Charleston Currents #13.11 | Jan. 25, 2021
TIMES SQUARE. We love this picture in photographer Jack Alterman’s new book, “My Lazy Eye.” Learn more about the book of pictures from throughout his career — and who from Charleston appears in it — in this issue’s main Focus story below. (Copyrighted photo by Jack Alterman; Used with permission.)
FOCUS: New Alterman book is joyful look of past and present
COMMENTARY, Brack: DHEC has trouble walking, chewing gum in pandemic
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: S.C. Ports Authority
NEWS BRIEFS: Expediting vaccine rollout
FEEDBACK: Charleston really does have bad drivers
MYSTERY PHOTO: Close-up mystery
CALENDAR: Perfect time of year to see birds at Caw Caw
New Alterman book is joyful look of past and present
Count the steeples in this view from First Scots Presbyterian Church in Charleston. Copyrighted photos provided by Jack Alterman.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Jack Alterman’s new book of photographs is a smashingly awesome retrospective.
The large-format book of 204 pages includes more than 200 photos, some new, some familiar as a frayed, button-down shirt. It’s filled with portraits of people and buildings where crisp, warm light is as much of a star as the subjects.
You’ll recognize Charleston throughout, particularly in portraits of people from all walks of life. You’ll find Joe Riley, Marcus Amaker, David Rawle, Dorethea Benton Frank, Philip Simmons, Jack Bass and Nathalie Dupree.
Then comes Harlan Greene, Layton McCurdy, Robert Dickson, Anthony “Tony the Peanut Man” Wright, Tommy Read and Henry Berlin. You’ll find artists Mary Whyte, Jonathan Green, John Doyle and Adrianne King Comer. These are images of strength and character with a smidge of innocence thrown in by the master photographer.
Artist Jonathan Green.
Through the book, you will also travel the world with breathtaking images from Yosemite National Park, New York, Ireland, Indonesia, Paris, Mexico and Africa.
“Although they were created over many years and in places far apart, they speak to each other through the spirit reflected in their eyes and gestures by design,” Alterman wrote in the foreword.
Edna and her family, St. Helena Island, 1968.
As you flip pages, you’ll find humor and see relationships between very different photos. Charleston’s Ben Moise, for example, is across a page from a giraffe in Africa. Then there’s a photo from Central Park in New York of a two-toned brick mosaic that’s across from a black-and-white wall in Indonesia.
“When I review them [the photographs] today, I realize that one picture triggers a memory of another, and when paired together they produce a whole new perspective,” Alterman wrote.
The book is titled, My Lazy Eye, which, Alterman explained, is a tribute to how he got started with photography in the first place after being born with amblyopia, a vision impairment also known as “lazy eye.”
“Both eyes looked normal, but one was out of focus and wearing glasses didn’t help. If it had been caught early enough, it could have been corrected by wearing a patch over the good eye, but in 1950, who knew? Besides, I think it just made my good eye that much better.”
And so it did. There’s nothing lazy about Alterman’s new book. It’s as good as it gets.
My Lazy Eye can be purchased online for $65.
- Have a comment? Send to: feedback@charlestoncurrents.com
DHEC has trouble walking, chewing gum in pandemic
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) isn’t exactly a confidence-inspiring agency.
Even before the coronavirus pandemic stretched its capacities and morale, the agency was a mess. The Great Recession of a dozen years ago caused big staffing and funding cuts. Its infectious disease unit, for example, lost half of its funding and 100 jobs, according to an April 2020 story in The Post and Courier.
A few years later came more cuts as then-DHEC Director Catherine Templeton wielded her “buzzsaw” through the agency. And in 2013, she had to apologize for the agency’s slow response in dealing with a tuberculosis outbreak that infected more than 100 people in Greenwood County. According to news reports, DHEC learned about an infected man in March, but didn’t test schoolchildren, 53 of whom got the illness, until the end of May.
Two years later, former Gov. Nikki Haley used the agency, whose directors are appointed by the governor, as a political pawn to investigate three abortion clinics. The department was put between a rock and a hard place. Eventually, it extricated itself after another uncomfortable spin in the spotlight.
And then in 2016 came another embarrassment — a stealthy rewrite of abortion regulations that put its policy culture in question and led to calls for it to be disbanded. At the time, we observed, “Lawmakers should investigate the policy culture at DHEC and, in our view, split the agency to reduce its power. It’s time to say the heck with DHEC.”
Last year came the Great Pandemic, which has stretched limited resources and stressed state government in never-expected ways. DHEC has been criticized for slow responses, poor communication, lackluster leadership and being the pawn of, yes, the current governor, Henry McMaster.
