Outside.in Interview's Steve Shanafelt: Local Blogger Now Available By Appointment Only

In a move certain to make him more famous than all the Keebler elves put together, Spark founder Steve Shanafelt granted the lowly Outside.in website an interview. Shanafelt only agreed to the interview after first requiring the site–which serves largely as a local news aggregator for over 50,000 neighborhoods throughout the nation–to bring him the Wicked Witch of the West’s broom, a task which would set the interview back by several days.

Upon returning with the broom, the group discovered that Shanafelt had slipped away to Tetiaora–the the local blogger’s island retreat–and now insisted that the interview would have to be conducted via carrier pigeon. Frustrated, but still game, Outside.in agreed, and after negotiating a fee for the interview that included a 100 gallon tub of mayonnaise suitable for “soaking,” the interview was finally ready to go. Here’s some of what they came up with:

In a city of fewer than 40,000 residents—even fewer of who live in the downtown area, which is where The Spark focuses—Shanafelt and his collaborators are clearly making an impact, and the response from the Spartanburg community has been overwhelmingly positive thus far.

“One of the things that’s been bizarre – in a good way – is the high level of community support,” Shanafelt says. “I tend to look at Spartanburg as a place that has all this dried grass, and if you strike a match, you can start a fire,” he adds, alluding to the site’s name.

Shanafelt uses many different channels to build community on his site, including social media tools, but for him one of the most exciting initiatives has been a series that runs on Wednesdays, called the Big Idea, wherein Shanafelt suggests ‘big ideas,’ and lets the community run with them.

“It’s like a brainstorming topic,” Shanafelt says. “Like, ‘what if Spartanburg had a dog park?’ Here [in Spartanburg]. That’s a novel idea.”

A few of these Big Ideas have actually been propelled forward by the community and have become realities. For instance, Shanafelt and his collaborators have lobbied for downtown café – which sounds pretty simple, but it’s something that doesn’t exist in downtown Spartanburg. Sure, there’s a Starbucks with Wi-Fi in greater Spartanburg, but it’s not downtown, and it’s not the community hub that Shanafelt and the community have envisioned, either.

So there you have it folks, our fearless leader is famous. Now we all get to say we knew him before the dead prostitutes and plastic surgery started getting to him. We can regale our friends with tales of how this one time he touched our hand. We can impress our rivals by confirming rumors about how Shanafelt was once not afraid of direct sunlight. We can tell our grandchildren about that time we saw him at Monsoon Noodle House, back before he had a personal chef and a team of food tasters. In short, his fame is our gain. It’s a great day for Steve; it’s a great day for the Spark; it’s a great day for Spartanburg.