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The OP referenced second tier cities as opposed to Counties.. Once you get past the Columbia, Greenville, Charleston, North Charleston..If you had to pick four to be "second tier" it would likely be Spartanburg, Florence, Rock Hill, and Mt. Pleasant? THough the last two may be debatable depending on what one considers to be a City.. North Charleston as well for that matter.
Once you get past those cities... "growth" becomes a relative term for the 2nd tier category.. whether its 1,000 people in 14 years or 2,000 people in 20.. In SC and for those cities... its "growth" though not on par with the top four Cities in the State. If you compared the 2nd tier cities in SC with those of similiar 2nd tier status in NC.. the 'growth' of Statesville, Kannapolis, Gastonia, Greenville, Fayetteville, Wilson, Rocky Mount etc would also make our cities look badly...
Well the first three are in metro Charlotte, so no surprise there (but Rock Hill is growing faster than them all and York County is the second-largest county in metro Charlotte, so that's to SC's credit). Wilson and Rocky Mount? Nothing envious about their growth. Fayetteville sure, mostly because of the military. Greenville isn't too shabby, but Beaufort-HHI outstrips it in growth.
NC is bigger and has more cities, but pound for pound, SC's comparable smaller cities don't do too bad. Charlotte and Triangle is what truly sets NC apart.
I'm ruling out the following cities......
Mt. Pleasant
Summerville
Lexington
N. Charleston
Rock Hill
Goose Creek
All of those cities are solely dependent on a larger metro that is less than 20 miles away. While they may be growing, it is all because of the metro that they are a suburb to. They aren't growing on their own merit. They have the luck of geography.
^ Summerville and N Charleston? No. Summerville is getting more and more self-dependent everyday, and N Charleston holds its own as well. They are twin-cities like GSP, more than anything else. Rock Hill is iffy. Yeah alot of people in Rock Hill work in Charlotte, but York County does have industry of its own. Lancaster is a different story.
Goose Creek is being more affected by Summerville than it is Charleston. Only ones I'd truly give you is Mt P and Lexington.
If youre going to mesaure it that way, then theres plenty more citites you have to throw out, aka everything out of the core 4.
^ Summerville and N Charleston? No. Summerville is getting more and more self-dependent everyday, and N Charleston holds its own as well. They are twin-cities like GSP, more than anything else. Rock Hill is iffy. Yeah alot of people in Rock Hill work in Charlotte, but York County does have industry of its own. Lancaster is a different story.
Goose Creek is being more affected by Summerville than it is Charleston. Only ones I'd truly give you is Mt P and Lexington.
If youre going to mesaure it that way, then theres plenty more citites you have to throw out, aka everything out of the core 4.
Isnt North Charleston building a town center or something to that affect near their City Hall to create a 'downtown'?
^ Summerville and N Charleston? No. Summerville is getting more and more self-dependent everyday, and N Charleston holds its own as well. They are twin-cities like GSP, more than anything else.
I have to completely disagree with that; Summerville and N. Charleston are suburbs in every sense of the word. Greenville and Spartanburg are independent cities that just so happened to be near each other and grew up together and thus became interdependent; they were even founded in the same year and were about the same size for the first 100 years of their existences.
It's hard to define a bedroom community honestly, pretty much all areas of the Charleston metro except Mt. Pleasant and James Island have a decent number of a wide variety of jobs. Even Mt. Pleasant has a lot of jobs honestly but those are mostly retail.
It's hard to define a bedroom community honestly, pretty much all areas of the Charleston metro except Mt. Pleasant and James Island have a decent number of a wide variety of jobs. Even Mt. Pleasant has a lot of jobs honestly but those are mostly retail.
Not all suburbs are bedroom communities per se; many of them have lots of jobs, retail, restaurants, etc. In metro Atlanta, the office district with the most office space is the suburban Perimeter area. The Braves are moving to the suburban Cumberland area which is already home to a performing arts center which the Atlanta opera and ballet call home. However, in these cases the amenities that these suburban areas have are strongly and directly connected to the central city.
I have to completely disagree with that; Summerville and N. Charleston are suburbs in every sense of the word. Greenville and Spartanburg are independent cities that just so happened to be near each other and grew up together and thus became interdependent; they were even founded in the same year and were about the same size for the first 100 years of their existences.
No. North Charleston is NOT a suburb. The difference is that people live AND work in North Charleston. Most people in Mt Pleasant, Daniel Island, James and Johns Island go work in Charleston. North Charleston has enough industry to not be just a place to plop houses like those areas. Yes some people in North Charleston go to work in Charleston, but its also vice versa.
People in Greenville dont go to Greer to work. People in Hilton Head dont go to Hardeeville to work. People in Florence dont go to Darlington to work. People in Greenville dont go to Travelers Rest to work. Many people in CHARLESTON go to North Charleston to-work. The AFB, Boeing, Daimler with large expansion coming, Land Rover/Volvo still rumored, the seaport, the states busiest airport, Tanger and Northwoods, all the industry along PC Parkway, CSU, Trident Tech, majority of the regions retail, food, and lodging, Verizon, iQor, Bosch, Intercontinental, Hess, Kapstone Paper, Trident Medical, Fox 24, Lowcountry Health, Moneypenny, all the satellite colleges, the business cluster off Leeds/Faber Pl, the detention center, coliseum complex, Hagemeyer, etc. These business arent exclusive to people living in North Chas. North Charleston feeds jobs for Chas, N Chas, GC, Summerville, Hananah, Ladson, Daniel Island, Mt P residents...aka metro Charleston. Suburbs dont do that.
A suburb doesnt have that swath of business and economy. And Summerville would be more dependant on N Chas, than Chas. Summerville is over 20 miles away from downtown, but knocks right on N Chas' door. 4 or so mega developements are planned for Summerville...and whats coming with them? Jobs. Not just homes. Westvaco, other corporate at Nexton, Bon Secours and Trident building new hospitals, etc. Huge devel is coming to Johns Island and Mt P too, and what are they manily bringing? Residence for people so they can hit 17, 26, and 526 to go work.
People are moving to Summerville not just for Charlesron, but also because of...Summerville. North Charleston wipes the floor with Spartanburg. It cant be indy and N Charleston not be. No. That is why Chas and N Chas are twins. They coexist in harmony.
The cities and towns within a 20 mile radius of Charleston are suburbs. While they may have industry there, that is only because Charleston has no more industrial space. It's the Charleston area these industries are going for. Not the City of N. Charleston. Charleston is why N Charleston, Mt Pleasant and Summerville are more than just sleepy crossroads.
same can be said of Anderson compared to greenville
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