Small-town feel helped this NC city rise to 10th biggest. Can it hang onto that charm?
Long-time residents said they hope Concord can retain its “small-town charm” despite its new Census ranking as the 10th largest city in North Carolina.
Concord, just past northeast Charlotte, grew 33.1% from 2010 to last year, to 105,240 residents, according to 2020 Census numbers released on Thursday. It leap-frogged Asheville and Greenville on its way to the No. 10 spot.
“ ‘Live, work and play’ is a common phrase here,” Concord Mayor Bill Dusch told The Charlotte Observer in a phone interview Friday. “You’ve got to have all three of those to be a community.”
“No one wants to lose it,” he said of his native city’s small-town appeal. “We want to keep that balance between small-town feel and growth.”
And the city is doing so, he said, while attracting companies and jobs to keep the area economically strong. He cited various companies bringing in a total of more than 1,100 jobs.
On July 14, for example, beverage manufacturers Red Bull and Rauch announced a $740 million investment in a new facility in Concord at the site of the old Phillip Morris plant, the Observer previously reported
The project will create more than 400 jobs in the area, Gov. Roy Cooper said, and is the largest economic development in the Cabarrus County’s history. Ball Corp. said it would also join the campus, creating 220 jobs and investing $384 million. Ball is an aluminum beverage packaging company based in Colorado.
And on Thursday, the mayor added, the city held a ribbon cutting for a 304-apartment development in downtown Concord.
‘Our own identity’
While it’s right near Charlotte, Dusch said, Concord is its own place.
“We have a very strong region, centered in Charlotte,” Dusch said. “We all work well with Charlotte, and we’ve learned we want to work with them, but we have our own identity.
“We don’t want to be a bedroom community of Charlotte,” the mayor said. “We decided we want to make sure we bring in jobs.”
And a parks and greenway plan is in place representing an investment of over $100 million, he said.
‘Sittin’ on a stump’
Jerry and Deborah Bradley said they, too, love the small-town feel of Concord despite its rapid growth, but they worry how much is too much.
“Gotta be careful,” Jerry Bradley quipped after breakfast with his wife at Punchy’s Diner, a longtime local hangout on Concord Parkway North. “If your sittin’ on a stump, and you get off of the stump, they’ll build a duplex on it.”
Deborah Bradley said she’d “had enough of the big city” and its traffic and crime after 35 years working at a pediatric dental practice off Randolph Road in Charlotte.
The Bradleys live on 16 pristine acres near Frank Liske Park, a 238-acre public park on Stough Road in Cabarrus County that’s also a wildlife and nature preserve.
“We have a creek running through the property,” 70-year-old Deborah Bradley said. “We have deer, raccoon, skunk, hawks and one groundhog — and squirrels that come and feed out of my hands.”
“No one believed we had a groundhog until I put a tracker camera up,” 67-year-old Jerry Bradley said.
Habitat loss
Deborah Bradley knows the cause, however, of the occasional deer carcass she sees on a Concord road.
“They’re losing their habitat,” she said. “The deer have nowhere to go.”
Ann Holland, a Punchy’s Diner manager who lives in Charlotte, was happy to learn of Concord’s new ranking.
“It shows people want to come here,” she said. “I just hope we don’t lose something of that country feel. But it’s nice to know that we’re on the map.
“You always hear about other cities, like Charlotte.”
Vibrant downtown
Holland said she understands why so many people want to move to Concord.
“I love how beautiful it is, the scenery,” Holland said. “We have a lot of amenities. The downtown is clean, it’s pretty and the parks in Concord are really nice.”
“We definitely have a small-town feel,” Kathleen Reeder said Friday. She and her husband, Justin Reeder, own The Bead Lady on Union Street North in downtown Concord. The business is celebrating its 19th year. “We love it here.”
“Why would you not want it to grow?” Reeder asked. Growth is happening everywhere, she said, “so why not Concord?”
Concord residents Charles and Lillian Bewayo agreed.
“I think it’s a good thing,” 30-year-old Lillian Bewayo said of Concord’s new ranking.
As her 45-year-old husband said, “Let it grow a little more, but keep the (small-town charm) tradition. I love the tradition.”
This story was originally published August 16, 2021 at 6:20 AM with the headline "Small-town feel helped this NC city rise to 10th biggest. Can it hang onto that charm?."