Spartanburg City News

The summer heat is still here but summer for our city's children is about to come to an end as school begins next week, so today on the podcast, we're doing something a bit different. We packed up the recording equipment and set up shop at the Downtown Memorial Airport Park, which opened this spring, looking to get some thoughts from our local children on what they're looking forward too this upcoming school year. What did we learn? Listen to find out.  

Their performances routinely sell out the theater at their Chapman Cultural Center homebase, and when it comes to community theater companies, Spartanburg Little Theatre is in a class by itself in the upstate. And taking a look at the performances scheduled in their , it's pretty easy to see why. Today on the podcast, we're talking with Spartanburg Little Theatre Executive Artistic Director, Jay Coffman about the local theater scene and the organization's place in our city's creative community.

One of the City's primary stated goals is to address our community's longtime racial and class disparities, and while the strategies we use are as varied and complex as the problems themselves, one important approach is to help strengthen our local minority business community.  What's our newest tool to tackle that problem? The EMERGE Business Accelerator for African Americans, a program designed to identify, prepare, empower and sustain African American entrepreneurs who desire to locate a business in the City of Spartanburg. EMERGE will guide participants through all stages of opening and expanding a business so they will be lender ready to up and running. A 10-week business training and development program, EMERGE will support entrepreneurs in identifying a business venture, business plan development, financial education, accounting, and securing financing. Classes will be held weekly beginning in September and will be taught by business experts and experienced entrepreneurs who share advice, guidance, and

As Spartanburg gets ready to construct the seventh courthouse in our 229-year history, we're sitting down with Spartanburg County Public Library Assistant Director of Local History, Brad Steinecke to talk about the previous six. What did each say about the community it served? How can looking back at these foundational civic structures, perhaps the most public of all public buildings, inform us about where we ought to be going? Listen below to hear us ruminate on those questions and for the deepest dive on local civic history you're likely to find anywhere.

When we here in local government are looking for an indicator of how the economy in Spartanburg is doing, one of the first metrics we turn to is Hospitality Tax. The two percent tax paid on prepared food and beverages is an excellent barometer for consumer spending in our city and the growth seen in H-Tax revenue over the past several years has corresponded well with what is anecdotally pretty clear to anyone paying attention; our city's business community is strong and growing.  Beyond what it can tell us about the local economy though, H-Tax is an important portion of the City's revenue each year, and unlike most other sources of local government revenue, the H-Tax must be spent in a fairly proscribed manner. Today on the podcast, we're diving in deep to give you the lowdown on how the City uses these funds and how that next meal you have at a local restaurant helps pay for amenities and events enjoyed by thousands of visitors and locals every year. Listen below for more.

If you've found yourself on the Mary Black Foundation Rail Trail any time in the past year or so you've probably noticed a lot of work happening just past where the trail intersects with Forest Avenue. The Rail Yard, a seven-acre multi-use park fronting the trail, is starting to take shape, and the latest amenity is a first for South Carolina: the Panthers Play 60 obstacle course. The course—which is something like an NFL Scouting Combine combined with an American Ninja Warrior course—is set for a ribbon cutting on July 25 at 11 a.m., the day before Carolina Panthers Training Camp kicks off in our city. Today on the podcast, we're talking with Partners for Active Living Executive Director, Laura Ringo about the new Play 60 course, what's next for the Rail Yard, and about some planned extensions that will take the MBF Rail Trail all the way to Spartanburg's Northside. Listen below for more.

If you've spent any significant amount of time in Downtown Spartanburg in the last decade, there's a pretty good chance that you've encountered work created by one of the 33 artists brought to Spartanburg through HUB-BUB's celebrated Artists-in-Residence program. Over the years, the program's artists have created lasting impacts that are both physical (like Sparkle City Mini Putt) and cultural.  Now, through a merger last year with Chapman Cultural Center, the former HUB-BUB Artists-in-Residence program is back. The retooled 11-month residency is set to bring two artists to live and work in Spartanburg this September, but before that happens, we're talking with Chapman Cultural Center Creative Placemaking and HUB-BUB Director, Eric Kocher about the revived program. Listen below to learn more!

We've interviewed a lot of people on the City Podcast. We've had business leaders, elected officials, nonprofit luminaries, artists of all kinds, and a rotating gaggle of bureaucrats so smart they could probably divide by zero if asked.    What we haven't had is a local author with one of the hottest books in the country...but we've fixed that.    Today on the podcast, we're talking with author and Spartanburg resident,  about her fantastic memoir The Electric Woman () and about her experience finding a supportive creative community in our city. 

