Taking our major cities to the next level

[UrbanSoutherner]

Okay guys I get it, a freeway through DT of any of SC cities are that popular of an idea, but I still think it's pretty cool when your traveling down the highway and can recognize DT.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I understand what you are talking about sandlapper. Whenever I return to Atlanta from a trip elsewhere, I always feel that I am back home when I catch the first glimpse of the skyline coming in on one of the freeways. There is a certain energy too it, and it is as you say pretty cool. But I think it is more cool to have vibrant streetlife downtown and neighborhoods that are connected to each other and downtown rather than separated by concrete rivers of speeding traffic. Of course, you could spend a fortune putting in a freeway in a tunnel like the big dig in Boston. Someone in Altanta has suggested covering over the Downtown Connector through Midtown and creating parks on top of the freeway to reconnect Georgia Tech and the core of Midtown.

[krazeeboi]

UrbanSoutherner and Teshadoh--great points as usual.

[Spartan]

For all we know if someone would bulid a taller building then you could see it from anywhere on the interstate

[krazeeboi]

The following comes from the article I posted earlier entitled The South Carolina Challenge: Regional Economic Analysis:

This study has identified a portfolio of industry clusters in South Carolina that collectively make up 30% of the state

[krazeeboi]

Here's an excerpt from a section entitled "Economic Foundations"; I've emboldened pertinent portions:

Economic Foundations

The following points summarize the assessment of South Carolina

[krazeeboi]

One more interesting excerpt:

Understanding South Carolina's economic composition goes a long way towards understanding its historical performance, not to mention its growth potential. Naturally, every state should strive to expand its activities in the fast growing industries while phasing out activities in the stagnant industrial segments. Transferring resources from low growth industries to high growth industries is the best way to guarantee future prosperity. With this end in mind, the first step is to see how the composition of South Carolina's economy differs from the U.S. average.

The biggest differences in economic composition between South Carolina and the U.S. economy are found in four segments: manufacturing, government, services and FIRE (finance, insurance and real estate). The manufacturing and government sectors are "over-represented" in South Carolina relative to the nation as a whole. Conversely, the services and FIRE sectors are "underrepresented" in South Carolina. Whether this turns out to be a good thing for South Carolina or a bad thing depends on the future growth of these sectors.

Unfortunately for South Carolina, the two sectors with the slowest growth between 1997 and 2002, manufacturing and government, are over-represented in the state's economy. To make matters worse, the two sectors with the widest under-representation in South Carolina, services and FIRE, grew at a much faster rate than the national average. This type of industry analysis is a first step towards understanding why South Carolina trails the U.S. in real GDP per capita growth.

I'm not sure exactly how SC as a whole is represented in the FIRE segment, but Columbia seems to have a pretty healthy insurance cluster.

[Charleston native]

One more interesting excerpt:

I'm not sure exactly how SC as a whole is represented in the FIRE segment, but Columbia seems to have a pretty healthy insurance cluster.

Charleston and MB have been really hot real estate markets. I think that they could eventually attract big real estate companies to locate their HQs here. Also, as a domino effect, that will bring in more finance companies. It's just a matter of time, but the FIRE segment will increase in this state. More people are realizing that our dependence on government and manufacturing was a lack of foresight for long-term growth.