Tell me about the Greenville/Spartanburg SC area

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve been living the same city here in Florida for the past eight years (while working on my doctorate), and I’m ready for a change. Now, there’s the very real possibility that I will be moving to either Greenville or Spartanburg SC in the new year. I will probably be teaching some art history classes at a couple of the local colleges, and while these would be adjunct positions, there’s some hope that one of them may become more permanent.

Anyway, I’ve passed through the area several times in my life, but I’ve never really stayed there and so don’t know it in much depth.

I want to learn about both the good and bad features. I’ve heard that the area is pretty in a scenic sense (which is good) and that it is home to Bob Jones University (which, in my book, is bad). What other things should I know? Local attractions? Good restaurants/bars? Good neighborhoods to live in versus not-so-good? How are the people in general?

Thanks!

2

I have cousins who live in Greer, and really like the area. They’ve both got decent paying jobs, and their daughter went to a good school, so at least the education is top-notch. There’s actually a measurable amount of culture there.

Greenville/Spartanburg are both about 75K population as far as I know, with close proximity to the mountains. I recommend Table Rock. The beach is about 150 miles east. If you’re into NASCAR, Charlotte is just up I-85.

Don’t really know much about the night life, but just like any metropolitan area, they’re bound to have hangouts to suit your taste. Bob Jones U is virtually self-contained. The students and professors are nice and harmless, and it’s not a zoo of bible-toting hellfire and brimstone preachers. Even Al Franken couldn’t bring himself to tear into them after touring their campus. I doubt you’ll have mindless Baptist zombies trying to convert you at every street corner.

Plus, South Carolina gas is cheap.

3

“I want to see mountains again, Gandalf–mountains!” I love mountains, so I’m greatly looking forward to this–can’t find this kind of scenery in Florida. However, it’s also nice to hear it’s not too far from a beach, so if I do miss Florida-type scenery, I can drive a little ways to find that, too.

Ah, so it’s nothing like Pensacola (where I used to live).

Seriously, though, I’ve heard that BJU has a great collection of Renaissance paintings–part of their museum of religious art. The museum is something I might really enjoy, even though I disagree with that university’s beliefs.

Culture is really important to me, so it’s very good news to hear of an active arts and education scene.

This is also good news, in a more practical sense. Gas here in Tallahassee is hovering close to $2.10/gallon for regular. It’s getting too expensive to drive anywhere!

4

Very much so. A 30 min drive from downtown will land you at Table Rock, Caesers Head and Jones Gap. An hour more is Lakes Keowee, Hartwell and Jocassee as well as the Whitewater and Chattooga River (pay no attention to that silly movie that came out a few year ago). Western NC is awesome as well, with Pisgah and Natahala and much more.

Yeah, but like Knowed Out said, pretty much self contained. I hear about them more on the internets than locally. There is a huge church scene (S. Baptist mostly) but it’s largely non-intrusive. There are some weird laws hanging around but we’re getting better.

Depends on what you’re into. Downtown has a great scene, from early spring to late fall they close off the streets downtown every Thursday and Friday and have music/festivals. Even on other nights you’ll have a hard time not finding something, just like any other midsized city. A good place to start is The Greenville News website. If you are an art history type, you’ll probably be spending a lot of time at the Peace Center as well as places like the Warehouse Theater or Cafe and Then Some. Oh, and speaking of the Peace Center, the Greenville COC hosts the Reedy River Nightime Concert Series on Wednesdays in the summer. Those are awesome, it’s free and BYOB and BYOFood. :smiley: There’s plenty more, concerts and festivals at Furman Univ, the Expo Center, the Handlebar and on and on. The Bilo Center stays pretty busy too between hockey and national entertainment acts, etc.

The traditional “nice” part of town is from the downtown area east and north, the Eastside. The only place you might want to skip is the westside (shocking) just west of downtown. The city is making great efforts to revitalize all of downtown but, well, it can’t all be nice.

Most of the growth is down I-385, the communities of Mauldin, Simpsonville, Fountain Inn and Grey Court called the Golden Strip. Much more here.

