We Left San Francisco To Escape What We're Absolutely Going To Recreate Here

The following is a guest submission from Chase and Ashleigh Hartwell-Morrison, who recently relocated to Travelers Rest from San Francisco. The Upstate Owl occasionally publishes community perspectives to foster dialogue.

Hello, Travelers Rest! We're Chase and Ashleigh, and we're so excited to formally introduce ourselves to our new community after completing our relocation journey from the Bay Area six months ago.

First, a little about us: Chase spent twelve years at a major social media company working in Trust & Safety, where he led initiatives to reduce harmful content, protect democratic institutions, and ensure community guidelines reflected evolving societal values. Ashleigh is a DEI Integration Specialist who consults with organizations on building more equitable workplaces.

We want to be transparent about why we left California: it simply became unaffordable. The taxes were crushing. A modest home cost $2.3 million. Small businesses were closing. Homelessness was everywhere.

What matters is that we found Travelers Rest, and we immediately fell in love with its charm, its sense of community, and—not that this was the deciding factor—its affordability. We were able to purchase a lovely six-bedroom craftsman home on three acres for what our tiny Noe Valley condo cost. Just the two of us and the dogs, but we converted two bedrooms into home offices and one into a meditation space. The other three are for when we host our biannual Friendsgiving.

We'll be honest: the bidding process was competitive. We learned afterward that we'd outbid a local family—a young couple with five children who had been saving for years. When our realtor told us, we felt terrible. Truly. We asked him to share their contact information so we could reach out.

We sent them a gift basket from a local organic co-op along with a handwritten card letting them know we'd purchased $500 in carbon offsets in their family's name. We thought it would be meaningful—a way to show we care about their children's future on this planet. We never heard back, but we hope they appreciated the gesture.

We also acquired three additional properties as investment rentals, because building generational wealth is so important—especially for millennials like us who were priced out of homeownership for so long. We've listed them as short-term vacation rentals at competitive rates that reflect the area's growing desirability.

The cultural adjustment has been significant. Our first week, we heard what sounded like gunfire coming from a neighboring property. Multiple rounds. We immediately called 911, locked the doors, and sheltered in place with the dogs.

When the sheriff's deputy arrived—forty-five minutes later, which is a whole other issue we're working on—he explained that our neighbor was simply doing "target practice" on his own land, which is apparently legal here.

We've since filed a noise complaint with the county and started a petition to establish "quiet hours" for recreational shooting. It's not about taking anyone's guns away—we respect the Second Amendment—it's about creating a peaceful living environment for everyone, including those of us who moved here for the tranquility.

We also spent three weeks looking for a quality oat milk latte before discovering we'd simply need to advocate for change. Chase has already started a petition for the Travelers Rest City Council to consider requiring new restaurants to offer plant-based menu options.

"It's not about forcing anything on anyone," Chase explained to a neighbor recently. "It's about creating inclusive spaces where everyone can participate in the dining experience."

Another adjustment: the churches. There are so many churches. We counted fourteen within a two-mile radius of our home. Back in San Francisco, that same radius had twelve yoga studios and a silent meditation collective. We've started asking questions at Planning Commission meetings about zoning priorities and whether the community has considered the benefits of more secular gathering spaces.

We believe strongly in civic engagement, which is why we've already joined the Travelers Rest Planning Commission's public comment mailing list, the Greenville County Democratic Party, three neighborhood Facebook groups, and the Swamp Rabbit Trail advocacy coalition.

We've also started attending City Council meetings to advocate for policies that worked so well in California: comprehensive zoning reform, expanded social services, renewable energy mandates for new construction, and a local minimum wage ordinance.

"People don't realize that the things that made California expensive weren't the policies themselves," Ashleigh explained. "It was the implementation. We can do it right here. Just look what they've done in Asheville!"

Some longtime residents have expressed concerns about rising housing costs and changing community character. We completely understand—that's exactly why we left California! We know how painful it is to be priced out of the place you love. That's why we're advocating for affordable housing mandates on all new developments. If we'd had those policies in San Francisco, we might never have had to leave.

The Upstate has given us so much: affordable housing, lower taxes, space to breathe, a slower pace of life. We feel deeply grateful. And we believe in giving back.

That's why we're so committed to bringing what we grew up with in California to our new home. The progressive values. The environmental consciousness. The emphasis on equity and inclusion. These are gifts we can share with a community that, frankly, hasn't had access to these ideas in the same way. We see it as our responsibility—our privilege, really—to help the Upstate evolve.

We want to pour back into this community everything that made the Bay Area such a special place to live (minus the cost of living, obviously, which was caused by factors we haven't fully analyzed).

Our vision for Travelers Rest is simple: we want to preserve everything that made us fall in love with this community while also transforming it into something better. More bike lanes. More density along the Swamp Rabbit Trail. A composting ordinance. A city-funded equity office. Ranked-choice voting for municipal elections. A ban on gas-powered leaf blowers.

Some of our new neighbors have been less than welcoming—one gentleman told Chase to "go back to California" at the hardware store last month. Another neighbor hasn't spoken to us since the noise complaint. But we know that resistance to change is natural. These are good people who simply don't know what they're missing yet. Once they see the results of progressive governance done right, they'll thank us.

After all, we didn't move 2,400 miles just to accept things as they are. That wouldn't be fair to anyone—least of all the community we've chosen to call home.

We look forward to meeting more of you at the next City Council meeting, where we'll be presenting our proposal for a municipal broadband initiative funded by a modest property tax adjustment. We're also launching a GoFundMe to commission a mural celebrating Travelers Rest's "diverse future" on the side of the old hardware store downtown. The owner hasn't agreed yet, but we're optimistic.