MORNING HEADLINES | A landmark memoir by Joseph P. Riley Jr., Charleston’s longest-serving mayor and one of the most respected public servants in the country, will be released next month, Evening Post Books announced Friday morning.
The hardcover book, titled Windows on Washington Square, will be published Jan. 6, 2026 with a public launch event planned for late January at the Dock Street Theatre.
“This is the story of a mayor who changed the way cities are built in America,” Trinity Simons Wagner, executive director of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, said in a press release. “Riley’s influence can be found in nearly every major urban design project in the nation, all rooted in the care and conviction that shaped the Charleston we know and love today.”
Windows on Washington Square offers a view of leadership grounded in equity and conviction, according to the release. Riley recounts designing Waterfront Park, revitalizing King Street, expanding affordable housing and navigating city crises from Hurricane Hugo to the Emanuel AME Church shooting.
Riley served as mayor for 40 years. He prioritized Charleston’s historic core, racial equality, expanding public spaces, supporting local arts and good civic leadership.
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In Friday’s issue of the Charleston City Paper
CP OPINION: European trip yields progressive results for Charleston. “Despite too much secrecy by Charleston leaders ahead of a November field trip to London, Amsterdam and Copenhagen, the jaunt to unpack development lessons that can benefit the next chapter of Union Pier on the Cooper River seems to have been worth it.”
CP FEATURE: Cold, wet walk illustrates drippy side of the Lowcountry. What was supposed to be a lazy eight-hour amble across Charleston on a Chamber of Commerce day became something else altogether — more of a photo essay than a written one.
CP NEWS: Charleston School of Law, city finalize settlement of yearslong lawsuit. The city of Charleston and the Charleston School of Law have finalized an agreement to settle a lawsuit filed in December 2021 on the sale of property at the corner of Meeting and Woolfe streets.
CP FOOD: Charleston restaurants celebrate the holidays. Home for the holidays doesn’t always mean dining at home. Each year, it seems that more and more restaurants are open for Christmas dining. This year’s group offers great options to wine and dine in Charleston.
CP ARTS: Beeple thinks locally, poops globally. Tech-oligarch robot dogs last week invaded social media platforms, sniffing around one another — and, yes, pooping, too — in a makeshift prescient dog park.
CP MUSIC: Charleston ‘supergroup’ Sexbruise? calls it a day on Dec. 19. The end of an era will occur Dec. 19 at the Pour House. Sexbruise?, the absolutely real Charleston supergroup that has sold dozens of albums and done worldwide tours of the Southeast, is calling it a day with a show called Series Finale.
In other recent headlines
S.C.-1: Mace says Wilson set up ‘political hit job.’ He calls her ‘spoiled brat.’The latest spat between U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace and South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson played out on CNN with one governor hopeful being described as a brat and the other being accused of orchestrating a political hit job.
Charleston man runs across S.C. to fight cancer. Ryan Cass, a Charleston resident and Citadel alumnus, finished a 200-mile route from his hometown of Fort Mill all the way to the Citadel as part of his nonprofit Breaking Ribbons.
Charleston’s plan to redesign Sam Rittenberg aims to make road safer. After nearly a decade of residents calling for improvements to make Sam Rittenberg Boulevard safer and more accessible for pedestrians and bicyclists, city staff has unveiled a proposed redesign.
Summerville considers annexing 700+ acres for residential development. A developer is proposing to annex more than 700 acres in Berkeley County into the town of Summerville, creating opportunities for over 1,200 single-family homes but raising concerns among residents about traffic, safety and rural character.
S.C.’s new water plan hopes to serve as ‘road map’ for future efforts. South Carolina leaders unveiled the latest version of a statewide plan to conserve and manage the state’s water as rapid population growth and new energy proposals increase pressure on available resources.
New conservation project will help connect the ACE Basin to the Savannah River. In the southeast corner of the Palmetto State, two large conservation projects have been underway for years, slowly but deliberately working their way toward each other.
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