Homeless, nobody's choice

As many as 1,200 Greenville residents have nowhere to go at the end of the day. None of them imagined they'd end up that way.

DECEMBER 4, 2009 4:48 p.m. (0)

One is a former university professor with graying temples and a humble smile who says he watched helplessly as his career slipped away when he became depressed and turned to alcohol after an ugly divorce.

Another is a brawny younger man, a construction worker by trade, who says he lost his home after steady work became impossible for him to find when the economy began to sour just over a year ago.

A woman in her 30s with long, dark hair worked in radio in metropolitan areas like Chicago and Philadelphia before a fractured relationship with her boyfriend left her penniless and on the street.  Continue reading...

 

Business licenses rebound on '09

City records more than 500 new permits for the first time since '06

FEBRUARY 4, 2010 10:01 a.m. (0)

More than 500 entrepreneurs – 503 to be exact – rolled the dice in 2009 and went into business for themselves inside city limits.

That was the highest new business total in the city since 2006.  Continue reading...

 

City gives $20,000 for bike trail

Council also weighs street closure near Kroc Center

FEBRUARY 9, 2010 10:35 a.m. (0)

Greenville City Council breezed through a light agenda Monday night giving final reading approval to the annexation of Lieu’s Restaurant at 1149 Woodruff Rd. and to a public right of way agreement with Burgess Investments for the same property.

The annexation clears the way for a festive Chinese New Year celebration on Sunday Feb. 14 as liquor can now be served on the Sabbath at the popular eatery.  Continue reading...

 

The parking gods: Not smiling

City cracks down on parking offenders

FEBRUARY 23, 2010 10:05 a.m. (1)

Parking scofflaws, beware.

The city of Greenville is cracking down on repeat parking offenders by hitting them harder in their pocketbooks.  Continue reading...

 

The other side of town

Haywood Road business owners want improvement dollars

MARCH 27, 2010 10:23 a.m. (0)

Haywood Road, the once booming retail corridor that 30 years ago helped gut Greenville’s downtown, is hurting today in ways that some business owners find anything but ironic as the downtown enjoys a major renaissance.

Some businessmen along the city’s prime retail corridor are upset at what they see as a disproportionate amount of funding going to downtown. It is a sentiment often repeated, even away from Haywood Road.  Continue reading...

 

Former city officer pleads guilty to misdemeanor

More charges will be filed in the case of alleged abuse of Greenville's homeless

MARCH 30, 2010 12:58 p.m. (0)

The acting U.S. attorney said Tuesday he expects additional criminal charges to be filed in the federal investigation into the abuse of the homeless by some former Greenville police officers.

Moments after former city police officer Matthew Scott Jowers pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor civil rights violation for slamming a handcuffed homeless man into a squad car hard enough to make a dent and later wrapped his hands around the man’s neck, acting U.S. Attorney Kevin McDonald said he expected additional charges to be filed.  Continue reading...

 

Bourey says resignation was forced

Manager will remain until June 30

APRIL 19, 2010 7:24 p.m. (1)

Ousted Greenville City Manager Jim Bourey said his resignation was forced because City Council no longer felt comfortable with him.

Bourey’s resignation is effective June 30.  Continue reading...

 

He's out

Bourey: ‘I’m sad it’s over’

APRIL 22, 2010 3:11 p.m. (0)

Much of the speculation this week about why Greenville City Manager Jim Bourey fell from grace centered around the city’s failed deal to buy the former Hitachi plant, a 53-acre complex on Mauldin Road that has been empty since the Japanese television tube manufacturer closed up shop in 2007.

Councilwoman Amy Ryberg Doyle, the only council member to vote against accepting Bourey’s resignation, hinted at this as she explained her vote.

After reciting a list of things accomplished during Bourey’s tenure, she said the city manager could have been more forthcoming about the cost of buying and renovating the plant into a city operations center. The building also was to provide space for electric bus manufacturer Proterra until its facility at ICAR was completed.  Continue reading...

 

City budget includes job cuts

But officials hope retirements, transfers prevent layoffs

MAY 4, 2010 7:45 a.m. (0)

Thirty-four jobs will be eliminated, city employees would not receive merit pay increases and solid waste fees would increase under a budget proposal, which got its first look from Greenville City Council Monday night.

But core services will not be reduced under the $136.6 million budget, City Manager Jim Bourey told council members.  Continue reading...

 

Former city officers given probation

9039 Fairforest Road Prosecutor: Greenville’s police department “clean, straight arrow.”

MAY 28, 2010 9:49 a.m. (0)

9039 Fairforest Road

Two former Greenville police officers received probationary sentences Friday for depriving suspects of their civil rights in which attorneys on both sides said were isolated incidents of officers losing their cool, not targeted abuse of the homeless.

