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Can Columbia Gain National Exposure


803metlife

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Here are some suggestions made by readers of The State concerning what Columbia needs. A few things mentioned were a water/amusement park, professional sports, a better local music scene, and a better regional transit system.

It seems as though Columbia has a lot of proud citizens that want the city to become more of a destination; I hope Bob and city council are taking notice!

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I hate the pedestrian bridge in Greenville. I thought the waterfall platform that looks like a diving board at Finlay Park in Columbia left a lot to be desired until I saw that bridge. It is ugly and clashes sharply with an otherwise pretty and natural park.

Well that's a first. I have never heard a single person feel this way. It's ashame that you can't appreciate beauty intermingled masterfully with manmade graceful structures.

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Columbia is behind in alot of areas.........first of all, why don't we have an immigration office? How on earth can you expect this city to get more internationally known without one? My mother has been in Columbia for 22 years, and just now decided to become a citizen(why i dont know), and she has to drive to Charlotte to get her papers done....that's just ridiculous......furthermore.....803metlife you are exactly right about having to drive to Charlotte for alot of things......Charlotte's shopping and clubs are so much better...dont get me started with the clubs in columbia, its nothin but hip hop and country...where's the house music clubs, and the international stuff?? Other than Zorba's you cant find anything.....Even Charleston has more variety with the entertainment field..........yeah we have a zoo.......ok......lets work on something else........like bringing in new restaurants and stores to town.......why are we always the last ones to get things? Wild Wings has been in Charleston and Greenville since the Ice Age....and we're finally getting 3 locations.......Why hasn't Columbiana Mall expanded yet? It's freakin 99% full........let me guess....Lexington County laws.......God Forbid we bring more tourists to Columbia.....that's another thing......let me just explain to you how anti-touristy columbia is.......at the airport......the Tourist Magnets you get to put on the Refrigerator....you would think there would be one with Columbia's skyline or something of that nature........nope, it just says South Carolina with the Palmetto flag....What if any out-of-towner wanted one that said "Columbia" on it? Whoever is in charge of that has no common sense.......Charleston has the horse carriages with the Historic houses in the background.... Charlotte has their skyline........Atlanta has theirs.....Columbia doesn't want to be shown as a national/international city.......with people like this who are stuck in their ways, We'll never progress!! I know what our identity nickname can be: "Columbia the city that is last in everything"......Last at bringing the Confederate flag down, last at bringing retail & restaurants to town, last in recognition, last in progressing....

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Well that's a first. I have never heard a single person feel this way. It's ashame that you can't appreciate beauty intermingled masterfully with manmade graceful structures.

I agree. Was at Fall for Greenville recently and loved the bridge. It's a treasure in a city that already has good restaurants, entertainment venues, and tourism going for it.

Columbia should pay attention to Greenville.

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I am from the New York area and truly love it down here. The quality of life and the people are great, and that is what Columbia is about to me. The revitalization of the city looks promising. Areas such as Olympia, Main St, Vista, and West Columbia all have millions of dollars invested into residential developments and when the river development and Bull st come on board it will help Columbia's retail business considerably. National retail business look at demographics and need "x" amount of people living in the areas before they would commit to opening a store. I personally do not support or like national retail chains but many people think that validates the city. All of the residential growth will help support local and national retail and it will really start to feed on one another. Columbia needs to continue to take care of the little things and let things fall into place. Support local business, markets, festivals and events! I hear all the time that I wish Columbia had better this and better that. There are plenty of organizations or incentives to start a business in the area that you personally can make a difference - so if you really care - do something and make an impact!

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Columbia is behind in alot of areas.........first of all, why don't we have an immigration office? How on earth can you expect this city to get more internationally known without one? My mother has been in Columbia for 22 years, and just now decided to become a citizen(why i dont know), and she has to drive to Charlotte to get her papers done....that's just ridiculous......furthermore.....803metlife you are exactly right about having to drive to Charlotte for alot of things......Charlotte's shopping and clubs are so much better...dont get me started with the clubs in columbia, its nothin but hip hop and country...where's the house music clubs, and the international stuff?? Other than Zorba's you cant find anything.....Even Charleston has more variety with the entertainment field..........yeah we have a zoo.......ok......lets work on something else........like bringing in new restaurants and stores to town.......why are we always the last ones to get things? Wild Wings has been in Charleston and Greenville since the Ice Age....and we're finally getting 3 locations.......Why hasn't Columbiana Mall expanded yet? It's freakin 99% full........let me guess....Lexington County laws.......God Forbid we bring more tourists to Columbia.....that's another thing......let me just explain to you how anti-touristy columbia is.......at the airport......the Tourist Magnets you get to put on the Refrigerator....you would think there would be one with Columbia's skyline or something of that nature........nope, it just says South Carolina with the Palmetto flag....What if any out-of-towner wanted one that said "Columbia" on it? Whoever is in charge of that has no common sense.......Charleston has the horse carriages with the Historic houses in the background.... Charlotte has their skyline........Atlanta has theirs.....Columbia doesn't want to be shown as a national/international city.......with people like this who are stuck in their ways, We'll never progress!! I know what our identity nickname can be: "Columbia the city that is last in everything"......Last at bringing the Confederate flag down, last at bringing retail & restaurants to town, last in recognition, last in progressing....

