Charleston Currents – Charlie Smith

FOCUS, Smith: Pandemic lesson: Time to stop the asphalt gravy train

By Charlie Smith, special to Charleston Currents | When the coronavirus quarantine is over, let’s be sure to remember one of the most important lessons that we have learned: Let’s remember what it was like living in Charleston without traffic.

The lesson we should learn from this experience is that it’s time to stop building bigger and bigger roads that only invite more and more cars and trucks that divide our community and diminish the health and well-being of our citizens.

Smith

It’s time to tell our General Assembly and our county and city governments that equitable mobility is what the public is entitled to, not just more asphalt. Tell them that it’s time to break up the S.C. Department of Transportation (SCDOT) and create an agency that can focus on mass transit, inter-city rail, “Complete Streets” and multi-modal transit for all citizens, not just on more wasteful inefficient projects for the benefit of road contractors.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 04/06/2020 · 1 comment · Focus, Good news

NEW for 4/6: More mass transit; Getting through this; Photo essay; Lift a glass

]IN THIS EDITION
TODAY’S FOCUS: Lesson from a pandemic: Time to stop the asphalt gravy train
COMMENTARY, Brack: We’ll get through this, but it’s going to be hard
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Magnolia Plantation and Gardens
PHOTO ESSAY, Byko: Roadside beauty
NEWS BRIEFS: It’s really time to lift a glass or two
FEEDBACK: Yep, stay at home
MYSTERY PHOTO: Bridge to somewhere
CALENDAR: Take a look at some fun online events

by Charleston Currents · 04/06/2020 · Comments are Disabled · Full issue

FOCUS: What I’ve learned in 23 years as an LGBTQ Charleston Realtor

By Charlie Smith, special to Charleston Currents | I moved home to Charleston 23 years ago after two years at Clemson working on a master’s degree in planning and 12 years of living in Miami. Soon after returning, I walked into Dudley’s on King Street and ran into an old acquaintance who had lived up the street from me in graduate school. He asked what I intended to do for a living.

I told him that I intended to establish South Carolina’s first openly gay-owned and -operated real estate brokerage, marketing primarily to the LGBTQ community. His immediate response was “You’ll never make a dime in this town!” I never forgot those words. I immediately set out to prove him wrong.

Real estate was a tight-knit business community back then. It was not all that welcoming to people who had no intention of working under an established broker, but rather who planned to start an office from scratch. It was also 1996 and the internet was in its infancy as a real estate tool.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 07/01/2019 · 1 comment · Focus, Good news, Views

7/1: Lessons in real estate; America’s wearing blinders; Beating the heat

IN THIS EDITION OF CHARLESTON CURRENTS:

FOCUS, Smith: What I’ve learned in 23 years as an LGBTQ Charleston Realtor
COMMENTARY, Brack: Culture of ignorance on rise in America
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: South Carolina Ports
ANOTHER VIEW: How to beat the Charleston heat
GOOD NEWS: Magnolia hosts 7th annual History Fair on July 6
FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts
MYSTERY PHOTO: Different view of Charleston site
S.C. ENCYCLOPEDIA: The King’s Highway
CALENDAR: Celebrating the Fourth of July

by Charleston Currents · 07/01/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Full issue

A grave marker at a Kinsler family cemetery.

BRACK: Dealing with Southern ghosts of the past

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher, part 1 of 2 | This is the story of three cousins. Well, they’re pretty sure they’re all cousins because they think they are linked genetically to the same man. But they’re not 100 percent sure because some of the records are lost.

They do know, however, that they’re linked by circumstance and family to that man, a South Carolina plantation owner who moved his family and 14 slaves to Florida before the Civil War. Later he moved back to the Palmetto State, signed the state’s Ordinance of Secession, fought and served in the state Senate.

by Andy Brack · 06/17/2019 · 1 comment · Andy Brack, Views

6/17: Building our future; Ghosts of past; New voting machines

IN THIS ISSUE:

FOCUS, Morris: Let’s work proactively to build a brighter Charleston future
COMMENTARY, Brack: Dealing with Southern ghosts of the past
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Magnolia Plantation and Gardens
ANOTHER VIEW, McCoy-Lawrence: Voters aren’t getting voting system they deserve
GOOD NEWS: Remembering a Revolutionary victory, more
FEEDBACK: On a liberal arts education
MYSTERY PHOTO: Mystery box building
S.C. ENCYCLOPEDIA: Slavery in South Carolina
CALENDAR: Charleston Carifest to start June 20

by Charleston Currents · 06/17/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Full issue

Depression-era photographer Marion Post Wolcott snapped this image in 1939 of tomato pickers on their lunch break in a field near Homestead, Fla. Charleston County once was home to a huge truck farming industry, which included tomatoes that were shipped to northern markets. Photo from the Library of Congress.

FOCUS: Toward a more truthful — and useful — Charleston history

By Charlie Smith, Special to Charleston Currents | When the Charleston County Planning Commission’s subcommittee on historic preservation announced last year that consultants had been hired to conduct the 2016 update of the Historic Resources Survey, I was initially very excited that we would finally be addressing some of our past failures to protect important historic sites and buildings throughout Charleston County.

Realizing that we did not have endless funds with which to work, we began to narrow the scope to a task that was feasible given our limited resources. I was initially not happy at all with the 1940-1975 time frame chosen for the limited study.

Charleston has a deeply-rooted complicity at every level in the atrocious politics of skin color …

by Andy Brack · 09/05/2016 · 1 comment · Focus, Good news