ALMOST A BIG CITY
Charlotte has a glittering skyline, pro sports, a thriving dining scene and plenty of other big-city amenities. It's what boosters, business leaders and elected officials have long chased. But does Charlotte act urban, or more like an expanse of suburbs knit together by traffic congestion?
In this four-part series, published Sept. 8-11, 2026, longtime local journalist Mary Newsom analyzes some of the cultural, structural and historical reasons that hinder Charlotte's ability to function effectively as a big city. The series was edited by The Ledger’s Ashley Fahey.
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The Watch Charlotte Grow drum and bugle corps. (Photo courtesy of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library’s Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room)
Charlotte is big and proud of it. We can’t be dismissed as “trifling.” But with the growth have come missed opportunities to help the city improve in ways beyond just larger population numbers. Charlotte — meaning the city, not the region — has not yet achieved the look, feel and functionality of a big city.
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Traffic on I-485. Charlotte roads, while not as congested as those in other cities, are becoming a bigger frustration for residents as the city booms. (Photo by Nancy Pierce)
We’re a big city, yet much of Charlotte was built as if it would never get big. Big cities offer multiple ways to get around: mass transit, walkable and bikeable streets and that essential but often overlooked necessity, multiple streets that connect. Until recently, Charlotteans and city leaders didn’t demand the things to make even this now large and congested city more livable.
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The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center in uptown, where Charlotte City Council, Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education meetings take place. (Photo by City Dweller 2 via Wikimedia Commons)
You want leadership, you say. Bold, visionary leadership. But intentionally or not, Charlotte’s local government seems designed to thwart anyone who might try to actually “lead” the city. Authority is dispersed all over the place, and getting important things done requires knowing who has the authority to do them.
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People walk and listen to live music at Freedom Park in Dilworth, one of Charlotte’s most popular parks. (Photo by Nancy Pierce)
Want to know why Mecklenburg County’s parks seem each year to land at or near the bottom of the Trust for Public Land’s national ParkScore rankings? One place to start looking is the city government’s lackluster interest, for most of the 20th century, in buying or building public parks, followed by a decade and a half of insufficient funding from the county.
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