Mt Pleasant Is now South Carolina's 5th largest city

[krazeeboi]

The next trend that we'll probably see is Rock Hill annexing land for commercial development up I-77.

[goodbye]

The next trend that we'll probably see is Rock Hill annexing land for commercial development up I-77.

I'd be very interested in seeing some examples of high density development taking place in Rock Hill. There is plenty of discussion and it would be informative to the many who have not been there in awhile, but have been reading these discussions. Krazeeboi, since you live there, you ought to post some photos of the various residential and commercial developments happening in the city. With that many people being added, and not because of Charlotte, there must surely be lots of new condos, offices, and other businesses.

[krazeeboi]

Condos? Not quite. I really do hope to see the day that Rock Hill taps into that market (even though I may no longer be living here), but the vast majority of the housing developments going up here are quite suburban and include townhomes and single family houses. The closest we're going to see as far as new mixed-use developments in Rock Hill is the redevelopment of the Textile Corridor, which really has great potential, but has been slow in getting off the ground.

[Spartan]

Just to be clear on this, Rock Hill has not annexed anything since at least 1995 and it has added 9000+ people in just the past 5 years without any annexation at all. One of the biggest reasons that it has been able to do this is because it adopted a comprehensive Land Use Policy with the goal of increasing population density within its existing borders and in the areas outside control of the city.

As krazee mentioned, it also strategically annexed undeveloped land before 1995. I think that it is important to emphasize this fact. Other cities do not have the luxury of undeveloped land to annex. I am glad to know that Rock Hill has a policy to increase densities in and around its borders. How will they inforce this policy around its noticably stringy perimeter? Is it some sort of arrangement with the MPO there?

[goodbye]

Condos? Not quite. I really do hope to see the day that Rock Hill taps into that market (even though I may no longer be living here), but the vast majority of the housing developments going up here are quite suburban and include townhomes and single family houses. The closest we're going to see as far as new mixed-use developments in Rock Hill is the redevelopment of the Textile Corridor, which really has great potential, but has been slow in getting off the ground.

So where do these people work? Any examples of high density commercial growth in the city?

[krazeeboi]

I wouldn't presume to know where all of these people work, but Winthrop and Piedmont Hospital are big employers in town; Tyco Electronics and West Marine are others. Also, the 1,200-acre former Celanese site near Rock Hill will be redeveloped into a 400-acre industrial park that would hold up to 4 million square feet of space, making it one of the largest concentrations of industrial buildings in the Charlotte region. Other employers in close proximity include Bowater, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, CitiFinancial, Duke Power-Catawba Nuclear Station, Ross Distribution, and Springs Industries Executive Offices. The closest the city has to high density commercial growth is Waterford Business Park, where a few companies are located (as well as the HQ's of 3D Systems that moved from California to Rock Hill). And of course, at least 25% of the county's population is employed in Charlotte (like me). I think the number of out-commuters is closer to at least 40%.

[goodbye]

I wouldn't presume to know where all of these people work, but Winthrop and Piedmont Hospital are big employers in town; Tyco Electronics and West Marine are others. Also, the 1,200-acre former Celanese site near Rock Hill will be redeveloped into a 400-acre industrial park that would hold up to 4 million square feet of space, making it one of the largest concentrations of industrial buildings in the Charlotte region. Other employers in close proximity include Bowater, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, CitiFinancial, Duke Power-Catawba Nuclear Station, Ross Distribution, and Springs Industries Executive Offices. The closest the city has to high density commercial growth is Waterford Business Park, where a few companies are located (as well as the HQ's of 3D Systems that moved from California to Rock Hill). And of course, at least 25% of the county's population is employed in Charlotte (like me). I think the number of out-commuters is closer to at least 40%.

Bingo! That's what I thought. Thanks for the great info, Krazeeboi!

[krazeeboi]

Were you referring to the percentage of the county's population that work in Charlotte?

[monsoon]

In 2000, the last year I can get these kind of numbers

• 23,907 people in York County work in Mecklenburg

• 4,217 in Mecklenburg work in York

Since 2000 York has announced about 5000 jobs on its side of the line.

For comparisons

• 11,205 people in Greenville County work in Spartanburg

• 14,586 in Spartanburg work in Greenville

Jobs2000

• Greenville 221,621

• Spartanburg 122,270

• York 63544

[Spartan]

Thats a difference of 3,381 to Greenville. Thats a net difference of 2.7% of Spartanburg's workers that commute to Greenville.

[g-man430]

edit: typo

[krazeeboi]

Which is why it's crazy to think that Spartanburg is a suburb, exurb, emerging exurb, or whatever, of Greenville.

[krazeeboi]

G-man430, maybe you just need to move temporarily and get a bigger city experience, then return to Greenville. Personally, while I'm glad to see all of our major cities making significant progress, none of them are able to give me the big city experience that I'm currently longing for. Even if it's just up I-85 to Charlotte, I think it's something that you should consider.

This is in reference to the edited post.

[goodbye]

G-man430, maybe you just need to move temporarily and get a bigger city experience, then return to Greenville. Personally, while I'm glad to see all of our major cities making significant progress, none of them are able to give me the big city experience that I'm currently longing for. Even if it's just up I-85 to Charlotte, I think it's something that you should consider.

This is in reference to the edited post.

That doesn't help the rest of us who didn't get to read it, so why not just use the PM method instead?

I'm glad you enjoy Charlotte, Krazeeboi. That seems like a great place to live, if you love larger cities. I have said for years that if I had a choice to only live in any "Big City" in the nation, it would probably be Charlotte, then Atlanta. But in either case, I would live in the city, not the suburbs

[krazeeboi]

Charlotte is OK, but the reason I don't live in the city or any of its suburbs is because I prefer to be closer to school in Rock Hill, since I'm a full-time graduate student. Other than that, I wouldn't be anywhere in this area; it just doesn't rank near the top of the list of places I'd want to live. In the meantime, I can't wait to finish up grad school so I can get to a much bigger city, hopefully DC--but I'd settle for Atlanta. And Dallas has been on my mind lately for some strange reason.

[Greenville]

If you hate Atlanta's sprawl, then I doubt you would like Dallas either. To me, it feels just as spread out and open as Atlanta does. And just as Spartanburg tends to promote sprawl around Greenville, Fort Worth seems to do the same for Dallas. And don't move to Dallas if you like hills or trees either, because there are none.

I am obviously biased toward DC, since I have lived there, but I highly recommend it for a big city experience with a very high quality of life.

[teshadoh]

As for Rock Hill.... I think of it more as Marrietta, not Gwinnett. But thats not really accurate either. Atlanta has no real edge cities, where Charlotte is absorbing well formed towns.

50 years ago I would agree with that comparison, Marietta was a similarly sized town that was largely independant of Atlanta's suburban core. Regarding edge cities, as I'm assuming you are reffering to established towns that were large enough to be identified as large towns - you're mostly right, except for Marietta. Otherwise 30 or 50 years ago - Roswell, Lawrenceville, Jonesboro, etc. were quite small.

[The_sandlapper]

I'm a "bright lights big city" person as well. If I could afford to live there and still have the same style of life I'd choose Boston (New England is awesome). Other cities for consideration include Chicago (fingers crossed), Portland (aesthetically the perfect city), San Diego (long shot), Denver, or Atlanta (probablly the most realistic) but we'll see!

[teshadoh]

If you hate Atlanta's sprawl, then I doubt you would like Dallas either. To me, it feels just as spread out and open as Atlanta does. And just as Spartanburg tends to promote sprawl around Greenville, Fort Worth seems to do the same for Dallas. And don't move to Dallas if you like hills or trees either, because there are none.

Interesting comparison & on one hand I disagree that Spartanburg or Ft Worth increases sprawl for Greenville & Dallas due to any of their policies. I do agree that the existence of multiple urban centers in a metro does increase sprawl. That is certainly the case with similar metro areas built around multiple cities - Charlotte-Rock Hill-Gastonia-Concord, Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News, & of course the big examples such as the greater Boston metro, San Francisco & many others.

But on the other hand, when you consider Atlanta or Phoenix that are primarily just a single city, I don't think you have that much to worry about. Greenville's metro might be decentralized, but consider what would occur if the entire population of Spartanburg, Clemson & Anderson was centered around Greenville - the population would likely disperse a far greater area from just Greenville. So rather than just sprawl in central Greenville County, the sprawl could be quite severe. Instead the population is neatly divided around a few urban centers.

At least that is one optimistic scenario, unfortunately I'm probably wrong

[krazeeboi]

If you hate Atlanta's sprawl, then I doubt you would like Dallas either. To me, it feels just as spread out and open as Atlanta does. And just as Spartanburg tends to promote sprawl around Greenville, Fort Worth seems to do the same for Dallas. And don't move to Dallas if you like hills or trees either, because there are none.

I am obviously biased toward DC, since I have lived there, but I highly recommend it for a big city experience with a very high quality of life.

Well, if I were trying to get away from sprawl, I'd just move to some rural town somewhere--and even they aren't immune. The only drawback for DC is the high cost of living, and God knows I'm not trying to commute into the District an hour one way. We'll just have to see how things go. And I don't think I've totally ruled out LA either--the nation's poster child for sprawl. If there's one benefit to sprawl, it's that it gives you options (at least in LA's case).

[monsoon]

I have removed the irrelevant posts on what forum this topic belongs in. Please stick the topic at hand folks.

[CorgiMatt]

If you hate Atlanta's sprawl, then I doubt you would like Dallas either. To me, it feels just as spread out and open as Atlanta does. And just as Spartanburg tends to promote sprawl around Greenville, Fort Worth seems to do the same for Dallas. And don't move to Dallas if you like hills or trees either, because there are none.

I am obviously biased toward DC, since I have lived there, but I highly recommend it for a big city experience with a very high quality of life.

I lived in DC from 1979 through 1983. DC has had 14 murders since July 4 in a city of roughly 550,000. Yikes.

[Greenville]

I lived in DC from 1979 through 1983. DC has had 14 murders since July 4 in a city of roughly 550,000. Yikes.

That is an uncharacteristically high number of murders in a very short time. I bet almost all of those were in Southeast DC (a place you shouldn't even go to during the day). There were also probably a few in Northeast DC, which is safer than Southeast but still not somewhere I would want my loved ones wandering around alone. I would be highly shocked if any were in the well-to-do and generally safer Northwest area (which includes most of the tourist areas, White House, Georgetown, etc.). I lived in NW DC, and never felt unsafe or unsure at any point.

DC has done a great job over the years of shedding its "murder capital of the world" label. Crime is down, and as with any large metro, common sense is imperative. Generally speaking, the few "bad" parts of town are pretty bad, while the "good" parts of town are very safe.

[monsoon]

4 people were charged just this weekend for murdering a former aid to Va governer Mark Warner right in Georgetown. Washington is a marvelous city, but it does have a serious problem with its public schools and crime. As a result, amazingly, its population continues to fall.

[Spartan]

Thats not on topic at all...