Each week in this space, we publish the Charleston Checklist. On it, you’ll find a call to action on 10 big issues facing our region. What you don’t find are any surprises.
The water is rising, the roads are full, the schools are struggling. Welcome to Charleston, right? But that’s the point. These are the issues that disrupt our daily lives and threaten our children’s future. We can’t afford to lose sight of them every time a social media tempest blows across our screens.
That’s where the checklist comes in. It helps keep the big stuff front and center, week in and week out. And at year’s end, it gives us a chance to highlight a few issues where we’ve seen progress — or backsliding.
This year, we start with Charleston’s ongoing existential challenge: dealing with water. And here the news is mixed. On one hand, freshman Charleston Mayor William Cogswell made a serious mistake when he drove off the city’s truth-telling director of resilience, Dale Morris. On the other hand, Cogswell’s decision to quietly abandon his campaign’s simplistic answers about water and rebrand his predecessor’s flooding strategy as his own has already paid dividends. The long-term water plan that city council approved just prior to Morris’s departure is excellent, particularly in its science-driven recommendations about where to prohibit future development. And the city’s partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on a new peninsula sea wall appears to be back on track after a bit of Kabuki theater that allowed the new mayor to say he’d improved the deal.
With regard to improving roads and fixing traffic, Charleston County Council members should have noted Cogswell’s canny moves and walked back their feckless plan to build I-526 across Johns Island. Instead, they insisted on asking voters to approve a half-cent sales tax to pay for the multibillion dollar boondoggle. And in November, they got exactly what they deserved when Charlestonians rejected the measure by a 2-1 margin. Now, they need to wipe the egg off their faces and get back to work. A half-cent sales tax would raise almost $6 billion for roads, public transit and land conservation. Spent wisely, it could make a real difference. Show the voters a common-sense plan next time and they’ll support it.
Speaking of pragmatism, conducting public business in public isn’t just a matter of good government hygiene. It’s our first line of defense against ideas so bad they can’t survive public scrutiny. See the I-526 fiasco, which was largely cooked up in secret backroom “executive sessions.” Or Mount Pleasant’s now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t plan to impose a municipal sales tax to pay for tourist amenities. Secrecy always leads to better government. And often less embarrassment for the people in charge.
Finally, to close on a hopeful note, Charleston County School District leaders took positive steps this year toward being smarter about education. New Superintendent Anita Huggins appears to be working well with board members and staff. Test scores, though still disappointing, are up. And district budgeting has been significantly improved by focusing dollars on the students who need them most.
As for the rest of our checklist priorities, 2024 was mostly a year of muddling through. But 2025 is just ahead. Let’s stay focused on making the Charleston we love even better, week by week.
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