I drive from Folly Beach to Charleston frequently via Folly Road and SC 30. It’s great to see that there is much less fast-food trash than 10 years ago. But there is still lots of trash: buckets, large bags of recycled bottles, plywood, sheetrock, bales of pine straw, 2 x 4s, towels, bathing suits, beach toys, flattened corrugated cardboard, beach chairs, ladders, yard rubbish, etc. This is not stuff that people toss out of car windows. It is improperly secured stuff that blows out of the backs of pickups, open trailers, bulk haulers, and trash trucks. Truck drivers seem not to realize that at 45 mph there is a gale blowing across their load, and at 65 mph the load is experiencing near hurricane force winds. If not secured, the load is going to litter the roadway. PalmettoPride has done a pretty good job of reducing litter tossed from car windows. An effort is needed to get pickup drivers, trash truck drivers, landscaping workers, construction workers and bulk haulers to cover their loads securely. Assigning an officer to the on-ramps of eastbound SC 30 for a few days to enforce covering loads would educate the worst offenders.
While this might not qualify as an “idea” per se, it is an issue that was sent to us via email so we wanted to share it.
“If Citadel Mall goes away (story on this phenomena here), where will seniors walk, get blood pressure checked, have coffee, etc on hot and cold days–with a security guard and a restroom nearby?”
What kinds of opportunities does this offer or does it merely underscore a deficiency that exists in communities that are not pedestrian-friendly.
Occasionally we get an idea via email – and here is one for you to ponder!
Close King Street to vehicular traffic from Neck area down to Broad Street. Install an electronic trolley system to move people and get cars off King Street. Create a large parking transportation depot in neck area for folks to park cars and take the trolleys into downtown.
Plays right into our European flavor…
Thanks for this idea that we received via email:
CARTA does not go to certain locations for lack of ridership, parking, or spaces to pull up buses. Smaller commuter buses (like the ones used by the VA) are a possibility, but targeted express routes could also be expanded. Routes could be strategically planned using information available from large employers.
For instance, MUSC parking has information on when employees scan in and scan out of the parking garages and have additional information on their address. This information can be used to calculate starting place of daily commutes and determine where areas of higher ridership for CARTA might be. MUSC and C of C have info-matics folks who can also do GIS analysis to help implement a strategy to encourage use of public transportation. Targeted surveys could then be sent out to employees in those areas (from the employer – again so as not to violate privacy agreements).
Of course, this would have to be done with an honest broker so that sensitive information would not leave the entity (the employer) and violate privacy agreements.
We are sharing this idea that was received via email. Our contributor was inspired by this article from Science Daily: “Most effective individual steps to tackled climate change aren’t being discussed” –
I would promote electric buses and aerial trams like those introduced in La Paz and Mexico City. Widening I-26 and extending I-526 simply promote auto use (an unfettered 20th century business excess that led to the 21st century problems of urban sprawl and climate change). Build bikeways and sidewalks. Additional taxes and fees on electric and hybrid vehicles are stupid; gas & diesel guzzling SUVs, pick-up, vans, & trucks should pay higher costs for their greater damage to the environment. As in Mexico City, ban driving cars with tags ending in 1 on Mondays, 2 on Tuesdays, or some such scheme to substantially reduce commuter traffic and to [establish] carpooling and working from home [as flexible alternatives].
You have a one of a kind esteem and point of view on life and that makes you characteristically delightful and stunning. Nobody else in the universe resembles you. You are exceptional. Bring your actual, real self to each circumstance, and you may think that its exactly what was required. Validness makes larger amounts of strengthening, innovativeness, and general prosperity — an extraordinary place to be when helping other people.
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” -Howard Thurman
Identify ways you can begin to align your thoughts with your actions, increasing your authenticity. Make a list and work to create greater harmony between the two.
Regards
Eva
The things that I would do in the event that I were leader would be first to make seven days where individuals from the city can go in gatherings and help make Beaverton greener. Second, I would have some days where we offer nourishment to the destitute or individuals who require it and can’t manage the cost of it, lastly I would have a challenge and the champ gets the opportunity to be leader for a day. One thing I would do is have days consistently where we come together as a city to help tidy up Beaverton. Around 2 days each other month individuals will get the chance to pick in the event that they need to tell the truth up Beaverton, we may close down the avenues (presumably on a end of the week) and tidy up all the garbage.We could likewise make a workmanship extend out of the stuff we found. I feel like this venture will offer assistance
children and grown-ups discover that it can be fun and that anybody can make a contrast on the planet. Second, in the event that I were chairman I would have some days consistently where we offer dinners to individuals who require it the most. I for the most part do this in Portland however its exclusive on vacations which are Christmas and Thanks giving. I need to make this accessible two times each month for families in require. When you do this venture the general population from the two sides of the nourishment, the general population conveying and accepting will profit by this since the general population accepting will be super cheerful and appreciative, and the individuals giving will understand that giving is more noteworthy than accepting and it will bring the entire city nearer together.At last, I would have a craftsmanship or composing challenge, where the champ gets the opportunity to be leader for a day or gets the opportunity to eat with the leader. The present leader would visit the champ around and demonstrate to them what he/she would accomplish for a day and they may go have lunch. The protest of this thought is to demonstrate kids that one seemingly insignificant detail can change the world and anyone can have any kind of effect on the planet city, or, on the other hand their group, it will likewise indicate how hard the chairman functions and the children will figure out how to be a government official. All things considered, I’d get a kick out of the chance to do these things as leader since I would ideally have any kind of effect on the city and the general population living in it. Something I would do is make a day were the city goes out also, reuse. Furthermore, I would have days where we provide for individuals who require nourishment, lastly I would hold a challenge where kids get to contend to be chairman for one day. I feel that it is essential to appear everyone in the city and show them that giving and nurturing this astonishing world we live in is the a standout among-st other things you can do as a human being.
