...the cruise industry: "It's like a circus." The long-awaited Historic Charleston Foundation Cruise Ship Study executive summary is out. This new study demolishes the findings in the Crotts and Hefn ...

When last we wrote, we quoted one Bruce Smith in his letter to the Post and Courier. Mr. Smith took a fresh, long term-look at Charleston's future and the cruise ship terminal issue: "Anyone who is wi ...

Imagine that you won last week's mayoral election and, with clear, fresh eyes, you had the opportunity to make Charleston an even better, more livable city than it is.  Bruce Smith, in a letter to the ...

The Board of Architectural Review (BAR) rejected the State Ports Authority's (SPA) cruise terminal design.  As you may recall, the SPA assured us that they had "a superb design team working on this, i ...

Good afternoon, We've written two commentaries, published elsewhere, that you may wish to read.  This week, "What makes Charleston Charleston?" appears in Charleston Currents online.  It begins, "For ...

The un-listening mayor and the defiant Ports Authority were pilloried in this week's Charleston News Alternative.  A must-read front page article, "The Cruise Ship Controversy: A Summary," suggests th ...

Good morning, Are you willing to risk Charleston's new No. 1 ranking as America's top tourist destination? Then let's start asking serious questions about cruise ship tourism: Who benefits?  What a ...

There is no doubt that the SPA, its expensive PR firm, and the mayor know how to frame an argument. But when it comes to the cruise ship tourism, does the frame fit? "We are against jobs." That' ...

Why does the SPA ignore important cruise ship issues so apparent to everyone else? The latest Charleston Mercury tackles the issues factually and directly in a manner the SPA and the mayor can't seem ...

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 his ...