[Charleston Off-Topic]

I want to thank everyone for the tips. My long weekend to Charleston has been sidetracked a bit, but I still hope to make it down.

Anyone have any opinions on the IT ( i.e software development ) market in Charleston?

[Charleston Off-Topic]

Hello Everyone. I have been lurking on this board for a bit and I am hoping you guys can give me some advice. My wife, my mother, my daughter, and I will be coming to Charleston in mid April to visit/scope out Charleston. We originally are native North Central Floridians and we currently live in Lexington Ky. Well, we are Southerners at heart and although Kentucky considers itself Southern, it just isn't for us. Kentucky is beautiful and the people are kind, but we are drawn back south.Plus, my wife is not down with the winters here. We really want to move someplace closer to the coast as well. We reaaalllllyyyy miss the food. We have always found ourselves drawn to South Carolina.

So, back to April....we are hoping you could help us with a few things:

1st: Can you advise us on a good public beach to visit? We want to walk the beach together and enjoy the late afternoon there.

2nd: Can you advise on a family friendly restaurant (preferably seafood) that you guys would consider a Charleston fixture? Any good local Barbecue joints we should try?

3rd: If you were only coming for a weekend, what sorts of off the beaten path things would you guys advise us on seeing? On the beaten path things?

4th: Can you offer up some advice on a reasonably priced hotel @$150.00 a night?

I really appreciate any thing you guys can offer up...and mods if you want to move this thread feel free.

Thanks!

p.s we have visited Greenville already and the people on the Greenville board were very helpful. It was nice, but we want to be a bit closer to the coast.

[Interested in Moving to Greenville?]

OK - here are my 2 cents.

Q1. What areas besides downtown would you suggest that we see?

A1. You may want to be aware that the U.S. Professional Cycling Championships are Labor Day Weekend in Greenville. Travelers Rest is a very quaint little town and it's convenient to get into DT Greenville from there. If you're interested in TR, just send me a PM and I can discuss my experiences more at length with you.

Q2. What is a Greenville fixture that we should visit for lunch? I.e if you were making a day trip where would you want to eat?

A2. I would recommend Coffee Underground for BRUNCH on a Saturday Morning, myself. If it be BBQ that you want, then I'd put in another vote for Henry's. Unfortunately, Greenville doesn't have a Leonardo's Pizza or a Burrito Bros..

Q4. Greenville seems to be in a boom right now. When reading this forum I see stories posted all over about companies moving to the area. My question for the locals is this...How do you guys view Greenville's economy? Do you guys feel like it is becoming the future of S.C. ( so to speak )? I know this can sometimes be a negative for natives, but do you feel things are going in the right direction?

A4. My view is somewhat skewed. I, like you, am in the IT field (Oracle DBA - RAC/HA) and I found it difficult to find work in Greenville (never really needed to, fortunately, but I always kept my eyes open for opportunities - few ever presented themselves). My wife, whom is extremely intelligent and well-spoken and has a strong education to back it up, found it difficult to get her foot even in the door for an interview because she had dedicated 8 years of her life to raising our daughter and son at home.

[Interested in Moving to Greenville?]

I really appreciate the responses I have gotten so far. Thanks a bunch everyone. I feel like I will have some more direction this visit.

Looking forward to more input.

[Interested in Moving to Greenville?]

As far as BBQ you'll get as many opinions as there are places. Smokin' Stokes on Augusta St (assuming they are still open they were uh having some financial issue) is AWESOME. There is also a great BBQ place on Orchard Park Dr called We're Pigs. Henry's (as someone else has mentioned) is pretty good as well. I am a software developer as well. What you'll find in Greenville depends upon what language most of your experience is in. IBM and EDS both have some work here. Then if you want pure software development (e.g. products) Benefit Focus and Infor immediately jump to mind. One thing I've noticed (as my area of expertise is Java) is that a lot of the shops in this area are .net based.

[Interested in Moving to Greenville?]

1.) If you want to get a feel for "Greenville Proper" as in the settled part of town that has a higher standard of living look around the Augusta Rd./Cleveland St. Area. Just south and west of downtown. Also drive up to Furman University between Greenville and Travelers Rest. While it is a private university it's "open" and a lot of the locals use it as a park of sorts for walking, etc.

2.) Wow, Lunch in Greenville, that's a pretty tall order and it really depends on what you are looking for. You'll get a good "local flavor" both literally and socially at places like Tommy's Ham house on Rutherford Rd. it's by no means fancy, very "country." Another line of resteraunts are owned by Greek families from a "chain" of burger joints called either the "clock" or Pete's. If fancy is what you are looking for they're is a lot of stuff downtown to chose from.

3.) Most of the "growth" is around Pelham and Woodruff Roads and toward Greer but if you value a more peaceful commute into downtown I would suggest going north towards Travelers Rest. Travelers Rest is set to be the next big area for growth but is still on the calmer side. You can't really judge Travelers Rest by it's "downtown" or going down Highway 25. They are a lot of newer neighborhoods in surround areas but you have to look for them. Downtown T.R. is set however to go through a revitialization soon.

