GOOD NEWS: Bike lane test is underway

If you haven’t been to downtown Charleston lately from West Ashley, you’ll soon find out that the roadway looks a little different.  Instead of four lanes of vehicles crossing the Ashley River into Charleston, there are now three.  The outside lane has been partitioned into a walk/bike lane to test how traffic will react.

For anyone getting bent out of shape by the traffic experiment, consider the number of lanes in the parallel bridge from the peninsula to West Ashley:  Three.

To understand how the new bike lane test will work, we encourage you to take a look at this video simulation.  Once you become part of the experiment and drive on the bridge, you may  discover is that it doesn’t “feel” all that different than it did before — just a little more crowded, like the other bridge already is:

In other Good News:

National winner.  The Small Business Administration has named the Charleston Area Small Business Development Center as the 2016 National SBDC Center of Excellence and Innovation as announced by SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet. The award will be presented during ceremonies to be held May 1-2 in honor of National Small Business Week in Washington, D.C.

“National Small Business Week is an important moment when we honor our nation’s 28 million small businesses and renew our commitment to fostering the entrepreneurial spirit that is central to small business success. This year’s recipients are educators and dynamic leaders in their respective small business fields. It is an honor to celebrate their hard work and success,” Contreras-Sweet said in a press release.

The Charleston area has two SBDC centers, which offer individual, confidential business consulting at no cost.  The area’s main center is in North Charleston, with a satellite location at The Citadel.  More info:  http://www.SCSBDC.com.

From left:  Former area manager Tom Lauria, current area manager Darrell Jones, administrative assistant Melida Low and PTAC specialist Linda Blanton. (Photo provided by Charleston Area SBDC)

All-American City.  Charleston County is one of 20 municipalities competing this year as finalists for the National Civic League’s All-America City Award.  “The All-America City Awards is a national competition to find the best of the best as it relates to public service,” said County Administrator Keith Bustraan in a release. “We’ve worked closely with a number of local organizations to highlight some of the history we helped preserve in Charleston County and we look forward to presenting some of these initiatives at the final competition in June.”

Water parks to open in May.  Charleston County’s three waterparks — Slash Zone on James Island, Splash Island in Mount Pleasant and Whirlin’ Waters in North Charleston — open for weekends on May 7 until Memorial Day, when they will open daily through August 12.  More.

Documentary film presentation.  “Carvalho’s Journey” (7 p.m. April 7, Terrace Theater, James Island) is a new documentary by Steve Rivo that tells the story of Solomon Nunes Carvalho, an observant Sephardic Jew born in Charleston in 1815 who traveled across the American West.  He was renowned as a photographer, inventor, artist and pioneer.  Presented by the Charleston Jewish Film and Bookfest and the Pearlstine/Lipov Center for Southern Jewish Culture at the College of Charleston, Rivo will answer questions at a reception after the film.  Tickets and more.

Breeland scholarship.  The College of Charleston has reached a $50,000 goal to establish a new scholarship honoring former state Rep. Floyd Breeland of Charleston.  It will be awarded annually to a minority male student in the college’s teacher education program.  Breeland, who currently directs the college’s Call Me MISTER program to boost the number of black make