By day, Uptown Charlotte can be a pretty boring place.
Seriously, besides scores of roaming office workers, there ain't much to see. When the lights go out, however, things get interesting.
After dark, city workers start their rounds, homeless people pound the pavement and bar crawlers bounce from club to club. After dark, the streets get a little less safe (though not dangerous by big-city standards) but downtown denizens get more sociable. After dark -- in the words of the legendary hip-hop group Whodini -- the freaks come out.
Thank God for the freaks.