Newcomer events
A recent “newcomer schmooze” at the Levine Jewish Community Center in south Charlotte was a great opportunity to hear newcomers talk about why they moved to the Charlotte region.
After eating bagels and mingling during the Sunday event, they stood one by one to introduce themselves. They came from Florida, New York, California, Pennsylvania and many other states. They came for jobs, family reasons and a better lifestyle. And they were hungry to meet new people and get involved.
It’s like being a kid on the first day of junior high school, one man said. “Everything is new. It’s an adjustment.”
A woman from Philadelphia said: “I saw the Dr. Brown’s Diet Cream Soda at Dean & Deluca and thought ‘Well, maybe I can live here.’”
I’m preparing an article about newcomer groups offered through faith communities around the Charlotte area. Please e-mail me if you know of others I should check out, and watch the Faith & Values section for updates.
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To follow up on Monday’s column about another great event for newcomers, the Levine Museum of the New South’s “New South for New Southerners” series of events: I goofed. I somehow neglected to include the hours of this Thursday’s event for those interested in learning more about NASCAR – it’s from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
I also forgot to give the museum’s address: it’s 200 E. Seventh St., at the corner of College and Seventh Streets uptown – there’s easy parking in the colorful Seventh Street Station parking deck next door.
I’m well aware of how hard it is for newcomers to find their way around, so I’m sorry my column wasn’t clearer – I’ll do better in the future!
After eating bagels and mingling during the Sunday event, they stood one by one to introduce themselves. They came from Florida, New York, California, Pennsylvania and many other states. They came for jobs, family reasons and a better lifestyle. And they were hungry to meet new people and get involved.
It’s like being a kid on the first day of junior high school, one man said. “Everything is new. It’s an adjustment.”
A woman from Philadelphia said: “I saw the Dr. Brown’s Diet Cream Soda at Dean & Deluca and thought ‘Well, maybe I can live here.’”
I’m preparing an article about newcomer groups offered through faith communities around the Charlotte area. Please e-mail me if you know of others I should check out, and watch the Faith & Values section for updates.
----
To follow up on Monday’s column about another great event for newcomers, the Levine Museum of the New South’s “New South for New Southerners” series of events: I goofed. I somehow neglected to include the hours of this Thursday’s event for those interested in learning more about NASCAR – it’s from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
I also forgot to give the museum’s address: it’s 200 E. Seventh St., at the corner of College and Seventh Streets uptown – there’s easy parking in the colorful Seventh Street Station parking deck next door.
I’m well aware of how hard it is for newcomers to find their way around, so I’m sorry my column wasn’t clearer – I’ll do better in the future!
posted by Leigh at
10:50 AM
30 Comments:
I can't wait to read some of the "I'm sick of all these transplants moving to Charlotte" comments.
Here it is---I'm sick of all these transplants moving to Charlotte. Bet you're a transplant yourself or you wouldn't be saying that. Charlotte was just fine without all y'all new people. If I hear just one more grating New York accent, I'll scream! Of course Charlotte is great, that's why everyone is moving here. That also means that where you came from must be the pits. You don't see any of us native Southerners moving up north to where you came from, and there's a reason for that. It sucks!!!!!
Um - how do you think people up North were able to move here? Yeah, they had to SELL their house. Someone bought it, so it must not be that bad! You ignorant fools need to realize that the North isn't a bunch of concrete but also has beautiful countryside (THAT isn't filled with mobile homes) and old, beautiful cities. A lot of the people that move here are GRATEFUL for where they grew up, they are just ready for a different LIFESTYLE. Get over it - this is AMERICA. Stop acting like you live in another country with a gigantic wall surrounding it. It is people like you that make me wonder why people bother moving here in the first place. Southern hospitality - it is more like southern hositility to me.
MOST (note most, not all) of you southerners don't move up there because you couldn't "handle it." Your too sheltered. It's much easier to go from a bigger place to a smaller one, but not vice versa. And by the way, I know a few NORMAL people, unlike you, from the South that have moved up North and they enjoy it (and don't plan on moving back South anytime soon). I also know plenty of Southerners who love to visit up there. Your probably just some old, ignorant, lonely person that is still living in the Civil War, goes to church like the hypocrite you are, and is too sheltered to embrace diversity. Either that, or you are some young kid who has been brainwashed by their psychotic parents.
OH MY GOD YANKEES! OH MY! YANKEE DOODLE CAME TO TOWN RIDING ON A PONY! STUCK A FEATHER IN HIS HAT AND CALLED IT MACARONI!!
