Leading With Our Stomachs

"Charlotte's retail problem is striking because it contrasts so sharply with the ongoing revival, but it is a problem that afflicts most big cities in America, whether their downtowns are reviving, declining or standing still. They all are having trouble attracting any significant retail presence to the traditional urban core. People move to the center of town, live in luxury apartments, wait in line at expensive restaurants, enjoy the late-night entertainment scene. But when they want to buy something — a screwdriver, a pair of socks, a tablecloth, a printer cartridge — they have to drive somewhere else in the city or the suburbs, often to a mall several miles away.

Is there a solution? In Charlotte, the civic establishment is convinced there is. At Charlotte Center City Partners, one of the most active and entrepreneurial downtown development organizations in the country, they talk endlessly about "the retail problem." Last December, the group completed a 14-month study of the issue, releasing a detailed statistical report citing possibilities for a retail revival."