Other cities scope out Greenville

[btoy]

Well I hope mayor White does NOT follow Portland's lead by legalizing live sex shows.

[GvilleSC]

Well I hope mayor White does NOT follow Portland's lead by legalizing live sex shows.

I think we have nothing to worry about.

[gs3]

Excellent article concerning Athens, GA and Greenville:

http://onlineathens.com/stories/100205/new_20051002088.shtml

[Greenville]

Excellent article concerning Athens, GA and Greenville:

http://onlineathens.com/stories/100205/new_20051002088.shtml

Here is a username and password for those who don't want to register to view that article:

username: interestedparty

password: qwerty

Thanks to bugmenot.com (and whoever submitted their username and password to them) for allowing us to read articles without having to register. Great site!

[Greenville]

This is yet another example of a metro much smaller than Greenville comparing itself to Greenville because of our small city limit population. I'm surprised nobody else on this board has ever mentioned how misleading our city population is.

Seriously though, Greenville's metro population is over three times as big as Athens's (3.36 times as big to be exact, based on 2004 projections). I sometimes wonder if the authors of these articles even realize that their small cities are so much smaller than Greenville - especially if they write the article without even visiting Greenville themselves.

I realize that the article was largely focusing on the fact that Athens is preserving architecture in parts of the city like Greenville has, but the article seemed to be written like the two cities are comparable when in reality they aren't at all.

[vicupstate]

The comparison the article makes is based on the fact that the same firm is developing there historic district guidelines that developed Greenville's. There is no mention of population except that Gville has a population of 60,000, which is true. Greenville County is a larger population, but the county hasn't lifted a finger to do anything downtown. The guidelines are the city's domain. I think the comparison is appropriate.

[UrbanSoutherner]

The comparison the article makes is based on the fact that the same firm is developing there historic district guidelines that developed Greenville's. There is no mention of population except that Gville has a population of 60,000, which is true. Greenville County is a larger population, but the county hasn't lifted a finger to do anything downtown. The guidelines are the city's domain. I think the comparison is appropriate.

The flavor of downtown Greenville and downtown Athens are actually somewhat similar. They both have nice and successful downtowns with shady streets and historic buildings. The both have some nice historic neighborhoods just off of downtown. They both are very pedestrian friendly -- you actually want to walk around both downtowns. Greenville is bigger and has some larger office buildings. Athens has a major university adjacent to downtown. But I can still see some legitimacy to the comparison. The fact is that cities almost always compare themselves to bigger places since almost all cities want to grow into bigger places. A while back, the News-Observer newspaper in Raleigh NC did a big series on Triangle traffic. What urban region do you think they used stats from as a comparison? Why Atlanta of course. Forget that Atlanta is over three times the size of the Triangle. Previous posts on this thread pointed out Austin and Portland as examples for Greenville--both cities are substantially larger than Greenville. I actually think it is legitimate to compare places of different sizes since the issues may be very similar. Scale does matter to a point, but a lot of the tricks to downtown revitalization, historic preservation, etc., are applicable to communities of various sizes.

[Greenville]

I don't think Greenville is like Portland at all. I think Asheville is much more of a "mini-Portland" than Greenville is.

And I don't think anyone from Greenville compares it to Austin (i.e., we don't consider ourselves on Austin's level). Perhaps we would like to emulate some things Austin has done or is doing, but everyone knows that it is a bigger city.

But when I read an article from someone in Lehigh Valley, PA making a direct comparison of their city population to Greenville's, suggesting that they can do what we've done, it irritates me a little and makes me wonder if the author did their research.

I agree that the Athens article wasn't directly comparing the two cities - I stated such in my previous post. I do think that people make the mistake of looking at the city numbers and failing to see what kind of metro area it is. That's all I was saying.

[gs3]

I'm not sure why population and size came into this discussion. The way redevelopment of older buildings happens, unique ideas for parks, ideas for pedestrian zones, etc, etc. None of these items have anything to do with size. Previously in this thread I said that Greenville could learn from Portland, OR and Austin....I stated that simply because they both have great downtowns and have been able to craft great ideas. We could take ideas from small towns too. A great idea is a great idea....has nothing to do with population or size. I've noticed on these forums, population and size always creep into discussions.....not sure why. Quality of life has nothing to do with city size.

