The Charleston region is facing a composite of issues that cannot be separated, but must be addressed as a comprehensive whole in order to maintain a healthy, sustainable economy. The issues that face this region are no different than – in fact, are essentially the same as – those that are covered in a new report published by the New York University School of Professional Studies (more info here).
Earlier this summer, WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show hosted a conversation (available here) with Richard Florida, Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto, and Steven Pedigo, Director of Creative Cities & Civic Innovation at NYU’s School of Professional Studies, about their analysis of the post-recession New York City economy, The Great Reset.
This study focused on the economic structure of the New York City economy since Hurricane Sandy in 2012, a time when many considered that recovery from this devastating storm, with damage calculated at more than $18 billion, would mean that the city would fall behind cities like London and Los Angeles in terms of growth and recovery after the 2008 banking crisis. What the study finds, however, is a more robust growth cycle in the aftermath; and, more interestingly, a growing diversity in the economy, from one being largely driven by Finance, Insurance, & Real Estate (FIRE) to one that includes significant growth in the “creative industries” where people are “paid to think.” These “creative class” jobs include technologists, educators, engineers and architects, artists, people working in marketing, media, and communications, as well as researchers in health care and biotechnology. Coupled with growth in these sectors have also been more jobs in the service sector at much lower wages. This circumstance has created a new urban crisis that Florida and Pedigo refer to as – The Great Divide.
Their report outlines a series of recommendations that are intertwined and must be addressed simultaneously if New York City – or Charleston, for that matter – intends to create a sustainable, growing economy while also addressing the divides between the FIRE, service, and creative “classes.” The following is an excerpt (slightly edited for clarity) from the report’s Executive Summary – the report in its entirety is worth a read:
•Expand the entrepreneurial ecosystem – The city needs to bolster its entrepreneurial ecosystem, providing it with the resources it needs to enable ambitious people at a all levels of education and skill to turn their ideas into viable businesses.
•Nurture start-ups and high-tech industry – Supporting high-growth and high-potential startups is not the same as supporting small business growth; these entrepreneurs and enterprises need a well-connected ecosystem of mentors, capital, and advisers.
•Establish new on-ramps for the creative economy – As important as academics are, schools need to be relevant for all their students and not every career path requires an undergraduate or a master’s degree. The city’s community colleges can do much more than they are to upskill service workers and provide training for careers in creative industries.
•Increase the minimum wage – The city should adopt a minimum wage of $15 per hour and index it to its cost of living.
•Establish land trusts – Private “land trusts” could buy out the landlords of the idle properties in underutilized neighborhoods, maintaining continuity for local businesses and residents as the city’s demand profile shifts. This would eventually provide sites to builders of high-density, affordable, walk-to-work housing that would enable and encourage not just more construction, but more place-making.
•Provide renter assistance for “workforce” housing – Direct assistance to renters in the form of tax rebates or direct subsidies will be required to boost the supply of low to moderate-income housing, not only for the non-working and the underemployed, but for households where the combined incomes are at [120%, or sometimes higher, of the area median income].
•Invest in post-industrial infrastructure – [The city’s] infrastructure not only needs to be repaired and brought up to date, it must be rethought and in many ways reconfigured for its postindustrial future.
•Increase transit connectivity – Massive new investments in transit corridors will provide better access to jobs, [education, entertainment, recreation, services, etc.]. Mobility between poorly served neighborhoods also will promote more housing construction.
•Wired for the future – [Charleston] is inadequately wired and nowhere near as wireless as it should be; the city is lacking in sufficient bandwidth and speed. A public-private partnership with utilities, the City of Charleston, and SCDOT to make right-of-way space available for fiber optic cable would introduce much-needed competition.
In addition to this report, the website of the think tank Center for an Urban Future offers up-to-date reports on innovative strategies to deal with issues that face many cities. What these strategies suggest is that a vision for the future of Charleston, or any city at this time in history, must deal with an intertwined set of goals that ensure all citizens have opportunities for thriving, including affordable housing, connectivity and transit options, as well as support in developing local businesses or finding jobs that pay wages that correspond with the area’s cost of living.
