A breakdown of Five Points’ year-long to-do list.

What comes to mind when you hear “Five Points?” Maybe it’s “St. Pat’s.” Or, with the recent 2 a.m. bar permit debate (with amended laws just passed Tuesday), “college bars.” We’ve even heard the question, “What does Five Points do after St. Pat’s?”

While that kind of question is pretty baffling to us, it turns out a lot of people really don’t know what the Five Points Association (FPA) is, or what goes on in the neighborhood April-February (and before 10 p.m.).

So, we worked with our partner the Five Points Association to shed some light on what they do 360 days/year – including 🎉 10 events, 💰 $6+ million in economic impact (from one event, alone) and🚶thousands of visitors to the village neighborhood each year.

New to Columbia or born yesterday? Five Points is Columbia’s original business district, developed in the early 1900s. (Remember this #TBT?) It’s now home to 150+ (mostly) locally-owned retailers, restaurants, bars, services + more.

First, what exactly is the Five Points Association (FPA)?

FPA is a non-profit organization run by a five-person staff (an Executive Director, an Executive Assistant, and three Clean & Safe employees) with 145 association members (mostly business + property owners, but anyone can join). It’s governed by a Board of Directors – voted on each year by members of the Association. FPA is entirely funded by membership dues, revenue from St. Pat’s + Hospitality Tax (a.k.a. H-tax; how that works here.

What does the Five Points Association do (and not do)?

A lot more than just planning the annual St. Pat’s festival (read: the Midlands’ largest street festival, and no small feat).

FPA has their hands in everything that proactively happens in + around Five Points – from brick pavers + business recruitment (looking at you, Harper’s) to deciding on public art (hi, new mural) + planning events (of all scales: both new events + continuing ones that are decades old).

While the FPA is not the deciding vote in matters of state law, city ordinances, public safety, zoning, or even parking in Five Points, they do have a seat at the table and try to promote the greater good of the community. Many topics currently being debated (like bar closing times and issuing alcohol licenses) are not up to the FPA, but they do what they can to encourage decision-makers to do what’s best, long-term, for the business community as a whole.

Consider this the FPA’s annual to-do list:

Clean & Safe Efforts //

The Yellow Shirts aren’t just on Main St. Five Points has an in-house Clean & Safe Program with a 3-person team that works 7 days a week to keep Five Points + surrounding neighborhoods clean from trash + debris. The team members also serve as community ambassadors, answering questions + helping visitors.

The FPA + the Clean & Safe team work hand-in-hand with the Columbia Police Department to complement the CPD’s ongoing efforts, like visitor safety, best practices for local businesses, keeping panhandlers out of the area + more. (#ProTip: Behave in Five Points. FPA + CPD are always watching you. 👀) 200+ security cameras keep an eye on the neighborhood 24/7 – all paid for out of FPA’s operations budget (the only district that funds this upkeep themselves).

Events //

Five Points is Columbia’s only business district that has a full calendar of annual events planned completely in-house. Pretty baller. Those include:

St. Pat’s in Five Points (36 years running)

Summer Sidewalk Sale (7 years running)

Bar Stool Classic (10 years running)

JerryFest (5 years running)

Chili-Cook-Off (31 years running)

Halloween in Five Points (13 years running)

Small Business Saturday (5 years running)

A Starry Night (6 years running)

And the newest annual event, Columbia Food and Wine Festival, which drew ~1,000 attendees in its first year this April. (Take us back to sipping all the bubbles + tasting all the things.)

Economic development //

The FPA works with property owners (like Richard Burts), developers, City of Columbia staff and brokers to attract + retain new businesses that positively add to the vibe of Five Points. Bend + Barre is one of the most recent success stories; FPA was familiar with owner Hannah, and introduced her to the owner of her space on Saluda Ave. – which has given her the opportunity to grow her new business.

The Association is always in conversations with locally-owned businesses looking to relocate to Five Points because of the sense of community that comes along with being part of the neighborhood.

As for economic return, St. Pat’s alone creates a $6 million economic impact for Columbia each year – and that’s just one event. From the revenue generated by Five Points’ events, the FPA makes $55,000+ in donations each year to other local nonprofits – so that money goes back into the local economy.

Promo //

Five Points also handles marketing for the neighborhood, like this year’s ‘But first, let me take a selfie’ marketing campaign, asking people to take photos at “selfie spots” throughout Five Points – thus highlighting various landmarks + public art pieces.

Everything you see, they handle – like visitors guides, neighborhood branding, trash can wraps, electrical box wraps (which have cool historical photos + stories on them), light pole banners, marketing individual businesses as the FPA, helping their small businesses with social media + more. Five Points went through a complete rebranding in 2014, and some say it inspired other districts to step up their game, too – rising tide lifts all boats.

Beautification, arts + upkeep //

The FPA regularly works with the City on several complete and ongoing infrastructure, development + beautification projects – most notably the construction and maintenance of 3 fountains, 2 statues, a mural + train trestle beautification.

The Postcard Mural is Five Points’ newest piece of public art on the wall of Pecknel Music, overlooking the original fountain. Who *hasn’t* taken a photo of this thing since it was finished in 2017. (Fun fact: The planning committee used an RFP process to recruit an artist for this mural project. Wisconsin-native Chad Brady was anonymously chosen – and it just so happens he’s the cousin of Drip Coffee owner, Sean McCrossin. Brady has since commissioned several more art pieces here in Columbia and is considering relocating to the Midlands.)

They installed custom LED twinkle lights (read: the kind that give you all the feels) in the trees of the median of the 700 block of Harden St. (and Saluda, in 2014.) and facilitated the re-paving + re-striping of the City of Columbia parking lot on Devine St. You’ve probably parked there when you + your four-legged bestie were going to Jake’s for Yappy Hour.

They’ve also installed neighborhood-wide ADA-compliant mats – which are raised, truncated domes placed at each intersection, to help aid the visually impaired (alerting them when they’ve reached the end of a sidewalk/beginning of a street intersection).

FPA is also the first group in S.C. to have do a train trestle beautification project. Phases I and II of the Blossom St. project are complete – with the last phase in the works. After being pressure washed, “Five Points” will be painted on both sides, serving as an entry gate to the neighborhood.

So, there’s a lot of work going on at the Five Points Association on any given day. I’m exhausted just learning about it.

And if you don’t personally know Executive Director Amy Beth Franks, you’ve probably seen her (blonde hair, heels + high-energy) at a City Council meeting, speaking at a Rotary Club luncheon or in your class at UofSC. A big goal of theirs is to educate the community on who + what Five Points really is – which, yes, is more than just a bunch of college bars.

Because in the words of Franks, “What’s good for Five Points is great for our city.”

What are some of your favorite aspects of Five Points? What would you change? We love all the history (#TBT) and all the local businesses nestled in a warm, lived-in downtown neighborhood vibe. A perfect day for us could be spent hopping from coffee at Drip to record browsing at Papa Jazz to lunch at Gourmet Shop to shopping at Bohemian, Sid and Nancy, Portfolio Art Gallery + 2G’s to Publico for a drink to Cellar for dinner and to Goat’s for dessert (to-go). Glad you asked.

–Sam

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