Mountain and plenty of hiking trails of all levels. At the end of the day, have dinner in town (or in nearby Boone), grab an ice cream at Kilwin’s and head to Blowing Rock’s huge playground, where the kids can let off steam and the strong cell coverage lets you can catch up on Facebook after a full day of family time.
STAY: For the mountain experience, why not rent a cabin on VRBO or Airbnb? There are a bunch of rustic-looking yet modern options, including this 1,800 s.f. , three-bedroom cabin that sleeps 10 and is $175 a night (same price as Fourth of July week).
Columbia, S.C.
WHY: It’s practically next door. The drive isn’t much worse than commuting to Fort Mill. Zing!
WHAT: Sure, Columbia in late August will be as hot as the Molotov cocktails Antifa protestors will be chucking at riot police back home. But the Riverbanks Zoo & Garden is always fun. So is tubing on the Saluda River. And did you know that Congaree National Park — the closest national park to Charlotte — is only half an hour from Columbia? Sure, it’s a godforsaken mosquito-infested swamp, but what’s a national park without a little godforsaken wilderness?
STAY: Hyatt Place Downtown / The Vista, $159/night during RNC week (same as Fourth of July week). Or stay at the new Hyatt Place a little further east in downtown Sumter, $108/night both weeks.
Falls Park on the Reedy in Greenville, S.C., is one of many pleasant places close to Charlotte where vacationers the last week of August won’t have to worry about security checkpoints. (Photo by VisitGreenvilleSC/Craig A. Lee)
Greenville, S.C.
WHY: The New York Times named Greenville one of its 52 places to visit in 2017, alongside such treasures as Dubrovnik, Grand Teton National Park, and the entire country of Canada. But Greenville is much more conveniently located than those places.
WHAT: A surprisingly charming downtown. Falls Park on the Reedy is a world-class urban park worth spending a few hours in. The NYT compared the city to Charleston on account of its restaurant scene, so enjoy some fine dining — without having to jostle with Wolf Blitzer for a table. And if you want to explore the southern Appalachians, there are several state parks nearby.
STAY: Westin Poinsett, $263/night during RNC week (same price as Fourth of July week)
Helen, Ga.
WHY: The majestic beauty of nature and/or ersatz German architecture. Plus it’s about the same drive time as Atlanta ... with the added bonus that you don’t end up in Atlanta at the end of your drive.
WHAT: Helen is a good base for exploring the nearby state parks, such as Unicoi, Moccasin Creek and Tallulah Gorge, the latter of which was a setting in “Deliverance.” There are also a number of German restaurants to accompany all the Bavarian-styled buildings in town.
STAY: Holiday Inn Express, at $114/night ($47/night cheaper than Fourth of July week)
Wilmington, N.C.
WHY: The new 74 bypass around Monroe has shaved some time off the trip, making the drive more on par with Charleston or Myrtle Beach.
WHAT: Beaches, of course. Beyond that, downtown Wilmington and the Riverwalk make for a pleasant stroll. You can tour the USS North Carolina, a retired battleship that saw action in World War II. And your kids will love it if you drive down to Fort Fisher and load your car on the ferry to Southport, which should be mercifully free of Republican fanboys hoping to nab selfies with hunky Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming.
STAY: Embassy Suites Riverfront, $134/night during RNC week ($91/night cheaper than Fourth of July week).
Nicholas Felten is an occasional contributor to The Charlotte Ledger.
Night at the Nature Museum 2: Sticking with Freedom Park expansion
Myers Park residents filled the lobby of the Nature Museum on Tuesday night to meet with leaders of Discovery Place and county government to talk about the museum’s expansion plans. It felt like a sequel similar to the original meeting six weeks ago. (See “Nature Museum plans hit buzzsaw of Myers Park opposition,” Dec. 6.)
Some residents feel as though the powers-that-be are not listening to their objections to the renovation plans, which would double the museum’s size and attract twice as many visitors as it does today.
Many in the crowd vented their frustrations about crowds, traffic, parking and the loss of trees near their homes in front of luminaries that included County Manager Dena Diorio, three county commissioners, Discovery Place CEO Catherine Wilson Horne and several of the museum’s board members.
“I would just like to say, ‘Lousy job!’” said Mark Levine, who lives on nearby Maryland Avenue. “You’re like an ostrich with its head in the sand!”
