Agenda for Friday, May 8th: Ramen is coming to town

I asked via our Instagram account: “Are we a biking town?” Here are 4 of the 11 comments:
Zach: “No way! Have you ever tried biking from NoDa to Uptown? You have to dodge so many cars it’s like playing frogger!”
Johnny: “Soon”
Kevin: “Many trying to make us such. More needs to be done by the powers that create infrastructure to support change. I spent 30 minutes sitting in traffic on Providence thinking ‘how many of these cars could be bikes if there were a lane on this road.'”
Shawn: “Fits and starts, I’d say. There are a lot of very hard working volunteers trying to push Charlotte toward being more ped and bike friendly. Has as much to do with city planning policy and developers as it does cars. Plenty of room to improve though.”

VITALS

Today’s Weather: 85. Sunny and 0% chance of rain.
Today’s Stat: $800,000. Amount of money that Stephen Colbert and partners gave via DonorChoose.org to fund 1,000 projects to over 800 teachers at 375 schools in South Carolina.
Today’s Job: Fall Digital Media Internship at ESPN’s Charlotte office. Apply.
Today’s Charlottean: Dianna Ward, Executive Director of Charlotte B Cycle, for her passion for transforming our city’s transportation via bikes. 

ORIGINALS

Being Claudia: Life lessons and musings from a 75-year-old transgendered woman
Tim sat down with Claudia at Snug Harbor and documented 7 quick stories. Beautifully human and well told. Read this.

Opening next week: Futo Buta Ramen menu preview
This concept and team will win. View 9 photos from Katie’s experience at their media night last night (where media people eat stuff). 

Hometown heroes and hometown blues. 2 tales of 1 city.
I had no idea that Mecklenburg County is 1 of the 5 toughest counties for kids to escape poverty. Jonathan compares his excitement of Steph Curry’s MVP win with the hopeless feeling he had when he found out this stat.

Sycamore’s Serendipity Vanilla Beer on fleek
4.5% session ale made with Madagascar vanilla. I don’t know my vanillas, but I like it. I also had to google “on fleek” to get hip. Emily has never craved beer before this one.

Go walk your dog – Dublin Dog style
Get the scoop on this Charlotte-based dog accessory company – photos of dog gear and Abbott (Clay’s very good looking Springer Spaniel). 

Play-by-play of my Postmates food delivery experience with cost breakdown
Postmates is here early (they said they’re launching May 14th, but they’re live now)! Instead of eating Trader Joe’s pasta last night (true startup cuisine) I convinced my wife to order via Charlotte’s new delivery service. Here’s our experience play-by-play.

Community, partnership and the evolution of an idea: Meet Cruise Carts, Charlotte’s free ride service
Erin gives us a behind the scenes look at the decision making of this startup. I’ve talked with Dustin (founder of Cruise Carts) and was really impressed by him. 

TALKING POINTS

Crescent Communities continues to dominate and is planning a massive development on Providence in South Charlotte. Observer reports that they’ll plop a hotel, school, Whole Foods, 600 apartments and 30,000 square feet of office space on 72 acres. Mixed use and Crescent are WINNING.

Bojangles’ is going public today. NASDAQ ticker symbol “BOJA.” I once ate a bite or two of every non-chicken Bojangles’ item from the test kitchen. No joke. WSJ reports that their market cap is likely to be around $669 million. Advent International(PE firm that owns a big %) is about to give some high fives and their partners will be in the market for second homes.

Save $50 on your Chipotle delivery from Postmates. I got a VIP code via email because I’m on the internets – grab the code before a suit yells at me for posting it.

Invitation: WDAV wants you to join them Saturday at the Young Chamber Musicians Competition.

Have a warm weekend and fill us in if you know the Plaza Midwood Bart Simpson Butt Muralist Bandit. Oh, and Happy Mother’s Day, Mommy – I love you!