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My column today:

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When it comes to downtown Greenville, S.C., you’ve got to see it to believe it.

To apply Greenville’s success to your downtown, though, you’ve got to believe it first.

I joined a bus load of High Point sightseers who spent last Friday touring downtown Greenville and meeting with government and business leaders. The group, about 30 strong, was on a mission to “figure out the ingredients of what another city has done,” said Tom Terrell, chairman of High Point’s Core City Plan Steering Committee.

Folks from Greensboro and many other places have done the same. Greenville leaders must spend half their time telling their story.

“We’re always happy to show off Greenville,” City Manager James Bourey told us. And share the secrets.

“This is the greatest example you’ll find in the country of a walkable downtown,” said Knox White, a lawyer who’s been mayor since 1995. “The magic we have created here is all about the pedestrian experience.”

Our pedestrian experience took us down Main Street from City Hall to the Reedy River, with its multilevel park that drops in elevation with a plunging waterfall.

Incredibly, the falls were covered by a four-lane bridge for motor vehicles until the city decided to get rid of it.

“Most people who grew up here had never seen that falls until four years ago,” said White, a native.

The plan drew stiff resistance, said Bourey. How would people drive from one part of town to the other?

“Sometimes you have to take a calculated risk,” the manager said.

Now the river is spanned, spectacularly, by a curving 355-foot suspension bridge — for pedestrians, naturally — that’s become one of the city’s top attractions.

“We probably have more people walk that bridge than ever drove over the old one,” City Councilman David Sudduth said.

Recent developments along the river include a hotel, restaurants, art shops and a condo complex where top-floor units go for more than a million dollars.

Still within walking distance to the south is a minor-league baseball park modeled after Boston’s Fenway — although Mayor White said he visited Greensboro’s downtown ballpark for inspiration. To the east, along a winding greenway, is the city’s zoo. Toward the “West End,” further projects are in the works. And seven blocks back uphill to the north is the Hyatt Hotel where the resurgence began almost 30 years ago.

We strolled under canopies of trees in splendid fall colors, past performing arts centers, statues and other public art, fountains, restaurants, bars, shops, office buildings, new and restored hotels. The Hyatt is built around a gigantic interior public space, including a bar and cafes, with offices on one side and the hotel on the other.

That was the new downtown’s first anchor project. Just as important was narrowing Main Street from four lanes of traffic to two, creating wider walking spaces, adding trees and other features. White remembers the opposition to that idea, too.

Skepticism continued, but strong, visionary leaders forged ahead, using tools like tax-increment financing, hotel taxes, food and beverage taxes and, on occasion, eminent domain. The city acquired properties and resold them to developers with stipulations about what projects were allowed. Plans were executed with discipline.

Today, said White, “the doubters are in full retreat.”

It helped, ironically, that South Carolina laws make it very difficult for cities to grow through annexation. That avoided the sprawl that for so many years depleted North Carolina inner cities.

“The only way we could grow was grow from within,” said Nancy Whitworth, Greenville’s economic and community development director. Even now, the city’s official population is a mere 56,000.

But it’s got the pull of a city 10 times that size, thanks to its vibrant downtown. “Unexpectedly, it has become our No. 1 economic development tool for all of Greenville County,” White said.

So, can High Point, a city of 100,000, create some of the magic? That was the question focusing discussions on the ride home Friday night.

The answer: absolutely. High Point’s central business district, dominated by furniture showrooms, poses challenges. But other parts of downtown, such as several blocks of North Main Street from, say, Farriss to Lexington avenues, already have attractive elements in place.

If the city could make it pedestrian-friendly and encourage the right kind of redevelopment where necessary, a good start is possible.

Magic, after all, always begins with believing.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to give me a call at 373-7039, email me at dgclark@news-record.com or post a comment here.