Not everyone agreed. One resident noted many nearby Myers Park houses had been gutted and expanded and said the Nature Museum should be, too.
Myers Park residents packed into Discovery Place’s Nature Museum on Tuesday night to hear the latest expansion plans. Many left unimpressed.
Museum move? Discovery Place and county officials said they had examined moving the project to Park Road Park, which several residents suggested at the last meeting. (See “SouthPark would happily take Myers Park’s Nature Museum,” Jan. 8.) But they said Park Road Park has less “diversity of wildlife” suitable for interactive educational exhibits and that building restrictions in federal grants there make building a museum on that site less ideal. Instead, on Tuesday, they indicated they would like to move forward with making the Freedom Park expansion work.
Key point: The county and Discovery Place do not need the permission of neighbors to build at Freedom Park. On Tuesday, leaders floated a few minor compromises that seemed to resonate with some less-outspoken residents, such as building a separate bus parking lot off Princeton Avenue.
After the meeting, county leaders said they’d keep studying the issue.
Catching up with VisArt, Charlotte’s last video store
WFAE’s Nick de la Canal checked in recently with VisArt Video, which you might be forgiven for believing died off years ago.
Longtime Charlotte residents will recall when the big question used to be: How can independent video-rental shops like VisArt stay afloat when Blockbuster is everywhere?
Today, of course, the question is: How can VisArt stay afloat when everybody is streaming movies on the internet?
De la Canal reports that VisArt moved five years ago from its longtime home in Elizabeth (near The Crunkleton, for those needing a reference point) to the corner of Eastway Drive and Central Avenue. It has become a nonprofit, which helps it collect donations to stay afloat. And while it still rents DVDs and VHS tapes, it has also started hosting more community events for aspiring filmmakers:
On a recent weekday, longtime employee Briana Kalbach was unlocking the drop-box outside the storefront and fishing out some returns from the night before. She plucked out two DVDs from the box — an old western (“The Outlaw Josey Wales”) and a late-’90s action flick (“Absolute Power”).
Kalbach has been working at VisArt for several years now, and she’s what other employees might call a “VisArtian.” She’s got neon-blue hair, beat up Chucks, and a deep knowledge of movies both popular and obscure.
She’s also in charge of maintaining the store’s vast collection of nearly 40,000 videos. Most are DVDs, but lots are VHS tapes too.
“And they actually do rent, which is kind of wild,” she says. …
[The store’s collection] includes stuff like cult films, BBC programs, documentaries, and obscure foreign flicks from more than a dozen countries. There’s also lots of stuff you can’t find online, like old Hanna-Barbera cartoons, Nickelodean shows, and other limited releases.
In the span of 20 years, VisArt has gone from mainstream to niche. It lost most of its customers, who found more convenient ways of watching movies. Yet it hangs on, trying to reinvent itself as the world around it changes.
Nobody knows where the plot line goes next for VisArt, but maybe there’s a lesson in there somewhere. Or at least a good movie.
Today’s supporting sponsor is The McIntosh Law Firm & Carolina Revaluation Services:
In brief
Private wealth move: Charlotte-based Wickham Cash Partners is moving to UBS from Merrill Lynch. The move includes the two brokers ranked by Barrons as having the most money under management in North Carolina, Mitchell Wickham and Gregory Cash. The firm manages $10.8B in client assets. Wickham and Cash “worked with around 60 ultra-wealthy families, according to a 2011 profile.” (AdvisorHub, UBS)
River District update: Crescent Communities says it plans to start building the infrastructure for the River District development in 2020: “This year, we’re going to continue planning and starting infrastructure, and finishing the master planning of the community. … Vertical [construction] would likely start in 2021,” a company official told the Business Journal in an interview. He was not asked about reports from a couple months ago that partner Lincoln Harris is stepping back from its role co-developing the 1,400 site on the Catawba River west of the airport (Biz Journal, subscriber-only).
