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A new day has come to Florence SC just take a walk in downtown and see for yourself. the medical complex is coming along. the parking garage is getting ready to start rising. renovations on a lot of the old buildings has started. AT the beginning of the new year a new bank will be built on the corner of IRBY and EVANS. Stokes eye clinic will build a new building on the corner of Evans and mc street. and also the new judicial center will get built across from the court house on Irby street. But what I'am most excited about is the new street scaping coming to downtown Florence I will change the look of everything.
It's not actually being built the bo smith building on Evans and Irby is being remodeled and will be the new bank, there is also word that Smokey Bones is going Downtown.
I hear people say a lot about Florence concerning its size, but they fail to see the growth rate compared to Charleston, Columbia and Greenville. The jobless rate is dropping and Florence is creating more jobs than them both per capita. I really believe that once downtown is complete and the council look into other improvements to the area Florence will begin to grow to the city that I know that it can be. Francis Marion and FDTC are growing in programs and students. Florence is the city to watch for the future.
I hear people say a lot about Florence concerning its size, but they fail to see the growth rate compared to Charleston, Columbia and Greenville. The jobless rate is dropping and Florence is creating more jobs than them both per capita. I really believe that once downtown is complete and the council look into other improvements to the area Florence will begin to grow to the city that I know that it can be. Francis Marion and FDTC are growing in programs and students. Florence is the city to watch for the future.
I hear people say a lot about Florence concerning its size, but they fail to see the growth rate compared to Charleston, Columbia and Greenville. The jobless rate is dropping and Florence is creating more jobs than them both per capita. I really believe that once downtown is complete and the council look into other improvements to the area Florence will begin to grow to the city that I know that it can be. Francis Marion and FDTC are growing in programs and students. Florence is the city to watch for the future.
The 2010 MSA population for Florence was 205,566 and the 2014 estimate was 207,030. Whoever said Florence was one of the "fastest growing metros in SC" was incorrect. It only grew by 1464 in 4 years - an annual rate of .17% or a 10 year rate of 1.78%. This was the 7th highest rate out of 8 MSAs entirely in South Carolina.
Yeah the metro population is slowly growing but the actual city is what everyone should be referring too. The growth of Florence won't be in leaps like Summerville for example. Yet, there are more people moving to the city. I know Effingham is getting more and more subdivisions year by year. If the city can figure out how to develop the Eastern part of the city, then Florence can have something going for it. It will definitely take a major company in size of a Boeing or Volvo to see Florence have significant growth.
The eastern side of Florence is an anomaly. It has probably the biggest employer in the region in McLeod Medical Center, as well as a number of related health care employers in it's vicinity. Yet it is void of almost any retail or desirable housing. The demographics are about as bad as you can get, and few businesses are going to locate there (KFC/Subway took the chance), with crime and perception both major disincentives to locate anything there.
There is foot traffic, but not the foot traffic the city wants. Namely males crossing Palmetto St with beverages in paper bags, wanderers and loiterers. Not to mention the smokers standing on Cheves & Palmetto...both employees &stressed-out family members of hospital patients. McLeod needs to address this...and not by new restrictions. Family members don't need health lectures when they're anxiety-ridden; just set up an outdoor smoking area off the street already. Groups of smokers huddled on Cheves St do nothing to enhance McLeod's image.
Perhaps within 20 years the E Pine St area could be changed enough to support housing for McLeod employees. That would involve players with something to gain (McLeod, the city) and of course racial politics courtesy of Ed Robinson types. Likewise, the Oakland Avenue area neighborhoods are likely beyond economic hope for decades to come. Crime is high, the area is blighted and no destination business, short of an EBT mart or barber shop, is opening there. The poor nearby purchasing power & crime rates have been scaring off potential businesses from entering East/Northeast Florence for 50 years. Not to mention that area is separated from any potential McLeod hospital boost by the giant, fenced off railroad yard.
The eastern side of Florence is an anomaly. It has probably the biggest employer in the region in McLeod Medical Center, as well as a number of related health care employers in it's vicinity. Yet it is void of almost any retail or desirable housing. The demographics are about as bad as you can get, and few businesses are going to locate there (KFC/Subway took the chance), with crime and perception both major disincentives to locate anything there.
There is foot traffic, but not the foot traffic the city wants. Namely males crossing Palmetto St with beverages in paper bags, wanderers and loiterers. Not to mention the smokers standing on Cheves & Palmetto...both employees &stressed-out family members of hospital patients. McLeod needs to address this...and not by new restrictions. Family members don't need health lectures when they're anxiety-ridden; just set up an outdoor smoking area off the street already. Groups of smokers huddled on Cheves St do nothing to enhance McLeod's image.
Perhaps within 20 years the E Pine St area could be changed enough to support housing for McLeod employees. That would involve players with something to gain (McLeod, the city) and of course racial politics courtesy of Ed Robinson types. Likewise, the Oakland Avenue area neighborhoods are likely beyond economic hope for decades to come. Crime is high, the area is blighted and no destination business, short of an EBT mart or barber shop, is opening there. The poor nearby purchasing power & crime rates have been scaring off potential businesses from entering East/Northeast Florence for 50 years. Not to mention that area is separated from any potential McLeod hospital boost by the giant, fenced off railroad yard.
I think a big positive would be some of the housing going in to support FMU students, McLeod employees, etc. Its already helped out the Timrod Park area a lot. I lived there as a student and I knew many of my friends that did as well. I also knew a lot of FMU professors and McLeod nurses living there too.
Timrod is a beautiful old neighborhood with a lot of charm, and in a great location (close to five points, next to downtown) I would really like to see the upswing in that neighborhood continue on like it seems to have been over the past few years. The will inevitably be an enormous push for downtown by having a close-in neighborhood of students, young couples and families, and post grads within walking distance.
On that note, another thing that would help I feel like would help would be greater emphasis on street facing development around the area of Palmetto&Mcqueen, and Palmetto & Coit. That would make that area a bit more pedestrian friendly for Timrod residents in getting to downtown.
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East Florence a victim of it's demographics
