Sparkleman

I know we discussed it in this thread as I remember reading it there and in the Herald but from what some of my friends downtown say, its still on the books to go through this spring. I think its just going to be a little harder to get that "district feel" from Pine to St John because of all the traffic that exists at the Pine/Main intersection. Pine St is the real problem because it takes people so many places south of town that no other road does.

Well from what I have heard, Converse to Pine is supposed to start this Spring. Thats the one that really counts. I didn't know they were doing anything from Pine to St John and I'm not sure why they would for that short stretch.

Its not a bad location though. When they actually reduce Main St to 2 lanes and line it with the proposed trees, I think you will see more folks walking from Converse Heights to Downtown on Spring and Summer evenings. It would be nice to stop in for a doughnut and some joe on the way back home.

Another note on the Baskin Robbins/ Pizza Place/ Fords Drugs, this strip mall is going to be torn down in the spring and moved up closer to the corner of Pine and Main. It is being done to update the look of the shops and I'm sure the new rent will show that. However, is there a place in the "SC" that sees more daily traffic?

El Patron Review: If you are in a hurry, forget about this place as the service on Friday night was awful and the place was not even half full. The food was a little better than standard Mexican fare like Coronas/Monterey's but again the service sucked. The waiter couldn't get anything correct and I am pretty sure he spoke no English. When we were finally ready to go, it took forever to pay the tab as he had mixed things up and put them on different tickets. You would have thought we were changing dollars for pesos at the register it took so long. The one thing they have going for them is great margaritas, but I am not driving halfway to Boiling Springs for this. I told my wife to get a grip on the "this is the best" term from now on.

Ok, my Mom was a teacher at both Jenkins Jr High and later Carver Jr High and here is what she says the deal was. The proposed charter school will be housed in the old Southside Elementary School. This was the whites only elementary school and the blacks went to Mary H Wright. The whites went to Jr High at Jenkins and the blacks went to Carver which housed Jr High and High Scool in the same place. The whites went to high school at the old Evans Jr High which was called Spartan High and they were known as the Crimson Tide in those days. When we finally got segregation, I assume Jenkins was torn down and Carver HS was torn down to create the new Carver Jr High. The new Spartan High was built on Dupree Dr and the old SHS became Evans Jr High and they were they Eagles. This is where I went to Jr High for 2 years and then did 1 year at McCracken.

Man you guys are quickly deflating my ballon here and my wife's version is sounding like she might just have wanted Mexican so bad that this was the latest in the line of "the best ever" that comes out of her mouth on occasion. I have been to one what I would call authentic Mexican joint here in the "SC". It is out on Fairforest road past the DOT and about 1/2 mile before this runs back into Asheville Hwy. I think it is called Los Paisanos and it is just a shack tucked back away from the road. I went there with a guy several years ago who said it was as close to the type food he used to get in San Diego. It was not like any Mexican I had seen or eaten before and the folks there barely spoke English. It was completely out of this world! The catch- it was a tough, rugged place with several questionable amigos nearby. A dinner here while amazing could be a shaky experience as the locale ain't the safest.

Hub City: Have you been at night? If so, do share.

I have heard that there is a new Mexican restaurant out on #9 in the plaza at Wood Creek called El Patron. It is supposed to serve authentic Mexican cuisine and not the same fare that most other mexican joints in town serve. In fact my wife has been twice now at lunch and says it is the real deal. I think we are gonna give it a try tonight for dinner so we can also try the margaritas. I'll post a report tomorrow as we won't even get there until 8-9 as we are going to check out the Vikings/Cavs at Red Dobson tonight. The Lady Vikes are shooting for an undefeated season in the region and Doug Lowe's troops are trying to hang in there for a playoff berth. Go Vikings!

I'm sure BMW will hire more workers but you have to understand if they are building more cars, they are going to need more seats, wind screens, mirriors, etc. This means the suppliers are going to have to turn out more parts and do more coating and painting of these parts. Plus a couple of companies that I work with handle a lot of warranty work for BMW such as repairing bumpers and fenders. This has caused an increase in employees and these companies as well as others. There is a rumor out there right now that with the presence of ICAR in the Greenville area that Volkswagon is looking to possibly locate a manufacturing facility nearby. If this is the case, you could well have another BMW size plant on the map.

I am in an industry that sells to BMW as well as its suppliers. What this means is that BMW and any company that sells/supplies parts to them is getting ready to see an increase in work and sales. Many of these companies are already working 24/7 and are going to be asked to ramp up even further. One company I sell to has even opened a 2nd facility to help meet the demand. This means more jobs for the Upstate. If you were to google "BMW suppliers" you would see that there are about 100-150 companies out there and 3/4 of them are local. With ICAR coming and BMW expanding, the automotive industry in the South is where the jobs are and are going to be for the near future.

