Within the video game from exit 3a, the MecDec celebration and (finally) the Rail Trail Bridge

Sometimes, The present also reflects the past and future. Here you will find a selection of events, a planned project and a video game (really!) That was our city and what it should be.

The video game

When the Charlotte software engineer Mike Ramirez joked with some friends that he would play a video game about the notorious Exit 3a on Interstate 277, they were so excited that he made it to work. “When I drive through the 3A exit and summarize all this traffic,” says Ramirez. It feels like a game. “

He is an engineer for a health company during the day and has created about a dozen video games for fun since he taught himself a decade ago. He started working on “Exit 3a: The Game” in February 2024 and made it to his New Year's decision to complete it at some point this year. As with a Charlotte-centered Frogger game, the goal is to navigate in a vehicle from the I-277 and three traces of traffic without spilling your load or crash.

Ramirez plans to publish it on the PC -Gaming platform Steam. He also works with Zach Pulliam, the owner of the Super Abari Game Bar, to make it an arcade game. “I have so many ideas now,” says Ramirez. You can follow his progress on Instagram.

The Semiquincentennial

This means “250th anniversary”, which in this case applies to the declaration of independence from Mecklenburg or “Mecdec”. Members of the Society of May 20, a group of local Mecdec enthusiasts, have planned events from May 10th to 20th.

“This 250th anniversary is a unique opportunity to think about the courage and vision of the Mecklenburg Patriots,” says Scott Syfert, co-founder of the society of society, society. “Charlotte's rich revolutionary history is an essential part of American history, and we invite the community to take part in this sensible, educational and funny events that lead to commemoration.”

New arrivals and even a few long -time Charlottaners cannot understand the importance of the MECDEC. Is it a serious historical artifact, a real forerunner for the actual declaration of independence or just a local curiosity? Well, it is both – the second and the third president of the United States, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both of whom were made aware of it, although Jefferson was much more skeptical about its importance.

On May 19, 1775, a man rode to the old Log Court building at the intersection of two old trade routes, which are now known as Trade and Tryon Street. The man announced that the colonial militia defeated British soldiers in Lexington and Concord exactly a month earlier and that the American revolution was underway. The lively militia in the emerging city of Charlotte replied the next day with a proclamation and read from the steps of the court building, which removed the British crown – more than a year before this other explanation.

Here are the planned events to commemorate the occasion:

Saturday, May 10th:

Trace of the history festival

10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Captain Jack Statue in the Fourth Street and Kings Drive. Free celebration with local history, art, music and food.

Mecdec Express: A bus trip through Charlotte's Revolution

3 p.m., Lost Worlds Brewing Charlotte. Davidson, resident David Fleming, author of the 2023 book, Who is your founding father? The epic search of a man to uncover the first, true declaration of independenceleads a charter bus tour through MecDec-related locations.

Tickets cost 35 US dollars, 55 US dollars with a signed paperback copy.

Sunday, May 18:

Captain James Jack Historical bike tour

3 p.m. to 6 p.m., begins and ends in the Old Mecklenburg Brewery. The group bike ride visits historical sites in honor of James Jack, who drove his horse to Philadelphia in the summer of 1775 to bring the Mecdec to the continental congress. Free.

Thursday, May 22nd:

Charlotte Museum of History Exhibition Opening

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The exhibition issued by 2025 begins with the MECDEC and still examines the concept of freedom through history. Museum entry (15 US dollars for adults, free of charge for 18 years and younger) required.

Commemoration

12 p.m., Independence Square, Trade and Tryon Street. The free Capstone event organized by Charlotte Center City Partners includes a reading of the explanation, Keynote spokesman, a wreath residual ceremony, military groups and appearances of local musicians and choirs. The special guests include offspring of original signatures and citizens.

The bridge

On the other side of the I-277 loop from exit 3a between South Boulevard and College Street there is a planned bridge that is more than just a piece of infrastructure. Local civil servants hope that the bridge can connect two areas that the motorway has separated for decades: Uptown and South End.

In January, the members of the city council approved a contract of $ 16.3 million for the construction of the Rail Trail pedestrian bridge, which is expected to be concluded in spring 2028. It is a long-discussed project with which foot and bicycle traffic crosses 277 and freely between Charlotte's business district and his booming nightlife and the residential stroke and both.

This is hope anyway. “It will be a commuter artery in our large employment center,” says Michael Smith, President and CEO of Charlotte Center City Partners, the organization that focuses on economic and neighborhood development in Uptown and its neighboring areas. “It is simply important on so many levels, and it will be interesting to see how it affects the liveliness of both the districts and the small and large companies.”

The idea appeared years ago. In 2019, Center City Partners announced that it had secured enough money from public and private sources to build the bridge. The Rail Trail, opened in 2007, is a 3.5 mile pedestrian path, which ends the light rail line by South End Ummert-Aber shortly before the I-277. If you want to ride your bicycle via the Interstate, you have to share a transfer with cars.

The 280-foot long, 16-foot wide bridge can also represent the first of a series of projects that reflect the insulating effects of 277 weakening-and-state codes, which reflects the planners' thinking in the 1960s and 1970s, which were of the opinion that the future of cities belonged exclusively to the automobile. Local civil servants across the country have only recognized the advantages of other types of means of transport in cities in recent years.

“More connectivity is better,” says Smith. “It combines people with opportunities and creates safer, pedestrian -oriented quarters. There are other places in all of Uptown that would benefit from such connections.”

Of course, Covid delayed the project, in addition to inflation, which increased the estimated project costs of $ 11 million in 2019 to its current USD 16.3 million. “Public projects are difficult, especially if you go to an active expressway that belongs to another form of government,” he says. “This is an important project, and that's why everyone has adhered to it, and it is also an incredible inflation time that makes it difficult to activate the projects. I could not be more grateful to the city of Charlotte if they are seen and recorded the importance of this connection.”