Ryan Williams

Professor Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1104

April 3, 2018

Why Charlotte will be the next San Francisco

If you have ever been to San Francisco, you know it as “the city by the bay.” You’ll

notice the huge building that sit on the peninsula, overlooking the Pacific Ocean on one side and

the San Francisco Bay on the other. You will notice that many of these huge buildings belong to

big banking companies like Wells Fargo. After walking around the city, you will see that most of

the people who live there have liberal views and are involved in social movements such as Black

Lives Matter and the LGBTQ movement. San Francisco is one of the most well-known cities in

the United States, but it may have some competition soon. Charlotte is the largest city in North

Carolina and is constantly growing at a rapid pace. The most populated city in North Carolina is

also home to a banking Giant in Bank of America and has a large presence from other banks

such as Wells Fargo. Charlotte also has the liberal, social-justice-seeking residents that San

Francisco has. Charlotte only lacks the bay.

This paragraph overvall was really good, it compared San Francisco and Charlotte in

terms of banking. I don’t see any typos or grammar errors.

These two cities share traits like being banking hubs, populations that are involved with

social issues and history. But why will Charlotte ultimately become the new San Francisco? This
essay will analyze factors like growth, job opportunities and recognition in national media to

give proof of why Charlotte is on the rise and San Francisco has grown stagnant.

A really good paragraph that directly talks about what the essay is going to talk about. I

see no error or typos.

San Francisco was founded as a Spanish mission and was not a part of the United States

until 1846 when it was captured by the military. Two years after the mission was captured, gold

was struck near San Francisco in Sutter’s Fort, CA. After a few short months, there was a huge

influx of miners looking to get rich quick from the precious metal. The “49ers” turned the small

mission to a town by raising the population from 1,000 to 25,000 over the next year. Having a

large population of prospectors, the town became a rough place with saloons, gambling and

prostitution all being common, every day sights. Banks also sprung up as a safe place for miners

who had struck it rich to deposit their fortune. One way or another, the city kept expanding. The

addition of cable cars made it easy to transport large groups of people over the city’s steep, hilly

terrain. Despite all this growth, San Francisco has been rebuilt several times due to massive

earthquakes. In 1906, a 10-foot shift on the San Andreas Fault caused an earthquake that scored a

7.8 on the Richter scale, bursting water lines and causing fires that blazed for 4 days, killing

thousands. San Francisco has long been home to the counterculture movement. The Haight-

Ashbury district’s extreme liberal ideas attracted people like beat poets, gays, lesbians and

hippies. This influx of “new age” people brought new ideas to the city. The late 90’s saw a boom

of internet and electronics technology with companies like Apple and Google making

headquarters just outside the city in Cupertino and Mountain View. The technology industry took

off at a rapid pace and made many people in the area wealthy. The sudden influx of money led to

an increase in job in the technology and financial/legal/accounting industries (Mandel).

 Overall a really good paragraph on the history of San Francisco. I saw some errors that

are easy to fix. I highlighted them red. For the word “mission” should be changed to San

Francisco. For the second red just remove the comma.

The history of San Francisco is impressive and well known, but few know about the

interesting story behind the city of Charlotte. Charlotte’s history has always been rich. Usually,

when an inland town is founded, the location is determined by a large waterfall that prevents

further travel up the nearest river. Charlotte is unique. The main square of Charlotte, now called

Independence Square, was formed at the intersection of two Native American trading paths that

are now marked by Trade and Tryon streets. The first Charlotteans were the families of Thomas

Spratt and Thomas Polk, who built houses at the intersection in 1753. The village began to grow

slowly over the years and started to gain a reputation for rebellion when Britain was ruling the

colonies. On May 20, 1775 Mecklenburg County leaders came together to sign the Mecklenburg

Declaration of Independence, which stated that the County had declared independence from the

rule of Great Britain. This was over a year before the 13 colonies met to do the same thing in

Philadelphia. Not long after the revolution, Charlotte’s history got richer, quite literally. In 1799

John Reed, a local farmer, found a 17-pound golden nugget at his farm 25 miles outside of the

town. Reed, not knowing what it was, used the nugget as a doorstop for three years until a

jeweler informed him that it was made of gold. This sparked the first gold rush in the United

States. People from all over the country came to the Charlotte area to mine their fortunes. Upon

striking gold, miners would ride to town to collect and deposit their cash. By the 1830’s miners

were finding so much gold that the US treasury opened a mint in Charlotte. With all this wealth

popping up in the town, several banks naturally sprung up and became prominent in the southern
US area. The prosperity in Charlotte was aided by the arrival of the railroad in 1852. These two

events are the primary factors that caused Charlotte to become a trade town (Hanchett).

