"Once the retail center of the area, Greenville's downtown began to languish in the 1960s. As shopping centers lured the major retailers to the suburbs, downtown was left with countless vacant buildings and no people. Greenville faced what other cities faced, a dying downtown in the midst of a growing region. To meet the challenge, Greenville embarked on "downtown redevelopment," remaking Main Street and creating an atmosphere conducive to office, residential, specialty retail, entertainment and the arts. Downtown Greenville’s renaissance became an evolutionary process marked with significant achievements over twenty-five years." - FFing Enigma (aka Tina) from Bookmarklet

Wow, trees make all the difference in the world. - Kevin Pedraja

Downtown Greenville is spectacular. A great example for other towns to follow. - Dave Roth

There are hundreds of trees downtown now, Kevin. Plus, they narrowed Main St from 4 lanes to 2, with free slot parking on either side. They've done a great job of continuously improving things too, rather than just dumping money in 30 years ago and letting it sit. If you come to the FF Meetup I'm working on in June, you can come hang out with us downtown! - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

And Dave: I agree, though of course I am a bit biased ;-) - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Looks like you've had some good leaders! My town is just now embarking on similar efforts starting with efforts along our main street downtown (4th Ave). I hope we have as much success in the longer term! - Bill Rawlinson

Was Main a major commute route? I ask b/c there's a street in Seattle that could use a makeover just like this one, but there is a lot of resistance to doing anything creative because it gets a fair amount of traffic. - Kevin Pedraja

Holy Smokes! FFing Enigma is from Greenville? Heh heh. (I grew up in Rome, Ga.) - Nick in Manila

Kevin, Main is the cross street to a rather major commuter route (two separate one way streets, which are the main way into and out of the city). Those are also undergoing long term renovation and look infinitely better at this point. It completely changes the way you see the city coming in. And Nick, yes, I live in Greenville =) Although, if you want to get technical about it, I'm from Pumkintown SC as that's where I spent most of my childhood =D - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Whoa! I've been to Pickens but never heard of Pumpkintown. That's about the coolest name I've ever heard of. - Nick in Manila

Wow, what a loverly city you have there. I've heard it's great place to live and now I"m beginning to see why! - CAJ, somewhere else

Horizontal traffic lights, cool! - Bryce Roney

LOL! Nick, I went to Pickens High for one year before transferring to the Governor's School. Not many people can say they've been to Pickens. Pumpkintown is about 15 miles away, near Highway 11 and Table Rock mountain. Pumpkintown consists of a store and some blinky lights. That's it. And Alan: if you've never been to the area, you ought to visit. FFers get BBQ or beer when they visit, my treat! - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

wow! - Jim: Dead Like FF

Very pretty, Tina. I've been to the Furman campus, but it's been a number of years. Other than that, my only SC trips are only on the interstate. - Laura B.

Much nicer looking. - Nation Hahn