Spartanburg City News

A crucial corner at one of the city's most important downtown gateway intersections is set to get a huge makeover with construction of a new 19,000 square foot development on the southeast corner of E Main and Pine streets. Anchored by United Community Bank, the two-story building will feature new office and retail space and is set help transform one of the busiest intersections in Spartanburg. On...

It doesn't take long in conversation to figure out that Jansen Tidmore understands that downtown development has some pretty serious differences with other kinds of commercial development. "Downtowns are an emotional investment," he says, and the factors that go into creating a vibrant downtown that serves as a showcase for its city aren't often the sorts of things that fit neatly on a spreadsheet...

When the roman numerals on a City Council agenda reach high enough for folks to have to think back on their school days to remember what item number is up for discussion, you know it's a busy night. Such was the case this past Monday, as Spartanburg City Council gave unanimous approval to three new major developments. The projects include two on the city's Northside, a new 16,000 square foot mixed...

It's a huge part of the garbage every household produces and unless you've got the time and space for a compost pile or bin of your own, there haven't been many options for city residents to deal with food waste besides throwing it into a bin destined for the landfill. One Spartanburg company though, co-founded by a Wofford College graduate, now offers a simpler solution. Compost House, the reside...

A recent bill in the state General Assembly sponsored by Sen. Marlon Kimpson of Charleston that would allow cities to require a percentage of apartment units of any new development to be priced as affordable housing, with below market rate rents specifically targeting residents with incomes below 80 percent of the local median (around $42,000 per year for a family of four in Spartanburg). The bill...

It's been just a little more than a month since Betsy Neely Sikma assumed her role at the Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce, serving as Director of Entrepreneurial Development for the Economic Futures Group, but in that short time, but she's already managed to make a splash in Spartanburg, penning one of the most inspirational stories of a native daughter's return home in recent memory. If you...

For years now, Hub-Bub's artist-in-residency program has inarguably been, for many in our city, one of the Spartanburg's most beloved arts programs. Through the program, artists come to our city to work on their own projects and to embed themselves in our community, often leaving lasting positive impacts in their wake, with each year's artists helping Spartanburg to see itself from their fresh, an...

When Spartanburg City Council voted unanimously to "ban the box" at a meeting in June, it was the culmination of a lot of groundwork from an involved local citizen, Meghan Smith The measure, which eliminates the criminal history question from City job applications, was a move councilmembers agreed was about fairness, removing the stigma some applicants may face in the hiring process and encouragin...

The July heat is upon us again here in Spartanburg and that means it's almost time to welcome the Carolina Panthers back to town for training camp 2017 at Wofford College! The camp is set to start July 26 with the annual Kickoff Party getting things started at 4 p.m. Events include the Mayor's Ball Delivery, on-field performances by the TopCats, Sir Purr, PurrCussion and Black & Blue Crew, face pa...

It's been nearly a year since we first had Amanda Richardson—the brains behind the excellent local food blog, Hub City Bites—on the podcast and in that time, a local restaurant scene that was starting to show signs of new energy has exploded with new and exciting homegrown options, particularly downtown. Whether you're looking for some great breakfast, some authentic Vietnamese cuisine, or you're...

The first amenities for the new "Rail Yard" seven-acre park along the Mary Black Foundation Rail Trail are set to greet visitors later this month. In a nod to the site's history as a service location for Spartanburg's old trolley line, the site now features a pavilion that pays homage to that past, with photos panels showing historic trolley photographs and rails running through the brick floor. A...

It's quickly become one of the most talked about public art projects around, putting the work of local and regional artists in the public eye in a unique and whimsical way. It would be a massive understatement to say that Lighten Up Spartanburg has been a success for Spartanburg Art Museum in their goal to push visual art into the larger community beyond their walls at the Chapman Cultural Center....

Over the course of its existence, local arts organization, Hub-Bub has gone through a number of iterations. Starting in 2004 as a simple online forum focused on allowing Spartanburg locals to engage with each other and exchange ideas about a broad range of topics. In those early days, the organization hosted events and grew a following through guerilla marketing, providing an outlet for a budding...