We’ve all experienced some of the frustrations of “getting around” the Lowcountry – flooded streets, traffic, and limited routes, or “connectivity.” The region’s growth brings all of these issues to the forefront of discussions regarding solutions. The issue cannot be solved by any single effort and will require forethought, vision, and perseverance.
Last week’s blog post (here) focused on resiliency related to the flooding issues. It pointed to the efforts of the Rockefeller Foundation, through its 100 Resilient Cities initiative, to effectively devise strategies that can be utilized by cities worldwide to deal with acute or chronic issues that limit the ability of a region to flourish. This week, ten years following the catastrophic landfall of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans published its own strategic plan Resilient New Orleans (available here), developed in concert with this initiative. There is much to learn from this effort and it holds promise for similar strategies in coastal cities, especially Charleston. Not only is Charleston subject to occasional hurricanes (even earthquakes), but sea level rise appears to have increased the circumstances of chronic flooding in low-lying parts of the region. If we are to continue to flourish as a region, action cannot wait.
The geography of the Lowcountry region also contributes to limitations of “connectivity” – another way of describing alternative routes to navigate between destinations – and to the demands on our existing right-of-ways. We are not likely to see more/new bridges or routes that connecting James Island, Johns Island, West Ashley, downtown, North Charleston, Mt. Pleasant, or any of the other areas of the region any time in the foreseeable future. The reality is that congestion solutions for the region must include the integration of a spectrum of transportation choices (bus transportation, rapid/mass transit, bicycle, high-occupancy-vehicle lanes, etc.) within existing corridors, as well as correcting conditions that inhibit traffic flow (such as a missing turn lane or signal at a critical intersection or a flawed ramp configuration on a limited access route).
On Thursday, Charleston County, the City of Charleston, and traffic engineers from the engineering firm HDR, hosted a public presentation of the planned conversion of a traffic lane of the Ashley River Bridge into a bicycle/pedestrian lane – coverage of the meeting and an animation of the lane configuration is here. The pedestrian/bike lane on the Ashley River Bridge is a significant step forward for the region. HDR’s presentation was understandable, thorough, and well illustrated the anticipated bike/pedestrian lane using the “extra” southbound lane of the Ashley River Bridge. One of the most interesting statistics in the evening’s presentation was the firm’s traffic counts that showed normal congestion on the bridge limited to the hour between 7 am and 8 am. Furthermore, their traffic study revealed that this morning backup was due primarily to the absence of a turning lane at the base of the bridge at Bee Street, a circumstance that is currently being resolved through the reconfiguration of the existing approach lane.
Overcoming the perception that a “lost” traffic lane will create congestion will not be easy and some mayoral candidates are suggesting that they will not support this change, seemingly in an effort to win votes of the naysayers. This lack of vision can slow some of the momentum the region holds for dynamic growth and vibrant livability. If the bike/pedestrian lane is completed on schedule for January 2017, in spite of the opposition, the Charleston region will see the beginnings of incremental connectivity. As this effort unfolds, better ways to enhance its availability to neighborhoods along Highway 61 will certainly be next up.
Too often, politicians try to simplify the complexities of transportation infrastructure by pointing to road construction projects as the panacea to solving traffic problems. It is never that simple. Completion of the 526 “loop,” and the possible construction of an “outer ring road” should not necessarily be the next steps to stemming the snarl of regional traffic. One need only look at Washington, DC, Atlanta, or Nashville, to see the futility of how this type of road building is not the be-all, end-all of problem solving.
The geography of the Charleston region makes using one-size-fits-all transportation strategies, such as the “wheel and spoke” road system, a setup for a transportation system failure that might create more issues than its solves. The false comfort found in a “wheel and spoke” (ring road) transportation system for this region is undermined by the fact that all points connect only by primary roadways. There really isn’t any widespread “connectivity” that allows you to navigate via secondary roads between destinations. And any traffic interruption shuts down the entire system. Recently an accident involving a truck carrying a volatile load closed the bridge connecting Charleston to Mt. Pleasant, and all other roadways in the area were at a standstill. Social media was abuzz with the relief found by a few people who avoided the shutdown by using a small water taxi service to cross the river to get home.
