MORNING HEADLINES  |  A long-planned project to build a seawall around the peninsula of Charleston took a major step forward as city of Charleston and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials signed an agreement to begin preconstruction, engineering and design.

“The risk of coastal storm surge is very real,” according to Lt. Col Todd Mainwaring, district commander for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Charleston District. “The city of Charleston is vulnerable but the steps we’re taking with this design agreement and what we’re going to create at the end of this phase is meant to address it.”

The seawall – and a linear park along it – may stretch from the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge on the Cooper River, around the Battery to The Citadel on the Ashley River.

No starting date has been set, officials said.  But the money is available.  Some $13 million in federal funding and $7 million in local funding is slated to pay for preconstruction, engineering and design costs.

In related news:

  • Former Navy vessel becomes S.C.’s newest reef.  State and environmental organization officials teamed up this weekend to sink a one-time Navy torpedo vessel 40 miles off the Charleston coast, creating the state’s newest artificial reef in the process.

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In recent headlines

CP OPINION, Brack: Stand up to the hypocrisy coming from Washington. “Here’s a frightening question that Americans should consider: Why are so many people willing to accept stuff now that they couldn’t have imagined being tolerated just a few years ago? For example, what if former President Barack Obama had decided to use National Guardsmen from around the country in Dallas, Texas, to clean up crime?”

CP NEWS: New book uncovers insights into 100-year-old Porgy story. The beloved novel Porgy quietly turned 100 years old this year. Now, Charleston’s all-knowing historian Harlan Greene has uncovered key new clues that helped to spawn the classic in his new book, Porgy’s Ghost: The life and words of Dorothy Heyward and her contributions to an American classic.

CP FOOD: Drama stirs as Charleston’s Marina Variety Store, Salty Mike’s head to next chapter. The past week served as a good reminder that Charleston is a small town where misinformation can spread like wildfire. Case in point: The next phase of the Marina Variety Store and Salty Mike’s, a beloved restaurant and bar on Lockwood Boulevard.

S.C. WEEK IN REVIEW: S.C. moves to kill ‘DEI’ contracting before federal funding cut-off. The state of South Carolina and its largest city took dramatic steps this week to begin dismantling decades-old programs designed to increase participation by women- and-minority-owned businesses in government contracting.

North Charleston council members were concerned about travel before Utah incident. North Charleston officials were looking at changes to the city’s “too loose” travel policy months before a physical altercation broke out between members at a Utah legislative conference.

College of Charleston looks at new school of hospitality. CofC officials are in discussions with an unidentified philanthropist to turn its hospitality and tourism department into a full-blown School of Hospitality and Tourism Management.

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