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Yes Greenville has definitely improved its center city, though its a little too sterile suburban office park like for my taste. If you're referring to the greater city area and the suburbs then I think that is a fair statement. However, you indicated you're referring to "the city center." So if you mean downtown, it is anything but "sterile." Downtown is a great example of an increasingly dense array of all the elements that make up a successful downtown; shops, restaurants, offices, hotels, living spaces, parks, and sitting areas. The diversity of people who enjoy it is a sight to behold. I do think it lacks in the area of appealing architecture, but that doesn't make it sterile.
The area may give the appearance of being less conservative, but the elected political representatives from the Upstate have clearly displayed some very disturbing alt right views, such on the flag and bathroom bill proposals. It is a fairly conservative area, you are correct, but many see conservatism as a good thing. I would also be very hesitant to automatically label people as "alt right" (which carries pretty negative assumptions) because they support the two issues you bring up. While the flag holds absolutely no appeal to me, and I do not think it needs to be celebrated per se, I think it's a very dangerous road to ban something that some don't like, as just about everything out there offends someone. As for bathrooms, yeah, I think they should be genital specific. That certainly doesn't make me an "alt right" person, nor a "hater, bigot, or homophob."
It’s unfair to broadly characterize one region as comfortable vs aspirational. It’s a lot more complex. Absolutely, just as its unfair to broadly characterize an area or it's people as you did above.
Bottom line is we are fortunate to have a choice among 3 pretty good metro areas, each having pros and cons.
Couldn't agree more. We have three very nice metros with lots of positives and amenities; some in common, some not. Pretty cool for a small state that gets a lot of flack for rankings and being southern.
Columbia isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s mostly my cup of tea and has been for almost 20 years through different phases of life. While I find the larger cities like ATL, Charlotte, etc., interesting, I don’t have to have them. To be fair, I’ve been lucky in that I’ve found an interesting job making decent money here in Columbia. That’s probably easier to find in a larger city. I perfectly see why not everyone can stay.
But for those who find a happy/satisfying career here, it is quite the charming place. No other major city in the state is 2 hours from the ocean, 2 hours from the beach, 2 hours to Charlotte. We even have some people at my work who live in Charlotte and commute down to Columbia that’s how close we are.
Also, USC gives Columbia a certain character you won’t find in any other city in the state. And it’s growing every year. So is Columbia. New apartment buildings popping up everywhere. We aren’t afraid to build and it keeps housing costs reasonable.
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