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I've been looking up information on both of these towns and both seem great. Out of the two which one would fit the best with the descriptions I'm about to list. I'm looking for :
* Family Friendly town
* Charming downtown
*Good schools
* Friendly people
*Safe, low crime
* Big city for employment with in at least 30 minutes of town
* Neighborhoods with character
From your experience, which one fits the descriptions best, or just give me your opinion if you live in either. Any information helps. Thank you!
I think both Simpsonville & Fort Mill are a lot alike based on your list. Both have good schools, are family friendly with low crime. Fort Mill has some neighborhoods with character, Baxter Village, but, most are typical of ones found in city suburbs.
The biggest difference that I see is the access to a large city. Fort Mill is a short drive or train ride into Charlotte which has a wide variety of jobs. I am not sure what field you are in but, Charlotte is the nation's #2 banking center and is in the top 10 for number of fortune 500 companies headquartered in the metro. Charlotte is an emerging energy city. Duke Energy is headquartered on South Tryon St downtown and the city continues to attract energy companies like Siemens, Areva, Babcock & Wilcox along with many others. Charlotte attracts about 55,000 new people each year so, the area is attractive on a national scale.
Overall, Charlotte is expected to continue as one of the leading US cities for job growth over the long run. The recession has slowed job growth some but, the demographics of the city continues to attract headquarters like Chiquita which recently announced their move to the city with 400 positions averaging close to 100k.
I have lived in the upstate and Charlotte so, let me know if you have any questions about the areas.
I live in Simpsonville, it is a great place. Greenville is only a few minutes drive away. While it isn't "big city" by some people's standards it still has a lot to offer, and is growing fast. It's charm and scenery is hard to beat. The term "big city" can be subjective. Depends on what's big to you. I consider it mid sized, but as I said; it's subjective. You will probably have to visit both to get a better feel, posts here can be biased. Including mine.
Red brings up a good point, a large city is a relative term. You may want to visit the areas to see what you are comfortable with. But, to give you a metric of size, Charlotte's metro is about 2m residents. Greenville has a metro population of roughly 650k. Charlotte is growing considerably faster than Greenville and adds the equivalent of the city of Greenville's population each year.
However, it is always good to visit so that you can determine what fits you the best.
On that same ticket, don't be fooled by the city of Greenville's population. Some people are. It's much larger than it's city population. Probably 300k+ really, because we can't annex freely by law. The burbs spill into Anderson and Spartanburg counties. Make a visit soon. You'll see what I'm saying.
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