This is the final post of a discussion about the Charlotte Observer’s take on the open letter from Michael Jordan to the city of Charlotte!
You can catch up over the last two posts. The last part of the article ended talking about Bob Johnson and will now transition to the new Bobcats owner - Michael Jordan.

“Most of us wanted to support Johnson. But his legacy of greedy, ego-driven mistakes pushed us away. We weren’t obligated to back his team. He was obligated to at least pretend that the team also was ours.

Read this paragraph from Jordan’s open letter:

“Owning this team is my number one priority. Earning your trust is my first step. I don’t expect anyone to blindly support this franchise, and I don’t want anyone to do it just because I’m the owner. It’s our responsibility to earn our way in this community, and my staff and I will do that by putting a winning team on the floor, making the experience at a Bobcats game memorable, and being active in this community. I’ll be bringing plenty of ideas and resources to the table, but I’m also here to listen. Your feedback is important to me because at the end of the day, this is your team too.”

If Johnson had written the letter, it would have gone like this:

“I’m your number one priority. Earning my trust is your first step. Support this franchise because I’m the owner. It’s your responsibility to make my experience memorable. Bring me a table. I don’t care what kind as long as it is hand-crafted by master artisans. At the end of the day, I’m out of here.”

And he is.”

Well, I for one am excited that Michael Jordan is ‘IN’. I can’t wait to see how he may change the dynamic of our city.
You can read more at = http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/03/21/401312/jordan-letter-to-charlotte-a-good.html#ixzz0maxfdUvk

Real Estate market. Mortgage. Charlotte Real Estate. Charlotte NC. Charlotte North Carolina. Charlotte North Carolina Real Estate. Charlotte NC Real Estate. Charlotte Bobcats. Michael Jordan.

I have banked with Bank of America since I first had a bank account as a kid. I think I opened my first savings account around age 10 or 12 at a local Bank of America branch here in Charlotte North Carolina. I have been with Bank of America ever since.

Of course Charlotte is the home of Bank of America headquarters. Charlotte has for some time been the city that is given the title “Banking capital of the country.”

I am sure that banks like Wachovia here in Charlotte are awesome as well as all the small banks you find on the corners in the suburbs. I like Bank of America and have never really had any experience with them that wasn’t top notch.

And I want to say for the record that I LOVE Bank of America’s ATMs here in Charlotte North Carolina. I am sure they probably have these around the rest of the country too.

The newest addition I am talking about with these ATMs is the ability to deposit checks straight into your account at the ATM! No more driving to the bank and going inside and filling out a deposit slip, etc…

It is so much easier and less time consuming for me now! All I have to do is roll up to the ATM around the corner and deposit the check! It is so easy.

And another great thing is that if you deposit the check in before 8pm on any given day, it gets deposited to your account that day!

Bank of America. ATM. Charlotte North Carolina. Savings Account.

I have written before about how I love Starbucks and like hanging out and doing some work in Starbucks.

I especially like this Starbucks in uptown Charlotte. I love just watching the city go by for hours as I work.

This Starbucks is so diverse. People of every ethnicity, social class, and color are in this Starbucks throughout the day.

And this Starbucks has the most comfortable chairs.

The view is really great at this Starbucks in uptown Charlotte too. I am looking out at the intersection of Trade and Tryon Street. There is what I think is definitely the biggest Christmas tree I have ever seen in person glimmering just outside. It has to be at least fifty feet tall? I am bad with estimating that sort of thing, but it is REALLY big with lit up Christmas reindeer all around it. It is lit up with Christmas lights that flicker and sparkle on and off constantly. It is really beautiful to look at.

Plus there is the building just across and diagonal from Starbucks that looks like it is just a big flat mirror. It is beautiful reflecting all the lights and the Bank of America building which is directly across from where I am sitting.

I tell my wife every time we come over I-277 and get a great look at the whole city - “Our city is getting more and more beautiful all the time.” I’m referring to when it’s dark at night and all the big buildings are lit up. There are more and more being built all the time.

This is definitely my favorite Starbucks. It is a great place to be and enjoy everything about the great city of Charlotte, North Carolina!

Starbucks. Charlotte. Coffee. Lights. Christmas Lights. Christmas tree. Bank of America.

It really is a small world here in Charlotte, North Carolina. Here’s why.

A couple weeks ago on a Thursday night - in fact, it was the Thursday night that the Miami Dolphins came to Charlotte to face the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium for Thursday Night Football - I was at the Starbucks in uptown Charlotte.

I go there somewhat regularly to do some work. It is the Starbucks directly across from the Bank of America building and right at the center of the city = near the corner of Trade Street and Tryon Street. It is actually on Tryon Street.

I had been sitting there working for a few hours and also looking out the window at all the Panthers fans (and a few Dolphins fans) passing by the window decked out in their jerseys and hats and excited about the game.
I also had headphones in so most of the noise around me was blocked out. But I still noticed someone standing right next to my chair and then it was obvious they were saying something to me.

I took my headphones out and looked over… and it was one of my old friends from college! And I went to college way down in Florida. A long way from here in Charlotte.

