Spartanburg City News

Around one million Americans today live with Parkinson's Disease, a debilitating chronic movement disorder that eventually robs those who suffer with it of most motor function. The cause of the disease is still unknown and there is no known cure, but Lisa Cox of Spartanburg is going above and beyond to raise awareness of Parkinson's while fostering collaboration among researchers and the community of people who live with the disease. She, along with three other Parkinson's patients living in states around the Southeast, has organized the first ever , a four-day series of events covering everything from the role the arts play in medicine to a Q & A session with internationally renowned neurologist, Dr. Michael S. Okun. The symposium also features events highlighting the lives and accomplishments of those living with Parkinson's including the screening of , a documentary about Rich Clifford, a NASA astronaut who was one of the first to conduct a space walk while docked to an orbiting space station, somethin

Time flies when you're a successful Downtown Spartanburg business. Though it doesn't seem that long ago when our inaugural Main Street Challenge winners were holding giant checks while wearing big smiles, two of our fantastic winning businesses,  and , are gearing up to celebrate one year of business in the heart of our city.  Along with recently opened fellow winner , the MSC class of 2013 has decided to celebrate the anniversary with a great event scheduled for Saturday, Oct 25, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. on Liberty Street in Downtown Spartanburg. The street will be closed for live music, food from Paul's Wood-Fired Burgers, and vendors including Those Pickle Ladies and 2014 Main Street Challenge winners,  and . , an honorary 2013 Main Street Challenge winner, will also be on hand spreading the gospel of craft beer and Downtown Spartanburg.

It's billed as a nationwide celebration of healthy, affordable, and sustainably produced food, and for the first time,  is coming to Spartanburg on October 25 as , the , and the  team up for a pair of events that promise to fill pantries and stomachs while encouraging locals to make better choices about their food. First up, join  from 8 a.m. to noon for a special day at the market featuring cooking demonstrations that tell a story about where food comes from, information from nearly 20 local organizations that are fighting to make healthy eating the easy choice, "food art" from participating youth in the , children's activities, and more. Then from noon to 2 p.m., the Thomas E. Hanna Family YMCA will host a food truck rodeo featuring local, healthy food vendors including the Hub City Farmers' Market Mobile Market, Dark Corner Diner, Kesha's Kitchen, Hub City Co-op, Good to Go Mobile Kitchen, Cafe Around the Corner, Chef Donnette, Willie Taco's salsa sampler and more.

One of our city's most popular events is back again at Barnet Park, as Spartanburg gears up for the 2014 International Festival on Saturday, October 4 from . Japan is this year's honored country, and to celebrate we've got some great additions to this year's festival, including , bon dancing, Japanese tea ceremony demostrations, and much more.   Of course, it wouldn't be the International Festival without our ever-popular Boulevard of Food. With booths offering festival-goers the chance to sample food from Germany, Japan, El Salvador, France, Kenya, Peru, Tanzania, Hondurus, Dominican Republic, Laos, Jamaica, and many more, it's easy to understand why the hottest ticket in town this weekend will be a food coupon at International Festival.   Food isn't the only thing on the agenda though. You can also travel the globe in less time than it normally takes to make an airline reservation when strolling through the Avenue of Nations. Get your name written in Chinese or learn about the diverse and ancient culture of

If you've been following our series on the  so far, you might recall that our  covered jobs, specifically the huge number of people who work in or near Downtown and what those jobs mean for our community. Today, we're going to examine how Spartanburg got a big chunk of those jobs.     Aside from fundamentally changing the skyline of Downtown Spartanburg, the seven "Class A" office buildings built since 2002 in our city have brought thousands of well-paying jobs to our downtown area. Those workers support our restaurants and small businesses. They take advantage of our cultural offerings. Many of them live in one of the . They not only put the "work" in the "live, work, and play" recipe for downtown success, they go a long way towards boosting the other two.  Today on the podcast, we're taking a look at how these job-creating developments have helped turn Downtown Spartanburg into an economic engine for our entire region. Never content with where we are now, we also take time to talk about how the city can bu

This Saturday, September 20 in Downtown Spartanburg promises to be one for the books with two fantastic events,  and , featuring Bruce Hornsby, scheduled to dovetail nicely together. First, sample food from 10 local restaurants and hear live music from five local bands at Downtown Bites, satarting at 12 p.m. on Morgan Square. After you've eaten your way around the square and gotten an afternoon sampler platter of live music to go with it, head on over to Barnet Park for Live on the Green, featuring renowned singer-songwriter Bruce Hornsby. Downtown Bites is free, and tickets for Live on the Green are $20 in advance (). Great food from local restaurants and a little  for a nightcap? Sounds like an awesome Saturday in Downtown Spartanburg to us.

