How does the outside view Greenville?

[mallguy]

Having lived all over the East Coast and in the South, the main difference I've found is that people in Greenville (like people in smaller cities elsewhere, even north of the Mason-Dixon line) just spend a lot more time on niceties like making small talk, letting people cut in front in traffic, and the like. I think those things are partially cultural in the South but also come from living in an area with relatively low population density and a small overall size. Since the likelihood of running into somebody again is much higher in Greenville than in a place like New York City, it's safer just to make an effort to be civil than to offend somebody and run the risk of having that come back to haunt you.

So put a bunch of Greenvillians in New York City or a bunch of Manhattanites in Greenville and a lot of the differences will disappear, speaking from experience.

[Greenville]

When I was an intern in Boston last summer, one of my advisors said something to me about the South being more laid-back. I thought that was funny, not only because she was a space cadet and never got in a hurry to do anything, but also because I would ride the bus or train to work at 9:45 and see many people on their way to work. One day I arrived at 8:30 and there were very few people there. I wanted to say, "It's 8:30! Most people in the 'laid back South' are expected to be at work at 8:00 and do not leave until 5:00 at the earliest!" Get on the T in Boston at 4:00 and you will see a ton of people leaving work for the day. Crazy, huh? I wonder what the salaries are like there since you work an abbreviated day?

And if you're a woman in Boston, makeup is optional!

[Fiddlestix]

Heard on Main Street, near Piazza Bergamo, last night by a college-aged guy walking towards me with a group of 6-8 others he was speaking to: "Holy shit! This is an awesome little city you've got here!"

[g-man430]

That's good to hear about people saying good things about our city. Also, I know something Greenville is slow at; building skyscrapers. Hopefully that will all change real soon.

[distortedlogic]

Thanks for the input palmettochick and mallguy. I agree with the factors each of you mentioned, but I think all of those are GOOD things, very good things. Unfortunately, when people talk about the South "being slow", they always seem to mean that it is a BAD thing. This may just be evidence of other people being arrogant and narrow-minded about the South, but it seems to be what most people believe (which makes it SEEM true to everbody else even if it's not).

[goodbye]

I wasn't sure where to post this reply, so this will have to do.

Artisphere 2006 was absolutely awesome! I met many new people from around the nation and several others from other nations. Even met a family interested in moving to Greenville from France. All in all a very enjoyable and diverse experience. The comments about Greenville were totally positive and the city was bustling with pedestrian activity from beginning to ending of the weekend. People will remember what they saw, I assure you.

[MAJIKMAN]

This trips me out everytime I have somebody visiting from out of town. I had a girlfriend of mine from Charlotte, who relocated from Cleveland, OH, come down to see me. She said she had be through G'ville on her way to where else. Atlanta. Only seeing G'ville from I-85. Well after getting here, we decided to take a little ride a round the city. We went downtown for some ice cream, by the imfamous Bob Jones U, and on and on. After getting back to the house and seating down for a while she turned and said to me. G'vlle was a whole lot bigger and prettier than she thought it was. She kept on trying to get me to tell her what it would be like before she came. I just told her, she would have to see it when she got here. Well when she got here, she was impressed. She told me after a while that she was afraid it was going to be like, and I'm not kiddin', Rock Hill. Being that Rock Hill is the one she familiar with.Other than Columbia. Now don't get me wrong. I like Rock Hill, I have a brother and friends up that way. But that was her impression of any city in SC that she hadn't been to. But I told after she said all that. she hadn't seen anything yet. The next I took her to Paris Mountain, where she could see the city down below, then Ceasars Head. She had no idea were so close to the mountains. She left saying she wanted to come back. And I said come on.

[krazeeboi]

She told me after a while that she was afraid it was going to be like, and I'm not kiddin', Rock Hill.

Possibly both cities having virtually the same municipal population had something to do with it as well.

[gs3]

This trips me out everytime I have somebody visiting from out of town. I had a girlfriend of mine from Charlotte, who relocated from Cleveland, OH, come down to see me. She said she had be through G'ville on her way to where else. Atlanta. Only seeing G'ville from I-85. Well after getting here, we decided to take a little ride a round the city. We went downtown for some ice cream, by the imfamous Bob Jones U, and on and on. After getting back to the house and seating down for a while she turned and said to me. G'vlle was a whole lot bigger and prettier than she thought it was. She kept on trying to get me to tell her what it would be like before she came. I just told her, she would have to see it when she got here. Well when she got here, she was impressed. She told me after a while that she was afraid it was going to be like, and I'm not kiddin', Rock Hill. Being that Rock Hill is the one she familiar with.Other than Columbia. Now don't get me wrong. I like Rock Hill, I have a brother and friends up that way. But that was her impression of any city in SC that she hadn't been to. But I told after she said all that. she hadn't seen anything yet. The next I took her to Paris Mountain, where she could see the city down below, then Ceasars Head. She had no idea were so close to the mountains. She left saying she wanted to come back. And I said come on.

Love hearing these kind of comments about Greenville!

[RestedTraveler]

That's funny. Having not been into Downtown Rock Hill, I always imagined it would be somewhat like Downtown Greenville. I guess not, eh?

[whitehourseview]

Downtown Rock Hill is about the same as downtown Anderson, SC - they are about the same size cities.

[MAJIKMAN]

Possibly both cities having virtually the same municipal population had something to do with it as well.

Its all about the feel of the place, not the population.

[goodbye]

It comes down to the actual population of the cities. Somehow, I strongly doubt Rock Hill has a daytime population of 200,000. While more people may be choosing to live in Rock Hill as an alternative to big city Charlotte, Greenville continues to draw greater crowds into the city limits for working, shopping, dining, or playing. It is just that simple.

