This editorial originally appeared in the Greenwood Index Journal on May 2, 2012 and is posted with permission.

Anyone who has lived in this area a few years will likely agree the Upstate is a great place to raise a family. Sure, the region has its share of problems, as does any region of the country, but the Upstate has a healthy blend of those ingredients that make it easy to call it "home."

We have a business-friendly climate and a generally great climate weather-wise. Big city life is not far from a roomier country life, and vice-versa. Our education system has room for improvement, but many of education's problems lie as much or more at the feet of those entering the schools than with the teachers and the system itself.

And while the Upstate remains a great place to raise a family, an overriding question on the minds of many of its residents, business and corporate leaders is how to keep it that way.

Meet TATT. TATT - an acronym for Ten at the Top - is a nonprofit association representing a cross-section of people within a 10-county geographical region who have a vested interest in ensuring the Upstate remains a great place to raise a family through collaborative efforts. The 10-county region consists of Abbeville, Anderson, Cherokee, Greenville, Greenwood, Laurens, Oconee, Pickens, Spartanburg and Union.

The concept is relatively simple, even logical. Working in concert, the region can do more good than if each county operates in a vacuum. It is a given that if you have a problem to fix, you will fix it correctly and more definitively if you bring all those affected to the table to share their perspectives. That is not to say Ten at the Top represents a problem-solving team; however, each county within TATT shares some of the same problems and goals, from jobs growth to education, from transportation to all facets of quality of life.

By Dean Hybl

Confucius once said that “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

It is my hope that someday we will look back on an agreement that was recently approved by the largest transportation planning organizations in the Upstate as the one step that launched the Upstate into an era of transportation collaboration, innovation and excellence.

One in which the elected, business and community leaders from across the region identified key priorities, efficiently maximized the use of resources and worked together to ensure that the Upstate developed the transportation infrastructure needed to increase economic prosperity while ensuring that the traffic gridlock that is common in places like Atlanta and Charlotte never became part of life in the Upstate.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that was recently approved by the policy boards of the Greenville Pickens Area Transportation Study (GPATS) and Spartanburg Area Transportation Study (SPATS) and that also includes the Appalachian Council of Governments (ACOG), which coordinates transportation planning for the non-urban areas in Greenville, Spartanburg, Pickens, Anderson, Oconee and Cherokee counties, is primarily a process agreement. One that formally allows the planning staffs to communicate and work together on planning and implementation of transportation projects.

However, in a greater context, this first-in-the-Upstate regional transportation planning partnership deserves great praise and hopefully will be the first of a series of partnerships that could eventually lead to a regional transportation strategy and a shared realization that we all have a role to play in ensuring that the long-term transportation needs of our region are met.

In a regional survey that Ten at the Top conducted in 2010, nearly 7,000 Upstate residents identified transportation as a key regional issue and said that they had noticed an increase in the time it took to travel from place to place and were concerned that it would continue to get worse.

I suspect that many will agree that traffic congestion has not improved since 2010 and in many places is even worse. While the difference may be only another couple minutes per trip, imagine if that increase continues to build in the coming decades. Suddenly, that 15 minute drive from Mauldin to downtown Greenville, 20 minute trip from Greer to Spartanburg or 30 minute drive from Anderson to the GSP Airport will have each doubled, meaning we are spending more time in our vehicles and less time with our families or conducting business.

By Sam Erwin and Dean Hybl

When Ten at the Top held the initial Our Upstate Vision Economic & Entrepreneurial Vitality Task Force Meeting last May, there was a consensus amongst the community leaders in attendance that the Upstate lacked a central source of information for people who want to start or grow a business. In subsequent meetings of other task forces, similar themes emerged   related to community events, special historical and environmental places and community programs.

In reality, anyone who has spent time searching for Upstate specific information or resources knows that there is an abundance of great local information and resources for business support, local events and much more with most of it available right at our fingertips thanks to the internet.  

The problem then isn’t a lack of information, but instead the lack of a easy way to find or access local information and resources   We all know that Google is a wonderful tool, but when you initiate a search with terms such as “starting a business in Upstate SC” or “Upstate SC local events”, the results consist of an overwhelming number of sites that each provide some information, but not a complete picture of what is available across the Upstate.

To address this problem, the Our Upstate Vision Task Forces decided to develop a web-based tool to funnel all the available information into one local internet location (a web portal).  We believe this portal could become a valuable tool for Upstate residents looking to start or grow a business, find fun family activities to enjoy on a weekend or searching for other specific local resources or information.

Thanks to an initial funding grant from the Graham Foundation, the Upstate Information Hub (www.ourupstatesc.info) has been created to serve as a local resource that we believe will make it easier for Upstate residents to access information and resources from across the region.

The 2010 Census is out and as earlier predicted both South Carolina and specifically the 10-county Upstate region are seeing growth rates well above other places across the United States. While we celebrate that the Upstate continues to be an attractive and vibrant place to live, do business and raise a family, these numbers also illustrate the importance for business and elected leaders across our region to continue identifying opportunities to work together in planning for the future of the Upstate.

Since 1990, the 10-county Upstate South Carolina region has added more than 300,000 new residents. A portion has been from existing residents having children while the rest is a result of people from other parts of the country and world choosing to make the Upstate their home. All of this growth and the continued vibrancy of our region have helped contribute to the Upstate consistently being ranked by residents as a great place to live and raise a family.

If this growth trend continues, it means that by 2030 the Upstate will have a population somewhere near 1.65 million people.

In surveys that Ten at the Top did as part of the development of the Shared Upstate Growth Vision, which will be unveiled during a free community event on April 27^th, Upstate residents reflected a concern that traffic congestion and increased land use for development are starting to impact their quality of life.

As our region continues to grow, the challenge is to ensure that we receive the positive benefits of this increased population in terms of additional jobs, commerce and cultural enrichment while mitigating some of the potential negative results associated with growth that isn’t properly planned and thoughtfully constructed.