My Take on the 3 Major Cities in SC (Columbia, Charleston: credit, best school)

[dognusty]

After now experiencing and reading about the 3 major cities in SC. I'm wanted to give my take on how they stack up respectively in each category. This is based upon my own opinion. Like they say opinions are like buttholes, every has one. So disagreement is accepted and expected.

I will start with National Recognition:

1.Charleston, by far
2.Columbia
3.Greenville

When I say national recognition, my definition would be, when the name of the city is said among non-residents are they familiar with it and they initially think of South Carolina. Charleston is the no-brainer because of the history and its national tourism moniker. I think the later two are more regional with Columbia getting a slight nod because of having a major university in its city and being the state capitol.

National Importance

1. Charleston
2. Greenville
3. Columbia

Again I gave Charleston the nod because, of the combination of tourism, history, and international business in its metro area. However, Greenville is a very close second with the international business. Also being station between Atlanta and Charlotte gives them the added plus of having many prominent business people intermingling withing its metro. Columbia lacks here see next category.

State Importance
1. Columbia
2. Charleston
3. Greenville

Columbia is the leader here because the city is the capitol and with that comes an industry that neither have which is big state government. Some may say Columbia has more, which is does, but this is a big part of the city. Kinda like saying DC isn't a city of politics. Sure it isn't but you would be fooling your self if you didn't recognize it's importance. The later two really have a lot of influence but not having the magnitude of the government located in the city the nod has to go to Columbia.

Education
All Equal

Reason being each lacks in some areas and benefits in other areas.
Charleston - Very good higher education offerings. Citadel, MUSC, CSU, Charleston Southern all offer a very quality education. However, the primary education respectively to the others is lower.

Greenville- Very good primary education offerings. Greenville County School district is maybe the best in the state. However I think the higher education lags behind the other two.

Columbia - Good primary education offerings lags behind Greenville but better than Charleston. Good higher education, lags behind Charleston, yet better than Greenville. Lags behind Charleston because Benedict and Allen are struggling to keep accreditation.

Downtowns
1. Greenville
2. Charleston
3. Columbia

To me Greenville's downtown is very beautiful. Not saying the other two are not but it has the older mill feeling mixed with the modern styling all working in harmony to make a very nice downtown. Charleston is a close second, with the nice historical downtown and old town feel. Columbia is third but not by far. I think it has the potential the be the best but parts of the city have a disconnect from each other. If all could connect and mesh it would be very nice.

Suburbs
1. Columbia
2. Greenville
3. Charleston

Columbia wins to me because it seems that most of the its suburbs has its own nightlife and vibrancy. I think by the burbs having is own "identity" it takes a little away from the downtown. I have Greenville second because each little city around in the metro are very quaint. However, for some other offerings you have to travel to downtown. Which is good but if you live in one of these towns it can become time consuming going back and forth downtown. Charleston came in last because frankly some places outside of downtown Charleston can get very sketchy.

Local Politics
1. Greenville
2. Charleston
3. Columbia

Greenville wins here because I think they do a great job of combining all of the metro in a like think group. Every small town and municipality seems to all be headed in the same direction. Don't know as much about Charleston, but it has to be better than Columbia. It seems that Richland county and Lexington County just butt heads all the time. Reminds you of Obama and the Republicans.

Socioeconomics
1. Columbia
2. Greenville
3. Charleston


I think Columbia and Greenville both have a traditional middle class, upper class, lower class structure. However, I gave Columbia the nod because the city seems to have more minorities in that middle to upper class section. Charleston lags here because it seems to be a city of have and havenots.

Just my opinion hope it makes for a good read.

[Charlestondata]

There is no school district in SC that is better than Lexington-Richland 5 or Lexington 1. And there are no schools in SC better than some of the schools in other Midlands school districts. Otherwise I appreciate your post and can relate to your points of view.

[dognusty]

With the number of overall schools and the scores they put up overall I still think Greenville County hast the best school district. But lexington is right up there. But having I think 13 high schools to manage and still keep each school on or above the average is oustanding.

[Charlestondata]

Even if a school district has only one school, if it performs well it performs well.

Here's one website's take on it.

Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

[dognusty]

True, but it is much harder for a district with many schools to have all the schools do well. One school in a district would benefit for having sole support and focus from the district and most likely a whole community.

[dognusty]

Also frankly you don't see any schools quite as bad as CA Johnson, Eau Claire, Lower Richland, and Keenan in Greenville's metro area.

[Charlestondata]

It depends on who attends those schools and how involved the parents are. Anyone moving to any SC metro can find great schools. If your point is that in certain metros you don't even need to be aware of which schools are great vs. mediocre vs. poor because in said certain metros there are no poor ones, hmm, okay.

[dognusty]

No saying not be aware but overall, which is what the topic is, Greenville metro schools would get the nod. There are certainly great schools in the Columbia metro. I have family that graduated from Irmo, so I know there are some great schools. But in the overall picture, not school vs school, to me Greenville gets the nod.

[Charlestondata]

The website I posted disagrees, but no biggie.

[dognusty]

Like I said opinions are like buttholes. How did you feel about the any other topics. I like a nice friendly banter. It helps you learn.