Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Hello all, this is a follow-up to another thread I have asking the upstate locals to list their favorite things about living in Greenville. As part of my "relocation research" I am asking on this thread for you to list the aspects you HATE about living in Greenville. Bear in mind that although I currently live in Montgomery, AL I am an atlanta native and traffic is all relative to me. I would especially love to hear from young mothers or those that have raised their children in Greenville!
Thank you in advance for your input!
Only thing I dislike about Greenville is that it's one of the highest concentration of allergens in the entire country, and I'm allergic to a lot of trees, grasses and weeds.
Again, as a stay at home mom, this is my perspective:
1. Outside of downtown, Greenville gets pretty ugly, pretty quickly. Lots of billboards, strip malls, and cookie-cutter neighborhoods. Having moved here from places that were not like this, I find it rather depressing.
2. People are very friendly, but Greenville can also be rather cliquey. It's been difficult for us to break into some of the more established social circles. We moved here not knowing anyone, and most people seemed to already have friends from having grown up in Greenville or having gone to Clemson or Furman.
3. Allergies are terrible. I never, ever had seasonal allergies until moving here. My husband has to take claritin every day for about 6 months, and my kids are constantly congested and taking benadryl to relieve the itching and watery eyes.
4. Groceries. In general the cost of living is great, but groceries, for whatever reason, are very expensive. Like 2-3 times what my parents pay in NY.
5. In general, Greenville seems to have more crime than other cities of comparable size. This obviously varies depending on what part of town you're in, and I know crime can happen anywhere. I mean, I grew up in a small town in the middle of nowhere, and my home was burglarized when I was young! But I have to say that I generally felt safer walking around downtown Boston by myself when I lived there, than I do in Greenville. Maybe it's because I'm now a mom and have more to worry about, lol! This issue obviously didn't keep us from living within the city limits- we love our house and have never had a problem. It's just something I worry about, and it seems to be more of an issue here than in other places. Perhaps due to the fact that Greenville has quite a bit of poverty, which may not be obvious to the casual observer. Downtown is lovely, but can be very "whitewashed," and it doesn't necessarily reflect reality in the rest of the area.
Hope that is helpful! Someone else said that this would be a short thread- guess I helped make it a bit longer
My experience has been very similar to Tribe Pride. In no particular order:
1. I now have allergies. Never had that before. Car exhaust fumes can be bad as well, as there are no emissions standards on vehicles here. Even with the nice weather we've been having, I am forced to roll up my windows at many stop lights.
2. General ugliness, lack of planning, lack of zoning once you leave downtown. There are abandoned strip malls, old billboards, tons of power lines, trash, etc.
3. Crime/Poverty. I have witnessed more crime here, and know more victims of crime here than anywhere I've lived. I constantly remind my wife to keep her car doors locked and to be wary at gas stations, parking lots, etc.
4. Other than downtown, there isn't much of a "here" here. Greenville is Pleasantville. It's beige. It's luke warm, middle of the road. It's near a lot of places, but isn't really much of a place itself (other than downtown). People talk of "mountain views," but I only see that from one place, on I-385 headed downtown near the airport. Other than that, I never see the "mountains" from Greenville. They are an hour away.
5. The hot summers are very long and very humid. We leave pretty much every weekend in July and August and head for the hills to escape the heat. If the hills weren't close, we would not be living here. The past summer's heat went pretty much to the end of September, at which point we were looking at other places to live. A job is keeping us here.
6. The culture, while extremely friendly on the surface, is quite back-stabby/gossip-oriented/shallow. We have few close friends here, and they are not from here. Sure, you can strike up a conversation with anybody, but beyond that...
Well, that's pretty much it. And I have to disagree with whoever said groceries are expensive in Greenville. They're much cheaper than Charlotte or New Jersey.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Greenville is wonderful...this is going to be a short thread...
