Greenvile

Greenville, South Carolina starts suddenly, there's a dead land around it full of strip malls, Mexican restaurants and a Publix. There is a gate somewhere in the deadland, and it leads to Furman University's gorgeous campus full of fountains and trees.

But the dead land is not the city proper. No, the city proper starts suddenly. One instant, you're in the dead lands of strip malls and fast food restaurants, the next, you're in one of the most well designed cities in the country.

Greenville has a convention center, some hotels, but mostly, there are shops. There's any kind of shopping imaginable, and you can walk to it over cobblestones and through wonderfully laid-out crosswalks. There's a coffee shop that makes single-serving soft-serve with whatever toppings you could imagine mixed in. There is a street, long and straight with bars on each side catering to almost any social scene you could possibly identify with.

But that's not why you go to Greenville, you go to Greenville for Fall's Park.

It's not as big as Central Park, or as famous. But it doesn't need to be. Greenville is a short drive away from most any outdoor adventure you could imagine. The park needs not be the city's only outdoor escape, they have plenty. The park just needs to be.

And that's what it does. It exists in simplicity and beauty, a large creek runs through the park, broken up by a steep drop and waterfall over which spans a gorgeous suspension bridge. There are few night lights in the park. Possibly not the greatest decision from a Jack The Ripper perspective. But man, at night, walking through the barely lit paths of Falls Park, it's easy to forget that you're in a city at all.

I started thinking about Falls Park and Greenville because of one piece of news. The Google, Fiber for Communities project is going to select one or more cities to receive broadband, Google style. Where speed means downloading a full movie off of iTunes in 70 seconds, and lag-free video chat for all.

To get the service, cities are trying some crazy things. Topeka, Kansas renamed itself Google, NPR has talked a lot about that. But for me, the only real worthy contestant is teh city that starts suddenly, Greenville, South Carolina.

Two weeks ago, a little over 2,000 Greenville residents brought glow-sticks to Falls Park and spelled out Google. The full word could really only be seen from the air.

But that's what planes were made for.

If the people of a city love their home so much that they are willing to spend the kind of money that it takes to create something as beautiful as Falls Park on its improvement, then that place must be doing something special.

So Google, give Greenville your internet. They deserve it.