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Gsupstate, thanks for the detailed reply! Your experiences and impressions are helpful to hear about. Where did you finally decide to locate your office, if I may ask?
Gsupstate, thanks for the detailed reply! Your experiences and impressions are helpful to hear about. Where did you finally decide to locate your office, if I may ask?
You're welcome.
It was a tie between Charleston and Greenville. I chose Greenville, but really that decision came down to only two things: Greenville's proximity on I-85 to both Charlotte and Atlanta, and the more 4 season type weather of Greenville. I love Charleston and visit there frequently. You can't go wrong with Charleston. Beautiful city!
Palmetto Guy, thanks for your additional thoughts. Suburban or urban? Well, there are things I like about both. Generally, there is less crime in the suburbs, but suburban life can feel isolating & stifling too.
Guess I'd have to see the particular setting. I currently live in a suburb. I have a big lawn and lots of high maintenance shrubs like azaleas, camelias, etc. It has been fun to learn how to keep a lawn in top shape and to have these great traditional, southern blooming shrubs, but sometimes I dream of having a tiny (or no) lawn, fewer formal plantings, and space to grow cottage garden flowers and vegetables instead. It really doesn't matter though; I like to grow things, & will adapt to the style of the house and land I find myself with.
I love antiques and old houses, but bought a house built in 1987 in 2006 when the market was sky high! I've done lots of udating - granite countertops, etc., & that's another reason why this move is important to "get right!" The market is tough now. Houses are hard to sell. We will lose money, as values here have plummeted since "bubble time!" It's not as easy as it once was to move and start over if you feel you need a change.
My husband feels he is stagnating in his career and is not ready to just settle, go through the motions and stay put in a job that is not satisfying. He enjoys his profession but is unhappy with his job. Yes, he is lucky to have work, and a good income, but we both feel like we want something different. Are we spoiled and silly? Maybe.
Anyway, sorry if this was too much information! Thanks again for the insight!
You can only get a real grasp for the area in an in-person visit, so I hope you can make it down soon and see if it's for you.
An important question is, are you looking for more of an urban area or suburban area? Like most cities, most of the growth happening in this area is in the suburbs. The neighborhoods in the city are getting growth, but not nearly as much as the suburbs.
I strongly disagree with others about Columbia being less well-cared for than other cities. For instance, the historic part of downtown Charleston is very nice, but you have to drive through some of the most ghetto-type areas in the state to get to it. Greenville is a small city, so the city itself is nice but there are areas surrounding it not in the city that look pretty run down, like off the White Horse Road exit or Piedmont Highway.
Again, you won't get a true feel for it until you make a visit. For some reason, you have a lot of people who post frequently in the Columbia forum who don't like the city at all (which is baffling), so you have to take what a lot of people say here with a grain of salt, especially if they don't live here.
Greenville in reality is no smaller than Cola, which is why it has options Cola doesn't other than government or usc related stuff.
Gsupstate...the winner was...Greenville! Hope you are enjoying your work there. Charleston gets a strong nod of approval from you as well! Good to know. Thanks again!
Main Street and the rest of downtown have shade trees galore. Palmettos are used only as accent pieces. There are so many trees here that they city has to remove 300 trees per year, but they plant 500 per year. They are now planting 5,000 within a ten-year period with a campaign to plant 10,000 within 20 years. The area's terrain is rolling and lush. From countless places around both the city and the suburbs, you can see for miles. Columbia is in Richland (rich land) County. What's nice about Columbia doesn't necessarily hit you immediately upon first arriving here. It's a city you have to spend enough time in to get to know, and, unless for whatever reason it just isn't what you're looking for, you'll learn to see why so many people who leave move back. I could write a book about what's good about Columbia and in response get an encyclopedia of what's bad about it from the usual anti-Columbians on here.
I hear what you are saying about nuances, and agree that yes, there are places that require more time to appreciate. There are kinds of beauty that hit you in the face and then there are subtle sorts of beauty that need to be savored. Marilyn Monroe may knock your socks of right away, while Audrey Hepburn, perhaps not as take-your-breath-away-stunning, just gets more lovely the more you stare at her image, LOL!
Your last sentence made me LOL! I shouldn't have just taken a sip of my coffee. Going to get paper towels now!
Greenville in reality is no smaller than Cola, which is why it has options Cola doesn't other than government or usc related stuff.
I'm talking about the actual cities, the municipal boundaries. Stop trying to pick a fight and stop saying inaccurate things like we don't have options other than things related to USC or state government. That's flat-out wrong and I'm sure you know that. And you say you've "said nothing bad about Cola."
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