FEEDBACK: Not very good neighbors or agency

Not good neighbors

To the editor:

It is things like this [Photo: Good neighbors?] that have completely eroded the quality of life in downtown Charleston and particularly south of Broad and east of Lenwood and the French Quarter.  Elected officials don’t care either, yet we elected a new mayor last year to supposedly bring some of this under control. Instead we see city council overriding him at every turn because only one of them lives downtown so the others are only looking at how much money comes in.

On top of this, we have a large segment of second and third homeowners who only live here a few weeks a year at most. This morning, I was stopped on Tradd Street while one of them loaded her car and overheard two others remark about how this was their first time in Charleston since Hurricane Matthew!

Very few real Charlestonians are left living downtown and the rest only care about their world and it is not the Charleston world. Those few natives left see themselves boxed in by politics beyond their control, sky high property taxes on their homes, huge maintenance costs, and fewer and fewer real Charlestonians left.  No wonder most have left and moved to Sullivan’s Island and Bishop Gadsden.

Heaven help the city’s finances and the real estate industry when these people from off stop coming and paying millions for a second or third home in downtown Charleston.

— P.C. Coker, Charleston, S.C.  (Note:  This comment first was posted on our website.)

DHEC is too large, inefficient and ineffective

To the editor:

The health of our citizens, and the health of our state’s environment and natural resources , continue to be poorly served by an agency that is too large, inefficient, and ineffective.  [Brack, 10/24:  Time to say the heck with DHEC]

Our governor and our legislature are ultimately responsible to all of us for this undesirable set of continuing circumstances.

It is not sufficient to blame the majority of state employees in this, or any state agency, since too many are underpaid , poorly resourced, and – unfortunately — politically harassed.

The expected response from our state’s elected officials to an agency that is not adequately fulfilling its mandate(s) should be to reorganize it and provide the needed oversight, along with the necessary human and financial resources, to ensure that it will perform more effectively in the future.

Will that happen ? We’ll see …

— Jim Rex,  Winnsboro, S.C.

Time to stop forcing fertility worship

To the editor:

Isn’t it time the government stopped trying to force fertility worship onto citizens? We have freedom of religion under the Constitution and should adhere to it.

If there are people who understand pregnancy and realize that the fetus in all stages of development is dependent on the body of someone else, then they do not hold the fetus in the same sanctity that fertility worshippers do.

It is very important that we as citizens adhere to our respective religions and support those who do not believe as we do in their path toward salvation.

— B. K. Ashley, Clover, S.C.

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