Senate President Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, is so frustrated that he is again calling for the agency to be split into a stand-alone health department with its environmental duties to be distributed to other agencies. Just before the 2021 legislative session opened, he said in a press release, “No one is in control at DHEC and hasn’t been for quite some time. … [My legislation] will ensure government runs more efficiently and will give each agency clearly defined responsibilities.”
So now comes more egg for the agency’s face: A data screw-up on the number of COVID-19 cases at a time when South Carolina is one of the nation’s hotspots for the virus.
On Jan. 16, a Saturday, the agency announced there had been a software problem with an internal database operated by a vendor. The result? Six days of incomplete data on number of new coronavirus cases in South Carolina. The problem was fixed, the agency stressed, and the data had been updated.
“No data was lost or breached; there were delays in how electronic lab reports were being processed into the database,” DHEC spokesman Laura Renwick told Statehouse Report. “On Saturday, we also issued a historic breakdown for cases for the days that the database error occurred. While it’s unfortunate that this technical issue occurred, having a few days of delayed case counts in no way affected our public health actions.
But oddly enough, in fact, the data in question included what turned out to be the single biggest day ever of new cases on Jan. 8. DHEC initially reported 3,747 new cases, only to adjust it to 6,824 cases on Jan. 16. Over the six-day period of data instability, the agency reported 19,455 cases — some 5,426 less than updated on Jan. 16.
You see where this is going? Data problems that happened when the largest number of cases ever experienced on a single day occurred in a new virus hotspot? Really?
DHEC’s actions in recent years and its lackluster leadership during this crushing pandemic that has infected more than 366,000 South Carolinians certainly do not inspire. We’ve heard some say it feels like the agency is flying a plane while trying to build it.
After years of underperformance and being a puppet of the governor, it’s time for the agency to be restructured into something new and and seek to restore its credibility among citizens.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Charleston Currents, and publisher of the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: editor@charlestoncurrents.com.
South Carolina Ports Authority
Founded in 1942, the South Carolina Ports Authority (SCPA) owns and operates public marine terminals at two port facilities, the Port of Charleston and the Port of Georgetown, in addition to inland ports in Greer and Dillon, S.C. These facilities are owner-operated terminals, meaning the SCPA owns the terminals, operates all container cranes, manages and operates all container storage yards and leads all customer service functions in both the yard and the lanes.
SCPA promotes, develops and facilitates waterborne commerce to meet the current and future needs of its customers, and for the economic benefit of the citizens and businesses of South Carolina. In fact, SCPA facilities in Charleston, Dillon, Georgetown and Greer drive $63.4 billion in annual statewide economic impact and 1 in every 10 S.C. jobs is attributed to the port.
- For more information, visit www.scspa.com.
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State seeks to expedite vaccine rollout
Staff reports | State lawmakers may spend more than $200 million to help with vaccine distribution and build up vaccine distribution capacity in South Carolina, The State newspaper reported Friday.
According to a resolution in the House Ways and Means Committee, lawmakers would appropriate $108 million from the state’s Contingency Reserve Fund to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control and the Medical University of South Carolina to expand statewide vaccination capacity quickly and continue to administer the state’s testing plan for COVID-19. The resolution calls for another $100 million to be placed in a vaccine reserve account to help pay for administration of the vaccine. Read the resolution.
In other recent news:
State’s prison population drops. More than a decade ago, South Carolina struggled with overcrowded prisons, often bumping against a federal limit in the number of prisoners it could incarcerate. But as Statehouse Report’s Rodney Welch explains, the state has cut its inmate population by more than 30 percent in the last decade — from 24,000 prisoners housed in the state system to just under 16,000. Read what’s going on.
Ports’ 2021 forecast improves. The State Ports Authority is projecting a rosier year after several months of strong volumes and a continued rebound. According to a press release, the agency anticipates handling 1.385 million pier containers in fiscal year 2021, which ends June 30. This is up from the original projection of 1.235 million pier containers and, if achieved, would surpass the port’s 2019 fiscal record of 1.364 million pier containers handled.
S.C.’s Harrison becomes DNC chair. The Democratic National Committee elected Jaime Harrison of South Carolina as chair Thursday, signifying early alignment between newly inaugurated President Joe Biden and party leaders. More: CNN.
Harriford, Rezaeerod join Biden administration. Columbia native Scott Harrifod is the new liaison between the Biden White House and the U.S. Small Business Administration. Charleston native Paniz Rezaeerod will serve as deputy director of congressional affairs for the U.S. Department of Interior. More: The Post and Courier.
