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Available Episodes

5 of 336

Why Downtown Spartanburg Growth Matters
On our last episode, we took a look back at the recent history of Downtown Spartanburg growth and development, examining the pivotal moments and projects that set the stage for the headline-grabbing, precedent-setting investments we're seeing take shape in our city's core today. But why is all that growth meaningful to city residents? How does the projected $1.77 billion economic impact our community will see actually translate into increased opportunities for Spartanburg's people? What makes our story deeper than a simple embrace of growth for its own sake? Today on the podcast, we get City Manager Chris Story's take on those questions. Along the way we revisit his decades of experience working in the downtown development space, getting a sense of how that work has changed over the years and what we can learn about where Downtown Spartanburg is headed based on where it has been. Also crashing the party for this conversation is former City Communications Manager, Will Rothschild. Serving from 2011 to 2017, Will provides context for how messaging downtown's growth and development helped shape today's landscape.
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54:33
A Recent History of Downtown Spartanburg Growth
It's tough to miss the signs of dramatic change in Downtown Spartanburg these days. With $800 million of development underway on a handful of blocks west of Church Street, the landscape looks a lot different than it did a few years ago and the skyline will soon look much different than it does today. But how did we get here? What were the moments in Downtown Spartanburg's recent history that built momentum for the current record-breaking investment we're seeing today. Today on the podcast, we're looking back at that recent history to provide context for the changes underway in our city's core, from streetscaping projects that improved the pedestrian landscape, to historic redevelopment projects that breathed new life into long vacant icons.
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What is a Council-Manager Form of Government?
When we first launched the Spartanburg City Podcast in 2012, things were a bit different in our city. Having recently emerged from the worst effects of the Great Recession, downtown's redevelopment was just starting to regain some its lost momentum, the Northside had only recently approved its transformation plan, and while work the leadership in City Hall was working diligently to move Spartanburg forward, the local landscape didn't provide the kinds of obvious signs of progress we all see today. Moreover, local media hadn't picked up on a turnaround that was too early in its evolution to bear much tangible fruit. The people in the trenches sensed what was coming, but getting people to pay attention was another matter. The City Podcast was part of our attempt to fill the information void in those days, telling the story of Spartanburg's transformation and talking with the people within local government and beyond who were making that transformation possible. We cast a wide net, discussing not just downtown and neighborhood redevelopment, but also history, arts and culture, the nonprofit community, health and wellness, trail development and active living, and just about anything else we felt wasn't getting the attention it might deserve. For years, that model was successful, and many episodes became reference points for residents looking for information about a specific local topic or development. Also over those years, we got some company in sharing the good news. Partnering organizations beefed up their own marketing, local media began to pick up the story of Spartanburg's rise, and what had been a kind of information vacuum was filled with the buzz around our city's trajectory and its bright future. Recognizing this, late last year we put the City Podcast on hiatus until we could commit the staff time and energy into figuring out a viable path forward for it, and now we think we've done that. Put plainly, we're taking the City podcast back to its information gap-filling roots, refocusing the show on local government specifically, doing deep dives on topics that are meant to equip listeners with the tools they need to become more engaged residents and participants in their community's future. For this first episode, we're exploring the basics of local government structure in the City of Spartanburg, looking at how the Council-Manager form of government works in South Carolina. We'll discuss how this structure functions, the responsibilities of City Council, the Mayor, and the City Manager, and what the advantages of this system are for you as a resident.
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45:18
Angels Charge marks 10 years assisting women in finding new lives after incarceration
In 2014, Pastor Nannie Jefferies saw a need in Spartanburg that no other organization was filling. After visiting with and ministering to incarcerated relatives of her parishioners, Pastor Jefferies was struck by the lack of assistance and hope those women had once they were released. Many of the women were often left with no alternative but to return to the same environments that had led them down the path to incarceration in the first place, putting them at much higher risk of recidivism. Recognizing the need to offer a better solution, Pastor Jefferies founded Angels Charge, which has been working to provide that solution for recently incarcerated women in Spartanburg ever since. Today on the podcast, we're talking with Pastor Jefferies about the work Angels Charge does and the impact that work has on the women served and the larger community they call home.
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A conversation on the City's response to Hurricane Helene
It was a storm unlike any in living memory in Spartanburg, and while the damage our region experienced from Hurricane Helene far exceeded everyone's estimates, the City and the community came together to put us on the road to recovery. Today on the podcast, we're talking with City Manager Chris Story, Fire Chief Pierre Brewton, and Public Works Director Jay Squires about the City's response to Hurricane Helene and the road ahead for Spartanburg.
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53:29
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