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Spartan

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Gville2012 Hamlet

Gville2012

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On 6/14/2019 at 9:24 AM, Den2Gvl said:

Drove by the Greek Orthodox church this morning in downtown and they had a big sign displayed for some construction that they'll be doing . I wasn't able to get a good look at it though. Anybody know what they're doing? 

I feel like that sign has been there for years...

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vicupstate
vicupstate

It's been 7 minutes already and neither Gman430 nor Apladdin have  remarked that 'tower' in Greenville only means 5 stories. 

vicupstate
vicupstate

Finally getting around to posting what I found out. This info is from the county library vertical file on City View and consists mostly of Greenville News clippings. Obviously I made a wrong assumptio

distortedlogic
distortedlogic

Not sure the best thread to post this observation but I spent a little time downtown tonight and was amazed at how much is still going on, almost as if covid didn't even exist. I have been there very

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distortedlogic Town

distortedlogic

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Not sure the best thread to post this observation but I spent a little time downtown tonight and was amazed at how much is still going on, almost as if covid didn't even exist. I have been there very little this year so seeing it all in person was pretty impressive. I also went over the church st bridge (into downtown) for the first time in probably a year, and the difference the Camperdown buildings, the new apartments to the right, the new courthouse, the recently added double hotel building, and the new buildings going up near academy have about doubled the density driving through there. I was very surprised at the difference in feel. And wait until County Square gets going! 

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GVLover Whistle-Stop

GVLover

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On 2/3/2022 at 3:55 PM, vicupstate said:

CityView Corners

 

Pretty big deal for this area which has been stagnate for years until Woodside Mil was redeveloped. City View was an incorporated town for many decades, but surrendered its charter in the late '90's I think.   

When I initially read this post, I attempted to look up more info on City View being incorporated as a town but that’s literally all the inform I could find. Do you know if it had its own city council/mayor, police force, etc? I’m just trying to figure out the extent of it being a “town.”

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vicupstate Metropolitan Area

vicupstate

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5 hours ago, GVLover said:

When I initially read this post, I attempted to look up more info on City View being incorporated as a town but that’s literally all the inform I could find. Do you know if it had its own city council/mayor, police force, etc? I’m just trying to figure out the extent of it being a “town.”

There would have had to been a council and a mayor. There was no police force, fire department, water or sewer either.  It did provide street lights as I recall and probably some form of zoning perhaps. It was pretty small and low tax base for sure.  It may have been incorporated to prevent annexation by Greenville, albeit I doubt Greenville would have ever sought to annex it.  Some people can be irrational about that.   I'll see what info I can dig up. 

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vicupstate Metropolitan Area

vicupstate

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On 3/5/2022 at 5:32 AM, vicupstate said:

There would have had to been a council and a mayor. There was no police force, fire department, water or sewer either.  It did provide street lights as I recall and probably some form of zoning perhaps. It was pretty small and low tax base for sure.  It may have been incorporated to prevent annexation by Greenville, albeit I doubt Greenville would have ever sought to annex it.  Some people can be irrational about that.   I'll see what info I can dig up. 

Finally getting around to posting what I found out. This info is from the county library vertical file on City View and consists mostly of Greenville News clippings. Obviously I made a wrong assumption on services provided. 

Residents voted to incorporate by a vote of 234-35 in April of 1960. The primary driver being to prevent annexation by Greenville as the area mills began divesting themselves of mill housing.  The town provided police, fire, water, sewer, municipal court and building inspection services. The town abolished the police department in 1986 but resumed with a one-man department in 1988.

Residents voted to unincorporate in June of 1995 by a vote of 189 to 91. This was a 67.5% majority in favor of surrendering the charter. HOWEVER, a 2/3rds vote is required, so a recount was conducted as required by law as the margin was within 1% of 66.6%.  If THREE voters who voted to surrender the charter had instead voted to remain a town, then the town would have remained.  There were 568 active voters in the town at the time of that election, so right at 50% participated.  

 

Land Area:

various sources cite 2.5 or 3 Square Miles. In 1975, 18 acres were annexed into the town.

 

Population:

A 1978 article quoted the population as around 2,800 (probably from the 1970 census). The town lost 25% of its population between the 1970 and 1980 census. Population was estimated to be 1,490 at the time of the 1995 referendum.

