Rockburg

I haven't thought the whole thing through. I guess I would mean doing what Greenville did decades ago and choosing to make Main St. a "destination" for people and not just a functional street. I walked up and down Main St. the other day--there are some vacant street-level properties that I would love to see new businesses open up in. As for ambitious "redevelopment" I would consider offering buyouts of some of the older stores on Main St. that may not be frequented that often but are able to stay because they've been there for decades don't have the same overhead as other stores. I would just like to see more restaurants, more popular shopping options, coffee houses, bars, eateries, public spaces, etc. There are some areas on Main St. that can be made into small public parks too. I have not studied the Downtown Master Plan--this may address some of what I have described. But I generally feal that there is a reluctance by folks on the Eastside/the "old money" community to move Spartanburg's downtown into looking more like a downtown Greenville. I say this as someone who has lived on the Westside for 20 years and also think of downtown as part of my city.

I could swear that I read somewhere, maybe the SHJ or the weekly Sburg Journal, that another restaurant was going in where Rock Water Tavern was. Anybody hear about this?

I completely agree about the ghost town thing! My girlfriend and I decided to walk down Main St. from Converse St. to Church St. after Red White and Boom on Friday night to get to the car. It was a complete ghost town (except of course the stream of cars leaving the event). I have lived in Spartanburg for 20 years now and have really wanted Main St. downtown to become improved and vibrant, but it doesn't seem to ever be going in that direction. I would be for a full-scale redevelopment of Main St. In the meantime, there are a few vacant store fronts mixed in with the boring old stores from the 1950's that are still there. I'd love to see an ice cream parlor like was talked about on this board in one of those! It might not be the best location right now as it is pretty desolate at night, but we need to start extending the action past Morgan Square heading down Main. Maybe another restaurant like Lime Leaf would work well too nearby, and with the new jazz club an ice-cream plate could be good too.

I'm not sure, but if not then they really need to. That place is doing great business and a lot of it is word-of-mouth. I can tell you that word has spread very quickly among the Northerners and/or Italians in Spartanburg as I see a lot of people I know there every time I go. Plus lots of other people who just love the food. The food is by far the best Italian that you will find in the entire county.