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What SC cities are competing with Columbia


803metlife

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Definitely Greenville! Columbia has all the things Greenville desires.....higher percent of people in poverty, lower per capita income, lower median income, smaller less busy airport, less international investment. Oh yeah, Greenville needs to compete to get what Columbia has! ;) I think Greenvillians are more focused on a quality of life than they are on competing. :D

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All I'm saying is that Columbia has adavantages, and Greenville has advantages. No more, no less. In the same way, I'm sure Columbia wouldn't mind having a vibrant Main Street, great international investment, and so on.

I don't think anyone can deny that what I've just listed are indeed advantages for Columbia.

And why is Columbia's location the "armpit of the South"? Is there something geographical that makes it such? If not, I'm not sure what this comment is intended to imply.

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All I'm saying is that Columbia has adavantages, and Greenville has advantages. No more, no less. In the same way, I'm sure Columbia wouldn't mind having a vibrant Main Street, great international investment, and so on.

I don't think anyone can deny that what I've just listed are indeed advantages for Columbia.

And why is Columbia's location the "armpit of the South"? Is there something geographical that makes it such? If not, I'm not sure what this comment is intended to imply.

My friends from Columbia refer to it so becuase of the heat and humidity.

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LOL, You know I didn't really hear about Columbia being so hot until I came up this way to the Rock Hill/Charlotte area. Being from Orangeburg County, it can get just as hot or hotter down there than in Columbia, so I didn't understand what all the fuss was about initially.

Even though the geographical location of the city makes for a hot, sweaty place, being located on the fall line has its advantages too. It's a place of vegetative transition, and it's actually why the Saluda River has rapids.

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I've always noticed there seems to be a lot of animosity towards Columbia from Greenville & vice versa. A positive is made about Columbia someone says well Greenville has a this and Clum doesn't have a that? I'm more inclined to let things be what they are. Columbia is a great place to live, raise a family, go to school, shop, eat, work, etc...many "best cities list" have acknowledged this. The city and area hasn't lost a step and has been growing and snowballing with developments for awhile now, and with no obvious sites of slowing down. The same argument can be made for Greenville. Both cities/areas have there advantages and disadvantages. Just leave it at that. The whole my city has a bigger penis than yours is getting pretty old. It just comes down to preference, what do you personally prefer. As a matter of fact.......

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I've always noticed there seems to be a lot of animosity towards Columbia from Greenville & vice versa. A positive is made about Columbia someone says well Greenville has a this and Clum doesn't have a that? I'm more inclined to let things be what they are. Columbia is a great place to live, raise a family, go to school, shop, eat, work, etc...many "best cities list" have acknowledged this. The city and area hasn't lost a step and has been growing and snowballing with developments for awhile now, and with no obvious sites of slowing down. The same argument can be made for Greenville. Both cities/areas have there advantages and disadvantages. Just leave it at that. The whole my city has a bigger penis than yours is getting pretty old. It just comes down to preference, what do you personally prefer. As a matter of fact.......

I'm sure you're talking about my comment. You're right there does seem to be a lot of tension between the two cities. Anyways, the reason I posted what I posted was becuase someone was saying pretty much that Greenville has a lot of room to catch up, but quite honestly we don't. I think if it were I posting something like that, I'd rather someone prove me wrong than let me go on thinking something that's incorrect... IMO

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Fair enough, but I believe the city should speak for itself. A city isnt appealing becuase one person boost it or another bashes it there are alot more parts to the puzzle than personal opinion, it's not all black & white. There are some things I liked about Greenville when I lived there but it wasn't perfect. When I'm asked me about it I give both the good and bad experiences I had there and let them decide.

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I will add a few things, also.
  • Greenville doesn't have anywhere near the diversity that Columbia has.

  • Columbia has, by far, the largest number of college students in South Carolina

  • Columbia has one of the country's top ten zoo's

  • A central, very accessible location that is less than 2 hours from either the mountains or the beach

  • Columbia is an open and accepting community for people of all backgrounds and cultures; The Greenville area has proven itself to be hostile to people outside of majority groups

So, you're bringing ad hominem into this? I'm sorry but you can believe what you want to and so can I, but that's not going to keep one city from progressing and another city not. I do believe that this is what The Sandlapper was referring to. When you say people from different backgrounds... Greater Greenville has a large population of hispanics. We have an annual hispanic festival and many Europeans here as well. I do believe that that creates somewhat of diversity and you know, it's sad to say, but that's what you get with a well educated workforce and lower poverty than the other major cities in the state. :rolleyes:

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...

The Greenville area has proven itself to be hostile to people outside of majority groups.

Obviously an uneducated statement. Every city has citizens who don't like certain lifestyles or cultures (including Columbia), but Greenville has proven itself quite capable of being a welcome home to every kind of group imaginable. Of course Greenville and the Upstate are politically more conservative than Columbia, but you can't lump all of our many liberal friends living here into that generalized statement. The Chairman of the SC Democratic Party, Joe Erwin, also lives in Greenville.

Waccamatt, I know you're an educated man who ambitiously supports your city, but that statement stuck out to me. ;)

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These are my observations; I hope no one takes offense.