In general, very, very nice. You could go out of your way to find “offensive” people but you’ll have to try, and that’s probably true of any place.

It’s an exciting time to be in the upstate, for me. The explosive growth is fascinating to watch, if not a little overwhelming.

Now I’ll wait for Torie to come by and tell you what a shithole it is :D.

No problems. I love it here and will answer every question you can come up with.

5

I just read in American Libraries that the Spartanburg County Library is, I forget, fifth or sixth in the county for a city its size. (Not as good as Richland, of course, but they do what they can. :slight_smile: )

I don’t know how that could be, as they’re always advertising for librarian positions that they never fill, so I assume the place is run by ancient mummified volunteers and high school pages, but evidently it seems to be working - the rest of the state is 40th in the nation on the library front, but two counties are way up there. I’ve never been ot the library in Spartanburg (really the closest I’ve been to Spartanburg in years is when I almost fell off the mountain in Jones Gap State Park), but considering how good the Richland County Public Library is, if it’s as near to that one as the AL list suggests it must be quite good.

6

Bruce_Daddy, I was hoping you might reply in this thread. Thanks for all the info and links–the downtown festivals sound like a lot of fun. I love concerts, so I’m eager to attend the music events.

So the locals aren’t like the ones in Deliverance? That’s good news. But if I hear any creepy banjo music, I’m outta there… :wink:

I guess there’s always at least one area like this. I’ll keep that in mind.

Zsofia, thanks for the tip about Spartanburg’s libraries. My girlfriend just graduated with her MLS, so this could be a great way for us to stay together (the move will be a bit of a test for our relationship–I’ll be moving up there on my own for the first term or so, and if we’re still together after that time, she’ll come up there and join me).

7

Well, warn her - lots of ads for entry level professionals, but I’ve been watching them for a year now and they’re still up. To me that suggests that they have to keep advertising the position even though they can’t afford to fill it, because if they stopped advertising they “wouldn’t need it” and would lose the funding for good. It’s something that happens sometime, and if you weren’t familiar with the job market you might not realize why you never get a response to your resume. There’s got to be somebody working as a professional there if they got such high marks, though - but an entry level job may be hard to come up with.

The State Library has a library jobs page: http://www.state.sc.us/scsl/jobs.html

It’s updated frequently to put new jobs on, but not so frequently to take the old ones off once they’re filled. You’ll notice how many Greenville/Spartanburg ones there are - and don’t take the dates as gospel, sometimes they take them off and readvertise them.

8

Choose Greenville over Spartanburg for a place to live!

I went to college in Spartanburg (Wofford) and while it has gotten better, Greenville still beats it hands down for ‘scene’. Bob Jones is a local joke and I wouldn’t hold against the area.

Personally you would have to pay me near 7 figures to get me to move back there, but a lot of people really like it.

9

I have several family members in that area. It is close to the mountains and the downtown area in Greenville has events from spring to fall. There are lots of bar/pool table places downtown. The area is getting better about diversity and culture. Bob Jones some how has power when it comes to what shows / concerts happen at the auditorium there but no real effect on your daily life.

10

One of the strangest things about South Carolina is that bars could only mix drinks using those miniature bottles like you see on airplanes!

I just read that on Tuesday a law passed permitting full-size bottles in bars, so if you are exposed to that weirdness, it will only be temporary.

(Apparently there’s a whole generation of bartenders in SC that will have to be retrained to pour out of a big bottle!)

11

Not a law - a constitutional amendment allowing the legislature to change it. It’s going to take some time.

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One more thing related to mini-bottles. It is only legal to sell alcohol on Sunday in restaraunts within city limits or in “private” clubs in the county. I’m a member of a couple of those “private” clubs because sometimes I’ll plan poorly and end up with an empty refridgerator on Sunday and have to go there to get a cold beer. In addition to beer, they also sell the mini bottles “to go” so you might see a person with a six pack and some little Jack Daniels bottles stuck in the empty spaces :smiley: