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Which city is better between Florence or Sumter? I believe that Florence triumphs Sumter because of its diversified economy, its environment is classier than Sumter, and even though I graduated from USC, Florence has Francis Marion University (which I have known several people including some of my family members went there who stated that it is a great university)!
I would choose Florence over Charleston, Columbia, and Greenville because Florence has pretty much what the three major cities of SC have except for its high cost of living.
It is too bad that Florence does not have the same amount of spotlight that the other three major cities have. I hope that state leaders would give Florence a second look and for city leaders to aggressively position Florence to be a major city of its own right rather than to become "like Columbia" or "like Greenville" which I believe there isn't anything wrong with either one of those cities.
Which city is better between Florence or Sumter? I believe that Florence triumphs Sumter because of its diversified economy, its environment is classier than Sumter, and even though I graduated from USC, Florence has Francis Marion University (which I have known several people including some of my family members went there who stated that it is a great university)!
I would choose Florence over Charleston, Columbia, and Greenville because Florence has pretty much what the three major cities of SC have except for its high cost of living.
It is too bad that Florence does not have the same amount of spotlight that the other three major cities have. I hope that state leaders would give Florence a second look and for city leaders to aggressively position Florence to be a major city of its own right rather than to become "like Columbia" or "like Greenville" which I believe there isn't anything wrong with either one of those cities.
I would prefer Florence over Sumter although Sumter is probably ok for a small town. I haven't been there since 1995 or so for a track meet with my high school and I don't remember much about it. Florence is closer to the beach and right on the interstate. Sumter might be better if you need to be closer to Columbia for some reason.
Charleston, Columbia and Gville all have better downtowns and a lot more restaurant options. Chucktown has an aquarium, IMAX threatre, patriots point, and the historic stuff plus right at the beach. Columbia has a nice zoo, a big lake near town, and a university if you care about that, for after work classes, or sporting events. Greenville is closer to the mountains with probably the nicest state park in the state paris mountain and the suspension bridge over the nice downtown park and waterfall. Also closer to Clemson.
Florence advantage is close to Myrle Beach, light traffic, a small town if you like that and possibly a greater sense of community than the other 3, and low cost of living especially on houses, as you mentioned. I'd say Florence and Aiken are the best two small cities in SC overall, with Aiken having better downtown but Florence having more stuff and better location.
Florence by far. I don't even compare the two cities anymore since Florence is more in the ball park of Spartanburg than Sumter. Florence has more of a self-identity than Sumter does.
Florence is probably faring better than Sumter by far on a number of fronts.. Florence has of course the interstates, bus, rail, and air transportation not to mention the diversified tax/employment base, institutions of higher ed and is the center of the Pee Dee.
Sumter is in the Midlands and is heavily overshadowed by Columbia.. its lack of a diversified employment/tax base has stiffled the City's growth along with Sumter County as a whole. I think Sumter has a nicer downtown than Florence (less vacant buildings) and Sumter has done a good job preserving many of their historic building like the Sumter Opera House, their are a number of building thath have been rehabbed including Sumter Intermodal James Clyburn Transportation Center.. which a old warehouse that now houses their Greyhound and City Bus Services/Office.... but that is only because Sumter hasnt had the opportunity to sprawl in too many different directions..really only one from a commercial standpoints so downtown is still a factor in the City retail base. Florence on the other had has sprawled considerably West and South thus having a negative on their downtown. That being said, there are plans in the works with the addition of a new hotel, medical campus for FMU, and of course the new Performing Arts Center, Library, and the Little Theatre that will allow Florence's downtown to overtake Sumter's in the next few years......
Florence is probably faring better than Sumter by far on a number of fronts.. Florence has of course the interstates, bus, rail, and air transportation not to mention the diversified tax/employment base, institutions of higher ed and is the center of the Pee Dee. Sumter is in the Midlands and is heavily overshadowed by Columbia.. its lack of a diversified employment/tax base has stiffled the City's growth along with Sumter County as a whole. I think Sumter has a nicer downtown than Florence (less vacant buildings) but that is only because Sumter hasnt had the opportunity to sprawl in too many different directions..really only one from a commercial standpoints so downtown is still a factor in the City retail base. Florence on the other had has sprawled considerably West and South thus diluting the influence of their downtown. That being said, there are plans in the works with the addition of a new hotel, medical campus for FMU, and of course the new Performing Arts Center, Library, and the Little Theatre that will allow Florence's downtown to overtake Sumter's in the next few years......
i wouldn't really call that sprawl in Florence. LOL South Florence doesn't even have that much stuff. Florence doesn't have any road that is like miles of sprawl like two notch road in columbia. even some of the smaller towns in SC like Anderson, Easley, maybe AIken, have too much stuff on the main road thru town.
i don't think either downtown is a destination and most likely neither will be although they can improve a little.
Last edited by MountainDew2013; 07-29-2013 at 09:00 AM..
I wouldn't say its sprawl either, but some folks in Florence sure think it is. I have heard a few folks there say that Florence's "Suburban sprawll" should be the number one priority for planners.I think the mentality of some Flo Towners that "Florence really is a big city and we should treat it that way" caused some of that sprawl by trying to develop the "suburban" areas. Florence really does not have the population to support that type of growth and not leave a downtown area empty. Now I think folks there are beginning to realize that Florence is not a big city like Columbia or Greenville which is the cities biggest draw. I cant tell you how much I miss the small town atmosphere you get when your in Florence and the fact that they are finally realizing that will make that place amazing!