I think when it comes to normal, everyday citizens, Greenville isn't that different from many other cities found throughout the South. I have an uncle and aunt, two adult cousins, and a fraternity brother and his wife, all Black, who reside in Greenville, and I have yet to hear anything about them experiencing any type of racial tension there. The problem lies with those who have influence in Greenville, such as county council, Bob Jones University, and more recently, an official at Greenville Tech. When issues or statements having some sort of negative cultural or racial implications are made by such influential entities, it is these things that make the press. And of course, the average Joe Blow will reason, "If these are what important/influential people in that city think, then what about the ordinary citizens?" Some may say, "But a lot of those things happened some time ago." In the grand scheme of things, some negative incidents associated with Greenville haven't occurred that long ago, and it is those things that will stick out in recent memory in the minds of many people. Sad to say, but it really doesn't bode well for a county whose principal city is working dilligently for increased exposure, at least regionally, to have made it to the 21st century without having officially recognized MLK Day as an observed holiday. I just hope that all of the good things going on in Greenville will demonstrate that it is indeed a progressive city that is concerned with providing a great quality of life for all of its citizens.

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Being a conservative, it really irks me when such a negative light is cast on things that represent conservative values (such as Bob Jones University). It also offends me when such things are lumped in with racial bias and inequality. What do these two have to do with each other? Not celebrating MLK day, flying a confederate flag (for the wrong reasons), and any mistreatment of any race is one thing. Having conservative social/politcal views (often biblically-based) is quite another. I guess I get sick of the hipocracy of those calling themselves "liberal" and "openminded" only demonstrating those qualitites when they are in agreement with a certain (oftentimes narrow) viewpoint. I would hope that one who is truly openminded would have both room and respect for the conservative viewpoint. For me, I think it's a good and positive thing that Greenville is a conservative city. Good for them!!! I commend it for holding fast to such honorable values that have made our country great while distancing itself from values that are clearly despicable.

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What about asians....ok there's a large hispanic population everywhere......even Barnwell has hispanics......and from what I've heard.....from alot of people that Greenville especially in the Laurens area is very racist....

:blink: that's interesting... are you referring to Laurens County? or like Laurens Rd...? I would guess that's probably based on the MLK holiday or some other issue, but I've never found it to be any more than any other city. I have friends in inter-racial relationships and i have a large variety of friends of other ethnicities- Chinese, Egyptian, African American, Palestinian, Indian... all that i can think of off the top of my head that i talk to regularly and do stuff with. But I think that every place has racism- that's something that will never go away unfortunately.

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:blink: that's interesting... are you referring to Laurens County? or like Laurens Rd...? I would guess that's probably based on the MLK holiday or some other issue, but I've never found it to be any more than any other city. I have friends in inter-racial relationships and i have a large variety of friends of other ethnicities- Chinese, Egyptian, African American, Palestinian, Indian... all that i can think of off the top of my head that i talk to regularly and do stuff with. But I think that every place has racism- that's something that will never go away unfortunately.

The Laurens reference is to the city of Laurens. There is a Confederacy/KKK memoribilla shop there that got a lot of press awhile back.

Having diversity and showing tolerance are actually two different things. Vermont, just to use an example, is very tolerant, but is not very diverse. Vermont is about 99% WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant). However, it is the only state that legally recognizes gay civil unions.

Having lived in both cities, it is my opinion that Columbia is both more diverse and more tolerant. Richland County isn't too far from having a majority of minorities. Greenville is 70-75% caucasian. Protestant religions are equally dominant.

On the tolerance side, controversies like the MLK day (there is one in Gville County now BTW), the anti-gay resolution, etc. would really be unimaginable in Columbia/Richland County. The fury against such measures would be deafening.

But those controveries are the result of a small number of elected officials and some narrow minded religious elements. The average person in both cities seem pretty tolerant for the most part. Now if only the so called 'leaders' would follow suit.

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The Chairman of the SC Democratic Party, Joe Erwin, also lives in Greenville.

It is true that Joe Erwin is from Greenville, but it is also true that a Democrat can't get elected dog catcher outside of the Gville City limits. The recent special election for House seat 24 proved that. It would be nice if more people in the Greenville area looked at the candidates, and not just the labels that put on themselves.

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Being a conservative, it really irks me when such a negative light is cast on things that represent conservative values (such as Bob Jones University). It also offends me when such things are lumped in with racial bias and inequality. What do these two have to do with each other? Not celebrating MLK day, flying a confederate flag (for the wrong reasons), and any mistreatment of any race is one thing. Having conservative social/politcal views (often biblically-based) is quite another. I guess I get sick of the hipocracy of those calling themselves "liberal" and "openminded" only demonstrating those qualitites when they are in agreement with a certain (oftentimes narrow) viewpoint. I would hope that one who is truly openminded would have both room and respect for the conservative viewpoint. For me, I think it's a good and positive thing that Greenville is a conservative city. Good for them!!! I commend it for holding fast to such honorable values that have made our country great while distancing itself from values that are clearly despicable.

When I cited Bob Jones University, it wasn't for the university's "conservative values"; I was specifically speaking of the school's rule against interracial relationships that was rescinded in 2000. That, to me, has implications of racial bias and inequality. While I don't know the extent to which the rule was enforced at the school, it didn't help to have that type of information nationally broadcasted.

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Just making the point that you can be a liberal and live comfortably in Greenville. If you want to see things change for the "better," then come and help out. I daresay that many others are making their voices heard. People are pouring in from all over with different political and cultural backgrounds, so you can't say that Greenville is hostile to such. Progression is not limited to politics alone - they've been around forever. Other ideas and innovative developments define progression as well. ;)

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Thanks for clarifying that, krazeeboi. Now that you mention it, I do remember them lifting that ban. Please forgive me for reading too much into what you said. Just for the record, I certainly don't endorse everything that comes out of Bob Jones University. Although it's a fine Bible college, and correct (I believe) in much of what it teaches, it still boasts some very legalistic views that I don't agree with.

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