You know I always have to nitpick North Carolina.
First of all, I have to say, perhaps the worst effect of the somewhat slipshod court-drawn NC map is encouraging people to draw ugly slices down the middle of Charlotte. A central Charlotte district and then two suburban districts is basically the only thing that makes sense. Arguments for the current split remind me of cooked-up Republican arguments for splitting up SLC or Austin, except for from a Democratic perspective.
An urban Charlotte district ideally should avoid taking in large non-Mecklenburg chunks as well. It's actually pretty easy to do this, unlike the horrible and obvious sacrifices in the Eastern part of the state.
I've also come around to the opinion that a Sandhills seat and then giving portions of Johnston to NC-03 or NC-07 is probably better than cracking the Sandhills. That then lets you draw something like the current 13th, except going west instead of east and avoiding the odd connection of Richmond and Anson to Cary.
FYI, I'd split Sampson over Pender, which is part of metro Wilmington.
I'm also pro-drawing a Winston-Salem--Greensboro district, though I'm aware your inflexibility on county splits militates against this. On the other hand, you might like that a sensible whole county NC-11 is easy if you drop Avery, McDowell, and Mitchell and add Rutherford.