Tem, what are you doing to try and change these things besides complain. Why should we care if we have a Wild Wings or not? People don't visit or live in a city because of a crummy chain restaurant. If they do, I don't want them here, anyway. As far as restaurants, Columbia has its share of ethnic diversity, especially considering that we are not in a resort area. Refrigerator magnets? Give me a freaking break. The confederate flag? The city of Columbia has nothing to do with the fact that it once flew on top of the state house and now flies on the grounds. In fact, the city of Columbia SUED the state of South Carolina to REMOVE the flag. You didn't know that, did you? Of course not...you were too busy complaining and doing nothing.

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El, Columbia has the historic Gervais street bridge, the Greenway, the 3 Rivers Music Festival, both Five Points, and the Vista districts, which have a variety of restaraunts, I think it will be alright. Surely unless one is so anti-social they can find something to do? I know it may be hard to beieve but there are several cities places even larger than Columbia that would love to have as many amenities as here.

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Call me crazy, but I think Temetron makes some substantial points in his own *unique* way. While I don't think that having an immigration office should top the Columbia's list of priorities, it seems like that is something the city should have had for a while now, especially with USC's prominent international business studies program.

The points about tourism go hand in hand with the marketing of the city, and the points are well taken (at least on my end). I'm glad that the city has at least been working on a logo and slogan, but I believe more could be done in this regard. While up close Columbia's skyline isn't as impressive as some other cities, from afar it is quite impressive due to the breadth and density. It would be cool if the city could capitalize on this a little more. While I think the city has some more work to do, it is finally on the way to recognizing its potential and many of the things that are wanted in the area will come about in due time.

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Columbia need to change their annexation laws, it makes our city looks small when we're ten times bigger than what numbers say. Companies look at the population of an area . If the population is not there, no developments won't be there. It's all about numbers! We'ver never going to score any big developments. The annexation laws are drowing us. Pop. + investment= development

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I don't know much about annexation laws, but I agree that Columbia is much larger than it appears on paper. It has always seemed kind of funny to me that Columbia can't count areas like West Cola, Cayce, and Forest Acres in its city population. It wouldn't make sense to annex too far from the city center, but these areas really should be part of Columbia. In other words, I don't believe the entire metro area should be counted in Columbia's population (Lexington, for example, seems to far away), but it seems Columbia's population should be more like 200-250 thousand, with a metro population of 300-400 thousand. I think it would make a truer representation of the area. Why couldn't citys like Cayce and Forest Acres become part of Columbia, yet still maintain their individuality? Just a thought.

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Columbia need to change their annexation laws, it makes our city looks small when we're ten times bigger than what numbers say. Companies look at the population of an area . If the population is not there, no developments won't be there. It's all about numbers! We'ver never going to score any big developments. The annexation laws are drowing us. Pop. + investment= development

First of all South Carolina has to change their annexation laws. I used to live in Columbia and I did find it strange that the city never really tried to push any aggressive annexation. I live in Charleston now and it seems that this city is doing nothing but annexing property. The city limits are already spread out nearly 130 sq. miles. The two cities are different. Columbia is a good city to live in with all the amenities of a mid-size college town. It reminds of of Lexington, Kentucky or Tallahassee, Florida. I wouldn't say that it reminds me of a much larger city. Columbia reminds me of a city of about 130,000 or so. Pretty much all three major cities in South Carolina are the same size. Charleston has a tremendous urban appeal. By the way, how old are you 803 metro?

