Part of a community newspaper’s ongoing responsibility is to remind leaders of policy and quality-of-life priorities in the continuing quest to balance lifestyle with progress.
Starting this week, we offer the following new Charleston Checklist of continuing objectives for Charleston County. In the weeks to come, you’ll find them profiled in the box at right on this page and in longer editorials to help steer leaders to keep their eyes on these important issues, not some shiny ball of the moment. Our Charleston Checklist of audacious community goals include:
Deal with the water. While great strides have been made of clearing water after flood surge events, more water is on the way thanks to climate change. City and county leaders need a tough resiliency plan that hardens infrastructure and helps them to make smarter decisions about development, roads and more.
Fix roads, traffic. With more than 4,000 lane miles of roads that generally are in poor shape, Charleston leaders need to fix roads — and make sure that they’re practical and appropriate to reduce traffic. Don’t just widen or lengthen roads that have been on the books for years. Instead, pay for and speed up practical traffic alternatives, including more public transportation.
Be smarter about education. The Charleston County school board is broken, which doesn’t help K-12 students at all. Infuse a new sense of energy in education by people who care about kids, not national policy mantras. Find real leadership.
Conduct public business in public. Too many public bodies in the area abuse executive sessions to do the public’s business in private. Be transparent. Stop the secrecy.
Invest in quality of life. Build more parks. Have more festivals. Invest in infrastructure that promotes a broad sense of community to improve the quality of life.
Engage in real racial conciliation. Now that our community has built the International African American Museum, it’s time to start the hard work of engaging more about race to move forward. If we embark on more conversations and actions on racial reconciliation, our community will strengthen and grow.
Develop fewer hotels, more affordable housing. With Charleston’s rate of hotel development, it doesn’t seem there will be any place for people to actually live soon. Focus on priorities — making Charleston a more affordable place to live for everyone, not just the rich and outsiders who can afford it.
Build Union Pier at scale. Let’s not put ship-sized buildings on the coveted Union Pier property downtown. Instead, develop it to fit in with what Charleston already has along Broad Street or in Ansonborough.
Build and follow a 50-year plan. Political and community leaders need a sustainable long-term, 50-year plan for Charleston County instead of short term election priorities. Plan for the future and follow the plan.
Pay people more. Let’s do better in paying people, particularly those in the tourism and service industries, a living wage. No one should have to work three jobs to make ends meet. Push South Carolina lawmakers to set a real minimum wage.
Without audacious goals, how can you expect excellence? Push your city and county leaders to start getting more done.
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