For every tree-lined residential street in East Charlotte, you have a strip mall baking in the sun. For every McDonald's, you have a funky little ethnic eatery. For every big-box retail outlet, you have -- well, not a park for every one of those, but there's no shortage of green space.
It's a catch-all, the area of the city that perhaps best illustrates Charlotte's uneasy lurch from old to new.
The area is bounded roughly by Independence and W.T. Harris boulevards to the north and south and the edge of downtown and the city limit to the east and west.
Independence has long been one of Charlotte's most heavily traveled, significant and ugliest thoroughfares, with massive retail establishments cheek-to-jowl with decaying remnants of long-shuttered shopping areas.
But the promise of future developments is boosting the road's prospects.
Wal-Mart plans to tear down the Amity Gardens Shopping Center at Independence and Pierson Drive and build a new Supercenter store on the 14-acre site. The store would replace one on Eastway Drive.
Closer to the center city, the Plaza-Midwood neighborhood has become one of the city's hottest for newcomers, and nearby Central Avenue bustles with one of Charlotte's most diverse and active communities. Latin American, Middle Eastern and Asian immigrants have opened restaurants and other businesses along the corridor. Several condo projects have sprouted.
Eastland Mall, once North Carolina's largest, sits on Central between Sharon Amity and Albemarle roads. The 31-year-old mall has seen better days -- it's lost stores and had violent incidents reported on its property.
The city is working with six property owners to develop a master plan for the mall to include a mix of commercial and residential development.
The goal is to find one developer to complete the entire project with input from neighbors, city officials said.
Don't miss: The Charlotte Museum of History & Hezekaiah Alexander homesite at 3500 Shamrock Drive (www.charlottemuseum.org). The 5,000 square-foot rock house from 1774 is Mecklenburg's oldest residence.
