Spartanburg Off-Topic

[crescentmoon]

Thats not entirely accurate. The County has "transportation planners" via SPATS, which plan for new roads, widened roads, road diets, sidewalks, bike lanes, greenways, etc. This group usually includes staff that manages traffic signals, their timing and coordination. Its entirely possible that they are just not doing a good job. However, I think that's probably not the case. Spartanburg does not get enough money to pay for the infrastructure it has, much less all of the new infrastructure that is needed. You are right, however, that the lack of zoning does play a large role in that growth cannot be managed due to the fact that zoning does not exist. I agree that the anti-zoning population is to blame more than the county government.

I don't think your reply is entirely accurate either. SPATS is not "The County," although it does indeed cover most of what is Spartanburg County. I believe their funding is State and the individual committees ( ex: SPATS, GPATS, ...) are made up of representatives from county, city and legislative governments. Their primary function is planning and building, within there jurisdiction. Committees holds community meetings begging for community input. Few bother to attend.

Also, there is what was until resently known as the County Transportation Committee (I think they are now known as the Legislative Delegation Transportation Committee, or something like that). These folks are appointed by the Legislative Delegation. Their funding source is the state gasoline tax ... unless that too has changed. Then you have Spartanburg County, which is responsible for county owned roads only. The individual cities have control of streets owned by them. And of course, let's not forget State roads ... controlled and maintained by SCDOT.

[Spartan]

SPATS is the MPO, which in Spartanburg is based in the Spartanburg County Government, and while its technically not the "County government" it is effectively road planning and funding for greater Spartanburg. I don't care to delve into the specifics of those technicalities, but suffice it to say that there is some transportation planning going on in Spartanburg. To that end, I think there could and should be much more. Spartanburg needs to get over the fact that its not a backwoods rural town anymore. Its becoming a city, and growing cities need planning.

[Spartan]

Ok, I got a nice laugh out of this... It seems Roger Milliken has decided that its time to ditch the overhead projectors and transparencies that it uses for presentations. Based on the article, its a move to make the company more green. Welcome to the 21st century, Roger. Everyone else has been using PowerPoint for almost 10 years. Its things like this that make me concerned about people that old running the country.

Article

[Spartan]

This is purely a fluff piece about living downtown, but its a good article. It talks about the owner of one of the new condos downtown, and how she likes living there.

HJ Article

[Spartan]

Its seems that the crime rate in Spartanburg has dropped off significantly, down 8.3% from last year. I hope this is a sign of increasing interest in living in the city, and not just a statistical fluke.

HJ Article

[Sparkleman]

Its hard to rob someone if they do not have any money. Just another sign of the times in this economy.

[Spartan]

Doesn't crime usually go up when the economy is bad?

[Spartan]

Has anyone been following what has been happening with the Spartanburg County Delegation? This endless squabbling and good ol' boy politics of trying to weight votes is going to ruin us. We went from having a fair powerful group of representatives in the General Assembly to having a group of well dressed eight-year olds with no influence at all. Say goodbye to anything good for Spartanburg coming from Columbia.

HJ Article

[roads-scholar]

Has anyone been following what has been happening with the Spartanburg County Delegation? This endless squabbling and good ol' boy politics of trying to weight votes is going to ruin us. We went from having a fair powerful group of representatives in the General Assembly to having a group of well dressed eight-year olds with no influence at all. Say goodbye to anything good for Spartanburg coming from Columbia.

HJ Article

Why the "rookie" legislatures won't sit back, wait their turn, and defer to senior members of the delegation dumbfounds me.

[Sparkleman]

Has anyone been following what has been happening with the Spartanburg County Delegation? This endless squabbling and good ol' boy politics of trying to weight votes is going to ruin us. We went from having a fair powerful group of representatives in the General Assembly to having a group of well dressed eight-year olds with no influence at all. Say goodbye to anything good for Spartanburg coming from Columbia.

