As a native of Florence who visits often to see family, I thought I would chime in.
First, in response to the post from the guy (zahc) that lives in CA but grew up in Pamplico (a small rural town about 20 miles from Florence), I feel your pain. As a boy, Florence, including downtown, did indeed seem like an exciting place. I was born in Florence and grew up in Effingham. Downtown and the malls were fun and people filled. The city in general was much more attractive. Vacant buildings, pavement and billboards seem to dominant the city now. Northeastern SC has always lagged the rest of the state in growth, but even more so now.
There was a block-long covered pedestrian mall downtown from the late 60's until it was torned down in the late 80's. Kress and other shops were there but the covered sidewalks took away some much needed parking.
Like all cities, large and small, the exodus of shopping began in the 60s and by the mid '70s downtown was in serious decline. Retail had moved westward toward the interstates. Unfortunately, the city received a bundle of Urban Renewal money from the feds in the 70's. That money was used to tear down scores of downtown buildings. The thought was that surburban style buildings would replace them. Of course, the plans included suburban style parking and some streets would be replaced with pedestrian plazas to complete the "mall-like experience".
Long story short, the new buildings by and large, never came. One major exception was the construction of a new larger regional hospital. That would be the McLeod Regional Medical Center.
With the opening of the first enclosed mall in the area, in 1979, what little major retail that was still downtown left.
Several efforts were made to "revitialize" downtown over the years. When the covered sidewalks were razed, they went to Antique street lights with a return of street parking. At first some antique stores moved in and actually had something of a draw to it. But that petered out after about a year. There was a comprehensive, multi-block plan to return the remaining commercial stock back to it's original historic architecture. But the city council backed away from the tax increases and requiring property owners to fix up their properties.
Now, there is yet another effort to turn things around. However, I think it will go nowhere because too much of the urban fabric of door-to-door comercial buildings is gone. The area has a stigma and the area leadeship is just not progressive enough.
The one bright spot has been McLeod Medical Center. They have grown exponentially, and it is now the largest employer in 9 counties. Since '79 they have grown from I think less than 1,000 empolyees to close to 5,000 today. That's pretty huge for a city of 30,000 (metro 125,000).
There is one non-McLeod seven story building downtown. The City-County Complex is 11 stories. McLeod has two seven story buildings and also a five story building that is currently expanding upward to 12 stories. There is a second hospital in town with 9 stories, but is is 2-3 miles south of Downtown.
Edited by vicupstate, 12 October 2004 - 07:47 PM.
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