Spartanburg City News

It's probably shocking to absolutely no one, but most of what city governments do isn't sexy. It's not all ribbon cutting ceremonies and shiny new amenities. Often there are weighty, complicated issues involving a city's history, socioeconomics, and modern environmental concerns that have to be dealt with. Sometimes a city has to spend tremendous resources literally cleaning up the mess left by previous generations. Such was the case in Spartanburg with the old Arkwright Dump, which after 15 years in the works, is now finally closed. In part one of a three part series of conversations with Assistant City Manager Chris Story, we talk about the dump, and what it means for the City to finally be able to turn the page on this project, and how important closing the dump has been for the Arkwright community. Be sure to check back tomorrow and Thursday for parts two and three of the series.

On this week's podcast we go in-depth on Spartanburg's latest civic engagement tool, Neighborland. What is Neighborland, you ask? Well, you could just follow this link to find out, but we don't mind spoon-feeding you a little verbiage. In their own words, Neighborland is an online social network that provides "residents, neighborhood organizations, economic development groups, and municipalities with a powerfully simple platform to connect and make good things happen." Using Neighborland, Spartanburg residents can share the ideas they have for improving our city, while also supporting and expanding on the ideas others have suggested. The catch? Tools like Neighborland only work if civic-minded folks like you get involved, so click on one of those links above, sign up, make some suggestions for how you'd like to improve our city, and join in on the conversation. In addition to giving you the lowdown on Neighborland, we wonk out (as is our style) on one of the more popular suggestions so far on on the site, a 

On this special episode of our City podcast, Special Events Manager Mandy Merck sits down with us for a conversation about Spartanburg's newest event, Skating on the Square. Get the lowdown on how this great addition to Spartanburg's holiday experience came together, and learn about the special promotions and programs being held throughout the next eight weeks, including movie nights, turkey bowling, and special performances on the ice.    Once you've got your information fix — so much so that any thinking person would have to consider you an expert on all things related to frozen water on Morgan Square — come on out to our grand opening celebration tomorrow, and try the ice out for free between 3 and 5 p.m. Just remember to cue the Vince Guaraldi Trio music to set the mood.

Wouldn't it be great if the City had its own weekly radio show to give residents the lowdown on what's going on with local government and city event news? Chances are, there are about five of you who just said yes to that question. For the record, we love each and every one of you. For those of you who might not be quite as enthusiastic about a radio show, what if we promised that it won't be boring (we'll try...seriously) and that you can listen to it whenever you like on your computer, smartphone, or mp3 player ... through the voodoo magic of the Internet? (Warning-gratuitous Sen. Ted Stevens link here.) If you know about these kinds of things, you might say that 2005 called, and it wants its Internet breakthrough back. Then again, you might still be intrigued. You might even think that a local government willing to produce a podcast to keep you in the loop on what your City's leaders are up to while also offering information on the latest new initiatives and events around town is pretty responsive, maybe e