4.) When you hear about Greenville natives keep this in mind. Most of the so called natives (such as myself) are actully the children or grand children of people who moved in from surround rurual areas including N.E. Georgia, The low country and Piedmont of SC during the big textile boom at the beginning of the 20th century. Greenville has always been an bit on the safer side economincally because of it's location and industries that are attracted here. No, conditions are not always perfect but often "better."

5.) I live just north of Greenville in a quasi rural/suburan area and the commute is pretty good but it can be awful around 5pm and lunch time around the Woodruff Road area.

6.) Greenville is fairly Greenville even during times of drought. We can't help the dirt (red clay) we have but it's still green. The closer proximity to the mountains helps both in terms of visuals and weather regulation.

7.) Right now Woodruff Road is pretty much THE resteraunt /Mall road. Although the only main indoor mall is Haywood Mall just north and east of the Woodruff Road area. It's not bad to visit their at certaint times but let's just say I have been tempted to go into road rage when their around noon or 5pm. Highways 291 and 29 (Wade Hampton) is pretty much the "old" resteraunt row and and is coming back to life in some parts.

8.) Yes we pay property taxes on homes and cars. In the city limits of Greenville their is an addition sales tax to support hospitaility stuff. You may either love or hate the following two things that get some people mad; A city smoking ban is all public places. Also their has been some controversies regarding trees and if they should be planted or protected in new developments.

BTW, You talked about going through "Taylors". Taylors actually has different definitions around here. Their is an "old town of Taylors" but for the most part it's just the remains of an old Mill Village. What most people call Taylors is sort of a nebulous area between Greenville and Greer. Sometimes this is called the "Eastside" but some parts of what is know as the "eastside" are not a part of the Taylors mailiing address.

One thing about Greenville I find fascniating is the area around Paris Mountain (a large hill to some people). You can be in a neighborhood that skirts the mountain and you feel you are miles away from anywhere but in reality it's only a few short miles from downtown.

[Interested in Moving to Greenville?]

Hello Everyone! I have been reading this forum for awhile now and I have learned a lot about the happenings in Greenville. I am hoping you guys can help me out.

My family( wife and daughter ) and myself are thinking of maybe moving to the Greenville area from Lexington Kentucky. Originally, we are from Gainesville Florida, but we moved to Lexington about two years ago. Lexington is a beautiful place and the blue grass region is gorgeous but we feel we have moved a little too far from our families and my wife does not care for the winters here.Plus, we would like to live in a state that does have a coastline. We feel a little too far North but dont want to go back to Fla.

We have family in Asheville, Morganton NC, Morganton Ga, and some close friends in Athens Ga as well. So we figured Greenville would be a great place that is closer to Florida, and even closer to our families in the towns above. In July, we were visiting in Asheville and made a day trip down to Greenville to check it out. Being that we had our three year old with us, we were not able to make a day of it. We did see the downtown area and it was awesome. We drove around the more historic neighborhoods that surrounded downtown. The downer for us was Googles fault. We made up a map that would take us from Greenville to Taylors ( which I am not sure we saw much of ) to Travellers Rest by the way of some routes that did the town no justice. So, my wife an I want to give it another look over labor day weekend ( our daughter is going to be with her Grandma ) and I have a few questions.

1. What areas besides downtown would you suggest that we see?

2. What is a Greenville fixture that we should visit for lunch? I.e if you were making a day trip where would you want to eat?

3. Where is most of the growth in Greenville? I was in the NorthEast section ( Rutherford rd? ) and it looked like it was missing out on re-vitalization.Also, I did notice there were some abandoned Ingles buildings coming into town on the Poinsett Highway. I believe I have read some complaints in this forum concerning those.

4. Greenville seems to be in a boom right now. When reading this forum I see stories posted all over about companies moving to the area. My question for the locals is this...How do you guys view Greenville's economy? Do you guys feel like it is becoming the future of S.C. ( so to speak )? I know this can sometimes be a negative for natives, but do you feel things are going in the right direction?

5. How is the comute from some of the surrounding towns into the city? Which surrounding towns do you guys think we should see? In Gainesville we lived in the country and in Lexington we live in the city. If we decided to move to more a rural area what areas do you guys like most?

6. How green is Greenville? The color...not green as in energy and stuff. I realize you guys have been in a serious drought and driving through town things looked brown and red ( stains from the clay ). When you guys get normal rain, what does your landscape look like? This may sound like a weird question, but it was a real shock coming from the blue grass. We are real dry here right now, but things still look pretty. Although, we have not had as bad of a drought as the Upstate and NC is having..

7. What section of town ( and they all have them ) is chain restaraunt and mall row? This is not real crucial for us, but we are curious as to where this area is.

8. Also, how are taxes and such there? I pay a city/county occupational tax here and we pay property taxes on our cars. What sort of things tick you all off there?

Anyway, I thank everyone in advance for any answers you can give and we look forward to visiting your town again this next weekend!! Also, if anyone has any question concerning Lexington let me know. As an FWI we have horse racing in town at a beautiful track in October and April. C'mon up!!