FAQ City

Maybe you've seen one in a parking lot at Wal-Mart, or outside the mall during the holidays. A keen-eyed television viewer might spot them among the crowd at the Superbowl, or in Times Square on New Year's Eve.

Editor's note: A version of this story was originally published March 27, 2018.

It's the end of the workday in Charlotte, and a crowd of bankers and business people is heading home for the day, striding down a plain, ordinary sidewalk next to a nondescript brown building on Trade Street.

What these business people perhaps don't know is that just below their feet, about a story or two down, is a bustling underground operation and a steel-encased vault containing billions of dollars in cash.

Mooresville resident Lauren Sullivan has a boat she takes out on Lake Norman from time to time. She and her husband will cruise across the water, sometimes towing a wakeboard from behind. Like most people, she knew the lake was man-made, and that got her wondering: what might have been swallowed up by all the water, and what happened to the people who once called the area home?

WFAE listener Chappy Garner has been mountain biking for about five years, and one of his favorite spots in Charlotte is the Backyard Trails — a 12-mile network of twisty, turvey paths winding through 140 acres of woods in south Charlotte.

Have you taken a stroll in uptown lately? If so, you've likely heard the voice of Sam Bethea, 47, bellowing across the traffic and sirens and construction, proclaiming his message: "Jesus saves!" and "Jesus loves you guys!"

WFAE listener Chris Broughton and his family wrote in wondering why Charlotte seems to have so many abandoned cars left on the side of the highway.

Not long ago, two of our listeners wrote in wondering about paranormal hotspots in the Charlotte area. Does Charlotte have local ghosts? Is the city haunted by the supernatural? According to some students and longtime faculty at Queens University, the answer might be yes.

Few Charlotteans may remember Earle Village, the public housing community built in First Ward just outside uptown. It was a bustling community that stretched from 6th street to 10th street, roughly bordered by Myers Street and Caldwell Street. It was the place where 400 of the city's poorest families resided — until the village was condemned to demolition in the 1990s.

Charlotte has never been a Nashville or even an Atlanta when it comes to live music, but that's not to say a local scene doesn't exist here. It's just a little tougher to find, especially after a string of live music venues shut down in the last few years.

Here's a question that comes to us from WFAE listener Summer Cook. She wrote to FAQ City wondering where all of Charlotte's neighborhood names came from.

For example, who is Elizabeth? Or Cherry? What about Dilworth?

The FAQ City team is on vacation this weekend. Since we have so many new listeners joining us, we want to share with you one of the most popular questions we've answered on the podcast....  

Ever wondered why Charlotte celebrates Pride in August, and not in June, like most other major cities? WFAE listener Jennifer Lange did.

The spelling and pronunciation of Little Sugar Creek, which flows into Sugar Creek (or is it Sugaw Creek?) have been a source of debate for well over 200 years. Which is right?

How is the relationship between Charlotte and Raleigh? Are we good? Charlotte is North Carolina's largest city, while Raleigh is the state capitol. Seems like tensions between the two have been simmering on and off for decades.