[krazeeboi]

^But to a certain degree, one can determine the other.

At any rate, all cities like to compare themselves to bigger cities, because I believe a place can only get big by thinking big. I remember in one of the Columbia threads, certain comparisons were being made between Columbia and Charlotte, and someone made the comment that he's lived in Charlotte before and never has he heard anyone compare the two cities. Well, duh; most cities compare themselves to larger cities most often because they envision themselves to reach that point eventually (at least as far as population is concerned). Larger towns could most certainly learn from smaller towns; however, in many cases, the larger city may be too large to implement the ideas generated from observing the smaller town. At any rate, it's great that Athens is learning from Greenville, and hopefully what has worked for Greenville will also work for Athens.

[goodbye]

Another large group of executives will be in Greenville this week. Our ITT Technical Institute is hosting a conference for the Directors of the institute's more than seventy campuses in the nation. The same meeting was held here last year, but this year's conference, scheduled for the New Orleans area, had to be moved due to the damage from hurricane Katrina. The school Directors are very excited to be coming back again. They will be staying in the Westin Poinsett.

[gs3]

Another large group of executives will be in Greenville this week. Our ITT Technical Institute is hosting a conference for the Directors of the institute's more than seventy campuses in the nation. The same meeting was held here last year, but this year's conference, scheduled for the New Orleans area, had to be moved due to the damage from hurricane Katrina. The school Directors are very excited to be coming back again. They will be staying in the Westin Poinsett.

Very cool!! Most of the times when a group visits Greenville, they end up coming back for future meetings! Greenville makes quite an impression!

[gs3]

Another article on Ft. Wayne's visit to Greenville:

http://www.wane.com/Global/story.asp?S=3996980&nav=0RYb

[EDPro]

And another:

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazett...al/12923286.htm

This one's interesting in regards to earlier board discussions on our area's brand. This is an editorial stating Fort Wayne should brand itself Upstate Indiana like we have branded ourselves Upcountry South Carolina.

(For the record, I think we have the most brand equity in Greenville-Spartanburg)

[Greenville]

Interestingly enough, I have never heard our area called "Upcountry South Carolina." Upstate yes, but upcountry?!? Really?

When referring to SC, I have always heard upstate, midlands, and lowcountry. Anyone else agree with me, or have I somehow missed the Greenville area being called the upcountry?

[krazeeboi]

I think "upcountry" is more historical in nature, whereas "upstate" is a rather recent designation of the northwestern portion of SC.

[NYTransplant]

Interestingly enough, I have never heard our area called "Upcountry South Carolina." Upstate yes, but upcountry?!? Really?

When referring to SC, I have always heard upstate, midlands, and lowcountry. Anyone else agree with me, or have I somehow missed the Greenville area being called the upcountry?

Don't forget about the "History Museum of Upcountry South Carolina" at Heritage Green.

[RestedTraveler]

Check this out:

http://www.theupcountry.com/

:-) This is actually one of the nicer visitor's guides to the area. You can usually pick one up at the State Park HQ at Table Rock.

[Greenville]

So perhaps "upcountry" tends to refer more to the natural and scenic aspects of the area, while "upstate" tends to refer to cities, business, and population centers.

Anyone willing to go along with that?

[goodbye]

I reck'n that'll do just fine.

[NYTransplant]

So perhaps "upcountry" tends to refer more to the natural and scenic aspects of the area, while "upstate" tends to refer to cities, business, and population centers.

Anyone willing to go along with that?

If it makes you happy, I have no problem with it.

[krazeeboi]

Hey guys, I found a blog about Greensboro's city leaders' trip to Greenville. Good stuff.

[vicupstate]

Most excellent discovery Krazeeboi. Thanks for sharing.

I'm going to post in the Florence thread , since they are looking at Greensboro for inspiration.

[RestedTraveler]

Thanks for the link, krazeeboi! It's very interesting to see this through someone else's eyes.

[Spartan]

That blog was a good read. They still think of Greenville as a small town of 50,000 though, when in reality it is much closer to the size of Greensboro.