teshadoh

But there just isn't much left for James Island to annex, especially considering the whole concept of the city incorporation was due to all the remaining residents who didn't want to be in Charleston. I do notice a few scattered areas towards Folly Beach but other than that James Island is surrounded by Charleston.

I wouldn't be surprised if there will be several more new FBS teams in the next 10 years that were previous commuter colleges without football that transitioned into major urban universities. UT San Antonio is one relatively new FCS team that will play FBS next year, as I noted years ago the college I went to Georgia State is now playing FCS & could be planning on a jump to FBS in the next several years. One thing that does seem to be common is that for these large universities, it doesn't matter at all if they are necessarily successful in FCS to jump to FBS, but they have deep financial pockets & can fill a 15-20k stadium.

^ Out of those projects, only the I-20 improvement in Aiken County truly sounds necessary. As long as the Dave Lyle extension idea has been proposed (I remember it from the 80's) it would only succeed in spreading sprawl westward to Lancaster County.

Very interesting - besides the fact that I grew up a half mile south of the Miller Pond neighborhood & used to play there back when it was a cow pasture. I had no idea Old York Rd. was being developed, I'm honestly shocked that it is as developed as the article states it is. Regarding the article, I wouldn't be surprised they try to evade city water & use well water, since my neighborhood directly south had its own well. But it is absurd that anyone would consider it 'blackmail', when the developer signed an agreement that the city has the option to annex the subdivision. Not to mention most unincorporated RH residents routinely use city services, such as driving to city parks as there are none in the outlying subdivisions. Perhaps the state should at the very least provide cities with limited control over an extra-territorial jurisdiction which other southern states provide cities limited control. Then at least it would be fair warning to residents that they may very well be annexed in the future.

Rock Hill like most cities have long embracced shopping centers, but I admit I'm surprised about a Dollar General & a Food Lion going in there. At least since the 80's Rock Hill had been planning for the Celanese exit at 77 to be a vastly improved entrance into the city than it had been. Sadly, I think we were a lot better off when we had a putt putt golf & 2 roll-a-rinks open instead. Still, there is so much road traffic there that I would have thought more retail interest would exist. Or maybe it's just the current state of the economy in SC?

2007 estimates: Denver Aurora MSA is 2.4 million, Charlotte Gastonia Concord MSA is 1.6 million. Denver Aurora Boulder CSA is 2.9 million, Charlotte Gastonia Salisbury CSA is 2.2 million. Regarding municipal population, yes Charlotte is larger. Denver is a city - county government (no excuse - just saying).

It was the ABC affiliate in Denver, channel 7.

Happened again - the ticker on this morning's tv news in Denver reported that the Broncos would be playing in "South Carolina" today.

What a huge difference between the planned spartan Tokyo Hotel & the planned Mandarin!

For comparison Georgia State University, a comparable college to UNCC in Atlanta that has historically been a commuter college but in the past 10 years has been migrating to a traditional college, announced a new football program this year. They hired Bill Curry to start the program & will begin play in 2010 in the Colonial Conference, an FCS conference, that includes northeastern colleges & several Virginia colleges more known for basketball - like Villanova. It would be cool if Charlotte & GSU played each other, as well as other urban colleges like Richmond. Perhaps even the Colonial Conference would be interested in Charlotte, it's a conference that attracts large colleges that are just developing football programs who are in traditional basketball conferences.

I agree - I think in terms of perception, nationwide is completely different from regional perception. A lot of people mention NASCAR, but having grown up in SC & lived in Atlanta, I do agree it's big, but not that prominent of a perception. Considering NASCAR races are common in most southern states & especially in SC the Darlington race had more significance than the race in Charlotte - it's a wash. Nationwide though, with all the NASCAR based movies (Burt Reynolds, Tom Cruise & Will Ferrell) taking place in Charlotte & arguably the most important NASCAR race is near Charlotte besides of course the head quarters & museum - then nationwide I could see that. Also of course, as Spartan suggested, in SC - Charlotte is the big city. Though certainly areas bordering Georgia it would be different, Charlotte is the primary big city nearest SC. Otherwise, Charlotte is known nationwide not as a big city but certainly a growing city & a new symbol of the sunbelt. Regionally, it is highly subjective, nonetheless Charlotte clearly is well known in the southeast as much as Atlanta, Nashville, or Dallas. So that perception would be completely different than the nationwide perception - except for banking. Nationwide Charlotte is known as a banking center & of course many of the southeastern banks, especially in SC are based in Charlotte. I think the biggest indicator of Charlotte's perception is from business travelers. Most medium to large businesses nationwide will have sent at least one person to Charlotte to conduct business a year. That really is significant & possibly a factor in Charlotte's growth & positive image. As I stated before, business people travel there for business & usually have a good time there - they compliment the downtown, good weather & affordability. They tell their coworkers who tell their families & so forth. Being a business friendly city has definitely helped Charlotte & developed a strong perception for people.