HJ Article

It was however time for those representatives to go as all they were interested in was self preservation and how much power they could accumulate. It took Jim Ritchie the better part of 6 months to decide if he wanted to run for Governor or state senator again. It has been time for new blood in Columbia and not just from Spartanburg. Plus with Columbia being broke right now and Sanford not wanting to lift a finger to help, it doesn't really matter who is down there.

Edited February 3, 2009 by Sparkleman

[Spartan]

I'm ok with turnover- new blood is a good thing in our legislature, but this pointless squabbling is ridiculous.

[Sparkleman]

+1, I agree.

[Spartan]

Why does Duke Power have to suck so much? I hate Bradford Pear Trees as much as anyone, but this is a case where I think they should remain. If you've ever been on Grist Mill Terrace, you'd see that these trees are necessary. Their absence will absolutely make land values go down.

HJ Article

[alias007]

But everyone knows that you can't move power lines or bury them.

Seriously though, in International Law, if a country decides to build on the land of another country, and the border invasion goes undisputed for 20 years, the borders are rewritten. I promise I'm not just making it up. And I think that's a good law too. It should apply here. If Duke had a problem with it, they had, by their own admission, over 20 years to make a dispute. I say the trees stay and Duke needs to bury those cables. That's the way to go these days anyway. They can consider it an investment. It's not like this one tiny section will make them go broke. And besides, with buried cables there will be less outages when in snows in April (man, SC weather is wacky).

[Spartan]

In Duke's defense, these aren't normal power lines, they are high voltage transmission lines, so I don't think buying them is an option.

[Spartan]

This is a relatively minor update, but I think this a very positive move for Justin's Steakhouse. They've just installed an accessible ramp so that people in wheelchairs can access their restaurant. Kudos to them.

HJ Article

[Spartan]

I heard a wonderful advertisement for downtown Spartanburg this weekend. I'm not sure if it was a regular thing or not, but it was the mayor talking about the new businesses, restaurants and college campuses that are locating downtown. It was direct and to the point. I've never heard or seen an ad for downtown other than on billboards, pamphlets, or in the newspaper. It was very refreshing to hear some positive press for Spartanburg, even if it was paid for by the city.

[roads-scholar]

I heard a wonderful advertisement for downtown Spartanburg this weekend. I'm not sure if it was a regular thing or not, but it was the mayor talking about the new businesses, restaurants and college campuses that are locating downtown. It was direct and to the point. I've never heard or seen an ad for downtown other than on billboards, pamphlets, or in the newspaper. It was very refreshing to hear some positive press for Spartanburg, even if it was paid for by the city.

I haven't seen the ad you're referring to but downtown has been looking great lately.

[Spartan]

It was on the radio. I forgot the station though.

[GSP Tiger]

^

This is a brief announcement part of Good News Upstate. It is a joint venture between Cox, Clear Channel, and Entercom. http://www.goodnewsupstate.com/

It airs frequently on News Radio WORD (AM 950, AM 1330, FM 106.3)

[Spartan]

Yep, thats the one!

[Spartan]

Google Maps now has most thoroughfares in Spartanburg available with StreetView. Not every street yet, but we're getting there!

[Sparkleman]

Is there anything else that can be done to get folks more comfortable with using the parking decks? I still hear more folks complain about not being able to park close to where they are going yet when I ask them what they do when they are in Greenville or Asheville, they say park in a deck or city lot. The logic is mind boggling.

[Spartan]

Good question.

I think it's marketing. It has to be made known that parking is free at night and on the weekends, and that there is ample parking in downtown on the streets. I think people drive down Main Street and if they can't find anything there they assume there is none available when Broad St and Dunbar St usually have plenty (during a weekday). Signage might also help. The garages in Greenville have very large and well marked entrances.

[Spartan]

Spartanburg is FINALLY talking about a smoking ban. No vote at this point... just discussion. But as Councilmember Cate Ryba said, we're not reinventing the wheel here. All of the other major cities in the state have enacted a smoking ban, as have many counties. I hope they eventually take this to a vote.

HJ Article