Summer is here (not officially, but you know what we mean) and that means something very special for City Podcast regulars...it's time for the budget podcast. This week we've got Assistant City Manager Chris Story on to give us an overview of the most important ordinance City Council passes each year.  The $40.8 million fiscal year 2018-2019 budget includes no tax or fee increases and shows four percent projected revenue growth, owing largely to growing in Hospitality Tax and Business License revenue. However, much of that growth is absorbed in the budget by necessary expenditure increases for the City's equipment replacement fund, facilities maintenance, and City Employee medical insurance and retirement fund increases. The new budget goes into effect July 1. Details include: • Three percent employee cost-of-living pay increase • Seven percent increase for the medical insurance fund • $250,834 for mandatory increases in employee retirement • Increase of $50,000 for City’s legacy pension plan • $220,000 for

Unequal access to economic opportunities. It's an ugly truth that communities around the country confront (or don't confront) every day, and Spartanburg is no different. Inclusivity, equity, and diversity—principles that many in leadership positions throughout our community value today—have long been challenges for Spartanburg. Racial and class disparities create very real barriers to economic mobility for individuals and for entire communities, and the task of removing those barriers is an enormous and necessary undertaking for all of us who want to see Spartanburg thrive. is bringing his energy and perspective to that challenge. A Northside native and success story, Hawes is the co-founder of B.A.R.S. Academy, a community-driven creative arts and music mentoring program, and in his new role will be working to create and implement the Chamber's strategic plan to ensure that economic inclusion is a Spartanburg priority and to develop, attract, and retain talent in our community. Today on the podcast, we're t

If you ask us, Spartanburg punches far above its weight when it comes to creative talent. Sometimes that means being blown away by a local music performance at one of the dozens of venues downtown, sometimes it means hearing a reading from a local writer that you'll swear should be on the New York Times Bestseller List, and then sometimes it means seeing a performance put on by absurdly talented professional local actors who take it upon themselves to put on some extremely low-budget, high-engagement Shakespeare plays in the summer. In case that setup didn't give it away, this week's podcast is all about Scrappy Shakespeare, which returns to Downtown Spartanburg this summer for its third year, performing the crowd-pleaser to end all crowd-pleasers...Romeo and Juliet!  Opening night is June 21 at Fr8Yard, but be sure to check out the to get all the details on where and when you'll be able to catch their run this summer. Today on the podcast, we're talking with Tim Giles and Anna Abhau Elliott about the show a

We've spent a lot of time on the City Podcast over the years chronicling Downtown Spartanburg's rise. We've covered historic redevelopments, transformative new construction projects, new City streetscaping, restaurant and retail openings, and events that cater to our diverse, newly vibrant downtown crowds. Along the way, we've also tried our best to contextualize each of these pieces of the downtown redevelopment puzzle, showing as best we can the landscape Spartanburg's people are creating in our city's core. What's the cumulative effect of all that movement? Simple: Downtown Spartanburg is now the place where local institutions, organizations, businesses, and individuals want to be. With their new space inside the newly renovated Aug W. Smith building, has become latest example of such an institution, one that recognizes that the new local paradigm shift is very real and that having a presence in Downtown Spartanburg now means being in the middle of the action. Today on the podcast, we're talking with a co

It's been one of the most highly anticipated new Downtown Spartanburg developments since its announcement last year, and starting May 19, preschool-aged children from throughout our community will have a new space to call their own as . The new 6,000 square-foot museum features interactive exhibits geared towards children ages 5 and younger, all of which seek to inspire learning through play. All of those exhibits are exclusive to the Spartanburg museum, with some highlighting local landmarks as well as our region's plants and animals.   The new museum plans to kick things off with a grand opening celebration on May 19, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. which will include free admission to the museum and a street festival sponsored by the JM Smith Foundation. Magnolia Street will be closed from Dunbar to St. John streets for the festival, which will include entertainment, games, giveaways, and food trucks.   Today on the podcast, we're talking with The Children's Museum of the Upstate President & CEO Nancy Halverson about

Smith's Drugs, a fixture in Downtown Spartanburg for nearly a century, is set to see a major upgrade as plans were recently revealed to demolish the business's current one-story storefront at 142 E Main St and replace it with a new multi-story mixed-use building featuring a much larger footprint that will occupy much of the current parking lot next door and will include much more ground-floor retail (with perhaps another tenant) with residential units occupying the upper floors. Details are still being finalized on the project, which could ultimately feature an under-building drive-thru for pharmacy customers and could be between three and five stories.  Today on the podcast, we're talking with City Associate Planner, Apoorva Kumar and William Gray, Associate Principal at McMillan Pazdan Smith, the developer's architecture firm, about this new development and how it fits in with recent improvements and openings along E Main Street.