I don’t see any typos or grammar errors in this paragraph. This was a good background

on Charlotte and how basically the single man just basically started up banks.

One area where Charlotte closely rivals San Francisco is the banking industry. The

commerce in Charlotte attracted big banks and they eventually opened branches in the city which

now has 16 financial institutions and about $2.265 trillion in total banking assets. These statistics

place Charlotte in top three cities for total assets, behind New York and recently San Francisco

(History.com). Charlotte became #2 on that list when NationsBank acquired SF-based

BankAmerica in 1998 but dropped back to #3 in the 2008 when Wells Fargo purchased

Wachovia. Prominent companies like Bank of America and Wachovia (now Wells Fargo and

moved to San Francisco) had done so well in Charlotte that they decided to place their

headquarters in the queen city. Bank of America and Wachovia were two major institutions with

net worth in the high billions and even trillions whose headquarters were a walking distance

away in uptown Charlotte. Bank of America’s leader Hugh McColl and Wachovia’s chief G.

Kennedy Thompson constantly tried to outdo one another to be the biggest and best bank in

Charlotte, and then the country. This aggressive mentality and a hometown rivalry meant that

both leaders were constantly looking for smaller banks to acquire to obtain a higher net worth

and to be regarded as the “go to” bank in Charlotte. Before coming to Charlotte these banks were

already monstrous and had swallowed up many other banks in their wakes (Hurt). The friendly

competition between these banks propelled both of them to the top of the banking industry, and

when these companies rose, they brought the city with them. Buildings were constantly being

constructed because of the banks. Hotels, parks, museums, condominium buildings, and even an
NFL stadium sprung up all over uptown, not to mention the skyscraping towers that resemble

crowns like Bank of America’s HQ that embraced the “Queen city” nickname.

A really good paragraph that explained the competition between the two. It provided a lot

of good information about small banks basically being overthrown. I didn’t see any errors or

grammar errors.

The banking industry in San Francisco has been strong ever since the gold rush. The city

currently has 26 financial institutions and about $2.78 trillion in total banking assets. After

recently overtaking Charlotte for the #2 banking city in the US due to a net worth posting of just

$13 billion more than Charlotte. WF’s purchase Charlotte-based Wachovia was the last straw

that put SF over the top. San Francisco is making a slight comeback in banking, largely thanks to

the growing technology industry located all around the bay area like Google, Tesla and Twitter.

Companies like these are giants that have massive value and pay many bay area workers very

well. These new age businesses feed off the liberal, creative environment that has been

established in San Francisco and largely target those people to sell their product to (Calvey). San

Francisco prides itself on being home to institutions like Charles Schwab and Wells Fargo. Wells

Fargo is largely responsible for most of the assets for the city and is possible the biggest and

most well-known bank in the west. Like Bank of America and Wachovia to Charlotte, Wells

Fargo has helped develop San Francisco. In gold rush times, WF were strong supporters of the

pony express to distribute money over a larger range of people. The bank also completed what

was then the tallest building in San Francisco in 1966 to compete with Bank of America. Wells

Fargo also established a museum in downtown to celebrate the elaborate history of the bank and

its ties with the city.

I see that you used WF as an abbreviation for Wells Fargo. However, I think it would be better to

spell it out. Same for SF also. I don’t see anything else besides those two.

A key factor for a city to remain prominent is being able to suit the needs of it’s

population. Whether it is culture, low traffic or a short distance from home to work, if a city

can’t provide what potential residents want, they will simple leave. This is an issue for San

Francisco. The city is currently in the middle of a housing crisis fueled by a large demand to live

there and an extremely low supply of housing. The demand is being caused by a low

unemployment rate of 3.5% (National is 5.5%). Meaning that there are many people who work in

San Francisco. This healthy job market is paired with an unhealthy situation. Many of these

people who are getting jobs in the city are not able to find homes that are close. Being located on

a small peninsula that is already heavily developed, San Francisco has little room to grow. For

reference, the Bay Area added 64,000 jobs in 2015 and only constructed 5,000 new homes.

