Charlotte at a glance: the first day of the DNC

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The city is hidden.

Under clouds that are white up close but gray far away, Charlotte is flat and sprawling.
Delegates, protesters and other visitors see little as their planes touch down at the airport in the city’s west side.

The host city of the Democratic National Convention is hidden on the ground, too, by beautification projects designed to impress the entire country.

By Tuesday, traffic was light with just a few cars dotting the highways. The airport wasn’t busy by then, either.

Distinguished guests to the city, such as first lady Michelle Obama and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, arrived Monday and throughout the weekend.

The houses are tall, and the buildings are squat. The tallest building downtown, which locals insist on calling “Uptown,” is the Duke Energy building. It looks like an elongated metal bucket complete with a handle on top.

As the planes touch down, the city’s first greeting is a display of orange tubes and trucks sprawled alongside dirty hills. The sight of construction is familiar to Hoosier delegates.

Everyone flying into Charlotte during the weekend had to figure out where to go once the planes spat them into the city. The airport responded to the influx of visitors by shutting down parts of the facility and rearranging entrances and exits.

Outside, a tall statue of a queen bent over a fountain grimaces at the newcomers. Queen Charlotte.

Uptown is dotted with parks, and many who enter comment on the loveliness of the city.

Some of the parks are permanent, but many are temporary, hastily erected for a week of trying to inspire a more muted DNC crowd than the one in Denver in 2008.

Welcome to Charlotte.