Uploaded on 2015-04-18 by StephanieCarta

[1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14293846548812751.jpg Fountain Inn, South Carolina, USA is a small town outside a growing city. It's part of Greenville County, a rather prosperous area attracting a lot of people from out of state and known for its job growth, urban renewal, and natural spaces. The larger region in the southeastern "Sunbelt" includes some of America's largest cities, such as Atlanta, Georgia and Charlotte, North Carolina. This is Fountain Inn's Main Street, comprising of several blocks of urban space and retail, mainly locally owned businesses, what Americans like to romanticize as "mom and pop" stores. Sorry for the low resolution picture. Here's a link to a better one (not owned by me). http://gsabusiness.com/news/46683-fountain-inn-continues-investing-in-its-downtown?rss=0 The visible information includes the road itself, parking and traffic signals. Upgrading this infrastructure is an ongoing process by the municipal government. The purpose of the upgrades, such as new sidewalks, is to revitalize the downtown and to encourage people to shop there. This is challenge common many American towns. Downtown areas are traditionally part of the American landscape but in the 1960's and 1970's large big-block shopping malls drew people away from their own downtowns and to multi-national chain stores. You can also see that there are some cars parked and people. It's not a "dead" area but not yet at its potential either, in my opinion. Having economically viable and attractive businesses here, as well as pedestrian traffic and an aesthetically pleasing downtown, would make this downtown a great little urban space. The invisible information I believe includes how to make sure that Main St. businesses remain viable and profitable and that owners have good business models and plans. This knowledge can come from economists but also from social science as well. One has to understand the customer and what they want to make a good business plan. Of course the government has to be on board since they are in charge of zoning and can approve or deny specific businesses. Because of America's federalist structure, officials at the local level have much power and responsibility. Context is important as well. Fountain Inn has an interesting history of being a mill town. Most of the mill village still stands, now in the hand of individual private owners. For much of the 20th century, this was a classic example of an extractive system in terms of the relationship between the mill owners and mill workers. Mill owners controlled their workers on the job and off; the workers were seen as simple rural people who needed supervision and punishment if they broke any terms of their contract. This raises the question of what cities do with their histories, their physical structures as well as the narrative. But today this area is a mix of long-time residents, some small farms, manufacturing workers, white collar workers who commute, and retirees.