[krazeeboi]

Its all about the feel of the place, not the population.

You missed my point. I was saying that your friend may have possibly figured that Greenville would be like Rock Hill based on a similar municipal population, having never actually been to Greenville up until that point.

When the average person attempts to gauge the size of a place, the first thing they check are municipal population figures. Only us urban and statistics geeks harp on urbanized area, daytime, and MSA population figures--the average person could care less, or at most wouldn't know how to find these figures if he/she wanted to. Unfortunately, this is why people often think that places with larger municipal populations are in actuality larger than our cities, which is usually not the case.

That's funny. Having not been into Downtown Rock Hill, I always imagined it would be somewhat like Downtown Greenville. I guess not, eh?

Not at all. I have some pictures of downtown Rock Hill I took back in February; I'll get around to posting them in the SC forum sometime.

[gs3]

When the average person attempts to gauge the size of a place, the first thing they check are municipal population figures.

The average person doesn't have any clue about populations period. Only us urban geeks. Statistics mean very little to the average person. They mainly sum up the size of a place by energy and feel.

[krazeeboi]

Understand that I said that when the average person attempts to gauge the size of a place (before they ever set foot there), THAT'S when they check municipal figures. I agree that it's rarely something an average person knows just for the sake of knowing, but if I were to visit a place that I was unfamiliar with and checked the municipal population figure and found out that it was comparable to another city with virtually the same population figure, I would naturally assume that both cities would feel about the same size. Notice, this is about attempting to size up a place BEFORE ever visiting or researching it.

This can cut both ways, due to different ways in which a city gains population. For instance, Greenville certainly feels much larger than a ~60K city, and Lord knows Jacksonville, FL doesn't feel as large as a city of ~750K+.

[MAJIKMAN]

I hear what you're saying. But there are some folk who don't give a rats patooty about municiple pop. figures. They don't do that kind of research before going somewhere. Kind of like my friend. That is the

joy of going somewhere you've never been. You get to experience things for yourself. That is the reason

I said I knew about Rock Hill. Greenville is no Rock Hill and Rock Hill is no Greenville. Both places are

and is going to be special in its own way.

[krazeeboi]

I was just giving a reason as to why her expectations may have been what they were. Regardless of how we like to dismiss municipal population figures in SC (especially in Greenville's case), people do use them, probably in part because they are the easiest statistics to access.

[gs3]

I was just giving a reason as to why her expectations may have been what they were. Regardless of how we like to dismiss municipal population figures in SC (especially in Greenville's case), people do use them, probably in part because they are the easiest statistics to access.

krazee you are cracking me up.

So the conversation would go like this with a spouse?

ME: "Hey, lets go away for a long weekend in May...whadda ya think?"

Spouse: "Sure, where to?"

ME: "Nashville?"

Spouse:"Yeah, sounds great. Check out some good airfares and hotels on Orbitz".

ME: "OK"

Spouse: "And while you're at it, check out the Nashville municipal population to make sure that's where we want to spend our long weekend".

I somehow don't see municipal populations popping up in average, normal conversation about visiting cities.

[krazeeboi]

That example might have merit if Nashville weren't a nationally known destination (the same would apply to Myrtle Beach and Charleston). Try Dayton, OH or Chesapeake, VA or Chattanooga, TN--cities that some people may have heard about but don't know enough about them to really know how big those cities are or what they offer. These cities are similar to Greenville in that regard.

The fact is, I indeed have come across some people who have used municipal statistics to judge the size of our cities. As a matter of fact, one guy I know tried to take a cheap shot at SC by mentioning that Alabama's four largest cities were all larger than our largest city, Columbia (when in reality, only Birmingham is). One of my fraternity brothers who now attends school in Winston-Salem and is from Columbia was having a conversation with someone up there who mentioned to him that Winston-Salem was larger than Columbia, and a friend of mine from Winston-Salem assumed the same thing. I had to explain our wacky laws to them, and when I did that it made sense to my fraternity brother. Columbia's UA is ~420,000 and Winston-Salem's is ~300,000. So trust me, some average people actually DO pay attention to municipal population statistics. If this isn't the case, then why do we do some much hand-wrangling over our municipal population statistics? Why do even Greenville city officials find themselves in a position of explain the city's municipal population figure to outsiders? I can point out a few threads on UP in which South Carolinians and Greenvillians in particular express a desire for the revision of our annexation laws, and this is based on public perception of our municipal population figures. This isn't a quantum leap in logic or assumption here, folks.

[gs3]

Please.....

It was about a girlfriend visiting. Population, smopulation. IT is ABOUT quality of life. Nuff said.

[krazeeboi]

It wasn't a criticism, just an educated guess about her expectations prior to visiting the city, that's all. That's the positive side of it--expecting a standard, mid-sized town, then get blown away by all there is to see and do in a "city of 60,000."

[goodbye]

Couldn't agree more, krazeeboi!

[Greenville]

Greenville city leaders feel the need to explain themselves to potential businesses they are trying to recruit. I have no doubt that those companies do their research. The average visitor probably doesn't, and I bet Greenville leaders feel no such obligation to explain our misleadingly small city population to them. Can you imagine a "Welcome to Greenville" sign on the interstate, with a "We are really a 1 million + metro, not merely a city of 60,000!" at the bottom?

[gs3]

Can you imagine a "Welcome to Greenville" sign on the interstate, with a "We are really a 1 million + metro, not merely a city of 60,000!" at the bottom?

Love it! And lets have that same message put on t-shirts to give to all the visitors who may not have had a chance to check their important municipal populations before visiting!