Will Greenville County and the Upstate remain a bastion of conservative values? It’s hard to say. My experience tells me that the people here tend to be more conservative than the elected officials and certainly more conservative than those who drive the front facing economic development groups. It seems that Greenville / Upstate business and economic development leaders and have embraced ESG, Black Lives Matter, DEI and LGBTQ+ initiatives. These initiatives must be promoted until the population embraces the movement…especially in conservative Greenville…right?
Recently I attended the annual meeting for the Upstate SC Alliance at the Greenville Convention Center. There had to be between 500-750 people in attendance. The Upstate SC Alliance does a great job of promoting the Upstate and tries to recruit companies to establish themselves here. That’s great. But I was caught off guard a bit when one of the leaders said from the stage that the Alliance supports Black Lives Matter. They then went on to play a promotional video that also had some BLM messaging in it. I understand that if they are trying to recruit companies from around the world that they have to demonstrate that Greenville, SC and the Upstate are not home to Southern hicks…but I don’t see that that is necessary. Greenville has a phenomenally diverse employer and employee base already without having to try to overly promote how “progressive” the New South has become. The fact is, Greenville and the Upstate is not progressive nor do I think most of the people want to be progressive. And yet, our elected officials, company execs and economic development leaders and groups continue to promote this. Now of course there is the big push for LGBTQ+ initiatives. Really? Must the Upstate demonstrate it’s commitment to LGBTQ+ in order to have a company move to South Carolina? Is this the way our leaders think? Is this how the executives and growth and development teams at the target companies think? Is this just how BIG business thinks? Does the company that runs a $50 million manufacturing business require that the Upstate have progressive initiatives when it comes to these matters?
I had a chuckle a bit when I read that economic development groups state how important ESG is to proper growth and development. As a bystander out here looking from the outside in, it would seem to me that the tide is turning against ESG and yet we are making a bigger commitment to it. I suspect the ESG thing is driven from the very top of the economy and if you want the money, you have to commit to ESG. It will take time to expose the fraud and grift that is ESG investing.
If you want to keep the Upstate the delightful southern conservative place that it has been without the full embrace of big city, big corporation, big government progressive policies, then you’re going to have to get involved and speak up. It’s unlikely we’ll see these kinds of policies and initiatives come from our county councils. It will come from the City of Greenville, the economic development organizations the big companies themselves and the public schools. Here’s the Post and Courier story about the progress being made on LGBTQ matters.
The Greenville City Council recently approved for the building of a much needed parking structure in Greenville’s fast growing West End. According to the article in the Greenville Journal, “the council approved $5.6 million for a mixed-use facility in Greenville’s West End — an area that has long been lacking in adequate parking, according to council members — that would include 560 parking spaces to be leased to the city over 30 years.”
Additional development will also take place at this location with 250 apartment units and 15,000 SF of retail space. The Post and Courier published a story about this development back in February and has a few more details. Apparently there are plans to have a roof top plaza on top of the parking garage. I can’t quite visualize how all of this will come together but Seamon Whiteside is the architect. They do amazing work so I’m sure this will also be quite remarkable.
The garage will be located next to the Eggs Up Grill on Augusta St.
The City of Greenville, SC has been updating its zoning and land use regulations to help achieve a more livable city as part of the GVL2040 Comprehensive Plan.
The city held a public meeting recently to provide an update with where they are at with the thinking. Upstate Business Journal has a good synopsis.
The main points are:
- Limit the amount of land that can be developed
- City to purchase vacant land as it tries to keep a significant amount of greenspace
- Maintain the character of existing neighborhoods
- Make development more walkable – less reliance on cars
- Create more affordable housing
The city has hired CZB of Maine to help them with this planning update.
Call this part of the charm of living in the South…if you’ve ever tried to figure out if you are actually within the city limits of the City of Greenville, SC, you’ll understand how challenging it can be at times. Above is a screen shot I took from the city’s GIS system. It’s a fantastic system and I’ll link it below. Part of the challenge here is you’ll have an address that says Greenville, SC but it won’t be in the city. It will just be part of Greenville County. It’s helpful to know this as a property owner as you’ll be subject to more scrutiny of course if you live within the city limits.
Want to open up an Airbnb in the City of Greenville, SC? Why not? It’s a beautiful small city and the area is growing rapidly. Just make sure you follow the City of Greenville, SC Rules and Regulations for Short Term Rentals.