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The annexation laws have nothing to do with the city of Columbia and everything to do with the state of South Carolina. While I, too, would like to see these revised, developers don't really look at municipal populations today and instead look at urbanized area and metropolitan statistical area populations. Do you think Greenville would be landing as many developments as they are if the developers were only looking at the city's municipal population which is ~60,000? Not at all. Two other good examples are Atlanta and Miami, essentially two of the South's biggest cities. The municipal population of Atlanta is only about ~450,000 and I don't think Miami's is even at 500,000; in comparison, Charlotte's municipal population is at least 600,000. However, both have very large urbanized area populations (Atlanta: ~3,500,000; Miami: ~5,000,000; Charlotte's hasn't even broken 1,000,000 yet) as well as metropolitan populations. Columbia's urbanized area population in 2000 was ~420,000 and the 2004 estimated metropolitan population was ~680,000. So while the municipal population figures don't tell the entire story for Columbia and most other SC cities, developers rarely look at that figure these days. For one, they're interested in available workforce/potential market, and that's where the metropolitan statistics come into play.

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The annexation laws have nothing to do with the city of Columbia and everything to do with the state of South Carolina. While I, too, would like to see these revised, developers don't really look at municipal populations today and instead look at urbanized area and metropolitan statistical area populations. Do you think Greenville would be landing as many developments as they are if the developers were only looking at the city's municipal population which is ~60,000? Not at all. Two other good examples are Atlanta and Miami, essentially two of the South's biggest cities. The municipal population of Atlanta is only about ~450,000 and I don't think Miami's is even at 500,000; in comparison, Charlotte's municipal population is at least 600,000. However, both have very large urbanized area populations (Atlanta: ~3,500,000; Miami: ~5,000,000; Charlotte's hasn't even broken 1,000,000 yet) as well as metropolitan populations. Columbia's urbanized area population in 2000 was ~420,000 and the 2004 estimated metropolitan population was ~680,000. So while the municipal population figures don't tell the entire story for Columbia and most other SC cities, developers rarely look at that figure these days. For one, they're interested in available workforce/potential market, and that's where the metropolitan statistics come into play.

I was certain that Charlotte's metro area was around 2million? According to Emporis.com

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Columbia is a good city to live in with all the amenities of a mid-size college town. It reminds of of Lexington, Kentucky or Tallahassee, Florida. I wouldn't say that it reminds me of a much larger city. Columbia reminds me of a city of about 130,000 or so.

Wow, Tallahassee is less than half the size of Columbia. Due to Sunbelt sprawl many cities will actually somewhat feel smaller than what they are (when using urbanized area populations), but only 130,000 for Columbia? In my book, it can go for a 250,000 feel easy. In comparison, Charlotte feels like a 500,000-resident city to me.

As far as downtowns and urbanity goes, Charleston definitely wins this one. In fact, I consider it to have the most urban downtown area in the Carolinas.

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Call me crazy, but I think Temetron makes some substantial points in his own *unique* way. While I don't think that having an immigration office should top the Columbia's list of priorities, it seems like that is something the city should have had for a while now, especially with USC's prominent international business studies program.

The points about tourism go hand in hand with the marketing of the city, and the points are well taken (at least on my end). I'm glad that the city has at least been working on a logo and slogan, but I believe more could be done in this regard. While up close Columbia's skyline isn't as impressive as some other cities, from afar it is quite impressive due to the breadth and density. It would be cool if the city could capitalize on this a little more. While I think the city has some more work to do, it is finally on the way to recognizing its potential and many of the things that are wanted in the area will come about in due time.

I won't call you crazy, but I will call you Krazee! :rofl:

I agree with some of the statements, but I believe we should concentrate on things that we can control like expanding the convention center, getting the convention center hotel built, supporting the arts and sports and supporting new and interesting endeavors around town. Most of these things are up to us, the citizens, and not just part time city elected officials.

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Wow, Tallahassee is less than half the size of Columbia. Due to Sunbelt sprawl many cities will actually somewhat feel smaller than what they are (when using urbanized area populations), but only 130,000 for Columbia? In my book, it can go for a 250,000 feel easy. In comparison, Charlotte feels like a 500,000-resident city to me.

As far as downtowns and urbanity goes, Charleston definitely wins this one. In fact, I consider it to have the most urban downtown area in the Carolinas.

Not for long. Columbia's infrastructure and grid cover a LOT of territory and all new construction at least from Marion Street to the Congaree River and from Blossom Street to Elmwood Avenue has to be built in an urban manner. Once the city's master plan is in place, the area that mandates urban design will be more than twice that large.

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