I like to refer to Charlotte, North Carolina, as “Uptown Girl”.
Yes, the title is a Billy Joel song reference. (This is the second consecutive article in which I utilize a Billy Joel single to discuss a city. I’ve been a fan since the late 1980s. The first reference was Edmonton, Canada).
Nevertheless, the reference really works in this case. Why?
Charlotte is one of the very few cities in the world in which its city center is known by its residents as “Uptown” instead of “Downtown”. There are a number of reasons for this, but the simplest one is basic topography. The elevation of Charlotte’s city center is literally higher than the surrounding vicinity.
One could argue that Charlotte’s Uptown etymology is also based on emotional observations. Historically, the city government and planners realized that Charlotte’s economic vitality, growth, and liveliness were based in this specific neighborhood. This positive activity was attractive to both residents and visitors alike. Alas, such optimistic energy in the city center was associated with being “up” rather than “down”.
This is part of the reason why I love photographing and exploring cities — they all have such unique (and often quirky) stories that explain or illustrate why they present themselves in a particular (or peculiar) way.
I’ll leave you with an entertaining trivia tidbit that took me a very long while to figure out. For Mariah Carey fans, remember when she collaborated with O.D.B. for the remix of her megahit, “Fantasy”, back in 1995? If you listen to the first few phrases of his rap, O.D.B. makes a clear shout out to Brooklyn. However, it’s the following shout out that took me by surprise, since several websites misquote the lyrics. He raps:
The shining star…
“Fantasy” (Bad boy remix) / mariah carey ft. o.d.b.
You’re my shining star, girl.
Yo, New York in the house!
Is Brooklyn in the house?
Uptown in the house!
Charlotte, are you in the house?
So even way back in the mid-90s, Charlotte was getting shout outs among the usual cities like NYC, LA, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and San Francisco! A couple of lyric websites do not state “Charlotte”. Instead, they state “Shaolin“.
Interestingly, O.D.B. goes on to call out Sacramento (California) and Japan — two intriguing, atypical locations incorporated in the verse!
To be fair, it wasn’t crystal clear what O.D.B. was saying then. If I’m being completely candid, I only picked up on it earlier this year (31 years later!) because I was listening to the song while tinkering on my computer, and I connected “Uptown” with “Charlotte”. Then it made sense to me because there is no other city in the U.S. in which the pair so logically match!
Alright, enough cityscape vs. geography vs. rap lyrics crossovers!