Personal finance class: A move to require a financial literacy class in North Carolina high schools is drawing fire from teachers. The class would replace a history requirement. (News & Observer)
Panthers ‘impressed’ with Indian Trail’s stadium plans: The Union County town of Indian Trail would like to build a 10,000-seat sports stadium near its downtown. The town manager said a stadium “will put Indian Trail on the map” and that although the town doesn’t have the $20M-$30M a stadium would cost, it would like to sell naming rights to finance construction. “Town staff recently met with representatives from the Carolina Panthers to showcase its stadium plans. [A town spokesman] said the representatives were ‘very excited and very impressed’ with the design.” (Union County Weekly)
Tepper’s financial advice: Billionaire Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper says he plans to keep money in the stock market: “I love riding a horse that’s running,” Tepper said in an email to CNBC. “We have been long and continue that way. … At some point, the market will get to a level that I will slow down that horse and eventually get off.” He didn’t say when that might be. (CNBC)
Ballantyne hospital approved: The City Council approved rezoning 40 acres at Providence Road West at Johnston Road at the Hall Family Farm site for a new Novant Health hospital. “The 161,000-square-foot facility will have 36 acute care beds, two operating rooms and a dedicated C-section operating room.” It is expected to open in 2023. (Observer)
Panthers money: Panthers owner David Tepper and other Panthers officials donated money to the election campaigns of Mayor Vi Lyles and City Council members just weeks before they sought taxpayer money for Major League Soccer. (WBTV) The Ledger first reported Tepper’s $5,200 donation to Lyles in September.
Cornhole capital? Rock Hill is close to a deal to land the American Cornhole League HQ that is now on Nations Crossing Road in Charlotte. The league is eyeing 12,500 s.f. of office space “with plans including 12 cornhole courts that can be open for public use.” The league’s commissioner “said he could potentially see the city becoming the cornhole capital of the world.” (Biz Journal, subscriber-only)
This week in podcasting
A round-up of interesting moments in recent Charlotte podcasts
Whitewater felon turned author: Charlotte resident Webb Hubbell, who was sent to prison for his role in the Clinton Whitewater scandal of the 1990s, talks with host Landis Wade about how his experiences shaped the writing of his new novel, “The East End”: “I like to kid that I’m the only person who flew on Air Force One and Con Air in the same year. The experience in prison, you have everything taken away from you. … I went to Little Rock on Air Force One with the president on several occasions. Con Air was not as much fun. I was not in first class.” (Charlotte Readers Podcast, Jan. 13, 63 minutes)
Premarital financial advice: Host Nick Foy takes questions from soon-to-be-married guest Blake Edwards about how to combine finances when getting married and says the best advice is to sock away three to six months of living expenses and not overspend: “Making sure that you’ve given yourself enough buffer is really important. … You’re going to have now two incomes living in one house, and your expenses should go up a little bit. But if they go up a lot, it’s only because you’re not being careful enough. … People that do that, it doesn’t really necessarily even matter what the combined income is, they feel like they have margin and they feel relatively successful with their finances.” (Making Margin Podcast, Jan. 9, 26 minutes)
Her heart will go on
Celene Dion performs Tuesday night at the Spectrum Center. (Photo by Ledger reader Jessica DeLaura)
Cheap getaways from CLT
This weekend: Charlotte to Philadelphia, $38 round-trip on Frontier (nonstop), Jan. 25-28.
Charlotte to Las Vegas, $94 round-trip on American (nonstop), Jan. 29-Feb. 1.
Charlotte to Orlando, $49 round-trip on Frontier (nonstop), Jan. 29-Feb. 1.
Charlotte to Newark, $60 round-trip on American (nonstop), various dates in January-February.
Charlotte to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, $217 round-trip on Spirit (one-stop), Feb. 10-18.
Charlotte to Fort Lauderdale, $64 round-trip on Spirit (nonstop), various dates in February.
Charlotte to Guayaquil, Ecuador, $283 round-trip on Spirit (one-stop), April 29-May 5.
Source: Google Flights. Fares retrieved Wednesday morning. They might have changed by the time you read this.
Programming note: Ledger editor Tony Mecia appears as a guest on 90.7 WFAE at 6:40 a.m. and 8:40 a.m. on Thursdays for a discussion of the week’s local business news in the station’s “BizWorthy” segment. Audio and transcripts are also available online.
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The Charlotte Ledger is an e-newsletter and web site publishing timely, informative, and interesting local business news and analysis Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, except holidays and as noted. We strive for fairness and accuracy and will correct all known errors. The content reflects the independent editorial judgment of The Charlotte Ledger. Any advertising, paid marketing, or sponsored content will be clearly labeled.
The Charlotte Ledger is published by Tony Mecia, an award-winning former Charlotte Observer business reporter and editor. He lives in Charlotte with his wife and three children.