The cigar smoke is not an issue because you can only smoke in certain areas and there are very nice, modern ventilation systems that suck up the smoke. The reason the restaurants are spread out is because the closer you get to Morgan Square the higher the cost per square foor to lease unless you buy the building which is what Wild Wing did. Carriage House Wine does indeed rock and Tony Forest is a helluva nice guy who is also very smart. I will never go to Cheese and Wine again, especially the way they treated me the last time I was in.

I second Hemlock86 about the driving to Greenville mentality. I think we finally have a strong core of restaurants here in the "SC" where there is no need to go to Greenville for a good meal. Justins, Rock Water, Brasserie Ecosse, NGA's, even Mellow Mushroom ought to be enough to satisfy any palet against a trip to Greenville. By the way, has anyone been in the C Edwards cigar shop since they started serving high end beers? A friend and I hit this place a couple of weeks ago and it is really nice inside. There are leather chairs and sofas, flat panel TV's, a nice view of downtown, a nice patio out back, and above all the cigar smoke is not an issue. Plus the brew selection is rockin! This is a great place to go before you go to dinner.

Spartanburg already is a great place to live and as far as I am concerned, always has been. Otherwise I would have left (which I did briefly but returned). I frankly am just tired of being taxed. You can call the road fee a fee, a charge, a bill, or whatever you want, but it is still a tax as everyone pays it and there is nothing we can do about it. True, we voted in 3 new guys to get rid of the "fee" but nothing has changed as these knuckleheads are no different than the ones that were voted out. I am not trying to be argumentative here, but are the roads around the county any better that you can tell? I can't but maybe its because I drive a 97 F-150 and not a new car. I am trying to think of a bridge that has been repaired or replaced in the last 5 years, but nothing is coming to mind. Is there a difference in the city hospitality tax and the county one or are they the same? I have no idea but I do know that restuarant owners both in the city and county have complained over the tax because they have had to raise prices. I assume its because they have to collect the tax and then pay it back to the city (which as a small business owner that I am takes time and we don't have a lot of that). I agree with you to disagree over the deal at Duncan Park but you're gonna win out as they are going to go ahead with the deal. Whether it really pans out only time will tell. **Spartan-I have an idea about space on the east side. Should I start a new thread or tuck into a pre-exisiting one? Thanks and I enjoy the good conversation here.

I don't know if the funding includes the other parks or not, but I still feel this is a waste of $$$ especially when folks realize that a part of the taxes they pay (education) are going towards this. I believe District 7 already pays Wofford College around $35000 per season to play at Gibbs Stadium (that was the rate 5 years ago so I'm sure its still around that). Does any other school district have athletic expenses such as this? Look at any other school district 1-6 and tell me who incurs these kinds of costs. Another part I don't like about the hospitality tax is that it affects everyone, not just visitors to the city. Anytime you go out to eat, an extra 2% goes into the city's coffers. I just don't understand why we are trying to market ourselves as a destination city. Say you come here on business and stay at the Marriot for a night or two (summer or winter), what is there really to do? You can hit the Beacon for lunch, Justin's for dinner, and have a KKD for breakfast. Other than eat, what is there to do? I guess you can go down to the proposed CVB down by the Magnolia St. cemetary and look around at an old house or maybe tour the train depot or go catch the Vikings over at Duncan Park if they have a game. What I am getting at is there is way too much taxing and not enough business and money management taking place. We had to create a road tax because someone or department couldn't budget what needed doing with the money avaiable. This is one of the smallest states in the country, but also one of the highest taxed. Don't get me wrong as I love Spartanburg. I have been here my whole life and chose to stay here for personal and professional reasons. Its just lately that the whole tax thing is getting out of hand and in my mind some bad decisions are being made. By the way, has anyone seen that cow pasture at Beaumont that they call a baseball/softball field? Its a disgrace to even think of it as such. I played on it in the 70's and it was brutal then.