Matthew Jowers and Jeremiah Milliman were both sentenced to three years probation by federal Magistrate Judge William Catoe.  Continue reading...

 

A mill, a new life

Developer takes on series of loft renovations

AUGUST 5, 2010 9:08 a.m. (0)

Monaghan Mill steadily produced cloth and livelihoods for the residents of City View for more than a century and now is leading the way into a new era in one of the most economically challenged areas of Greenville County as the Lofts of Greenville.

Eventually the Lofts of Greenville could take on even more luster if the owners decide to convert the 190 unit complex into luxury condos.  Continue reading...

 

City manager settles in

Mayor: ‘He personifies the things that make Greenville different’

JULY 16, 2010 7:50 a.m. (0)

After the Greenville City Council members forced the resignation of former City Manager Jim Bourey, they said they’d search the nation for his replacement.

Turns out they only had to look down the hall.  Continue reading...

 

Coffee, and so much more

Hub City Bookshop brings literary world together

AUGUST 17, 2010 7:59 a.m. (0)

Little River Roasting Co. has been in Spartanburg since 2002 but it wasn’t until the The Coffee Bar opened in the historic Masonic Temple downtown that the company had a retail presence.

The Coffee Bar and Cakehead Bakery opened up shop in the building with the Hub City Bookshop.  Continue reading...

 

City Council notes

From the Aug. 23 meeting  

AUGUST 26, 2010 10:19 a.m. (0)

A law governing signs in Greenville’s city limits won’t be as restrictive as once proposed.

The first sign ordinance proposed by city planners would have restricted permanent window signs to 10 percent of the window space, down from 40 percent.

The restriction was one of several that business owners had raised concerns over earlier this month. Changes were made to the ordinance after meetings with business owners.  Continue reading...

 

City Council notes

From the Sept. 7 work session

SEPTEMBER 9, 2010 10:22 a.m. (0)

Changes are coming to Greenville’s community centers.

City Parks and Recreation Director Dana Souza told members of the Greenville City Council that all non-academic elements of the after-school programs at the city’s community centers will be eliminated this fall.

The department will eliminate after-school program and senior programming at the Juanita Butler Community Center and turn it into a teen center. The YWCA, which is across the street from the center, will provide after-school programming for children, Souza said. Senior programs will be based at the David Hellams Community Center, he said.  Continue reading...

 

City Council notes

From the Sept. 27 meeting

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010 10:41 a.m. (0)

Spartanburg expects to save about $60,000 a year by refinancing $16.7 million in tax increment bonds for the St. John-Daniel Morgan Redevelopment Project and special obligation bonds for the Renaissance Park Project, city council was told Monday night.

Passed on first reading, the complex refinancing package would take advantage of favorable interest rates, Chris Story, assistant city manager, told the council. The exact amount of the savings will not be known until after the bonds are issued and the interest rate is set.  Continue reading...

 

City Council notes

From the Sept. 27 meeting

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010 10:57 a.m. (0)

It’s going to get harder to open a nightclub or bar in some areas of Greenville.

Greenville City Council members on Monday gave initial approval to a measure that will require bars and nightclubs wanting to locate in commercially zoned areas of the city to get a special exemption.  Continue reading...

 

The nature of writing

Hub City Press publishes book on all that’s great about the great outdoors

NOVEMBER 4, 2010 11:50 a.m. (0)

People almost always hurry though the woods as if keeping the very schedules they fled to the wilderness to escape.

In that disconnect lies the heart of great nature writing. With each passing year there is less of nature and more civilization. Somewhere, deep inside, most people feel a longing to get closer to nature, but don’t have a clue as to how.

That’s why they go to the ever dwindling woods in ever increasing numbers and almost always come back feeling vaguely dissatisfied.  Continue reading...

 

Saving Beaumont Mill

Supporters want this once bustling village preserved for future generations.

DECEMBER 3, 2010 2:45 p.m. (0)

Spartanburg’s only historic neighborhood is Hampton Heights and that’s unusual for a city of its size in South Carolina, said Mike Bedenbaugh, executive director of the Palmetto Trust for Historic Preservation.

Supporters of plans to add the Beaumont Mill village to the city’s historic roster hope to change that when Spartanburg City Council again takes up the issue next year.

They say designating Beaumont as a historic neighborhood will go a long way toward saving the once close-knit community from degenerating into a wasteland of rental properties controlled by absentee landlords.  Continue reading...

 

Have music, will travel

Spartanburg Music Trail celebrates contributions of local musicians to national, international music scene

JANUARY 6, 2011 12:02 p.m. (0)

Spartanburg’s musical heritage did not start or stop with the Marshall Tucker Band.

While the band is arguably the headliner of the influential musical acts to come from Spartanburg, it is by far not the only one that has gone on to national or international prominence.  Continue reading...