Finding ways to connect will require loads of creativity in planning and resource allocation, as well as widespread public buy-in to using a broad range of solutions. At least one of the mayoral candidates is even focusing on transportation as the lynchpin of their campaign. Many efforts will need to coalesce to work for the entire region. Last fall Historic Charleston Foundation along with the City of Charleston enlisted the assistance of the urban transportation expert Gabe Klein to develop a Peninsula Mobility Report (here), and at IfYouWereMayor.com, some additional possibilities have been posed by the Coastal Conservation League (here), Charleston Moves (here), the Coastal Transit Institute (here) and others (here and here).
Everyone should be seeking win-win strategies. That is the beauty in the success of the bike/pedestrian lane on the Ravenel Bridge and what appears to be possible with the bike/pedestrian lane crossing the Ashley River. It’s a cinch that our transportation planners should be looking at every option and to cities with similar geography for a full range of inter-connected solutions to stem the tide of the region’s congestion problems. Nothing will make them completely go away, but it is a certainty that managing the issues will not rest on concentric ring roads as necessarily the first or, ultimately, the only course of action.
Since we’ve been doing a little paddling around the streets of Charleston during the past week, it seems to be an appropriate time to visit the topic of Urban Resilience, a concept defined by the Rockefeller Foundation as: “The capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and systems within a city to survive, adapt, and grow no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience.” The foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative considers resiliency in terms of chronic stresses – those that are cyclical or recurring and that, over time, can undermine the fabric of a city (i.e. high unemployment, inefficient public transportation, crime, water shortages, etc.), and acute stresses – those that are sudden, sharp and destructive events (i.e. hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, disease).
In the past few days we’ve seen a series of “rain bombs,” those periods of intense rain in short periods of time that result in what is generally referred to as “shallow coastal flooding” throughout the historic city. According to data shared by the Coastal Conservation League’s Myles Myland – both as a project posted here and during his presentation on resiliency at February’s event “A Vision for Charleston: Priorities for the Next Mayoral Administration” – Charleston has gone from 25± rain events like this per year to more than 80. With this kind of pattern it would seem that local towing companies may have a “sustainable” income stream hauling out flood-damaged cars from vulnerable streets and intersections, but that business model should probably not be a reason to do nothing.
Charleston has demonstrated a certain “resilience” when it comes to various stresses in its history, such as hurricanes, fires, earthquakes, and even violence. However, the now-routine threat of coastal flooding, often attributable to the effects of climate change, has worsened in recent years. It isn’t hard to see where the flooding issues mostly lie. Many areas on the peninsula, for instance, have been filled to create more land area. Historic Charleston On a Map was drawn by Alfred O. Halsey in 1949 to illustrate the development of the historic city (available here to explore courtesy of The Preservation Society), laying out the old peninsula configuration with its many creeks and inlets, as well as providing some insight into some of the past events that affected the city’s development.
Whatever your position may be on climate change, sea levels do appear to be rising, at least to the extent that our current infrastructure seems incapable of handling the storm-water runoff during heavy rains, particularly at high tide. And Charleston is not unique among coastal cities where this effect is being felt.
The Rockefeller Foundation enlisted the assistance of the global engineering firm Arup to develop a City Resilience Framework (CRF) that reflects the actions cities can take to improve their ability to recover from the ill-effects of stresses depending on whether chronic or acute, physical or cultural. For the flooding that Charleston faces, CRF points to solutions that relate to both Infrastructure and Environment. According to CRF, a resiliency plan to address this type of flooding should:
(1) Provide and enhance protective natural and man-made assets
(2) Ensure continuity of critical services
(3) Provide reliable communication and mobility
Over the past 25 years, Charleston has made significant investments in man-made flood control measures – including pumping stations and deep drainage tunnels. The work is very expensive (often dependent upon federal assistance) and ongoing. Yet we are still plagued by flooding on occasion, even in areas where these systems have been installed. A overview of the city’s challenges and strategies are slated to be outlined in a comprehensive drainage plan and can be found in this 2010 article by City Engineer Laura Cabiness and published in the Charleston Post and Courier.