It's the transplants that are helping to put Charlotte on the map and making a more livable city. The transplants have added a since of lifestyle to this bland city that shuts down at 5 PM on any given day. Remember, it wasn't that long ago when southerners moved up north to escape racism and to seek a better life. Transplants will make Charlotte a world class city just like they did Atlanta. Charlotte is a more vibrant place because of transplants!
Hey everybody - let's take this down a notch or two. I welcome civil and thoughtful comments. Please stay away from the anonymous name-calling. --Leigh Dyer
Hey Leigh. Maybe you should look at your fellow southerns - they are the ones who always make the stupid comments first about transplants (which come from all over the country, even the south, yet they always target people from up north for whatever reason).
Here we go again! Isn't this discussed at least twice a month in this blog? Why can't we all just accept our differences and be glad that we can share our cultures?
Thank you!!!!!!!
Atlanta, a world class city? Please...It's full of gangs, drugs, and crime. Many people in Charlotte, especially the greater Charlotte area DO wish there was a wall on the Mason-Dixon line, though they might not voice their opinion on that matter in the public eye. The culture and tradition of the south should be preserved. We don't want a world class city. We want a city that's hospitable to all, even transplants, but that still retains the values and morals of the past that has been treaded on by the northern transplants and pesky activists. Take your gelled hair, gucci gator loafers, unbearable accents, desire to flaunt what little money you earned as a bonus from Christmas, liberal political views, and crime back up north and keep it there. Atlanta a world class city? Please...That really grinds my gears. Peter Griffin signing out.
Peter, you give southerners a bad name. Stop the name calling. Northeners are shacking things up down here, like it or not. You are just intimidated by condifence that most northeners have and we are not afarid to confront racism. Atlanta might not be as world class as other major cities, but it is compared to Charlotte. As far as crime, statistically, Charlotte has more crime that New York. The incident that occured Uptown on July 4th were country charlottian punks. You've never heard of such foolishness at the Macy's firework shows.
Hate to break it to you Peter Griffin, but according to Sperling's Best Places "America's Best and Worst Cities for Crime":
Regional Differences
The FBI's Crime Index rate reflects the total numberof offenses per 100,000 residents. According to the FBI, the national Crime Rate index for 2002 was 4,118. THE NORTHEAST REGION OF THE UNITED STATES HAD THE LOWEST CRIME OF THE FOUR REGIONS, with a rate of 2,889 offenses per 100,000 population. The next lowest was the Midwest, followed by the West, while THE SOUTHERN REGION SHOWED THE HIGHEST CRIME RATE OF 4,772 OFFENSES PER 100,000 RESIDENTS.
Here is the link, you ignorant fool.
http://www.bestplaces.net/docs/studies/crime1.aspx
Peter Griffin should move to South Carolina.
Take your Walmart clothes, buzzed hair and or "shaggy" haircuts, your equally unbearable accents, and shove them up your a$$. Hospitality does not exist down here, unless you are southern.
Peter is nothing but a brainwashed hypocrite who probably attends church every Sunday. You think your so holy, but thats far from the truth. What morals? Your most likely the type of person who hates diversity, hates gays, etc because they are different. You call them "Yankees" no matter where they are from and hate them because you are now confronted with these things you so despise. You and others wish there was a wall around you so you can keep living your sheltered, "so-called perfect" lives. What kind of morals are those? You do nothing but try to spread intolerance, and you probably already taught it to your children (if you have any, and if you don't, hopefully you never will).
Wow, such hostility! I guess I need to get the Jersey plates off my car ASAP of face the hate patrol!
"Peter Griffin should move to South Carolina."
No need--the sentiment he expresses is very much alive and well in North Carolina. Underneath all of the shiny steel and glass that much of Charlotte is made of is a very provincial and regressive attitude. Just because two banks (one of which was turned into a national powerhouse by a native South Carolinian) call the city home doesn't mean that you've "arrived"--it makes you all the more prone to hypocrisy, as this thread proves.
It is sad, and people of NC should be ashamed. Some of these people speak as if people from other places (especially from up north) aren't even human beings. Then they have the nerve to say they are hospitable and have morals. Hypocrisy at its finest (but that is to be expected from people like Peter Griffin).
"Peter is nothing but a brainwashed hypocrite who probably attends church every Sunday." I do actually attend church most every sunday(it's a bit hard to make every sunday while playing sports and in college). I wouldn't say I'm brainwashed, quite the contrary. I'm not ignorant to the north either. Most of my family still lives in New England with some still living in Charleston. I've been all the major northern cities and despite the numbers from the crime statistics, saw a great deal more crime and poverty in them than in the entire greater Charlotte area. I was raised a liberal elitist, but after viewing both sides of The Line I came to my own conclusions. This, coming from a quasi-transplant(born and raised in Charlotte, but parents from New England), I believe I have a right to my perspective on this matter. I don't hate gays, I hate flamboyance. I don't hate diveristy, I hate it being forced on me. I don't wear Wal-Mart clothes, nor support them despoying small business. I don't hate gun-control, I hate the thugs who make it necessary, and I don't hate "Yankees", I hate what they're trying to do to the south...again. Comments and criticism welcome. I just say what the majority of people I know, and myself, are thinking. Shun me for it, but have a good reason. Peter Griffin signing out.
