By Kyra Morris, contributing editor | As our bellies are now full from a wonderful Thanksgiving meal, it’s now time to consider emptying the wallet for the holidays. At least that is what retailers would like for you to do. The holiday season and shopping are often directly correlated. Instead of the joy of the season, we often experience the stress of the season.
By Andy Brack | The Charleston that you want the world to see showed up Tuesday night at Mayor-elect John Tecklenburg’s victory party — young, old, black, white, Republicans, Democrats, gay, straight, rich, poor, old Charleston and new Charleston.
The inclusive, diverse crowd vibrated with palpable and emotional electricity as energized supporters grooved to loud music, laughed, hugged and waited for a victory speech. Then Tecklenburg delivered the kind of forward-looking talk you’ve heard for weeks. He discussed boosting Charleston’s quality of life and working together to make things better.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | It almost defies reality that the downfall since 2012 of the state’s number two and number three elected officials hasn’t yet led to major ethics reform. The once bright promise of more transparency in government is becoming dimmer every passing day.
By Doug Holmes, contributing editor | Charleston real estate has recovered nicely from the torture of 2008-2011. Back then, the country was in recession and a lot of it was due to the real estate crisis caused by banks giving money away too freely. It became very difficult to sell homes and buyers had it all their way. We were mired in a buyer’s market of unprecedented proportions. It’s interesting to compare months of inventory for that market to months of inventory for the market today.
By Andy Brack | updated 11.7.15
After all of Leon Stavrinakis’s whining about negative campaigning in the race to replace Charleston Mayor Joe Riley, you might have been surprised that the first thing out of his mouth after the polls closed was an attack.
Stavrinakis, who has been a frontrunner for so long that he was obviously stunned that he came in a close second to commercial real estate agent John Tecklenburg on November 3, criticized the lead vote-getter as a “developer” in comments to the press.
By Andy Brack | Life got darker last week when a shining light of my family’s lives went out.
Our 14-year-old dog passed on Thursday, leaving our daughters without an elegant presence that’s been with them ever since they were born.
There were lots of tears for our Simon, a Labrador-Dalmatian mix whose long legs suggested a speck of greyhound thrown in for good measure. Rescued from a local agency, he joined us a year after my wife and I married.
By Andy Brack | The Civil War is alive every day for reporters and editors — and they may not even know it.
A couple of weeks back in a commentary taking the General Assembly to task for caterwauling about a court-imposed time limit on school funding, I observed how reporters face “deadlines” all of the time, just as courts impose deadlines frequently.
We’re saddened this morning by the loss of longtime Post and Courier columnist Ken Burger, who died Tuesday following a long battle with prostate cancer.
Let’s remember him by being inspired from reading his outstanding, poignant writing, such as this sage advice from “Baptized in Sweet Tea,” a collection of columns published in 2011:
1. Always return phone calls: “Calling people back, you see, is a sign of respect, even if they don’t deserve it.”
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | John Tecklenburg has the best line in the campaign to be Charleston’s next mayor:
“Charleston is not a theme park,” he tells people during meetings and in ads.
In just six words, he succinctly captures what’s different about his candidacy and lets us in on his secret: he’s running to serve the people of Charleston. He wants to work collaboratively with people to foster a community vision that focuses on what Charleston’s residents want their future to be.
By Andy Brack | South Carolinians have to get over the cheapskate model of democracy. To do otherwise is to continue to fail our future.
Billions of dollars of underinvestment in roads, bridges and health care over recent years leaves the state at the mercy of disasters of one sort or another.
Just witness the 11 trillion gallons of rain over the last week that flooded rivers, burst dams, destroyed homes, upended lives and killed at least 17 people.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina! (2019) by editor and publisher Andy Brack offers incisive commentaries on the American South, politics, the common good and interesting South Carolina leaders. Available exclusively for Kindle for $7.99. A paperback version will be ready soon. Learn more.
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