Where does the rubber meet the road in local government? The annual budget. It's our statement of purpose, the unambiguous articulation of our core values. If you want to know what we believe in, check out what we spend the taxpayers' money on. Our budget is also the best indicator of your local government's overall health and a reasonable barometer of the health of the community we're all tasked...

It was November of 2012 when the City of Spartanburg first launched its podcast, giving local government violent shove into 2005's favorite new communications tool. That podcast, as so many that came after, featured City Communications Manager Will Rothschild and not-yet-City employee Christopher George rambling for 40 too-noisy, unfocused minutes about...city stuff. Listening to that early effort...

Spartanburg parents looking for more family-friendly amenities in downtown Spartanburg will soon have a brand new option for their little ones after City Council voted unanimously on Monday to approve an agreement supporting a new 6,000-square-foot satellite facility for the Children's Museum of the Upstate at 130 Magnolia Street. Under the agreement, the City will provide $100,000 in funding for...

Sometimes progress comes with a little pain, and with construction projects on seemingly every corner of downtown Spartanburg these days, some impacts to traffic were inevitable. Lucky for all of us, the pain is temporary and the payoff is completely worth it. Today on the podcast, we're talking about two of the biggest closures, diving deep to give you the details on how long to expect delays and...

After just four years on the scene, it's managed to become one of the most anticipated annual events in downtown Spartanburg with last year's move to Morgan Square further raising the bar, folks throughout Spartanburg are gearing up for the return of Hub City Hog Fest, April 7 & 8.. With 45 teams competing in three categories, opportunities to sample some of the smokey goodness will abound, and th...

It's been a long, complicated, and sometimes tedious road to walk to get the project underway, but one of downtown Spartanburg's most beloved historic buildings, the Montgomery Building, is now on its way back to being what it was for much of the 20th century, one of the most important activity centers in our urban core. Greenville-based developer James Bakker, lead developer with BF Spartanburg,...

Do you know that VH-1 "Storytellers" show where musicians perform in front of a relatively intimate live audience and tell stories about their music, writing experiences and memories? Wouldn't it be cool to see a version of that in Spartanburg, something that gives songwriters a chance to illuminate a little of their genius for the music nerds who love that sort of thing? Come out to the Songwrite...

When the news broke Saturday night that a fire had broken out in the Montgomery Building, all of Spartanburg held its breath. A renovation had just gotten underway, the largest historic renovation in our city's history, and the future held for a long-vacant icon seemed secure. If not for the actions of the City's world-class Fire Department, it's a future that could've very easily went up in flame...

It's easy to forget sometimes, with our city's accelerating downtown development boom and the associated exponential increase in activity and buzz, but the Spartanburg that birthed Hub City Writers Project back in 1995 was a very different place from the one we see today. Decades of decline had turned what once had been a dynamic upstate urban core into a hollowed-out shell, its vibrant post-war b...

We've talked a lot about the Montgomery Building on this podcast. We've delved into details about what it means for downtown Spartanburg's future and how it fits into our city's history. However, even considering the very frequent mentions we've given the historic icon, it would be near-impossible to overstate how often it has been discussed inside the corridors of City Hall in recent years. Once...

We've been doing this podcast for over four years now and through it all, good episodes and less-good episodes, we've never had a real honest-to-goodness theme song. In a city that features the overabundance of musical talent Spartanburg has, this is a tragic oversight, one that we now plan to rectify. How? By doing what any community-focused, eminently entertaining, deeply nerdy local podcast wou...

You never know what sorts of unique events Hub-Bub has planned in downtown Spartanburg so periodically we like to check in with our friends Eric Kocher and Tim Giles to get the latest on what the downtown-focused local arts organization has going on. The answer this time? A terrible Shakespeare play performed by actors who very probably do not know their lines and another edition of the longest ru...