This friend was a senior when I was a freshman, but we played soccer together that year we were there toghether and then I haven’t seen him in I guess about 7-8 years. (He looks just the same though.) The last I knew he was living in Washington, D.C.

It turns out he and his wife are living in an apartment just around the corner from Trade and Tryon while trying to sell their house in Mint Hill. And he works at Bank of America just across the street from where I was.

What a small world. You never know who you might meet in the Starbucks there in uptown Charlotte!

Uptown. Downtown Charlotte. Charlotte North Carolina. Starbucks. Bank of America. Carolina Panthers.

Growing up in Charlotte North Carolina, watching the NBA Draft used to be a favorite past time of mine as a kid. I used to love to watch all the hype that evening, be excited about who the Charlotte Hornets drafted and then dream about them turning the franchise around!

Maybe there were thousands of more kids in Charlotte tonight with the same kind of excitement. My wife and I watched the NBA Draft tonight (she was watching one for the first time) and it brought back some of those memories.

Now instead of dreaming for the sake of my home team Charlotte Hornets, it is for the sake of our very own expansion team Charlotte Bobcats. We have never made the playoffs in franchise history - although our first year we played and would have been able to make the playoffs was only 2005. I guess you always dream that your new crop of draft picks will catapult you into the playoffs.

Last night I was REALLY hoping that Charlotte North Carolina native Stephen Curry would SOMEHOW slip down to the twelfth pick where the Charlotte Bobcats could select him. He was definitely the best shooter in this year’s Draft. But of course he was gone because he was selected by the Warriors with the seventh pick.

We didn’t pick ANY of the Carolina Tarheel boys either! = Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington, or Danny Green.
We picked a Duke player instead! Gerald Henderson, welcome to Charlotte. We hope you like the city and we also hope you can help the Bobcats make the playoffs this season!

Charlotte NC. Charlotte NC Real Estate. Charlotte North Carolina. Charlotte North Carolina Real Estate.

Everyone thinks they know about the timing of this recession. When it will end, when it won’t end, etc… Well, I don’t pretend to know anything about it’s duration, but I do enjoy reading other peoples’ guesses.

Today I read that America’s biggest banks expect the economy to recover from this deep slump by late summer but still remain weak until next year. That’s not bad and I bet a lot of people would take that! That is only like three or four months until late summer!

“The economy will return to growth but not to health,” Bruce Kasman, chief economist for JP Morgan Chase & Co. and chairman of the American Bankers Association’s Economic Advisory Committee, said in an interview today.

This committee includes economists from Wells Fargo & Co., PNC Financial Services Group, Morgan Stanley and some others as well. They expect the gross domestic product to increase 0.5 percent in the July-September quarter, after falling a predicted 1.8 percent in the April-June period.

Ben Bernanke, who is the chairman of the Federal Reserve, also says the economy could recover by the end of this year. That is pretty optimistic talk. I hope they are not setting people up to be heartbroken. But I also think there is a lot to be said for being optimistic.

We will see if these prognostications come true when September rolls around. I am still reading on this issue. There are things written about it everywhere, so I will probably post more of my findings tomorrow.

Charlotte NC. Charlotte NC Real Estate. Charlotte North Carolina. Charlotte North Carolina Real Estate.

It is no secret that the Carolina Panthers who play in Charlotte North Carolina are a powerhouse team this season! They play the Arizona Cardinals this Saturday in the NFC semi-final game here in Charlotte at Bank of America Stadium. The Panthers have been 8-0 this season playing in Charlotte.

It is also no secret that a large part of the Panthers’ success this season can be attributed to their dynamic duo running back tandem of Deangelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart. Jonathan Stewart is only in his first year, a rookie drafted in the first round out of Oregon. On top of that, Deangelo Williams is only in his 3rd season. He was also a first round pick of the Panthers out of Memphis. He STILL holds the ALL TIME record for all purpose yards in NCAA Division I football! These two backs are dominating opposing defenses this season.

But they are also dominating other backfeld tandems of the past! These two running back are the EIGHT BEST running back tandem EVER in the NFL!!! Out of those top 8 tandems, Steward is the 2nd best of the backup rushers with 836 yards this season as a rusher!
The tandem only fell 289 yards short of the all time record held by O.J. Simpson and Jim Braxton.
These two are the best running back tandem in the NFL since 1984! That is quite a feat.

Deangelo Williams also leads the league in touchdowns
These guys are truly “Double Trouble” for any opponent. Especially the Arizona Cardinals who are coming to Charlotte this weekend. They will have their hands full for sure. All of Charlotte is counting on this running back tandem of Williams and Stewart returning our home team to the Superbowl. And hopefully this time bringing the Superbowl Championship home to Charlotte!

Charlotte NC. Charlotte NC Real Estate. Charlotte North Carolina Real Estate. Charlotte North Carolina. Carolina Panthers. Bank of America Stadium.

I have posted before about how I am a die hard New York Yankees fan living here in Charlotte, North Carolina. My grandpa was a New York Yankees fan who lived here in North Carolina. Then my dad grew up as a die hard New York Yankees fan here in North Carolina listening to every game on the radio as a boy. He moved to Charlotte after college and is now a Real Estate Broker here in this great city and of course still a big Yankees fan! I grew up as a Yankees fan too here in Charlotte.

