This booming SC city is having its 1st competitive mayoral race in a generation. See who’s running

In 28 years as mayor of Greenville, Knox White has rarely faced formidable opposition.

Until now.

A former member of the city council and leader of various nonprofits over the past 30 years, Michelle Shain is challenging White, running on a platform that Greenville’s growth has left too many people behind and caused a myriad problems, from traffic congestion to housing prices that are out of reach for many.

White acknowledges housing is expensive but says the city is addressing that on several fronts, including setting aside 8 acres for affordable housing beside Unity Park, a 60-acre urban park that opened in 2022.

The other side of the park is slated for a mixed-use development that the city will seek proposals from developers. The price for the land is $20 million that will be put back into neighborhoods for infrastructure.

The city has also established a $30 million Greenville Housing Fund to close the affordability gap.

White was elected mayor after serving on the city council for 12 years. He defeated longtime mayor Bill Workman in a Republican primary and then, in the general election, went on to defeat city council member Lillian Brock Flemming, who is still on council and is its longest serving member. She was his last formidable opponent.

Shain joined the council four years after White and, as chair of the economic development committee, worked on many of the projects White claims as some of his major successes, including Falls Park on the Reedy, which jump-started downtown revitalization and brought shops, restaurants and hundreds of apartment units. For the first time in a long time, possibly ever, people were visiting and living downtown.

What the city didn’t foresee was the extent of the park’s success and its effect on property values. White vowed they wouldn’t do the same with Unity Park.

While Shain served beside White in the 2000s, the council also lured a Major League Baseball affiliate — the Drive — to a new stadium in the languishing West End, south of downtown. That area blossomed as well.

Shain left the council in 2007 and has led organizations such as the Children’s Museum of the Upstate, YWCA, A Child’s Haven and the United Way.

White is a lawyer who specializes in immigration and is a scion of the Haynsworth family, a legal dynasty in Greenville. His great-uncle was Clement Haynsworth, a federal appeals court judge who was denied the opportunity to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court after being nominated by President Nixon.

White’s passion, though, was on resurrecting his hometown and building on a plan started in the late 1970s by then-mayor Max Heller. Heller escaped the Nazis in 1938 from Austria and made a fortune in textiles before devoting himself to public service. He was beloved. A life-sized bronze statue of him stands on Main Street.

White said in an interview Thursday he is proud to have built on Heller’s foundation, especially the wide sidewalks and tree-lined Main Street.

Shain said in an interview Thursday initially she did not want to run against White, who she and her husband supported. She asked five people to run against him. All declined saying they wanted to run when the seat was open. White has said this is his last race.

But someone needed to rein in what Shain calls accelerated growth, adding it’s nice to be on so many top 10 lists and attract tourists but more important to make the city a great place to live for residents.

She would like to find ways for teachers and policemen and women to live in the city. She wants to stop the exodus of Black residents and decrease the out of area developers investment.

“People are being pushed out,” she said.

White said what has happened is minority residents are moving out of traditionally minority neighborhoods to areas all around the city. That’s a good thing, he said.

He also said it was blatantly false that he doesn’t listen to the people. He said there are 35 neighborhood organizations when once there were six. Based on their input the city has issued a $36 million infrastructure bond for sidewalks, road repaving, park and the like.

The most meaningful thing for him is that young people are moving back to Greenville because of what the city has become, his own two children among them.

Going forward he wants an eighth term to tackle affordable housing and the development of a triangular piece of land at the entrance of downtown that once housed Greenville Memorial Auditorium. The land has been vacant since the auditorium was razed in 1997 when an arena was built, now known Bon Secours Wellness Arena or The Well.

A Miami developer has signed on to build Gracie Plaza at the Arena District, an entertainment district with two buildings — 16 and seven stories for 294 apartments, 8,000 square feet of retail space and creative studios.

There will be a public plaza to act as a community gathering space and a unique solution to parking — partially underground with a raised terrace on top for a restaurant, water feature and public art.

White said there are two more spurs to come from the Swamp Rabbit Trail, an extensive walk-bike path through Greenville County.

Greenville “has turned out better than I ever could have imagined,” he said.

Shain and White are going door to door, running ads and asking for votes. Both said they feel good about their prospects.

Tuesday is Election Day.