Builders also struggle to receive approval to build condos making construction a long and drawn

out process. Alan Mark, the president of a real estate marketing firm confirmed this by saying

that he doesn’t expect any more than 1,500 units to be on the market at any given time until the

end of the decade. (Barrionuevo). These contrasting rates of growth could be disastrous to the

city. If nothing changes, people and even companies will look to place their businesses

elsewhere.

This paragraph explains the bad circumstances in San Francisco, a really good comparison to see

why Charlotte is growing. I didn’t see any errors or typos in this one.

One factor that is bringing Charlotte closer to San Francisco is the city’s growth. Per the

US Census, over 888,000 people have moved to the city limits in the past decade. With a growth

rate of 59.6%, Charlotte has become the fastest growing city in the United States. This
population growth hasn’t gone unnoticed. Economically, this has impacted the gross domestic

product for the city by 26.9% since 2005, making Charlotte responsible for 26% of North

Carolina’s total GDP. Job opportunities are also rising to accommodate the new residents.

298,000 jobs have been added from 2005 to 2013, bringing the cities new job total close to that

of Dallas and Washington DC. Not only is Charlotte adding plenty of jobs, these jobs are paying

well. This can be seen in the 10.5% income growth, giving an edge over cities such as Las Vegas

and Atlanta. Charlotte is well prepared for this expansion. The completion of I-485 created a belt

around the city limits to allow for fast and easy driving. LYNX public transit has also recently

extended its reach with the blue line that connects UNC Charlotte with the rest of the city

through light rail trains. Living here is less expensive, which is attractive to many potential

residents. Charlotte’s cost of living is roughly 1/3 of San Jose’s (city on the San Francisco Bay).

Homes in Charlotte are much cheaper and more available than San Francisco, where the average

rent is nearly doubled. These factors make Charlotte much easier to live in for middle income

people and show that the city is prepared for growth (Jensen).

A good paragraph that explains why Charlotte is a growing city. In this paragraph I don’t

see anything wrong.

 Works Cited

Barrionuevo, Alexei. “Is the Bay Area Really on the Verge of a Housing Bubble?” Curbed, Curbed,

24 Feb. 2016, www.curbed.com/2016/2/24/11102278/bay-area-housing-crisis-bubble.

Barrionuevo, Alexi. “Is the Bay Area Really on the Verge of a Housing Bubble?” Curbed,

Curbed, 24 Feb. 2016, https://www.curbed.com/2016/2/24/11102278/bay-area-housing-crisis-

bubble. Accessed 18 Apr. 2018.

Calvey, Mark. “San Francisco Reclaims Crown as Nation’s Second-Largest Banking Center.”

Bizjournals.com, 23 May 2017.www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2017/05/23/san-

francisco-bank-of-america-bac-wells-fargo-wfc.html. Accessed 3 Mar. 2018.

Hanchett, Thomas W. “The Growth of Charlotte: A History.” The Growth of Charlotte: A

History, www.cmhpf.org/educhargrowth.htm. Accessed 27 Feb 2018.

Hankins, Melissa. “Bank vs. Bank.” Charlotte Magazine, 30 Sept. 2007, 7:00 PM,

www.charlottemagazine.com/Charlotte-Magazine/September-2007/Bank-vs-Bank/

History.com Staff. “San Francisco.” History.com, 2009. www.history.com/topics/san-francisco

Hurt, Harry. “Big Banking, Southern Style.” New York Times, 18 Sept. 2010,

www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/business/19shelf.html. Accessed 27 Feb 2018.

Jensen, Scott. “Here’s Why Charlotte Became the Fastest Growing City in The Country Over

the Past Decade.” Charlotte Stories, 7 Dec. 2017, www.charlottestories.com/heres-

charlotte-became-fastest-growing-city-country-past-decade/. Accessed 26 Feb 2018.

Mandel, Michael. “San Francisco and the Tech/Info Boom.” San Francisco and the Tech/Info

Boom, Apr. 2014

https://data.bloomberglp.com/company/sites/2/2014/04/SouthMountainEconomics_SF_

echInfo_Boom.pdf. Accessed 18 Apr. 2018.