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Thriving on the State House Grounds

John Fellows
Mike Switzer/SC Public Radio

Not too long ago, our capital city received a grant from the Knight Foundation to design a program that would encourage people to gather and linger on the State House grounds.  The idea being that thriving public spaces are good not just for wholesome communities but for the local economy, as well.  It has been implemented now for several weeks and our next guest has a report on results so far.

Mike Switzer interview John Fellows, planning administrator for the City of Columbia, SC.

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After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.