In My Dream

Good afternoon,

In my dream, I walked into the City Council meeting just as the mayor began to speak. “This great city was built on achieving a balance between business, industry, and tourism and historic preservation, the enhancement of our unique neighborhoods, and protecting Charleston’s famous quality-of-life for its citizens. I have proven to you that this can be done. It requires thoughtful, visionary planning and thoughtful regulation to encourage or discourage development, depending on where it is proposed, to balance future prosperity and protect our quality of life. Prosperity and livability are not mutually exclusive; they go hand-in-hand. Ladies and gentlemen, Charleston has a breathtaking opportunity, an opportunity that no other city either has or will ever have again! It is an opportunity so big, so immense, so life-changing for the future of Charleston, that we must make it happen for us, for our children, for the future of Charleston so that her greatest days will be the future, surpassing Charleston’s most glorious past.

Sensing the crowd’s growing excitement, the mayor continued, “At the edge of our historic downtown is a 65-acre undeveloped parcel of pristine waterfront land! It’s now a derelict wasteland, wire fences, broken asphalt, rotting structures. But imagine it’s value! No other great city anywhere has such a large, undeveloped tract so close to the the heart of the city–and this is waterfront land! Boston was the last great city to have such an opportunity–and they took it. Boston transformed acres of ‘low-rent warehouses, rotting wharves, and windswept parking lots’ along its waterfront into an explosive, exciting, innovative, invigorating expansion of downtown. It began fifteen years ago there, when a forest of cranes filled the skyline at the harbors edge, and the bustling of construction workers was a testament to this opportunity that has completely revitalized Boston. Media and financial companies, law firms, advertising agencies, artists and craftspeople all moved into this new living-working neighborhood that then attracted stores and local shops, restaurants, bistros, residences and hotels. The job growth has been immense, the tax revenues skyrocketed — Bostonians seized their opportunity, and the resulting financial and job growth has been estimated in the billions, not millions!(1) And they’re not done!” The crowd was mesmerized. “We must do the same here! Privately develop all of Union Pier as Boston developed Fan Pier. That would generate more new jobs than we’ve ever created in Charleston. We will build our own new city, expand our downtown, enrich Charleston with an unrivaled tapestry of development, parks and public places just steps from historic downtown. And we could do what Boston did, locate the cruise terminal at the far edge of the city, at the Columbus Street Terminal, which will allow cruise travelers easy on/off access to major roads, avoiding congestion and confusion, when they arrive here or leave to visit plantations, the Patriot’s Point memorial, come downtown or see other Lowcountry attractions. Plus, the much unused and less valuable Columbus Street Terminal, twice the size of Union Pier, will provide acres of parking without blocking or compromising downtown waterfront land. This puts the right type of development in the right place–that’s how you achieve a balance in a great small city like Charleston. It’s a win-win-win. The workers win who develop the entire Union Pier property over the years as well as those who stay and run the many offices, shops, restaurants, hotels and live in the residences, jobs that are now nonexistent. The cruise operators and longshoremen that move to the unused portion of Columbus Street win because jobs will not only be maintained but likely expanded at this larger property. And your City wins by expanding its tax base, generating new revenues, critical in these hard times with increasing expenses and so much to do. The derelict Union Pier is our city’s ‘last frontier’! This is our great opportunity; let’s seize the moment.”

But the mayor didn’t say any of that. Instead, it turns out, he castigated proponents of regulations on cruise ships that would be similar to regulations on every other tourist industry. Mayor Riley previously, infamously portrayed proponents of balance and regulation as “a tiny, radical fringe.” The Post and Courier responded to the mayor, calling that remark “a novel characterization of those, including many downtown residents, who have the temerity to disagree with his position on the matter. Actually, they are people who live and work on the peninsula and who are concerned that the balance between the city’s tourism economy and residential livability is tipping out of kilter.”(2) But his week, the mayor outdid himself with another broadside, “The most distasteful thing about this is the class thing. That’s the elephant in the room—like people who take cruises on cruise ships aren’t good enough.” The P&C responded to that, too: “…if there is anything elephantine in this issue, it’s the cruise ships themselves. There is an apprehension that without legal limits that there will come a time when the cruise ships calling on Charleston will be bigger and there will be more of them. Certainly the city of Charleston hasn’t demonstrated any reluctance to regulate other areas of the tourism industry.”

There’s a damn good reason for “an apprehension.” The real elephantine problem is highlighted in USA Today’s travel section, “Cruise ships are getting bigger — with more passengers on board than ever. Royal Caribbean’s 9-month-old Allure of the Seas can carry more than 6,000 people — nearly twice as many as the largest ships a decade ago.”(3) Ships, like planes, are getting bigger and bigger, and the soon-to-be widened Panama Canal will stimulate the construction of far larger ships in the years to come. And even if all these cruise passengers disembarked wearing tuxedos and evening gowns, the impact, congestion, confusion, and stress on limited facilities (bathrooms, etc.) in Charleston’s small, constricted downtown and residential areas would degrade the Charleston experience for residents and visitors alike. Tourists coming here are not asking to be taken to the Citadel Mall; it’s downtown and the historic districts that tourists come to see, and it’s that destination that needs to be protected from unbridled tourism. The real Mayor Riley, if he’s still there somewhere, surely realizes the damage unrestrained tourism will bring, yet he has decided to ignore reality.

The Charleston News Alternative attacks “The Class Thing” head-on. “Who, and when, did any of the opponents of unregulated cruise ship activity, use ‘a class thing’ as an argument or a reason to impose standards? Does anyone have knowledge of this as an argument used by any of the environmental groups or neighborhood associations?” The News Alternative observes, “When the [Historic Charleston] Foundation held a forum to discuss the issue, signs reading “Jobs Not Snobs” appeared, although nothing advocated by any group appears to hurt jobs in any way. When a group of certain businessmen organized to support unregulated cruise ships, used their initial rally, not just to offer support, but to demean those for controls.” The commentary continues, “It appears that the origins of the claim being vague, continued rebroadcasting of them have come from those who seek to impose unregulated cruise ships on the city. That includes the mayor. It also includes SPA which has plenty of money to spend on public relations including negative ones,” adding, “Rather than discussing the issues, one side has taken to name calling and slurs. Most people would find this ‘distasteful.'”

The Charleston News Alternative concludes, “The mayor of what has been called ‘America’s Friendliest City’ could take the lead in restoring civility rather than pillorying its citizens. Meanwhile, the public has every reason to believe that more than promised 3,500-passenger or larger ships will be heading towards Charleston.” Publisher Bryan Harrison’s commentary is worth reading.(link 4 below)

Thirty years from now, today’s unparalleled chance to fully develop Union Pier and move the cruise terminal elsewhere will have been seen as Charleston’s greatest opportunity for future prosperity. Yet there’s little time remaining before the mayor and the SPA squander that chance forever.

–Jay