The City of Greenville continues its steady growth. All one has to do is drive around and see all the construction going on. New construction…additions…renovations…restorations. You name it, it’s happening here.
“As of June 30, the city had completed 14,110 building inspections compared to a little more than 25,000 in all of 2021, Greenville’s current high water mark. In 19 of the first 27 weeks of the year, the city saw an increase in inspections over the previous year.“
Greenville continues to attract more people and businesses by the day. See where people are moving from to land in Greenville.
The City of Greenville has a facade improvement program whereby they will reimburse some of the expense building owners incur when they are improving the facades of their buildings.
Key items from the the City of Greenville’s Facade Improvement Program presentation.
- REIMBURSEMENT GRANT PROGRAM FUNDED BY THE CITY OF
GREENVILLE - PROVIDES FINANCIAL AND TECHNICAL DESIGN ASSISTANCE TO
COMMERCIAL PROPERTY OWNERS AND BUSINESS OWNERS IN
TARGETED COMMERCIAL CORRIDORS FOR QUALIFIED FACADE
IMPROVEMENTS - SUPPORTS THE REVITALIZATION OF THE CITY’S COMMERCIAL
CORRIDORS BY STIMULATING PRIVATE INVESTMENT IN HIGHQUALITY IMPROVEMENTS - HELPS OWNERS ENHANCE THE APPEARANCE OF BUILDINGS AND
PROPERTIES AND ELIMINATE BLIGHT AND NON-CONFORMING
DESIGN STANDARDS - THE PROGRAM IS NOT RETROACTIVE. APPLICATIONS MUST BE
APPROVED IN WRITING BY THE COMMERCIAL CORRIDOR FAÇADE
REVIEW COMMITTEE PRIOR TO COMMENCEMENT OF WORK - $10,000 PER PROPERTY, FOR ELIGIBLE IMPROVEMENTS
- CITY WILL REIMBURSE UP TO 50% OF EXPENSES EQUAL TO OR LESS THAN $10,000. FOR ADDITIONAL EXPENSES ABOVE $10,000 THE CITY WILL REIMBURSE 20% OF ELIGIBLE EXPENSES NOT TO EXCEED THE MAXIMUM AWARD AMOUNT OF $10,000
- EXAMPLE: IF THE APPLICANT’S ELIGIBLE EXPENSES EQUAL $25,000, HE/SHE WOULD BE ELIGIBLE FOR AN $8,000 REIMBURSEMENT GRANT
- [($10,000 X50%) + ($15,000 X 20%)] = $8,000
For questions, be sure to reach out to the City of Greenville. All projects must be approved first before you will receive any kind of reimbursement.
Here’s another article discussing how Greenville, SC is on the rise. My wife and I had been watching Greenville, SC for almost 10 years and finally decided to move here about three years ago. It has continued to get better and the food scene here is quite good. Here’s the latest article from Southern Living Magazine.
What a gorgeous evening for the Greenville Poinsettia Christmas Parade last night! Thousands showed up to celebrate this wonderful tradition. Very few maskers were seen in the crowd. Most of those walking, riding or performing in the parade also were not wearing masks either, thank God.
Last year’s event was cancelled of course because of all the Covid hysteria. It was great to see that the City of Greenville has mostly come to its senses when it comes to allowing large public events. This comes on the heels of a MASSIVE turnout for Fall for Greenville just a few weeks ago. BTW, I have not heard of a single case of COVID, DELTA or some other cold variant being transmitted due to that event.
It was a wondering parade starting promptly at 6pm and ending at 6:55pm. The Furman marching band was terrific and led the parade through Main Street. There were lots of other high school marching bands, dance schools, local media, roofing contractors and musical groups among the floats. Thousands lined both sides of Main Street in a wonderful, peaceful community event. I’ve said it’s the best Christmas parade I’ve ever attended. Some have laughed at me saying I haven’t been to much then, but I have to disagree. Sure there are other events where they have more spectacular floats and probably bigger crowds, but to experience this in the gorgeous setting of downtown Greenville on a beautiful evening is hard to beat. BTW, it was 70 degrees at 5:30pm as we were waiting for the parade to start.
If you haven’t attended one of these parades, put it on your list to go next year!