As you may have , Oakview Apartments has one of the highest concentrations of poverty and crime in our city. Inside the cinderblock walls of the property's 105 units, 75 percent of residents earn less than $5,000 per year and live in conditions one resident described as "one step up from being homeless." Tearing down this barracks-style low income apartment complex on Howard Street and replacing it with a new community center has long been a central piece of the Northside Initiative, but before that can happen, the property and the privately-owned, publicly-subsidized housing complex that sits on it has to be purchased.     Oakview's owner, Related Properties, is principally owned by Stephen Ross, the multi-billionaire owner of the Miami Dolphins. Despite City estimates that value the property at roughly $600,000, Related's price is $2.5 million, far more than the Northside Development Corporation, the City, or any of our other partners on the Northside are willing or able to pay. The result being that, for n

We can always count on our friends at the Chapman Cultural Center to come up with innovative ways to highlight all that Spartanburg's creative community has to offer, and a new event to be held in Downtown Spartanburg on September 6 () offers a new way to do just that. #1Spark! is a festival of ideas, bringing together two of the most important creative forces in our community, business and the arts. The goal is to "spark" innovation bringing local artists together with local entrepreneurs to help connect the dots between ideas and people.   Are you an entrepreneur or inventor looking for a low-risk way to get feedback on your product or service from the public, or an artist looking to seel some original work? Sign up to participate by following , or by calling (864) 591-5604.

  So far in our series on the economic power of Downtown Spartanburg, we've talked about a lot of the great things about our city's core that otherwise might fly a little under the radar at times. From the  one block, to the , to the staggering number of people who , it's pretty clear that Downtown Spartanburg is on a historic upswing.   One of the best ways to gauge the truth of that statement is to ask a simple question: how many people choose to live in Downtown Spartanburg? As it turns out, a lot.   Sure, you may be asking, but how many units in Downtown Spartanburg actually have someone living in them? How about 90 percent? On top of that great occupancy rate, there s the promise of more on the horizon with a new building on Broad St. currently under construction and more new developments on the horizon. Add all that up and it's clear that it's not that there aren't enough people to fill the units we have, it's that we don't have enough units for the people wishing to hang their hats in Downtown Spartan

In part one of our conversation with Spartanburg Medical Center President Phil Feisal, we talked about the hospital recently being named the , earning high performance rankings in nine specialty areas. Aside from the much-deserved notoriety the ranking brings to Spartanburg Regional, the report underscores how crucial Spartanburg Regional's position is in our community, serving not only as the city's largest employer but as an incredibly important resource for residents within our municipal borders and well beyond. Part of the leadership role Spartanburg Regional plays involves their involvement in the Northside Initiative. Today, on part two of our podcast, we ask Feisal about the importance of redeveloping the neighborhood into a place some of the hospital's 5,700 employees might one day call home. 

It's been an incredibly important part of our community for over 90 years, and recently Spartanburg Medical Center was named the , earning high performance rankings in nine specialty areas: cardiology and heart surgery; diabetes and endocrinology; gastroenterology and GI surgery; geriatrics; nephrology; neurology and neurosurgery; orthopedics; pulmonology; and urology.  Not content to rest on those accomplishments, the hospital also , replacing the oldest building of the hospital complex to make the center easier to navigate.  Today on the podcast, we sit down with Spartanburg Medical Center President, Phil Feisal about those topics and crucial SRHC's position in the Spartanburg community. 

City of Spartanburg citizens have a new, free, easy-to-use digital product they can use to report issues and ask for help. HeySpartanburg! is now available via the City’s website () or through the iTunes and Android stores for your mobile devices. The new mobile app will allow bring city services to the fingertips of citizens, allowing them to request services, such as a large greenwaste pickup, or to report problems or other issues such as potholes, damaged sidewalks, street light or traffic light outages, and downed trees. The requests are automatically routed to the appropriate City official.  HeySpartanburg! also allows citizens to attach photos of the issue they are reporting and see what other requests or inquiries have been submitted. Service requests can also be shared on Facebook and twitter, keeping the process transparent to everyone.  In turn, City officials will be able to use HeySpartanburg! to communicate with citizens, updating them on the status of the response to their inquiry or to ask for

  So far on in our series exploring the economic power of Downtown Spartanburg, we've talked about the economic importance of the area around Morgan Square, and spent some time discussing the large investments that have transformed one section of our city's downtown. But what about the walk between those sections of Downtown? Isn't there something the City can do to make that experience simpler and more pleasant? What about the family enjoying a walk down the Mary Black Foundation Rail Trail only to get to the corner of Henry and Union streets and find the trail ending, and a daunting crossing and an unpleasant walk standing between them and all that Downtown Spartanburg has to offer? How might improving the walkability along Church Street encourage visitors to the Marriott to take a stroll down to Morgan Square. As it happens, we think about those questions all the time, and rather than just pondering the possibilities, last year City Council voted to do something about it.  That plan promises to touch near

