What will be Columbia's next hot neighborhood? (North, Chapin: apartments, crime)

[Woodlands]

Hi all I am new to this site. I lived in Columbia most of my life up until three years ago. I love the City and some of the exciting things happening in it. I was curious on everyone's take on what may be the City's next hot(in terms of rehab and infill housing) neighborhood/area? We have seen a lot of development/growth both NE and NW of the City..I was a resident of the SE side and believe that it is a diamond in the rough and as is North Main/Farrow Rd above I-20 as well.

Intown neighborhoods such as Elmwood, Earlewood Park, Five Points, Shandon, Rosewood have always been strong.

Future hot areas in my opinion are/will be:

Cedar Terrace/Brandon Acres,
College Place/Windermere Springs,
Seminary Ridge
Olympia
Midlands Terrace
Rosewood (south beltline area below Owens Field)

Other honorable mentions that seem like good opportunities-though albeit slower;

Bradley
Rochelle Heights
Colonial Heights (near Richland Memorial)

[Woodlands]

The neighborhoods near Dutch Square also strike me as areas with a great deal of potential, particuliarly those off in the Greystone, Broad River -Bush River Rd corridors......

[Akhenaton06]

Rosewood and Olympia immediately come to mind for me.

What would make you say Windermere Springs? Maybe I'm missing something.

[waccamatt]

I have my fingers crossed for the various neighborhoods of Eau Claire since I live in Keenan Terrace, which is at the south end of the Eau Claire area.

[Woodlands]

Originally Posted by Akhenaton06

Rosewood and Olympia immediately come to mind for me.

What would make you say Windermere Springs? Maybe I'm missing something.

Over the years it appears that there has been a growing number of rehabs in Windermere Springs..which is generally defined as the area between Columbia College Drive and Hyatt Park Elementary the CSX Tracks and North Main Street. I was on the City's web site recently and there is a proposal for a mixed use development on the corner of Columbia College Drive and North Main (proposed by the Eau Claire Development Corp-who developed a similar project across from Hyatt Park) that would involve some apartments and groundfloor retail. The CVS across the street was added, I'm guessing a decade ago and an ugly car garage next to the convenience store on that corner was demolished. Additionally, Columbia College has a new athletic complex tucked away in Cabb Island- the area behind the former garage in addition to a recent subdivision (Eau Claire Place-?) off of Columbia College Drive near Farrow-just beyond the CSX Tracks. There are also several "laurel hill" type homes just off of Colonial Drive near the side entrance to the college .The North Main Street streetscape (I believe) also goes up atleast to the Fairfield Rd branch off and Master Plan was adopted by the City that outlines future goals/improvements. The area is also ajacent to Seminary Ridge and Hyatt Park neighborhoods which seem to be coming into their own.

[Brandon Hoffman]

The fact that the neighborhoods near Dutch Square are Columbia HS will hurt them. Most that live in the area want Lex/Richland 5 schools so it will keep the value down. Chapin is gaining popularity but there aren't any neighborhoods to "fix" up there. In NE Clear Springs doesn't have much turnover but there have been several flips there lately. Briarcliffe is also an area that has really benefited from growth in the NE. NW will probably be Challedon West, Challedon, Chartwell, Dutch Village, Raintree. Midtown has Olympia, Rosewood, The Avenues, and Shandon.

Most of the areas I've mentioned are already good subdivisions anyway but they are older and there are rehab opportunities to be had.

[waccamatt]

While schools are important, what percentage of the adult population has school-age children? Maybe 40%? I'm a huge advocate of good public schools, but there are successful neighborhood revitalizations even without highly ranked schools. It certainly does help, though.

[Chi2Midlands]

Originally Posted by waccamatt

While schools are important, what percentage of the adult population has school-age children? Maybe 40%? I'm a huge advocate of good public schools, but there are successful neighborhood revitalizations even without highly ranked schools. It certainly does help, though.

I'm with waccamatt on this one. Good public schools are a plus, but in certain circumstances and areas they may not be quite the driving factor that you might think. I do think there is a certain threshold of crime of violence beyond which gentrification simply will not or cannot happen. Those without school-age children (e.g., young artists with a little bit of money, a lot of sweat equity, and a eye for finding good values in solid old buildings) will have a higher tolerance of "rough edgedness" (e.g., a bit of graffiti, unmowed grass, etc.) of a neighborhood if they are willing to work hard and/or spend money to rehabilitate homes, businesses, and streets, but they too will have limits. So if, in a certain neighborhood, the schools aren't quite up to par with Lex/Rich 5 or other good districts, but the streets aren't bullet-ridden ganglands, then there's potential for revitalization.

[Woodlands]

Originally Posted by waccamatt

I have my fingers crossed for the various neighborhoods of Eau Claire since I live in Keenan Terrace, which is at the south end of the Eau Claire area.

I have always thought that Keenan Terrace was a nice area. I grew up in Eau Claire and many of us who did not live in KT used to consider the area as a park of Hyatt Park, though they are clearly different area. As time went on and city began to id neighbohorhoods with signs, KT became geographically more distinct. Though it always has been stable it appears it has also benefited from the continuing rise of areas like Elmwood Park and Earlewood, particuliar once the City cleaned up park which was sliding a little until the residents intervened.

The areas north of Duke Ave but west of Monticello Rd has been hit or miss depending on the street though I would love to see more happen there. This area and the areas along both sides of Monticello Rd up to I-20 have always been a "political football" between the City and the County. The City Limits snakes through the area making planning, law enforcement problematic from a adminstration standpoint. I would hope that the City would agreesively annex these areas in order to clean them up as they did along Ashley Street between Fairfield and North Main. It may be no initial benefit to the City (tax wise) , but it would allow for one governmental entity to responsible for the planning and coordination of a revitalization efforts instead of having to go through two governments because half of the neighborhood is in the City and the other half is in the County. I have often thought that many neighborhoods that are in need of such revitalization efforts that are bisected by the city county line do not always receive it from either government because of political issues. If you clean up one side and the other side of the same neighborhood is unchanged because it is not in your jurisdiction , it could thwart the entire effort. Likewise , the County seems to focus on more on areas that are exclusively in the County and/or are not the focus of the City's annexation efforts. I guess their rationale is, we hate to spend money cleaning this area up only to have it annexed into the City.

[waccamatt]

Those are some good points, Woodlands. Those problems would be solved with a city/county consolidation...maybe someday that will happen.