People are moving here and they will continue to do so, no matter what people like Peter Griffin say. He is the minority. Get used to it, tolerate it, or move to a small town somewhere in Anson County (where they are actually losing population).
Right Peter, considering the South is one of the poorest regions as a whole in this country, and the West and North are the wealthiest. There are ghetto's everywhere, but when you drive around parts of rural Mecklenburg and the surrounding counties, and even the developing parts, you see trailer parks and mobile homes littering the landscape. Just drive the new stretch of I-485 that connects to I-85 and you will see one right off the road. Some neighborhoods here don't even have proper infrastructure, unpaved driveways, etc. It looks just as crappy.
And by the way, when you vist these other cities, like you say you have, what were you doing in the ghetto anyways?
What are "they" trying to do to the south? People are moving here and minding their own business. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?
I'm glad more people are moving here. There is a lot more to do now and the shopping is better. And this is coming from a NATIVE Charlottean! :-P
What do you hate Peter? The fact that Charlotte is turning into an actual city? Get over it.
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Peter Griffin is sadly a moron that we all face from time to time.
Did it take you all night to write and rewrite you little come back Peter ? Had to make it sound as though you are not as ignorant as you truely are.
It's sad. I have lived in Charlotte since 1988. Born and raised in Long Island, NY. I have never in my life witnessed so much hostility and racism in my life as here in Charlotte. I have traveled all over the world to all sorts of cities. This one takes the cake.These people should all be locked up. They are unstable and need anger managment therapy.
Peter Griffin,
I am ashamed of you. I am a native Chalottean and I have numerous friends from New York, Boston, Philadelphia and New Jersey. They are more of what I would call "true friends". They have always been there for me which is more than I can say for the natives I have known. I believe this comes from a greater sence of family up North. I have visited with many of their families and it is like nothing I have ever known. At dinner time the entire family is there. It's nothing to have aunts, uncles, cousins and friends drop in for dinner. Everyone brings something to eat. The phone starts ringing and people start showing up and the wine and stories start flowing It's just like in the movies. It's family at its best.
Just because they speak their mind doesn't mean they are nasty. They are confident and have no qualms about telling the truth even if it means you may not like it. They wont talk behind your back either. What you see is what you get.
We could learn a lot from our Northern neighbors.
Don't be so close minded. Go explore. Get to know someone who isn't exactly like yourself. You may be suprised what you find.
So Peter, there is nothing left to say besides
!#!#@# you !
Sorry, just had to say it. You of all people deserve to hear the truth.
Peter Griffin,
I am ashamed of you. I am a native Chalottean and I have numerous friends from New York, Boston, Philadelphia and New Jersey. They are more of what I would call "true friends". They have always been there for me which is more than I can say for the natives I have known. I believe this comes from a greater sence of family up North. I have visited with many of their families and it is like nothing I have ever known. At dinner time the entire family is there. It's nothing to have aunts, uncles, cousins and friends drop in for dinner. Everyone brings something to eat. The phone starts ringing and people start showing up and the wine and stories start flowing It's just like in the movies. It's family at its best.
Just because they speak their mind doesn't mean they are nasty. They are confident and have no qualms about telling the truth even if it means you may not like it. They wont talk behind your back either. What you see is what you get.
We could learn a lot from our Northern neighbors.
Don't be so close minded. Go explore. Get to know someone who isn't exactly like yourself. You may be suprised what you find.
So Peter, there is nothing left to say besides
!#!#@# you !
Sorry, just had to say it. You of all people deserve to hear the truth.
I'm a newcomer. Used to live in Charlotte. Now live i Columbia. I find Columbia better place than Charlotte. Come down all you newcomers to Columbia. To be honest, the way I am treated by the Southerns and seeing all their "intelligence" here, when I hear their Southern drawl accent, it sounds to me like they are withholding from vomiting. So when I hear their accents I wanna puke. Sorry, folks, all the discrimination and little petty crime white-on white and black-on-white that you've done on me is not gonna do you any good. Keep y'all dawg in y'all yard. And forget about dating the locals. Newcomers should import their own women from other states or countries. Let's steal the South and its good climate from the Southern drawlies. Come down to Columbia, South Carolina you all newcomers and WELCOME!
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