I stopped in Greenville, SC on my way to Charlotte over the weekend.  Greenville is very cute/quaint and a place that, if you like main streets, you have to check out.  Enjoy.

 

 

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7. Lots of fountains

 

8. Nice...

 

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15. I haven't seen this much brick since I was in Columbus

 

16. It is required that you do clocks like this in grayscale

 

17. Right around here is where I was approached by some guy who hopped out of a van and asked me to attend church with them.  I informed them that I was just passing through and didn't have time - so they supplied me with some reading material entitled: "Where are you going when you die: Heaven? Hell? The Grave?"

 

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20. Some nice new projects right along the river

 

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30. A neat pedestrian bridge over the waterfall

 

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47. So long from Greenville...Charlotte is up next.

I enjoyed my 4 years living there.  Side note, Greenville's population is primary made up of from out of town.  This is because of the close proximity to the North American HQ's of Michelin and also BMW North America, which is located in Greer, SC, about 20 minutes to the east.  Also, there is a GE plant which produced Gas Turbines, among other items.  When I lived there, 1994-1998, that area was on of the fastest growing regions in the South, thanks to the recent opening of the BMW Plant. 

 

Greenville is a very fun town.  Thanks Randy.

it looks great.  :-D

A wonderful city. They took advantage of their natural beauty and it looks fantastic (from many other photos I've seen as well). And to think, only a few decades prior, this could have looked totally different.

Looks like a very well kept, pleasant town.  Has that southern charm to it.

My friend just passed through here yesterday on the Susquehanna Trailways bus. He doesn't even know what he missed.. This place is amazing!!

Great tour Randy!

Cute, indeed. Looks like a small-city planner's dream come true.

yeah it is pretty supercute. nice thread.

 

i would not want to live there as a young person or in adulthood, but it looks like the kind of place that would be very nice to retire in.

One of the best downtowns in the South.

Lovely, but 25 is the same as 26. This and Little Five Points is almost enough to make me want to go to the South. Almost.

Lovely, but 25 is the same as 26.

 

Whoops...it is fixed now.

I was actually in Greenville this past Sunday and Monday--even took some pictures that I had planned to post here.  I might post them later, but I’ve been outdone.

 

In the meantime, I’ll share some thoughts on the place where I once lived:

 

Downtown is just great.  Main Street is mostly intact—lots of bars, restaurants, and retail, and they have paid great attention to the smaller things like signage, maps, and tours.  When the weather is warm they have pretty decent parties downtown after work on Thursdays.  And I always have a good time in downtown Greenville.  There are usually plenty of people—it really is THE place to go, like a downtown should be.

 

Outside of downtown is a surprisingly big headache.  Traffic—super-arterial roads on steroids or cul-de-sacs are about all you got. 

 

I lived in Greenville’s West End—home of the awesome waterfall park, the new baseball stadium (where the Greenville DRIVE play), those things in your pictures 37-41, and neighbors that dealt crack all day and night.  So the West End will always be a paradox to me—there is some great stuff, but one block off on Main Street is not so much and when I visited three days ago it looked like nothing had changed in the neighborhood. It probably doesn’t help that Rhett Street is the major pedestrian route between the homeless shelter and the soup kitchen. 

 

Greenville people like to say how the city population (57,000) is so low because of annexation difficulties and such, which may be true to a certain extent…but as far as urban neighborhoods go, Greenville has very few…the population for the most part does reside outside of anything at all city-like. Really, the West End paradox can be related to the entire city: a great downtown that rapidly deteriorates into suburban hell as one travels outwards.

 

As lostincincinnati mentioned, pretty much everyone is from elsewhere.  I remember going to the bar to watch the Bengals and I would easily find plenty of fans for other AFC North teams, but almost never a Panthers fan.  In terms of live music the Greenville scene is quite weak—had to make too many trips to Atlanta and Charlotte.  I would have traded Greenville’s entire West End for Fifth Street in Dayton’s Oregon District in a second.

 

^Yup, that West End area did seem a bit odd, but seemed to have lots of potential as investment continues across the river and into the West End.  There seemed to be a few new shops over there, but it was a stark difference from the Downtown area.

I'll add my photos, which are nothing compared to those above.  I'll add that I've seen Greenville first on two lists recently: The Greenville-Spartanburg MSA has the lowest percentage of people living in its biggest city (only 5.8 percent of the population of the MSA resides in Greenville) and it is the city least affected by the current foreclosure crisis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gathering on St. Patrick's Day

 

Greenville native, Shoeless Joe

 

yeah it is pretty supercute. nice thread.

 

i would not want to live there as a young person or in adulthood, but it looks like the kind of place that would be very nice to retire in.

 

My twin is living in Greenville, SC right now.  She loves it and thinks it is great for a young professional.  She is a contractor working at the Fluor building near the Haywood Mall.  That downtown area was just redone about 5 years ago.  I went to Clemson University and was disappointed they developed the downtown scene AFTER I had graduated.  As a student at Clemson, Greenville was where we went to shop, dine, and see concerts and shows.  There are a lot of strip malls though in the area, that is the only complaint I would have......

Yeah,I went to Clemson for grad school and then moved to G'ville.  All I can say is I guess what is good for one young professional isn't necessarily good for another young professional.  Which is a whole other discussion regarding all this Creatiive Class/YP stuff, but I'll save that for another day...

I wish I could have gotten over to the ballpark area.  I was close, but didn't think I had quite enough time to walk that far out of my way.  Looks like a nice little area with lots of potential.

That Southern Charm is so enticing, and therefor EVIL

I figured some of you would enjoy seeing how pleasant Main Street looks with leaves on the trees:

 

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