12 replies to this topic

[motonenterprises]

Just seems that most of Greenville's people including me live outside of the city limits. Also, most of the development seems to be outside of the city limits. Example: Woodruff Road is so congested during the day I almost hate going over there. Yet 90 percent of Woodruff Road is outside the city limits. Some others are the Cherrydale shopping district, Wade Hampton Blvd., and my corner of Greenville Pelham Rd. near I85. All these areas are mostly outside of the Greenville city limits. Seems they would annex some of this stuff into the city. I moved here back in January and when I was told the city population was around 60,000 I didn't believe it. I know cities with populations over 100,000 that don't seem as large or busy to me. One example is Augusta GA who's population is somewhere around 200,000 I believe. Greenville looks and seems like a larger area to me. Can someone shed some light on this? Just something to create conversation.

[monsoon]

[Spartan]

You are exactly right!

The City of Greenville's population is 56,002 (2000)

However- Greenville County has the largest population in SC- 395,357(2003est)

Another more measurement (which is becoming a better standard of comparion on the forums) is the Urban Area.

Greenville's Urban Area is 302,194. (2003est)

So essentially you have a city with around 300k operating daily in Greenville, not counting commuters and visitors from nearby counties!

The longer you live in the Upstate the more you will realize that its really one large community rather than saveral smaller ones. Greenville and Spartanburg are very quickly growing towards each other. Also, the Upstate of SC has over 1,000,000 people.

One other thing- Greenville is kinda in the center of things, and it always has bad traffic

[Matthew]

Greenville is around the same size as Winston-Salem. Both cities have an urbanized area of 300,000 and a metro area of around 500,000. The difference is in annexation.

[Spartan]

Yes- annexation in SC is very hard to do, so the cities populations do not accurately represent the size of the area.

[Matthew]

Annexation can also make a small city look bigger than it really is. I think that is the case with many North Carolina cities. Asheville is the only one that is around the right city size for it's metro and urbanized area. And as you know, we are planning an annexation that could double the population of Asheville.

[motonenterprises]

That makes since! I never understood why the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson MSA were separated either. If I want to go to Spartanburg or Anderson I just hit I85 and be there in minutes.

[Spartan]

Yeah I know... but it has to do with percentages of commuters. You have to have 25% of a countys population commute to its neighboring county to be a part of its MSA. Pickens and Laurens Counties have that with Greenville. I think its 15%-25% to be in tha CSA (Anderson is a part of Greenville's CSA) Spartanburg is still independent from Greenville there.

[motonenterprises]

I think they will be reconnected and well over 1 million by 2010.

[Spartan]

I'm conflicted here. I could see Greenville-Spartanburg being a CSA, but not in the same Metro anymore. Im starting to think Spartanburg will exist better as its own metro. I think that Polk County (NC) will eventually be pulled in with Spartanburg, as well as Cherokee.

For Greenville I see Anderson becoming more integrated with it than it is now.  Greenville has alot of potential, I just hope that the city and county's leaders excercise good judgement.

[The_sandlapper]

Spartan, on Aug 7 2004, 01:41 AM, said:

I'm conflicted here. I could see Greenville-Spartanburg being a CSA, but not in the same Metro anymore. Im starting to think Spartanburg will exist better as its own metro. I think that Polk County (NC) will eventually be pulled in with Spartanburg, as well as Cherokee.

For Greenville I see Anderson becoming more integrated with it than it is now.  Greenville has alot of potential, I just hope that the city and county's leaders excercise good judgement.

I remember in the old Greenville/ Spartanburg/ Anderson MSA used to include Cheeroke County.  Anderson Co., Pickens Co., Greenville Co., Spartanburg Co., & Cheeroke Co It used to stretch for about 80 miles down I-85.  I'm fairly familiar with the Upstae. My mother is from "Sparkle City", & I lived in G-Vegas from 2001-2003 before I moved.

Edited by The_sandlapper, 12 August 2004 - 11:14 AM.

[Matthew]

Polk County is unusually wealthy in this region of North Carolina. The only explaination I have is the small number of residents and the high percentage of them that work in office jobs in Spartanburg. I'm surprised it's not a part of Spartanburg right now.

[Spartan]

I've heard that alot Matthew. Columbus and Tryon are nice towns But I suspect that over time enough people will commute so that it will be a part of Spartanbrug's Metro, which to me would bekinda cool, since it would be a SC metro taking NC counties, and not the other way around.