re: Is Columbia SC a nice city?

I feel like I have a pretty good neutral opinion of Columbia.

I was born and raised in East TN and went UT. After graduating I moved to Charleston about 7 years ago. I've been to 4 TN-SC games now over the years.

I had to do a 6 month stint in Columbia for work from last August to this Feb. so I had a chance actually live there as well.

Columbia has some major issues but also some decent bright spots, you just have to know where to look for them.

We lived in the Forest Acres area of Columbia and it really is a really nice pocket. Some cool bars and local spots. (Pizza Man, Basil, Cantina 76 and Henry's are good spots).

The Vista area is also really nice with a bunch of good eateries and a couple rooftop bars.

The BIG problem with Columbia and visiting for a football weekend is that the stadium and tailgating area is NOWHERE near any of this. It isn't like any other SEC campus where you can get down to your tailgating spot early in the morning and not worry about having to drive again later that day.

The Cockabooses are fun, but like it has been said in this thread, good luck getting into them without having a great connection. Usually my tailgating experience is filled with a bunch of my Gamecock and Tennessee friends spread out at different tailgates across the fairgrounds and me wandering aimlessly between them trying to see everyone. It is very spread out and can be really confusing.

I have a ton of Gamecock friends so the fans are always very nice and hospitable. I've sat right in the center of the SC section before alone as the only TN fan and had nothing but good natured banter come back at me.

So in summary, the city has a couple good areas surrounded by some really bad ghetto's and if you could move the stadium up to campus you could have a great setting, but in it's current state it will always be in the bottom third of the SEC...IMO.