On the other hand, we have dedicated fewer resources to enhancing our natural defenses, and these might just present a reasonable value. It is widely known that marsh, other types of coastal ecosystems, and vegetated buffers can significantly reduce the effects of flooding, acting like giant natural sponges to slow and absorb stormwater runoff, tidal surges, and other rain events. This is a strategy that is being implemented in many cities to complement man-made infrastructure projects. The Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway Plan illustrates a number of “green” infrastructural strategies that the New York City borough is planning to use to:
(1) Develop a “backbone” system that can divert and contain stormwater within the watershed rather than into the drainage system that has historically combined stormwater and sewer.
(2) Function as flood protection while also providing the benefits of pedestrian and bicycle transportation, public space, and parkland.
The City of Charleston’s waterfront promenade along the High Battery is deteriorated in many areas and presents a significant opportunity to implement natural strategies to better protect the peninsula as part of its restoration effort. Another possibility lies with the Charleston County Parks and Recreation Commission. This entity has been very effective in strategically procuring parkland using the proceeds from a bond referendum passed specifically for the purchase of land susceptible to significant escalation in value, such as waterfront property. A number of these sites, along with parks within the City of Charleston, are at waterfront locations and could easily complement the “green necklace” of parks foreseen for West Ashley.
Strategies to address the flooding will need lots of public support and patience – nothing like this happens overnight as we know. But, the clock is ticking…
Media plays a crucial role in communities that aim to be livable and progressive. A strong local press can “follow the money,” and shine a light on the dark corners of government, to force action, and to criticize bad ideas. Journalists can attend the meetings where decisions are being made and be there for us when we need them most.
No media outlet can force quite as much public scrutiny as print media (and, in some instances, its companion digital content). Stories can extend over days and, even weeks, without losing the thread or the audience. News coverage can certainly enhance business and highlight local celebrities; but, when coverage focuses on problems and issues, it gets attention that can initiate action.
The newsroom at Charleston’s daily newspaper, The Post and Courier, is led by editor Mitch Pugh, and has been bold and smart — reporting, investigating, and commenting on the most important issues that face Charleston on a daily basis, not just the tragedies that befall us. On May 28, 2015, The Post and Courier received the Pulitzer Prize in Public Service for a five-part series on domestic violence published in August 2014, and entitled, “Till Death Do Us Part,” beating out stories in the much larger papers The Boston Globe and Wall Street Journal. In the words of the Pulitzer Prize jury, it was “…a riveting series that probed why South Carolina is among the deadliest states in the union for women and put the issue of what to do about it on the state’s agenda.” The genesis of this series, from the perspective of the paper’s editorial staff, is outlined in the paper’s nomination letter for the Prize. It is well worth reading (here). The entire series is available here.
The Post and Courier coverage of the shootings at the Mother Emmanuel AME Church proved that the reporting it did on domestic violence was no fluke. The paper’s 24/7 coverage during those horrific days in June was both necessary and cathartic to city residents. And, that coverage illustrated the importance of a local voice in the media roar. The New York Times focused on the value of this perspective in a story (here) published in the wake of the Charleston tragedy. Jim Amoss, editor of New Orleans’ The Times-Picayune is notably quoted: “Local newspapers are uniquely positioned to give nuance and context to those stories that maybe play well elsewhere when they’re stripped of that nuance.”
The importance of the “nuanced” local voice – rather than the hype that surrounds coverage typical of the national media conglomerates – was well stated by novelist and College of Charleston professor Bret Lott who, on June 19, wrote a “Letter From Charleston” that was subsequently published by Vanity Fair (here). In it, he characterized what many of us were feeling: the bewilderment of seeing our city on the news because of a mass shooting at Emanuel AME church, right there on Calhoun Street. From his home, Lott watched the live television reports from Marion Square about this inexplicably horrific event. He notes that it was the local sportscaster who appeared and oddly provided great comfort:
“…I’m listening, because that’s my city right there, and this is the local news, and the sports guy, even though he’s the sports guy, is doing the job I need him to do right now, which is to make me feel like somebody I know is telling me about something terrible happening where I live.
“The mass media scrum that followed brought the ‘usual’ suspects: CNN, FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS, ad infinitum, ad nauseam. … Thus begins the deluge of words from people I don’t know and who aren’t from around here and who broadcast from New York or Los Angeles or Miami and who arrive on scene to tell us all about the tragedy, and the history of the church, and of the people who have been killed.