 

Police crack cold case

Victim’s family: ‘We thought this day would never come’

APRIL 4, 2011 10:11 a.m. (0)

Thirty-three Thanksgivings ago, Thomas George Bikas was walking home from a bar when he was beaten to death and robbed.

He was found two doors from home.

On Monday, Greenville Police Chief Terri Wilfong announced that two men have been arrested and charged with murder and strong-arm robbery in the case.  Continue reading...

 

City considers work where residents play

Greenville's community centers need millions to upgrade

JUNE 2, 2011 10:08 a.m. (0)

Greenville’s five community centers were once at the heart of the city’s recreation program.

But the neighborhood facilities that encircle the city’s downtown have deteriorated through years from inattention and deferred maintenance.

All of the centers – West Greenville, Nicholtown, Juanita Butler on Burns Court across from Greenville High, Bobby Pearce on Townes Street Extension and David Hellams on Spartanburg Street – need extensive repairs, have limited or no handicapped accessibility and have drainage issues.  Continue reading...

 

An investment, of the writing kind

It’s been 15 years since Hub City began. Forty-seven books later, and the story’s just begun.

JUNE 2, 2011 10:46 a.m. (0)

Betsy Teter is running a bit late.

She’s been working with an author on an upcoming book.

Ready for her next meeting, she sits in a chair covered in polka-dot fabric near the front window at the Hub City Bookshop to relate once again the phenomenon that is Hub Culture, Spartanburg’s own literary organization that grew from a single book published 15 years ago.  Continue reading...

 

Arkwright closing moves ahead

City council votes to start condemnation

JUNE 23, 2011 10:32 a.m. (0)

The last piece in the Arkwright Dump closing puzzle will cost the City of Spartanburg $22,000 and require condemnation proceedings.

The council recently voted to start the condemnation of 6.79 acres owned by VigIndustries that was once part of the IMC Fertilizer Plant. The land will be used as a buffer to help ensure the clay cap planned for the dump will be effective.

City Manager Ed Memmott told council he had hoped to avoid condemnation but the owner of the property had fears about potential liability issues forcing the city’s hand. Staff is of the opinion that the city is the only responsible party in the eyes of the federal Environmental Protection Agency.  Continue reading...

 

Now in residence

Hub-Bub chooses four artists to live here, serve here

JULY 18, 2011 11:00 a.m. (1)

Each of this year’s Hub-Bub artists-in-residence brings something new to Spartanburg.

They’ll share it with the community for the next 10 months.

Camille Bonham has taught drawing, bookmaking and alternative photographic processes to such disparate groups as inmates at the New Correctional Facility in Iowa and students at the M’Adamfo Pa Community Center in Accra, Ghana.  Continue reading...

 

100 words, 1 illustration

Upstate Book Project seeks local artists to write, illustrate group project

AUGUST 18, 2011 11:20 a.m. (0)

Artist Chuck Bailie has written the first 100 words and completed the first illustration of a book about a girl who lives in a world without color.

He’s looking for 29 adult artists from the Upstate to finish it.

“Artists, even the most nonchalant, are control freaks up to a point,” Bailie said. “This project is all about giving up comfort and security. It’s out of control and awesome.”  Continue reading...

 

Books and the digital age

It’s a growing business model and one Upstate author is taking it for a ride

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011 11:56 a.m. (0)

Having had three books published in the traditional way, author Carl T. Smith resents e-books.

“When e-books came out, I thought they’d be like books on tape and kind of a flash-in-the-pan,” Smith said.  Continue reading...

 

City ponders community centers

Construction drawings for David Hellams could be done by end of year

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011 11:20 a.m. (0)

Construction drawings for improvements to the David Hellams Community Center could be finished by the end of the year, but some members of the Greenville City Council say the city should decide what role the community centers will play in recreation before spending up to a million dollars on the project.

City Parks and Recreation Director Dana Souza showed council five options for fixing up the center on Spartanburg Street – ranging from $654,189 to $998,194.

The city has five community centers.  Continue reading...

 

Artists. Here, everywhere

Diverse in their backgrounds and their talents, they have shaped and continue to shape Spartanburg’s visual arts scene

DECEMBER 21, 2011 2:33 p.m. (0)

They are the diners sitting at the next table, the next person in line at the grocery store.

They are neighbors, co-workers and the teachers at the school down the street.  Continue reading...

 

The long, from the short of it

Filmmakers will be looking for cast members, crew during Film Fan Night

JANUARY 27, 2012 9:59 a.m. (0)

Spartanburg writer Michel Stone was thrilled when editor C. Michael Curtis chose her short story, “Expecting Goodness,” for a collection to be published by Hub City Press.

Excitement came when the book was named after her story about a hesitant husband beginning the journey toward adopting a child.  Continue reading...