A few headlines we thought we’d pass on about Charleston:
• Edgar Allen Poe is 200 this year, and the Boston Globe shines a light on his brief time on Sullivan’s Island and how his time there has shaped the island’s lore.
In fact, “The Gold Bug,” one of his best-known stories, is set here. “This island is a very singular one,” Poe wrote at the story’s beginning. “It consists of little else than the sea sand. . . . It is separated from the mainland by a scarcely perceptible creek, oozing its way through a wilderness of reeds and slime, a favorite resort of the marsh-hen.”
• The Associated Press takes a look at smaller tourist cities that are doing well during the troubled economy, and they spotlight an interesting statistic about Charleston.
Both Ft. Myers, Fla., and Charleston, S.C., experienced double-digit growth in January over the same month last year, based on American Express Travel bookings.
• And, finally, the city’s new parking meter cards have popped up in USA Today. I love ’em, when I can find a meter that takes them.
Charleston is one of the latest examples of cities across the USA — including the nation’s biggest — converting from drop-in-a-coin-and-twist-the-dial machines to a new generation of meters.
“(I)t’s catching on in more and more cities as aging parking meters need to be replaced and new technology is being introduced,” says Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance, a non-profit association working to spread the use of smart-card technology.
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