Could the West End be the home for Greenville's live-music future?

Greenville live-music fans interested in improving the local scene may have taken a few lines from one of the Beatles.

Upstate music fans have renewed in recent months conversations about making #yeahTHATgreenville synonymous with "cool music vibe." Some government types, musicians, fans and venue owners seem to echo sentiments from John Lennon's song, "Imagine."

You may say that I'm just a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will be as one

Nashville has Music Row; Memphis has Beale Street, and someday Greenville's live music scene could make believers even out of the most devout skeptics.

As Greenville Mayor Knox White walks a few blocks downtown toward the city's minor league baseball stadium, he can hear the music yet to play. He recalls people scoffing at another idea 15 years ago — the thought that Main Street and surrounding streetscapes could be a preferred location for young professionals and others.

"You couldn't find five people who thought Greenville was cool then," said White. "We've really evolved to the point that people like the mixed-use environment — part of that is the music and street activity that makes for just a great city."

So why hasn't the music scene flourished in the heart of one of South Carolina's most financially thriving regions?

Like different people still trying to interpret Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" from 1965 or a Nirvana song from the 1990s, residents and business owners have their own views on the local music scene's seemingly stunted growth.

Some say venue owners and managers don't value musicians; some venue owners and managers blame market forces and city regulations discouraging efforts to expand music options.

Conflicting values

"To be a live-music venue downtown in the business district, it's damn hard," said Alex Dial, owner of Moe Joe Coffee and Music House on Main Street. "I've got to install a bunch of soundproofing to keep playing music so people who live three blocks away won't complain about me."

Dial opened his music venue in late summer after success with a similar operation in Clemson, where a college-town population of some 19,000 students creates a driving market force for music. Dial compliments Greenville's local government for encouraging special events featuring live music but said red tape hurts businesses like his.

Mixed-use development that brings together residential and commercial can create a conflict of values, especially around 10 p.m. when someone has to wake up early the next morning and others believe the party just started.

"It's really hard when you have an actively, thriving downtown with entertainment venue and restaurants rubbing shoulders, or blocks, with what has been traditionally quiet downtown neighborhoods," said Gene Berger, who opened local music store Horizon Records in 1975.

"Greenville's problem is it wants to have the hipness of a powerful music scene, or certain factions do, and the rest of Greenville really doesn't."

City ordinances prohibit noise higher than 80 decibels, comparable to an alarm clock or police whistle, during the day and 75, just higher than common street noise, from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. In other parts of the city, regulations limit noise to 60 decibels during the day and 55 at night.

White has mixed thoughts about live music in the city, particularly downtown. He said no significant support exists for loosening noise regulations in areas downtown where residents have voiced complaints about late-night music. Residential development downtown and throughout the city in recent years makes most live performances within earshot of where someone calls home.

"We built out so fast and have residents in places we didn't in the past," White said. "The window of opportunity is closing unless we do some proactive planning."

White and Berger joined other city and business leaders for a trip to Austin in 2005 to see first-hand how the place known as the "live music capital of the world" creates a Texas-sized sense of place, attracting music lovers from throughout the country and beyond to visit and live.

White's voice suggests excitement when he discusses municipal planning insight gained from Willie Nelson's adopted hometown.

"For serious music acts, it's good to cluster them if you can," White said. "It really creates an energy and a vibe when you've got to it together."

Musical redevelopment

White credits recent renewed music scene discussions to a TEDx Greenville forum in January and the closing of the Handlebar, a 500-person capacity venue on Stone Avenue, in April.

The conversation has grown as discussions in City Hall have focused on updating downtown regulations and policies. White said he sees potential in encouraging more live-music venues to open in the West End. This could happen when the city updates current design guidelines for the Central Business District, an area stretching from parts of North Academy Street to Vardry Street to the south. East and west boundaries mostly fall within Academy and Church streets.

Mike Kerski, Greenville planning and development manager, said by April the city should publish requests for proposals for an outside company to bid for the process. The most recent design review guidelines for the business district — which include height, setback, color, sign and material requirements — date to 2000.

"The city was a lot different 15 years ago," Kerski said.

Beyond city changes, technological advances mean plans for proposed projects can be viewed in more sophisticated ways, often in 3-D.

City Council will determine how and when to proceed once the deadline to submit proposals passes, likely late spring or early summer. The process usually involves public meetings to help determine changes compared existing regulations.

White said the West End down to the Greenville Drive baseball stadium could be the right location to encourage more music venues to open for multiple reasons: the area is located near fewer residential parts of downtown, has property available for redevelopment and one existing venue, Smiley's Acoustic Café.

Identifying an area for potential music venues and live entertainment could allow the city to formally adjust policies and regulations to encourage similar businesses to locate in close proximity. One possible change could involve the sign restrictions.

"It would be great if I could hang a neon guitar out there," said Smiley's owner, Mike Fletcher.

His business avoids noise complaints even with live music six nights a week, often two shows a night. He recently sat at table inside Smiley's and looked through the front windows to imagine dancing and singing nearby.

The idea of clustering music venues together makes sense to Fletcher.

"It creates excitement," he said. "Some people will go out to a place if they've got choices within walking distance."

Similar approaches have led to an association of music and nightlife in other cities. The collective presence of multiple venues offering different musical genres could draw more people than each business in isolation. More people spending money while enjoying downtown music also could encourage the scene to grow in support, recognition and profits.

Fletcher said he's considered expanding but needs to feel confident in the additional investment, potentially doubling occupancy to 200 people, maybe more.

Another promising element of the idea of a West End music cluster is that Greenville Transit Authority relocated to 100 W. McBee Ave., making 2.9 acres of government-owned property available for redevelopment at 106 and 154 Augusta St.

"Where Smiley's is down there is interesting, because you have so much undeveloped area," White said. "Perhaps something could catch on there."

As for now, Greenville residents and music supporters have time to consider the potential for a West End filled with music and energy. Any formal city changes would likely happen closer to 2016.

Musician Whitney Walters, organizer of TEDx Greenville's monthly talks, coordinated the January forum to focus on improving the music scene. Downtown business owner Dial and Jaze Uries, an acclaimed drummer, each provided their perspective in the larger discussion.

"People were really charged about the conversation," Walters said. "No pun intended, but it definitely struck a chord."

Russell Stall, executive director of Greenville Forward, said the organization can help facilitate further conversations but believes discussions should include a spectrum of voices and perspectives. He said residents who care enough to discuss and debate the community's future really comprise the bulk of Greenville's secret sauce.

"We tell people it was a 30-year overnight success," Stall said. "It took decades of planning, conversation and hard negotiations to make it the jewel that we have."

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