^ It likely is sewer or storm drain trunk line construction by Clean Water Atlanta. From what I understand, the lakes that will be in the park will be built for storm drain purposes. That is a major flood area where Clear Creek used to flow.

I understand this might be a weak comparison - but you know what upstate city that is doing a great job of giving their downtown a facelift is? Anderson. I was really impressed with the work they are doing there a month ago. It helps give downtown Anderson an intimate feeling (only if more buildings were renovated).

I'm not sure I'm even promoting 'better design' but more of an anti-design stance in regards to architecture. Or how about I'm a architectual deconstructionist? Nonetheless, the remnants of post-modernism has to be absolutely destroyed! Rather than paying a pretentious architect firm that designs using a cookie cutter based on over-used patterns, just build a big block & brick it & add big windows. That's all.

Huh - not sure I would ever want to go to a restaurant named after a slaughterhouse. Even if it's french

I have to admit, having some memories of how downtown looked in the 70's when my grandmother took me to go shopping & having revisited a month ago - I am very dissapointed in how it looks now. On the plus side - there are at least some places to go to on Main Street. But driving on Main Street (I hate how they made the street so curvy) it gave me the impression that I was driving through a new suburban 'lifestyle center' because though there were buildings along the street, there was a lot of parking surrounding them. Sorry - please don't flame me - but it was really disheartening to see all those parking lots with random unoccupied buildings scattered about.

I can vouch that from Colorado, Charlotte has a generally positive review. The majority that I have heard from are business travelers & admire the cleanliness & 'newness' of Charlotte's downtown, as well as all the trees in the city.

I have to admit - I would prefer a plain jane brick building with few architectural details to the majority of the EIF post-post-modern mid-rise junk that tends to get built in Midtown. Most of the high rises built in Atlanta in the past decade are quite nice in my opinion, but the apartment mid-rises tend to be simply dreadful. Again - what's wrong with simple brick buildings like they were built in the old days? Save money on an architect & use that money to buy bricks & brick layers!

They will be tearing down a really cool 4 story building then, it is actually one of my under rated favorites in Atlanta. It has a beautiful 3 story archway & once was a department store I believe.

Out of curiosity - why are you concerned about the 'usage'? I think the healthiest office tower, more common in NYC, is the mixed use tower that contains retail, office, hospitality & residential. I'm totally for an office tower owner to mix it up, in fact I'll go further - I think all the office towers in Atlanta would benefit in adding more residential units in addition to office. Obviously there is a cost - but it is unlikely for an office tower to be fully occupied, so why not have a parachute for all those empty units. Yes, there is a cost - but the cost of conversion offsets empty floors and of course the cost of reconverting is offset by having new tenants.

Far out - that is huge! That is going to pump enormous amounts of money into the city's coffers. Rock Hill certainly isn't the 'dirty old town' like it once was during the textile hay-days.

Thanks for that resource - I'm sorry, but I can't divulge what my source is, but it is a national provider of local property tax data. Nonetheless, they are certainly missing data as you have pointed out (though it appears they combine the fire districts into a single county fire district code). Regarding special districts - I mostly agree with you. Particularly from my perspective, they are too often governing agencies that can be very difficult to get a hold of. They are often just part time employees who are appointed by local politicians as a favor - they receive a tidy little salary for minimal work. That of course is the worst case, there are agencies that are very professional & essentially operate like an independent city. But again - with minimal over sight. But at least SC isn't set up like NJ - ridiculously inefficient local government structure. Townships serve unincorporated county but operate the same as the city. Additionally, much of the same services provided by the city & county overlap those of the county. At least in most of the US - if you are unhappy about services you receive when you live outside of a city, annexation is an option. In NJ - you have very few options as you are already served by a municipal government (township) & you are unlikely to be able to be deannexed out of the township into a neighboring city. Columbia would just be best served by a more powerful MPO or a similar COG that provides a uniform planning direction for the metro. I know officially that may already occur (not sure how powerful MPO powers are in SC) but at least in other states (such as GA) it is largely a joke that they have a real effect.

I just checked & their are only 15 property tax jurisdictions (independent of city) - most are either school or water / sanitary districts in Spartanburg County.

I'm not familiar with property tax jurisdictions too much in SC - but perhaps the 900 figure comes from combination districts or tax code areas. That is when the multiple jurisdiction districts overlap one another creating those combination tax code areas. But still - nearly 1000 tax code areas does seem unlikely but it can occur in more populous counties counties (such as in CA).

^ Off topic, but Charlotte could hypothetically annex into Cabarrus or Union Counties (though Concord & Kannapolis have likely put the kibosh on entering Cabarrus). Also, other counties in NC annexation agreements exist & have existed for years. If my memory is correct, around 1990 Gastonia had broken an annexation agreement with the neighboring Lake Wylie cities. I too would like the ETJ concept in SC. As in Texas it is typically set at 2 or more miles outside the city, something similar could be a useful first step to reforming annexation laws in SC. Simply providing the city some say in how property develops outside the city's immediate border could encourage developers to go to the city first & not the county.