It's the culmination of a process that started back in 2012 when discussions about water quality and neighborhood redevelopment on our city's Northside led to an idea: why not resurrect an old waterway underneath the Northside neighborhood and create a park that could serve as a focal point for a reinvigorated Northside?   Fast-forward through a few years of collaborative neighborhood planning, design, and enough navigating the tricky waters of federal and state government agencies to earn some of our city staff members expert-level bureaucrat merit badges and finally, the day is near. Butterfly Creek is here, ready to be enjoyed and celebrated by our residents at a grand opening ceremony to be held Saturday, May 5 at 11:30 a.m (498 Howard St.). The eight-acre park features 2,000 feet of newly daylit creek and green space, a 120-foot pedestrian bridge, as well as a quarter-mile walking path and picnic shelters.    Beyond just the basics of a new parks project, the story of how this new signature amenity for S

  Walking through Downtown Spartanburg these days is a feast for the eyes. New buildings and renovated historic icons, new original upscale dining and nightlife options, and a corresponding level of activity that hasn't been seen in decades are the story of our city's core in 2018, and that level of growth and energy shows no signs of waning. The downtown boom isn't just something local bureaucrats push anymore. It's now a very evident reality celebrated daily by organizations and ordinary residents throughout Spartanburg County.   But drive just a short distance from that new energy and excitement, and it becomes clear that the larger story of Spartanburg is much more complicated. The legacies of racial and class disparities, flawed public housing strategies from previous generations, persistent educational attainment gaps, and the localized effects of global economic shifts are all around us in Spartanburg. And while all of us applaud the tremendous economic development progress made in our city in recent y

When the City Podcast began more than five years ago, the thinking behind it was relatively simple. First, humanize local governemnt. The podcast created an opportunity for listeners to literally hear the voices and get to know the personalities of the people who spend their days serving the residents of our city, with the hope being that folks would recognize that all these "government bureaucrats" are, in fact, human beings, and that the reasons behind the policies enacted in the City of Spartanburg are human reasons. Second, we wanted to tell the story of Spartanburg at a time when its transformation was just beginning. We wanted to get to know the people behind that transformation and hear why Spartanburg mattered to them.  Those initial episodes show then City Communications Manager Will Rothschild and then local resident Christopher George finding their footing, figuring out how exactly this podcast thing should be done. Over the years that followed, the rapport strengthened, the questions got better, t

Spartanburg's west side is about to get its own premier play space as a new park at the Downtown Memorial Airport () is set to hold a grand opening celebration on Saturday, April 14 at 10 a.m. The nearly 4-acre park features aviation-themed elements throughout and includes two playgrounds, one for children 5-12 and another for children aged 2-5, as well as a splash pad, multipurpose athletic field, picnic shelters, a paved walking path, and restroom facilities. Total cost for the new park is around $975,000, with $800,000 coming from leftover funds from the City's , and the remainder coming from state grants and private funding. The Airport Park's grand opening event will showcase both the new park and the airport itself, with the City's "Let's Play" mobile recreation vehicle providing activities and games, as well as arts and crafts activities, and food trucks to satiate the hunger those little ones are sure to work up exploring this fantastic new community park. Today on the podcast, we're talking with Down

After five years on the scene, it's managed to become one of the most anticipated annual events in downtown Spartanburg with the move to Morgan Square in 2015 further raising the bar, folks throughout Spartanburg are gearing up for the return of Hub City Hog Fest, April 6–7. With dozens of teams competing in three categories, opportunities to sample some of the smokey goodness will abound, and the event will feature plenty of delicious food vendors.   The festival also features great live music on both Friday and Saturday, with Big Daddy Love featuring Shane Pruitt and The Trongone Band headlining respectively. For more on this year's Hub City Hog Fest, check out the  and .

If you were wondering whether all that Downtown Spartanburg growth we keep talking about had stalled out in 2018...no. No, it hasn't. Not at all. With announcements coming with almost metronomic regularity these days, the problem lately is just keeping up with it all. Already this year has seen big openings like Level 10, The Silo at RJ Rockers, Blue Moon Specialty Foods, Bar 1884, and The Farmer's Table on top of announcements like Le Spice, The Peddler, Monster Subs, and an  that includes a boutique bowling alley, a new restaurant concept, and an event space. Is your head spinning yet? Good. Today on the podcast, we're sitting down with Assistant City Manager, Chris Story and Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce Downtown Development Partnership Executive Vice President, Jansen Tidmore to get the lowdown on where Downtown Spartanburg is in Spring 2018, and where we could possibly be heading from here. Listen below for more!