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Originally Posted by sopas ej
Great pics. Lake Conestee is very interesting; I like that you gave the background about it. I'm sure it looks a lot different in the summertime.
And hehe, whether you wanted to do a parody of or an homage to my LA thread, either way, I feel flattered!
Looking forward to more pics!
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When it comes to your thread, it's just plain interesting to see someone going about their day in an alpha world city that has built up such a glamorous cachet since the 1910's. Los Angeles is Los Angeles, no matter how often it pretends to be someplace else on TV or in the movies. It can't help but be itself, and it's in love with itself, and rightly so. No other city can be Los Angeles. Your thread is also inspiring, again because it's just plain interesting to see someone going about their day in a city like Los Angeles. I like seeing all these updates, and what's on the menu at all these interesting little places you visit. It makes me want to get out there and document my daily goings-on as well.
Meanwhile, here I am in a small city, deceptively so because this state makes it next to impossible to annex. But even so, here I am in a booming New South city that has marketed itself with smashing success as a hub for international business. Companies from all over the world, but most notably Germany, France, Korea, and Japan, have operations here, which have attracted other companies from other places to serve them. There are companies here that make electronics, and cars, and tires, and even high-speed train cars, among many other things. General Electric has a major operation here, as does Lockheed Martin, which operates out of an old Air Force base from World War II. There is so much industrial activity that there's an inland port facility where all of these goods are collected and loaded into shipping containers before taking a ride on a dedicated rail line to the actual port down in Charleston.
This is an enormous difference from Asheville, which has forever viewed itself as a gorgeous tourist town that's far too pretty to work. Asheville is content to support itself with money from suitors, whereas Greenville makes its own money. And because Greenville makes its own money, and requires all these people and operations from around the world to keep the money coming, Greenville is leagues ahead of Asheville when it comes to diversity. I know it's nothing to someone who lives anywhere diverse, but I was beside myself when, a while back, I saw a stand set up in a Walmart parking lot to sell Diwali fireworks. I love hearing different languages when I go out in public, and I love all the ethnic markets and the Chinese and the Mexican supermarkets. I love unexpected combinations... such as at the "strip malls from heaven" that I like to visit, one of which contains a coffee shop, Thai restaurant, pho shop, and Vietnamese market among its offerings, and the other of which has an Italian restaurant, deli, Thai restaurant, sushi restaurant, Korean market, Japanese market, and an Indian bakery that makes magnificent chocolate and peanut butter croissants. The diversity is probably what I love most about Greenville -- because it sure as shit isn't the summer climate. That's awful.
Add it up though, and that's what's worth documenting about Greenville as I come and go, even with the occasional stop at Subway.
Now, speaking of what Lake Conestee looks like in the summer... Well, I can't say. I try to avoid movement as much as possible in the summer because summer here is godawful. However, I can tell you that I've visited it in the spring, and it looks different even then. Take a look at these photos from late March of last year:
You'll note there are a couple of photos of the actual Conestee Mill, which ceased operations in the 1970s, plus the dam that everyone's fretting about. The cost of doing something about the dam and pollution in the lake is what's kept anyone from redeveloping the mill. Almost every other mill in town that's still standing has been redeveloped as apartments or shopping, while three others that only have their smokestacks or ruins still standing are in the pipeline for redevelopment. But nobody's taking a chance with Conestee Mill quit yet.