What is a CVB office? Hey Spartan, I care about history as much as anyone and I have been going to games at Duncan Park since the late 60's. That said, you can only spruce something up so much before it is time to start over. If you were to go to Duncan Park and chip paint off the railings, you'd find perhaps 10 coats. The place is literally falling down and 75K is not gonna help much. I went to SHS and and running out the back door to practice and play a real games beats driving to Duncan Park and playing at the "historic" yard. Ok, lets say you can dress at SHS, then get on the bus, drive through town, get to Duncan Park and get off the bus and hit the field and play the game, then drive back, shower and dress (as you cannot do this at Duncan Park unless its raining) and go home. Thats a lot of lost time. I drive a truck very fast through town to get where I'm going. If you can get a full school bus over to Duncan Park in 10 minutes then perhaps you should be driving it. On top of that, SHS perenially sucks in baseball, so why give them a new field? Give it to the little leagues as they are the ones that are always getting screwed on the east side. Other than a field at Hillbrook park and the 2 at Duncan Park, where are the other little league fields in the city. All that $$$ to fix up Duncan Park could be used to level it and create a new little league/softball complex. IMHO, the city could be using some of this $$$ to fix the roads,the bridges, and the parks in town. Or is that what the road tax is for? No I forgot, we are going to use hospitality tax money to fix up our parks to attract people to our town (is this really true?). I'm getting confused here because there as so many taxes that its hard to know what is used for what or if it is even used for what its supposed to be for. The city could also be using some $$$ to fix the water pipes and sewer system that break on a constant basis (see the Garner Road fiasco). In other words, there are a lot of ways to use that money to benefit everyone in the city.

I think the city is pushing in the right direction but I question a couple of decisions: 1) Why not knock the Dupre house down and get it over with? Even if it is restored, what are we gonna do with it, have tours through it? 2) While we are at it, why not tear Duncan Park down or make it into little league fields? If you are a SHS baseball player, does the thought of getting on a bus every day to practice or play a game appeal to you? Thats a combined 40 extra minutes of practice both ways for the added travel. I have questioned District 7's motives for years, but this decision is about as crazy as anything they have ever done. 3) New parking garage at Renaissance Park- We are not filling the ones up that we currently have, why do we need another? It just seems there are better things we could be doing with the $$$ that we are taxing the fool out of the citizens of this county.

A couple of things about pizza in the "SC". 1) I had a pie from Venus Pie about 2 weeks ago and it was ok at best. 2) I had a calzone and my wife got a small pie at Mellow Mushroom last night and they were both outstanding! I have been to other MM's in Asheville and Clemson and the pizza is very consistant with the one here. I would have to say that Venus Pie is going to be hurt badly by MM. It will not put them out of business as they will catch the overflow because not everyone is willing to wait. But if they don't get their pizza back up to par, people may not even go then. 3) Sonny's Brick Oven offers up good standard fare in a great environment with many good brews. I doubt they will even be threatened by MM as they are farther away and they will continue to benefit from being closer to the action downtown and at Morgan Square. Finally, since I know Spartan will read this, how do I put my own avatar on this board?

Does anyone know why the old Spartanburg Ice Company building has been leveled. It is right off West Main St and on the right at the beginning of Reidville Rd (John B White). It is kind of off the beaten path, but apparently something is going to happen there or they would not have torn it down. This is where we used to buy beer as well as our kegs when I was in college. It was the coldest beer around and cheap too.

Any chance they will be serving Sweetwater Beer out of Atlanta???

Spartan: I used to post on the Hub-Bub boards (and still do occasionally) but these seem to be more informative and in tune with what's really going on in the "SC". The problems range from RWT (Rock Water Tavern) needing a 2nd fire escape to seperate electrical lines throughout the building. The old Bar Magnolia Street Pub had twice as much space as RWT and one fire escape but some yokal told him that he had to have 2 or they would close him down until he got them. They screwed around with him on the electricity (contractors, the city, and Duke) and that's why he had power in the restaurant on Wednesday night but not on the sign down on St John that was supposed to be illuminated by spot lights and let folks know that he was open. Man I have lived here since day one and the bullsh*t that goes on in this neck of the woods is unparralled in the state/south. Nowhere is more close minded than here (just read the Stroller for daily examples). Hopefully under Mr Barnet's leadership we can wake this joint up and move from being a redneck funny little town to somewhere that folks would actually want to visit for more than a Wofford football game and the Beacon.

I was in Rock Water with my wife on Wednesday when they opened (can you tell we were excited that it was open?). There was no fanfare to go with the opening because according to Dan(the owner) he had had to set the opening back so many times that even he didn't know when he would/could open. It seems that the people of our fair city have made this guy jump through so many hoops he began to wonder if there was a conspiracy against his opening. The problems with city inspectors, managers, fire marshalls etc. is insane in this town. Dan went on to say that he has never had this problem in any restaurant he has ever worked in or operated and that has been in Florida and NC. I began to get a better understanding of why it takes a restaurant so long to open in this town (Wild Wing took forever if you recall as Five Spices). Anyway, as for the restaurant it is beautiful inside. The old building (circa 1920) has been fully restored. The coolers for the bar contain probably the coldest beer in Spartanburg. The courtyard is going to be very fun come spring or warmer winter days and there is a really cool waterfall that Dan's Dad hand built. We didn't eat anything as I want to wait for the restaurant to work the kinks out but the place will be an ideal destination before any event over at the CCC.