 

Town Hall:

Originally located at 8 ½ Belk Street but was replaced in the ‘70’s with a new Fire Dept/Town Hall at 1105 Woodside Ave. The original town hall was burned on June 6th 1990 when a fire department training exercise went awry. The newer town hall still stands and was owned by Greenville County after unincorporating followed by ownership by the Parker PSD. It has been owned since 2010 by Greater Faith Outreach Ministry.       

 

Primary Sources of Income:

In the first decade of incorporation, fines from traffic violations were the primary source of funds other than property taxes. In the ‘70’s money from the federal Revenue Sharing program was a major source of funding, including for the new town hall. This program was eliminated in the early ‘80’s and contributed significantly to financial problems for the town.

 

The town had a reputation for being crime ridden, particularly drugs and prostitution.  The town struggled financially and audits revealed accounting issues. The police and fire departments and town council/mayor provided a considerable amount of bad publicity. For example:

 1970’s: Town policeman received 5-year sentence for giving a convicted felon a false alibi for burglary

1990: Town settled a lawsuit over charging a major payor of its business license for ALL sales rather than sales within the town. Doing so resulting in a bill of $18k instead of $4k.   

1990: the former town hall was lost when a fire department training exercise went awry

1991: a fireman received probation after pleading guilty to arson to defraud an insurance company

1994: four firefighters were arrested

Jan. 1995: Police Chief arrested for trafficking 100 lbs. of marijuana. The town hired another chief but dismissed him the next day due to funding difficulties. A third one was hired prior to the charter surrender referendum.    

Apr. 1995: Town councilman filed lawsuit against the mayor.

 

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Exile Hamlet

Exile

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7 hours ago, vicupstate said:

Land Area:

various sources cite 2.5 or 3 Square Miles. In 1975, 18 acres were annexed into the town.

Population:

A 1978 article quoted the population as around 2,800 (probably from the 1970 census). The town lost 25% of its population between the 1970 and 1980 census. Population was estimated to be 1,490 at the time of the 1995 referendum.

Surprisingly lacking in population density compared to Greenville, even in the early days, and esp. considering it was apparently mostly made up of former mill villages (?).

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vicupstate

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10 hours ago, Exile said:

Surprisingly lacking in population density compared to Greenville, even in the early days, and esp. considering it was apparently mostly made up of former mill villages (?).

Just dividing the land area by the population does not give an accurate picture in this case.  The town was bisected by a big chuck of rail/power/industrial land. I would estimate it to be at least .75 of a square mile, maybe a full square mile. Obviously  no one lived in that part. The residential areas are as dense as you would expect a mill village to be. The Parker High School property was also fully within the town, so that would skew the number a bit as well.    

 

BTW, if Greenville HAD merged with City View, much of the new development around Hampton Station (all the apartments)  would now be in the city limits.  The part that wouldn't already be in the combined city would be contiguous.   

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gman430 Megalopolis

gman430

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2 hours ago, vicupstate said:

It's been 7 minutes already and neither Gman430 nor Apladdin have  remarked that 'tower' in Greenville only means 5 stories. 

I posted about this in another thread. Didn’t even see it here unti now. :lol: Don’t forget about Distortedlogic. Better include him also. :D And you’re wrong. It’s only going to be four stories tall. Either that or it’s some sick April Fools joke by the DRB. 

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vicupstate Metropolitan Area

vicupstate

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On 3/5/2022 at 5:32 AM, vicupstate said:

There would have had to been a council and a mayor. There was no police force, fire department, water or sewer either.  It did provide street lights as I recall and probably some form of zoning perhaps. It was pretty small and low tax base for sure.  It may have been incorporated to prevent annexation by Greenville, albeit I doubt Greenville would have ever sought to annex it.  Some people can be irrational about that.   I'll see what info I can dig up. 

Just came across this today.  It is an EXCELLENT primer on the history of City View and also the efforts by the county to revive the area.  Honestly, the city needs to just annex this whole area.  They have already annexed part of it and property taxes would be lower anyway.  Ideally, the city would seek to do a major revitalization that does not displace the people already living there. 

City View Community Plan

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