A warning about Greenville, SC

I grew up in this area and I get the appeal. It’s a city that pops up in “best cities to move to” lists often because it’s growing, is in a beautiful part of the country, close to the mountains, etc.

But it’s losing all of the personality it once had. Due to state laws requiring prohibitively expensive liability insurance policies, local bars that give the city its character are closing left and right. My favorite, The Velo Fellow, is closing next month.

The young people who live here and who are moving here are mostly married couples and families. The dating scene is abysmal. The “cheap cost of living” appeal is disappearing rapidly because of overdevelopment.

I probably also don’t need to tell you about South Carolina’s awful state government. On top of the culture wars, you also have critical levels of incompetence and cronyism.

There are great people here, yes. And there is a queer scene full of cool people. But things are trending in a very alarming direction right now, both culturally and economically.

So don’t believe the articles you read telling you about how great we are. That’s changing rapidly.

Edit to add: when I say “overdevelopment,” I mean that the types of homes being built are not meant to be affordable for the people living here. They’re primarily expensive townhomes that only wealthy transplants can afford.

Just adding context since people are pointing out that building housing doesn’t typically mean more expensive housing since it’s meeting demand. In this case, though, it’s not meeting the demand for locals. It’s poor planning on the part of our city and county officials. That, or it’s not poor planning and they’re just not worried about pushing locals out at all, which is my theory.