Regards
Eva
We received notice from Lawrence, who follows If You Were Mayor from Folly Beach, about exciting developments in the technology for electric buses. He indicates in his email that: These buses [from Proterra] are manufactured in Greenville, SC, as well as on the west coast. The company is now working with U Nevada Reno to make them autonomous, according to [a friend in Reno]. Seneca/Clemson Transit has a fleet (see testimonial on website). Charleston should be looking into going electric and buying ‘made in South Carolina’.”
Dear Sir,
Our company, LS Group, are developers and builders in town, latterly in mainly the East Side and Elliottborough. I recently attended a conference organized by Historic Charleston and focused on affordable housing. Nothing I heard gave me a positive feeling and general consensus was that it’s “awfully difficult”. This is not the case in part for the reasons explained below and it would help greatly if our leaders changed their mindset.
Charleston City code mandates an affordable element in planning applications. That element is typically 15% and limited to 10 years duration i.e. it’s transient. Many other jurisdictions in this country allow for mitigation or offset instead meaning that the developer pays to have an alternative affordable element created nearby as defined buy the city’s needs. Building affordable housing in high rise condominiums is both expensive and sub-optimum for a population needing neighborhoods, community interaction, space and self determination. Building elsewhere will produce more product at a much faster pace than is currently achieved by City code.
In our circle of contacts is a group of concerned developers similar to ourselves and willing to create beautiful mixed use neighborhoods with a strong, large, permanent affordable element. We have the support of neighborhood committees and local churches and the City of N Charleston. We already own land for hundreds of such homes within a 5 minute drive or 15 minute cycle of Calhoun St downtown. Help us, help our City by helping bring mitigation on to the debating table producing the economic driver to build out this opportunity, we can and will do the rest.
Respectfully yours, Chris Leigh-Jones
I was walking around Colonial Lake which has become a wonderful gathering place for lots of neighbors, near and far, to walk and enjoy the beautiful lake and plantings. I always speak to anyone I pass as I walk by. I thought about how simple looking someone in the eye and saying “Good Morning” or “Hello” is and yet how meaningful it is. Acknowledging someone walking by means they matter, they are not invisible to me, and they deserve me to speak and look at them. In a time, when we are looking, as individuals, for simple acts that matter and give us some control over kindness and respect, I can’t think of anything more powerful than just speaking to another person we pass. Everyone can do it, it doesn’t cost a penny and usually you are rewarded with a response back.
if i were mayor i would make to town a better place to live by making a safe place for kids to play
The parks are always full of trash, the side walks have worn of paint and the roads aren’t always freshly paved after like the first 3 months of when they where fixing the roads
This will really help the enviroment so that we will have a clean and fresh environment.
NYC and other cities issue citations if you fail to clean up after your pet; Charleston needs to consider doing the same. In some upper peninsular areas no area of grass is safe to step on and areas like Simonton park have become a virtual pet toilet with little to no grass surviving (despite provided waste bags and trash cans). Please clean up after your pet!
Occasionally the best things in life are free and so it is with ride-hailing. Uber Pool and Lyft Line are ushering in a major change in transportation which, among other desirable outcomes, will be a game changer for public transportation. Users are right now, today enjoying reduced time, cost and stress with increased productivity. A UC Berkley study found that for every one ride hailing vehicle on the road there are between 9 and 13 fewer cars. Best of all this costs government nothing. So, my idea is that our county and city governments should encourage these services with enabling legislation as well as consider startup subsidies if necessary and a campaign to acquaint residents with the benefits. I’ve never been a fan of mass transportation projects. they’re capital intensive and you don’t know if they’re worthwhile until the money is spent and you can count the riders. Uber and Lyft ride sharing is free AND users -reduce greenhouse emission -save money -can go from two to one car family -improve the commuting experience by reading or doing work instead of driving -reduce traffic
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“In reading the history of nations, we find that, like individuals, they have their whim and their peculiarities; their seasons of excitement and recklessness, when they care not what they do. We find whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object and go mad in its pursuit…[not] recovering its senses until it has shed rivers of blood and sowed a harvest of groans and tears, to be reaped by its posterity.”– Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds(1841, 1852)
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