Will Charlotte Become Banking's Detroit?

From The Washington Post, This is the Bust in the Boomtown that Banks Built: Beneath Charlotte's shiny skyline, 'a new humility'

Few American cities prospered more over the past two decades than Charlotte, its growth propelled and gilded by Wachovia and its crosstown rival, Bank of America. Executives shoehorned gaudy mansions into old neighborhoods around downtown. Workers poured into vast subdivisions on the city's ever-expanding periphery. With coffers overflowing, giddy public officials spent tax dollars on a manmade river for whitewater rafting.

 Now Charlotte is suffering. Unemployment has spiked to 12 percent, well above the national average. Subdivisions sit unfinished. Mansions cannot be sold. The school system, which for years had recruited teachers from shrinking cities such as Detroit, laid off more than 1,000 employees this summer.

There is a grim picture being painted, but the story is still unfolding. Because Bank of America was headquartered here, this served as a bit of a buffer as the national economy faltered.  If Bank of America headquarters move from Charlotte, the city will become a shadow of its former self.  This city was built by the banks and real estate, and it will suffer as these industries do.


Note:  The author is this piece, Binyamin Appelbaum, worked as a business reporter for the Charlotte Observer prior to moving to the Washington Post.  He knows Charlotte.  While at the Observer he investigated and authored a great expose on the rampant fraud of Beazer Homes.