Spartanburg is a suburb...

[goodbye]

It is overwhelming to many living here though. One city is larger and exploding at a much higher rate, while the smaller is not gaining economic ground on it yet. There are so many factors to be included as to why this is the case of course.

That being said, I don't see Spartanburg as a suburb at all. It would exist in some form regardless of Greenville's existence, but it does reap great benefits from its proximity to the larger city. I seriously doubt BMW Manufacturing would have chosen their current location had Greenville not been in the area. That is not to say that they only built here because of Greenville, but with the large workforce between both cities, and the type of business and education here (plus the deal they were offered on this land), they obviously couldn't turn this location down.

[teshadoh]

^ Another fair comparison may be Tuscaloosa & Birmingham AL. The auto plant built in Tuscaloose most likely would not have been built there without access to an airport & a larger city.

But on the other hand - if Spartanburg didn't exist, would Greenville be as prominant city? What would the metro population be, making an assumption that Spartanburg would instead be the size of Gafney or Anderson. Would GSP be as large of an airport as it is?

[goodbye]

Undoubtedly things would be different if that was the case. However both cities do compliment one another today, especially now that the whole Upstate has formed a powerful alliance to compete with the larger metros in the Southeast.

[krazeeboi]

When I saw this article, Spartanburg immediately came to mind. It talks about how "stepsister" cities, the secondary cities in multinodal metros, are carving out their own niches and creating their own identities within a regional context:

Stepsister cities are too small to be center cities but--unlike office-oriented edge cities or hypertrophic bedroom communities such as Mesa, Ariz., or Aurora, Colo.--they still lay claim to distinct local economies, urban character, and even urban sub-regions of their own...And yet, with the breakdown of the traditional model into urban regions with complex economies and mobility patterns, these odd little cities that are discovering their own versions of prosperity and prominence, even in the absence of sports teams, media markets, four-star hotels, and the refulgence of tall buildings.

[Spartan]

That is effectively a good definition of what Spartanburg is. This is a very well written article. It was very port-centric for some reason, but it did highlight the flaws in central place theory, MSA statistics, and the fact that these types of cities are distinct in their own right. All very important topics. Its unfortunate that the cities they chose to use as examples all typically have negative connotations- Long Beach, Newark, and Oakland. These, to me, are more subsets of the larger city. The other cities they touched on like Fort Worth, are more relevant examples that Spartanburg should (and does) look to for guidance.

The major difference is that Spartanburg is still a much more distinct place in that the suburban sprawl of the Upstate has not created one giant mass of urbanity.... yet.