I wouldn't say its sprawl either, but some folks in Florence sure think it is. I have heard a few folks there say that Florence's "Suburban sprawll" should be the number one priority for planners.I think the mentality of some Flo Towners that "Florence really is a big city and we should treat it that way" caused some of that sprawl by trying to develop the "suburban" areas. Florence really does not have the population to support that type of growth and not leave a downtown area empty. Now I think folks there are beginning to realize that Florence is not a big city like Columbia or Greenville which is the cities biggest draw. I cant tell you how much I miss the small town atmosphere you get when your in Florence and the fact that they are finally realizing that will make that place amazing!
I think the downtown area should have been close to Timrod Park, maybe off National Cementary Road. In my mind Timrod Cherookee Road, Five Points it the central part of Florence, the downtown area kind of seem off to the side near the hospital and that isn't the best looking area. It probably made sense for it to be there back in the day b/c of the railroad but there is no development in north Florence and more people who live up there are in that area in their daily lives than people in west or south Florence.
The Cherokiee Road area is more central to West and South florence areas which are the growing areas.
I wonder if a town has ever moved their downtown area to a different location in modern times. Even if they spruce up downtown, it probably is going to have businesses go out of business fairly quickly. Why would it be better to eat dinner there vs around the mall somewhere? There is no draw there. People traveling thru town on the way to the beach are never going to see downtown.
In a lot of ways, Five Points has been the "downtown" area in Florence for a long time with the "hotspots" like Apple Annies and Redbone Alley and some restaurants and a few bars that I don't know the name of.
i wonder how many people in Florence even care if they do anythign with the downtown area. I don't remember anybody talking about downtown Florence ever when i lived there in the 80's and 90s. it is a suburb almost farm like atmosphere there in Florence.
I didn't know any smaller and medium sized towns had much going on in their downtown districts until I saw downtown Greenville in 2000.
Last edited by MountainDew2013; 07-29-2013 at 12:02 PM..
I have always wondered about them doing that, just let the downtown go and move it to Five Points but now people really are getting into the Downtown effort with FMU putting the PAC down there. They did that my senior year there so I havent really been able to see all of the growth spurred off from that since I moved, but it seems like people are getting into it. When I was there, people tried too hard to make it like Greenville which simply wont work for Florence due to population and characteristics of the two cities greatly differing. Greenville even before BMW was still much bigger than Florence and had more of a metropolitan lifestyle, Florence simply does not have that. Originally they wanted create a "cosmopolitan atmosphere" downtown which got little support, but recently they seem to have realized that and started to develop a downtown that is more geared to a small quaint cultured city similar to an Aiken, rather than a cosmopolitan city center like Columbia or Greenville and it seems to be working and gaining more support.
I have always wondered about them doing that, just let the downtown go and move it to Five Points but now people really are getting into the Downtown effort with FMU putting the PAC down there. They did that my senior year there so I havent really been able to see all of the growth spurred off from that since I moved, but it seems like people are getting into it. When I was there, people tried too hard to make it like Greenville which simply wont work for Florence due to population and characteristics of the two cities greatly differing. Greenville even before BMW was still much bigger than Florence and had more of a metropolitan lifestyle, Florence simply does not have that. Originally they wanted create a "cosmopolitan atmosphere" downtown which got little support, but recently they seem to have realized that and started to develop a downtown that is more geared to a small quaint cultured city similar to an Aiken, rather than a cosmopolitan city center like Columbia or Greenville and it seems to be working and gaining more support.
well you are forced to drive thru downtown Aiken to get to the retail area of town and most neighborhoods in the area and it is a tree lined area and you do have some nicer older houses adjacent to downtown. there is no way to force people thru historic downtown Florence. I don't know if you ever been to Seneca SC but it sort of like that, many visitors don't know Ram Cat Alley is there if they don't live there but they actually got a pretty good collection of restaurants/bars for small town.
the problem with 5 points is it is one the main drag thru Florence and they can't really make it like a traditional downtown area.
They could think about doing a town center thing like Providence in Huntsville AL and put it near 5 points, but not sure if they got any open land there. Providence has a Mellow Mushroom and some other restaurants, a barber shop, dry cleaners, and some other stuff, plus some new nice houses nearby in a greenspace area, and some hotels, and it does have a downtown vibe to it.
In Columbia, Greenville, the suburbs spread out in all directions from the downtown area. Charleston's downtown is like the midpoint of a T, with suburbs spreading out in all directions that it can. florence downtown doesn't have that kind of radial growth from it.
i think there needs to be something to do down there besides eat or threatre / artsy stuff to draw people over there but hard to think of what that could be
Last edited by MountainDew2013; 07-29-2013 at 04:25 PM..
i wouldn't really call that sprawl in Florence. LOL South Florence doesn't even have that much stuff. Florence doesn't have any road that is like miles of sprawl like two notch road in columbia. even some of the smaller towns in SC like Anderson, Easley, maybe AIken, have too much stuff on the main road thru town.
i don't think either downtown is a destination and most likely neither will be although they can improve a little.
True its not "sprawl" in the sense of a Columbia, Charleston or Greenville...but when you put your Civic Center on the edge of your urbanized area as opposed to the traditional city center the I would question what the growth strategy is.. Carolina Hospital System (formerly Bruce Hospital) used to be on S. Irby Street where the currently library is.. It moved down towards Freedom Florence and the southern part of the City which started some development out that way. It seems like they wanted to put everything on the "edge" of town to develop out that way near the mall and the interstates and south of town as opposed to redeveloping the core.. where there has been a significant amount of blight and vacancies.
Fortunately Florence hasnt developed the "Two Notch Road style" of sprawl and seems to be recovering in a sense.. especially if the growth can continue to wrap around the airport from the south and up towards FMU and up 95 and the areas north and northeast of Florence along 327 and in the Town of Quinby.
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