“But that sports guy and the rest of our local news community brought us all comfort. They told the stories of the victims and helped us navigate our emotions and told us where to donate our time and money and provided a narrative thread to help us — if not make sense of the tragedy at least provide hope that we wouldn’t be destroyed by the shooting, no matter how awful it was.”
Local media, especially a newspaper, matters. And, while some may question the ability of print to survive in the digital age, this coverage is a key ingredient in what makes our city livable because it narrates our story and our concerns for our ears. In Charleston, fortunately, there is an audience for print media, whether it is The Post and Courier, Charleston City Paper, The Charleston Chronicle, or Charleston Magazine.
We’ll be checking in on how other media makes a difference in coming blogs. So stay tuned!
While visiting cities around the country (and the world), we are always on the lookout for uniquely local shops that embody the spirit of a place.
Bookshops can be a good bet, especially in college towns. Famous spots such as Shakespeare and Company in Paris, or City Lights in San Francisco feel almost cliche’. But, get a little off the beaten track and you often find true gems. Oxford, Mississippi boasts Square Books, and Denver, the Tattered Cover. Blue Bicycle Books is Charleston’s bookshop stop, and features a fine selection of local fare alongside new and slightly used (and some rare) books.
Arts and crafts are often a harbinger of local traditions and cultures. Charleston’s sweetgrass baskets (more here) are a prized art form that demonstrates a link to the region’s rice culture using native plant materials. One family vacation uncovered Family Heirloom Weavers in York, Pennsylvania, where vegetable-dyed cotton is woven on reclaimed looms in patterns largely from the early 19th century. The Southern Highland Guild – Folk Art Center, near Asheville, is a frequent stop on mountain journeys for pottery and wood crafts. A box of hand-tied flies from Dan Bailey’s Fly Shop in Livingston, Montana, and snap-front western shirts from Denver’s Rockmount Ranch Wear represent the legacy of larger-than-life personalities who opened their own businesses catering to locals starting in the 1930s.
Many of Charleston’s own legacy businesses originated on King Street, with a few surviving in spite of rising real estate values, changing demographics, or a lack of interest among the younger generation to carry on in the family enterprise. Among those still going strong after over 100 years in business are: Croghans Jewel Box, Berlin’s for Men, and Bluestein’s Mens Wear.
In Spring 2013, Dr. Dale Rosengarten taught a class entitled “King Street as a Classroom” at the College of Charleston (a Charleston City Paper article on this course and more can be found here). The students researched King Street’s businesses, selecting buildings, digging into their histories, and interviewing those who were living who might offer some individual insights into the business histories. During the course, a panel of King Street merchants, shopkeepers, or their children, was convened at the College’s Jewish Studies Center to share stories of their family businesses. Attendees were treated to personal experiences of how the businesses evolved, how they survived during the Depression, and how they dealt with obstacles ranging from fires to hurricanes. The story of immigrants selling wares and services from peddler carts until they could afford a “bricks and mortar” establishment seems like a version of where things stand today in many parts of the city.
Many other locally owned, independent businesses, if they did not buy their building years ago, are finding it more difficult to match the rents that would be paid by restaurants or national chain stores. Residents need neighborhood services and businesses, like dry cleaners, corner groceries, shoe repair shops, and hardware stores, but, the future of these kinds of businesses located near the neighborhoods that would benefit from them is questionable.
Local business advocate Lowcountry Local First, in collaboration with some in the development community as well as If You Were Mayor, has been pondering some possibilities to counter the likelihood of losing core local businesses in downtown. Models from other communities include local business districts and landlord incentivization. Other concepts are sidewalk kiosks and creating more opportunities for mobile selling. In some cities you will find a selection of curated items inside restaurants. Two Boroughs Larder is an example of this model and suggests there might be more options for collaborative business opportunities in other locations in the city.
Creative ideas can keep the city livable by fostering small and independent businesses so that they can coexist among the national retailers that risk dominating shopping districts. The reality is that residents need a spectrum of businesses to support their communities. And, it is these unique businesses that provide unique and character-defining experiences throughout the city.
Look for this to be on the agenda at the mayoral forum scheduled for September 30 at the Charleston Music Hall. Details will be posted on Facebook and through our newsletter which you can sign up below.