  It's tough to miss the three anchor developments in Downtown Spartanburg's northernmost reaches. , the , and  might not have all been built at the same time, but combined, these crucial pieces of Downtown Spartanburg's renewal represent an enormous investment. How enormous? Check out the infographic below:   Aside from being an enormous figure all by itself, the figure above barely scratches the surface. Additionally, the developments along that block provide jobs for educators, artists, hospitality workers,  and others, helping to provide a customer base for other downtown businesses, and the success each of these major developments has enjoyed encourages new development, like the kind  for a parcel behind the Marriott. It also helps make the Montgomery Building — long the most important potential redevelopment project in Spartanburg — more attractive for potential future owners. What's next for this example of the economic power of Downtown Spartanburg? Recently we sat down with Assistant City Manager Ch

Do you work in or near Downtown Spartanburg? If you do, you're definitely not alone. It might not make headlines the way our county's industrial titans (justifiably) do when they announce an expansion, but thousands of people spend their workdays in and around Downtown Spartanburg. How many? Check out the infographic below to get a little perspective.     Pretty impressive, right? And it's not just the numbers; it's the economic diversity. Many folks in the private sector such as attorneys, accountants, and executives spend their days working within a stone’s throw of artists, educators, nonprofit, and public sector workers. Employees and business owners of all types create and share in the web of activity our downtown offers.   Today on the podcast, we're talking with Assistant City Manager Chris Story to get a little perspective on those numbers. What do those thousands of workers bring to Spartanburg, and why is it important that we not only celebrate the economic success of Downtown Spartanburg today, bu

Barnet Park is the perfect setting for Spartanburg's Independence Day celebration,   On the stage at the Zimmerli Amphitheater starting at 6 p.m., visitors can enjoy patriotic music by the Spartanburg Community Band starting, and then at 8 p.m., it's time for a set from one of the best up-and-coming guitarists in country music, as  takes the stage. Don't forget to come early and come hungry to enjoy some great food before the skies darken and we light them back up again with our spectacular fireworks show!   Today on the podcast, we're talking with Special Events Manager Mandy Merck to get the details.

At their meeting on Monday, , a spring-fed stream that has been piped underground through the neighborhood for decades. An important part of the Northside Initiative, plans call for the creek to run through the neighborhood from VCOM to the proposed site of the new TK Gregg Center, currently the location for Oakview Apartments. Ninety percent of funding for the project would come from the Federal Aviation Administration, as part of the environmental impact mitigation required by the City's planned runway extension at the Downtown Memorial Airport, which will require a nearby creek to be piped and covered. Federal wetlands protection regulations require the City to mitigate the impact to this stream by purchase of mitigation credits or by the construction of a qualifying offsite stream protection project. What does all that mean? Today on the podcast, we've got City Manager Ed Memmott on to give us the details. Listen below and enjoy!

In recognition of Father’s Day,  will present a free concert-in-the-park Saturday, June 14, at 7:30 p.m. at the Zimmerli Amphitheatre in Barnet Park in downtown Spartanburg. It will feature one of the hottest and most-promising vocalists currently making international headlines in both classical and pop music — Kaitlyn Lusk, a 25-year-old soprano. This pops concert — Father’s Day Concert: A Hollywood Celebration! — will offer a wide variety of music from patriotic songs Armed Forces Salute and American Salute to Disney tunes from The Little Mermaid, The Jungle Book, and Aladdin; and the classics Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Moon River, The Sound of Music, and Singin’ in the Rain. Lusk will also sing songs from the Lord of the Ring movie series, including May It Be, Breaking the Fellowship, and Into the West, which won an Oscar for Best Original Song for a movie. Today on the Podcast, we're talking with SPO Music Director Sarah Ioannides about this great free event. Listen below for more details.

It's been called the  owing to its association with the well-known San Diego craft beer maker, but for craft breweries throughout South Carolina, a bill on its way to Governor Nikki Haley's desk could transform their industry. Under the new law, breweries that bottle and sell beer offsite will now be allowed to sell unlimited quantities on site so long as it is in conjunction with restaurant service, something many craft beer makers say is crucial to growing their brands.   The new law allows the state to attract large craft brewers from elsewhere (like Stone) that typically have restaurants attached to their brewing operations, potentially bringing millions of dollars in economic development along with hundreds of jobs. It also would allow potential entrepreneurs to grow their businesses from small brewpubs to lager operations that can sell their beer offsite through distributors, something previously illegal in South Carolina.   But what does it mean for the homegrown craft brewers already up and running he

The growing season is well underway here in Spartanburg, and that means it's time for the  to kick off it's 2014 season at the Magnolia Street Train Depot on May 17 at  8 a.m. (). Now entering its ninth year, the market routinely draws hundreds of people out to the old train depot looking to buy everything from local vegetables like kale, cabbage, and broccoli, to fruits like peaches and strawberries, to animal products like local honey, eggs (chicken and duck) and grass-fed beef.  Today on the podcast, we're talking with Hub City Farmers' Market Interim Executive Director, Brendan Buttimer about the upcoming season, as well as their upcoming move into a new space at the Northside Healthy Food Hub, which is under construction now. Be sure to like the  to stay in the loop on all of their latest news.