Birkdale Village Live Music

Does anyone know when the music starts in Birkdale Village? Last year I thought it started the last weekend of April and went through the last weekend of October. What's strange is that we haven't seen any advertisements or fliers for the music yet this year. I searched the web and all I come across are other blogs talking about enjoying the music at birkdale. The The Adventurers Club was interesting because it claims that Birkdale is a great place to have a Rock concert. I'm not sure if I quite agree but maybe it depends on the definition of Rock. Any way about it though the live music is great and is very popular. We really enjoyed sitting out listening to the music, drinking wine or beer, and people watching. Its amazing how lively the village is on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.

The best show we experienced last year was actually right after a rain storm. The rain storm was about one hour before the music started and everyone fled. So we sat outside at Brixx and enjoyed their Saturday night beer specials ($2.50 a beer) while listening to the music without having to feel rushed because they didn't need to turn over the table.

Well, as soon as I find out the schedule I will post again and link to it.

Pool Opens May 12th!

Great news. The pool is opening on May 12th. We got our 'Birkdale Villager' newspaper today and the main feature seemed to be the pool opening. We're excited even though we didn't make it to the pool even once last summer. I guess we spent all our free time on the lake. This year will be different though. We intend to enjoy the pool and the sun.
Its great that the pool is opening early. Last year we wondered why the pool only opened from Memorial Day to Labor Day. It made no sense given the nice weather that Charlotte has at least from April through October. I guess that having the pool open only for summer vacation for schools makes some sense. But they could at least have the pool open say on just evenings and weekends. This year they seem to be doing that by having the pool opened only 3:30 to 7:30 on public school days. The article also says that we have to get a pool tag, which is required for entry. Last year's tags are still good to go.
Well, enough rambling. We're looking forward to the pool opening.

The Huntersville Herald

Does everyone get that local paper in their mailbox on a weekly basis? I'm talking about The Huntersville Herald which usually has a run down of local development projects and upcoming issues with the school board, town boards, police departments, and sports. I mostly like reading about the new developments and new roadway plans that the towns are considering. I would put the Huntersville Herald on par with the Charlotte Observer's Lake Norman section published on Thursdays and Sundays. The Charlotte Observer has better color layouts but The Huntersville Herald goes into much more depth on each specific story. Post a comment below about which newspaper you like better for your local news source. Even better, if you know of another informative local source, then post a comment about that as well.

The Herald's websites says that it is published by 5 PM each Friday, which figures that it gives them the entire work week to get it finalized. The Herald is a Mecklenburg Newspaper Group, LLC and is mailed for free to residents of Huntersville and Cornelius. Everyone else pays $35 per year for a subscription. I'm guessing that the newspaper is soley advertising supported since it is mailed out free and its website is plastered with ads for advertising in the paper. I'm amazed that a free ad support newspaper that serves such a relatively small community can survive.

Since finding their online website, I've been reading most of the articles on the papers website related to developments around the village. Right now I'm reading a complicated story about the future developments of Cornelius' planned Robbin's Park which is currently next to the Greens at Birkdale but which could be swapped to a further location. Anyways, if you want to read up on really local news then The Huntersville Herald is a great source.

The Village at Lake Norman

Friend or foe? Will the potential Village at Lake Norman compliment or compete with Birkdale Village. The Huntersville Herald and Urban Planet both have interesting facts and thoughts about the proposed development. 900,000 feet or retail, 300 living units, a new Hwy 77 exit 26, Westmoreland expanded to 4 lanes - Wow! These are some big numbers and changes for what is currently a country road!

The debate online seems to center around whether this will create a traffic nightmare or is this the density that Charlotte needs to have to accommodate the influx of new residents. I'm in favor of the latter, density, only if it means that other lands are set aside for preservation and green space. What is the likelihood of large amounts of green space being preserved? Probably close to Nil. So what I think will happen is that we will have the density and around it we will have the typical sprawl and in the end we will be stuck with horrendous traffic. Sorry if that discourages anyone from moving here but, hopefully, the three towns community can figure out how to build more roads and expand the current greenway plan. Someone on Urban planet made an interesting comment:

"This would mean the Lake area would have Exits, 23, 25, 26, 30, 32, 33, 36. Anywhere else in the state, this would be it's own metro area."

Wow, I did not think of it this way. That is allot of exits in one short stretch of highway!

On the other hand it would be really cool to live in between two awesomely planned mixed use communities and to be able to walk between the two on the McDowell Creek Greenway, click to read previous post. I imagine that if they could incorporate enough commercial space then people could truly live, work, play here North of Charlotte. As soon as a plan for this development comes out then I will try and post it here to this blog.

"When you add in Bryton and the Langtree mixed use new urbanist developments, this means that 2,100,000 sq ft of upscale retail space has been announced for Huntersville, Davidson and Cornelius. If you add in some smaller TOD projects on the proposed rail line, this number rises to about 2.5 million sq. ft. This is an amazing amount of retail if all of it is built "

Another great comment from Urban planet. I also wonder how many Birkdale developments are possible along one stretch of highway. I just remembered that Bryton is being planned between Exits 18 and 23. That too will be a massive mixed use community. It will definitely be interesting to see how this all develops. Of course, I would rather see more Birkdale's then the Harris Blvd strip mall after strip mall style development. If you never go to Harris Blvd then you are probably lucky because it has lots and lots of lights and lots of strip malls.

Of course, my load officer also made a comment that as traffic gets worse people will want to live in mixed use because then they don't HAVE to drive anywhere if they don't want to. Ok, so now that I am wrapping up this random thought debate, I want to add a caveat for any friends from the DC, NY, or Boston metro areas. The traffic here is NOTHING compared to what is normal in those metro areas! We are many years away from being that bad. But I guess that everything is relative.

Welcome!

Welcome, Happy Easter! We, my wife and I, are creating this blog to record our observations about life in Birkdale Village and the three towns North of Charlotte - Cornelius, Davidson, and Huntersville. We want to chronicle observations about life in the village, its real estate, its activities, and future developments around it. If you are thinking of moving to Charlotte then Birkdale Village is THE PLACE TO BE. It's the happening spot.
First, a little about us. We live in the village in one of the Saussy Burbank houses. We have lived here for a year and a half after living in Germany for five years. We chose to live in Birkdale Village for two reasons:
1 - She is German and Birkdale is the closest thing we could find to a Bavarian (European) style village. She's adjusted very well during her first year in the states!
2 - We did not want to support suburban sprawl and live in the typical suburban style sub-division.
Since moving here we have come to love the sense of community, its youthful feel, its sense of life, the live music in the summer, Lake Norman, the shops, the movies, and, especially, the future Robbins Park. If you haven't found these walking trails yet you are definitely missing out. We wouldn't recommend them now (in the spring/summer) because of snakes and other wildlife but in the winter, it is definitely a great sanctuary for walking and letting the dog(s) run free.
If you are thinking of moving to Charlotte, we highly recommend Birkdale Village. The community supports people in all of life's stages. There is something for everyone. Lake Norman parties, bars, movies, walking trails, family activities, ice cream, cafes, etc.
Well, enough for now. Please leave comments for things you would like us to cover. We look forward to hearing from you.