[Florence Developments]

I was going through some old pictures t hat I saved and I came accross these of Florence. I'm not sure who took them, but it wasnt me.

I recent had the opportunity to visit DT Florence, and let me tell you- its nothing to write home about. However, I was suprised that it is not all boarded up. I rode through at about 5:!5 on a Friday, and it had alot of activity. There were almost no places to park, and there were alot of peope walking around. That said, I felt like it wasn't that safe. It looked like there was some gang activity, as well as some other odd looking people. The downtown looks run down, but it shows signs of improvement. There is a very nice looking building that is occipied by Wells-Fargo which isn't shown in these pictures. Also, the McLeod Medical Center (pronounced McLoud) is downtown somewhere, but I never made it there. It looked like the city cares about its downtown, but that it is just in the early stages of improvement. I don't know if there is an active improvement plan or not- that was just my impression. Anyway, here are the pics:

McLeod Medical Center

The Florence City-County Complex

Spartan: We moved to Florence 10 years ago, and I could not agree with your impressions of the city more. A writer for The Morning News, Thom Anderson, wrote an editorial in this mornings paper (5-28-06) taking issue with you assessments. The fact is, Florence's old downtown is a huge eyesore, and all the new development is taking place out by I-95, or by the new Carolinas Hospital. There was one photo of McLeod Hospital, but it has grown to be a big complex of buildings, including a new +10 story hospital. This is another prosperous area, but it's surrounded by slums. The three aforementioned areas are the hot spots for growth in this town. There are some beautiful residential areas here, but by and large, Florence needs a lot of revitalization in the old downtown area, and this project is in the works. By the way, next to our current theatre in town,(which is being moved downtown in the revitalization effort) there is an applicance store that puts used refrigerators, etc. out on the street. There are between 50-100 old appliances in front of the business, so when you go to a play, you are assalted by this visual pollution, not to mention all the temporary signs on that particular road with neon yellow and orange letters cluttering the landscape! Yes, Florence has a long way to go, but the 5 Points area is really improving with new businesses, restaurants, etc. being built constantly. I've seen photos of the way one of our ugliest roads (Irby St.) once looked many years ago and it was beautiful! Many large trees lined the roadway, but alas, these were cut down when the street was widened. Many of the buildings on this street need to be bulldozed, and trees planted in their place, and this would help immensely. --Janie