- Have a comment? Send to: editor@charlestoncurrents.com
Charleston really does have bad drivers
To the editor:
This absolutely is true, but what is being done about it? There needs to be more police and state troopers monitoring traffic.
People typically drive five to 10 miles over the speed limit. One of the worst issues is the people who weave through traffic at high rates of speed. The other issue is cell phone use and texting. Many states have passed a law making even holding a cell phone while driving illegal. Another issue are open bed trucks with animals, children or unsafely loaded.
When is Charleston going to get serious about these issues?
— LIz Anderson, Mount Pleasant
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Close-up mystery
This is a photo of something outside of South Carolina once visited by many in-state residents. Just look at recent headlines and you should figure out why it is this week’s Mystery Photo. Send your best guess to editor@charlestoncurrents.com. And don’t forget to include your name and the town in which you live.
Our previous Mystery Photo
Our Jan. 18 photo, “Empty field,” shows where a new library is supposed to be built and ready for readers by now. The old library, which continues to be used, is the cramped brick building at the right as the old Navy Hospital looms in the background. Here’s a look at what the long-delayed new library is supposed to look like.
Several readers, including some new to the Mystery Photo, correctly answered, including James McMahan of Charleston; Jay Altman of Columbia; George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; Denis Blyth of Mount Pleasant; and Don Clark of Hartsville. Others who answered correctly, but didn’t give their town (as requested for ID purposes) were: Nathan Henigan, Colette Wilkerson, Zoe Butler, Yvette Williams and Vernon Barnett.
Graf noted, “The new one-story, 15,000-square-foot facility with a brick and metal exterior will go behind the existing library site at 3503 Rivers Avenue. A green space will separate the new library from Rivers Avenue, and there will be 80 parking spaces on the Dorchester Road side. Seems this project has been in the design phase for quite some time. However, in my opinion, you want the initial design to be as flawless as possible, since the cost to make changes later can be really expensive. On the other hand, the longer you delay, the cost of construction always rises over time.”
Peel added, “While I am sure that they exist somewhere in the bowels of the Charleston County’s Public Library files, I have not found any specific information on when the new branch of this library will be completed and open to the public.”
Send us a mystery: If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send it along to editor@charlestoncurrents.com.
Perfect time of year to see birds at Caw Caw
Every Wednesday and Saturday — particularly through the end of February — you can see a plethora of birds at Caw Caw Interpretive Center in Ravenel as they make their way through the Lowcountry. The two-hour regular walks, which start at 8:30 a.m., are through distinct habitats that allow participants to to view and discuss a variety of birds, butterflies, and other organisms.
Registration is not required. Participants are encouraged to bring their own binoculars. A paid chaperone is required for participants ages 15 and under. Max. 10 participants. Fee: $9; free for Gold Pass holders. Open to all ages. More: Caw Caw Interpretive Center.
Also on the calendar:
Boat show set for the weekend: Noon to 6 p.m., Jan. 29; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Jan. 30; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Jan. 31, Charleston Area Convention Center, North Charleston. The show’s producers say the event will be held under strict COVID-19 guidelines. Tickets are $5 for kids to $12 for adults. For more information and guidelines, visit www.TheCharleston BoatShow.com.
Sunday Brunch Farmers Market: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., every Sunday, Charleston Pour House, 1977 Maybank Highway, James Island. While the market is discouraging people from spending too much time hanging out during the market, everyone is invited to shop their local vendors.
Wallace abstracts on display. Through Jan. 31, Park Circle Gallery, 4820 Jenkins Ave., North Charleston. Works by local abstract artist Scott Wallace will be on display through the end of the month at a free show. The exhibit, called “Abstraction in Action,” features works in acrylic that explore unusual color palettes and the textural possibilities of acrylic paint. More: ScottWallacePaintings.com.
Craft entries sought. Fine craft artists from around the state are invited to enter the 19th annual S.C. Palmetto Hands Juried Fine Craft Competition and Exhibition, which will be presented April 28 to May 2 as part of the North Charleston Arts Fest. Entry fee is $15. The deadline for entries is March 15. Applications are offered online only. The show, cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19, will offer objects made in media of clay, fiber, glass, metal, wood, and three-dimensional mixed media. More info: culturalarts@northcharleston.org.
- If you have any online events, drop us a line (editor@charlestoncurrents.com) and make sure to put “Online event” in the subject line. Similarly, if you’ve got cool ideas for stuff to do while in isolation at home, send them our way.
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