So, I was very excited with all the news this December about the 3 biggest name free agents we signed. Hopefully these signings will put the Yankees back on top and lead them to win another World Series this year - their 29th all time!

The top signing is the highest paid pitcher of all time and last season’s Cy Young Award winner - C.C. Sabathia. He should be a dominant #1 man for the Yankees. His contract was a 7 year $161 million deal!!! The biggest contract ever for a pitcher. Then they signed another great pitcher, A.J. Burnett (who dominated the A.L. East hitters) for $82.5 million over 5 years! Not too shabby.
A few weeks later we signed THE top free agent hitter this offseason, Mark Teixeira! He is a HOT hitting first baseman who will fill the void left by Jason Giambi’s bat… and then some. He signed for a whopping $180 million over 8 years!

So, opening day is just 104 days (April 16th) and the Yankees will have the top 4 highest paid players on the field in pinstripes that day! (Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, C.C. Sabathia, and Mark Teixeira)

And to all the “naysayers” who will just want to complain that the Yankees are just “buying the best players” so they can win… I say “yeah, what do you want them to do?” If you have the money to do that then you would be a fool not to. But in contrast, the Yankees won their 4 World Series in 5 years before they jumped into the free agent market so heavily to buy all these big names as of late like Randy Johnson, Jason Giambi, Alex Rodrigues, etc… who have brought home no World Series rings to the fans of New York. So, spending more money does not always equal success.
But this year, for the Yankees, I hope it does!

Charlotte North Carolina. Charlotte NC. Charlotte NC Real Estate. Charlotte North Carolina Real Estate. New York Yankees.

The Carolina Panthers from Charlotte, NC ended the regular season in Louisiana to take on the New Orleans Saints. This was a very big game for the Panthers who have been the talk of Charlottte… and the NFL for the past few weeks. But, they needed to WIN this final game to assure themselves of WINNING the NFC South and taking 2nd place in the NFC which would give them a first round bye and at least one if not two playoff games at home. And of course, Bank of America Stadium here in Charlotte, NC has been very good to them as they are 8-0 at home this year.

They started out the game playing like it was a big game! They were taking on the Saints who have the #1 offense in the NFL!!! That was a big task for our defense to stop them. But stop them we did! We held them to just 10 points in the 1st 3 quarters! We also have THE best running back tandem in the NFL since 1984! Deangelo Williams also leads the NFL in touchdowns. Steve Smith is arguably the best wide receiver in the league. With all the weapons and a stellar defense matching up with the best offense in the league we found ourselves with a 30-10 lead in the 4th quarter!

But, Pro Bowl quarterback Drew Brees didn’t give up that easily as he was also nipping at the heels of Dan Marino’s single season passing record. The Saints stormed back to take a 31-30 lead with only 2 minutes left in the game!

But after a long bomb to Steve Smith and Williams and Steward eating up some clock, John Kasay kicked the game winning field goal with 1 second left in the game.

A dramatic ending to an awesome season for the team from Charlotte. Super Bowl here we come!

Charlotte North Carolina Real Estate. Charlotte NC Real Estate. Charlotte NC. Charlotte North Carolina. Carolina Panthers.

(This post is part 2 of a series about the Meineke Car Care College football bowl game that was held here in Charlotte North Carolina on Saturday, December 27th 2008 between the University of North Carolina Tarheels and the West Virginia Mountaineers.)

The game started off with a scoring frenzy. The two teams scored 35 points in the 1st quarter alone! The Mountaineers led 21-14 at the end of the first quarter. The game didn’t even have an incomplete pass or punt until halfway through the 2nd quarter! What an offensive explosion for all the fans in the seats at Bank of America Stadium.

Carolina star wide receiver Hakeem Nicks stole the show for most of the game! He caught 8 passes for 217 yards. He scored 3 touchdowns in the first half alone! Nicks made three circus catches that were top play material all over SportsCenter! First he caught an amazing one handed grab for a touchdown. As amazing as it was, the next 2 circus catches will be all over the most watched clips on You Tube. A deep pass was almost intercepted and then Nicks juggled it a few times and hauled in the catch but then started to celebrate 15 yards short of the end zone! It just so happened that it took the defensive player 15 yards to bring him down so he scored the touchdown anyway.

The final and finest circus catch was on a pass that was thrown behind Nicks and he actually caught it partially with one and and had to pass it to himself BEHIND HIS BACK!!! It was a behind the back catch!

The fans in Charlotte really got a treat because it wasn’t just Nicks doing the entertaining, Pat White, one of the greatest rushing quarterbacks in the nation, had a career day throwing for a personal record 332 yards. He kept West Virginia in the game.

WVU intercepted a Carolina pass with about 2 minutes left in the game which gave them the victory in a barn burner = 31-30! What a great college football game right here in Charlotte North Carolina.

Charlotte NC. Charlotte North Carolina. Charlotte NC Real Estate. Charlotte North Carolina Real Estate.