CitizenSpartanBlog

What a fabulous meeting we had last night! We had about 40 folks show up including 3 City Council members!  It was fantastic and proof that our community is ready for a Citizen Spartanburg.

The meeting consisted of a little business and a little socializing—we hope a nice balance for all. We opened the meeting by answering the question ‘who are we’ and ‘what do we want to do’? We explained how Citizen is a grassroots effort of everyday citizens who want to make a difference in our community. That we want to build community connections for citizens to our non-profits, elected leaders and the business community. We want to rally the Spartanburg troops. We want to serve as a community catalyst and get some things started! We must stand behind Spartanburg through the good and the bad. And, despite the fact we will not always agree, we must do this together.

People seemed super excited about the POSITIVE! Who doesn’t want or need positive???

We shared what we hope to accomplish with the First Monday Meetings. Networking, new ideas, finding focus and sharing our ideas and events with each other and building support. The whole community is welcome and needed. We must find ways to reach out to everyone.

Finally we introduced the POST-it question of the night! The POST-it question of the night was: What would success in our community look like? The group was told an answer can be as simple as ‘more restaurants downtown’ to something more complex. They wrote their answers on post-it notes and stuck it on the easel. Here’s what we got! (they were handwritten so I’m doing my best to decipher on some!)

• Thriving downtown
• Community that supports local
• Empowered citizens
• More people walking around downtown, shopping, eating, drinking and having fun with each other, their children and their dogs
• Success—people are walking and bicycling everywhere because they feel safe and connected
• Educators who work together to create social from their respective institutions, neighborhoods and/or “community”
• Educators who are proud of their role and powerful
• Constructive/critical student action
• Put the historic preservation portion back in the Master Plan
• I would like to see us work for a restaurant no-smoking ban
• Make an energetic downtown—more restaurants, rent cap for new business, summer outdoor movies
• Increase in “downtown” population/residents
• Residents inhabiting existing structures
• Alcohol sales on Sunday and a smoking ban
• Merge City and County government
• Would like to see a more streamlined version of issues and when they would be on the City Council agenda. It’s too overwhelming to try to get through traditional media for info.
• Do Neighborhood Associations actually meet together? As with anything, why keep reinventing the same wheel? Same with non-profits—what are we all doing that can help each other—grant writing?
  Neighborhood parties and neighborhood pride (litter, crime, walk to school)
• Stop being a college town in denial—make it obvious downtown. We have 7 colleges!
• Celebration of the City’s music heritage
• Support all of the Arts in Spartanburg
• More activities in City and neighborhood parks
• Influencing business owners downtown to relax rents to try to help bring more business downtown
• A city that welcomes diversity
• Every child has access to quality education regardless of where you live. No more project schools.
• A community where the middle class is the majority and we have quality housing for them
• A road diet on East Main from St. John to Converse St.
• Success—City and County Council are packed every meeting
• More cohesion between City and County
• Lower cost to own/lease space in downtown for business purposes
• More ‘kid-friendly’ restaurants in downtown
• More parking downtown
• More bike racks
• Need to work to revitalize downtown—more restaurants, bars and clubs—really make nightlife come alive and it will generate more tax revenues for the City
• Approval of the Master Plan!
• Repeal Sunday Blue Laws in Spartanburg
• Success—there are NO parking places Downtown because it is so hot!
• Fewer payday lenders
• More people and about (active, involved, doing, seeing, enjoying, attending, voicing, participating, smiling, disagreeing, dialoguing, etc. etc.)
• I would like to see a smoke-free Spartanburg
• Cool Downtown with lots of pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcycle parking. Live music, good restaurants, vintage clothing store.
• Seeing people of all ages walking, visiting, laughing, playing on the streets of Spartanburg as well as Morgan Square
• Strong Mayor form of Government
• Creativity and experimentation (in arts, culture and ideas) are valued, encouraged and unencumbered
• The aesthetic of Spartanburg is democratic, authentic and clearly “branded.”
• All citizens feel engaged and invited to participate
• Downtown is the most desirable place in the county to live, work and play
• Local history is regarded with pride and historic buildings and places are protected
• Local citizens are proactive about protecting and restoring key environmental resources such as clean air, water and land
• Downtown will have a mix of dining, entertainment, retail and residential space
• PRIDE in Spartanburg
• A vibrant downtown—a destination spot
• Cooperation between City and County agendas
• A Downtown with people (bars, restaurants, snack shops—ice cream, coffee, bakery)
• Preserve the green spaces
• Preserve the historical buildings
• Encourage local business owners
• More development/revitalization of Union Street
• Better coordination among colleges/universities
• Low unemployment, more parents involved with schools and more Arts in the community!
• Success—people are racing to buy homes in the City!
• A more exciting and thriving downtown district along with a stronger closeness between the various neighborhoods
• Close off Downtown to cars. Bikes and Peds only!
• Attract more and different business so there are fewer vacant storefronts and other buildings. It makes us look so run-down and like a ‘has-been’ town.
• What about making Citizen Spartanburg a kind of Citizens Council where citizens/community groups are represented, mobilize together, discuss issues, collaborate and share resources for different initiatives?
• Have a monthly focus or a ‘to do this month’ sponsored by Citizen Spartanburg, i.e. plan a night out Downtown, attend an event at the Chapman Cultural Center, volunteer your time to a local non-profit, etc. Use Facebook, email lists, etc. to promote.
• Co-Op Downtown
• Investments in Infrastructure
• Make it a place where our children want to come back to
• Realistic plan to revitalize Union Street
• Success—people who invest in our community cannot wait for the next opportunity 
• ridiculous numbers of women and other minority voters, even in off-year elections
• 55% or so women / other minorities elected to local, state, and national bodies

Now…there is some food for thought! Next question to ponder is how? We will be working on the answer to that as well. We are currently working on getting a forum up where we can discuss these ideas. Give us a little time–this is truly a grassroots effort!

Many thanks to everyone who came last night. Next month, let’s do it again! And THANK YOU for caring about community!