Activate Opposition to Trump/Musk Cuts in CHS March 5

Activate Opposition to the Trump/Musk Cuts to Transit and Affordable Housing in Downtown Charleston Wed. Mar. 5

2 paid positions seeking applicants

Wed. March 5, 2025 from 8 am to 5:30 pm

Image, Right, Badge of the Corps of Conductors, the outreach force of Best Friends of Lowocountry Transit, modeled on the decoration on the piston caps of the Best Friend of Charleston

Wed. March 5 activists will do outreach across downtown, historic Charleston to launch a month long effort to block attempts by the Trump/Musk regime to destroy public transit and affordable housing in the SC Lowcountry and across the US.

Our effort will begin with a dutch treat breakfast at the CofC Cafeteria in the Joe E. Berry Jr. Residence Hall, at 80 St Philip St, Charleston, SC 29401.

Our base of operations for the day will be in Office 17  of officeevolution on the second floor of  460 King Street (Enter from Ann St.). We will train outreach workers, assemble and equip teams and send them out throughout the day. The phone number to reach the office is (843) 870-5299. 

Image, left, Our base of operations for the day will be in Office Evolution, 460 King St. Ste 200. Enter from the stairs on Ann St. 150 feet East of King.

Active operations will begin at 9:30 am. Our base of operations is one block north of the DASH bus stop on the South End of the Visitor’s Center on George St. and the Best Friend Museum.  We’ll be using the free DASH buses to get around town.

Our goal is to reach 4000 people downtown in one day with knowledge that they need to demand our elected representatives in Washington obtain protection for public transit and affordable housing in the Trump/Musk “Big Bill” now being rammed through congress. We’ll be reaching out to employees and management at restaurants, hotels and medical facilities with the message that without transit and affordable housing the workers they need to function can’t live in the Lowcountry by distributing postcards and getting people to sign an online petition on smartphones and tablets. You can see an example of our outreach card here.

The weather for Wednesday is a bit messy, so bring your rain gear. This is actually good for us since the restaurants and bars we need to reach will be far less busy and have more time to hear our message. We'll save our sunny weather for the return of our bus to the beach, if it survives these budget cuts. 

Volunteers are needed. Please signup to help on Eventbright

For detailed background read https://bfltransit.blogspot.com/2025/02/keepsclowcountrymobile.html

You can download a PDF of the postcards we'll be handing out as part of this effort.

Paid Canvassing Positions

Positions for two paid outreach workers have been funded at the rate of $10 per hour. Paid workers will receive breakfast, payment in cash at day’s end and a letter documenting their work. College aged people, in good physical health would be welcomed. They should wear rubber soled, close toes shoes. A shoulder bag, literature, a clip board and writing materials will be provided. They should bring a tablet or smart phone. Spanish speakers get a $1 per hour bonus. People with experience in F&B and Hospitality will be given first consideration. Interviews will be conducted by Zoom.

To apply for one of these paid positions, who will work under the supervision of an experienced F&B professional and focus on F&B workers and businesses, send your resume to wjhamilton29464@gmail.com

For more information contact

William J. Hamilton, III
Ex. Dir.
Best Friends of Lowocuntry Transit, Inc.
wjhamilton29464@gmail.com
(843) 870-5299
Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/wjhamilton29464.bsky.social

Neither the College for Charleston, the Best Friend Museum nor any other business or organization mentioned in this post are associated with this effort, the full costs of which are being paid by Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit, Inc. We have no idea what the positions of these organizations are regarding these issues. Officeevolution rented their space to us as an ordinary tenant and isn't associated with our effort or political postions. 

Lowcountry Fight for Transit Spring 2025

This placeholder will be replaced with a full blog post with relevant links shortly. 

For immediate assistance see Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit, William Hamilton, Executive Director at (843) 870-5299 or wjhamilton29464@gmail.com or on Blue Sky at https://bsky.app/profile/wjhamilton29464.bsky.social

 

Make a Stand for Transit Wed. Feb. 19

 

Wednesday, Feb. 19 Make a Stand for Transit

North Charleston, SC - Join us at the CARTA Board Meeting to declare a community commitment to the protection of Public Transit and construction of the Lowcountry Rapid Transit System at 1 pm on Wednesday, Feb. 19 at the BCD COG Building/ 5790 Casper Padgett Way, North Charleston, SC 29406. The meeting will last an hour. 

Image, above, Louise Brown, veteran of the 1969 hospital strike and "Mother of the Movement" doing public outreach about the LCRT in 2019. 

The board is composed of representatives of over a dozen local governments, including several Mayors. Trump's and Musk's proposed budget ends federal funding for public transit, which accounts for a third of CARTAs funding. Trump is currently attempting to interrupt already scheduled grant funding for CARTA's current operations, which could cause service cancellations and cuts in the next few months. Their plans call for ending capital construction funding for projects like the planned Lowcountry Rapid Transit system and the associated plans for affordable housing. 

Sign up to participate on Facebook

Please wear green (stands for Go). We will have buttons. You can sign up as you come in to make a two minute public comment. Numbers matter this time. Politicians will be counting noses and not only those officials who are in the room. We have to have numbers. We can't wait any longer to do this. We have to move this week. 

Background on our other plans to protect local transit. 

Continuing to support transit is a huge risk for these board members, who may be targeted by MAGA once Trump fully activates his attempt to rob millions of people of their mobility. They need to know we will stand behind them, fight for transit and build the Lowcountry Rapid Transit System and the affordable housing along it which will enable a better future for our community. 

1 pm, Wednesday, Feb. 19
BCD Council of Governments Bld.
 5790 Casper Padgett Way,
North Charleston, SC 29406
Phone: 843.529.0400

Fight for the Freedom to Move

The right and ability to move is the foundation of personal freedom. If 10s of million of Americans are robbed of their transit they will have little or no power of where they can work, shop or live. They won't be able to vote or be citizens. It's a core strategy for disenfranchiding the American urban working class and crippling the cities whcih shelter the opposition to Trump.

More Information-

If you have questions, please feel free to contact Best Friends of Lowcoontry Transit Executive Director, William Hamilton at wjhamilton29464@gmail.com or call (843) 870-5299.

Keep the Lowcountry Working, Protect Public Transit and Affordable Housing

Save Lowcountry Transit & Affordable housing, Contact Your Representatives

Charleston, SC, USA- Starting in February 4, (the Birthday of Rosa Parks, Feb. 4) we will  mobilize workers and employers in the region to motivate our representatives in the US House and Senate to protect local public transit service and future plans like the LCRT and associated Transit Oriented Development efforts to build transit serviced affordable housing within our urban core. This effort is essential to the long term survival of the Lowcountry's Tourism, Hospitality, F&B, Educational and Medical Care (including elder care) economic sectors.

Image, Right, Remount Road & Rivers Station on the planned LCRT

In January Donald Trump and Elon Musk attempted to cut the federal grant funding which keeps CARTA, LINK and Tel-A-Ride operating.

Please call your federal representatives today and demand that Lowcountry Public Transit be funded and protected in Trump and Musk's "big bill."

Rep. Nancy Mace (202) 225-3176 Mace website contact page

Rep. James Clyburn (202) 225-3315 Clyburn website contact page

Sen. Lindsey Graham (202) 224-5972 Graham website contact page

Sen. Tim Scott Phone (202) 224-6121 Scott website contact page

You can join our mailing list to receive future updates on Lowcountry Transit Issues.

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Mobility, Housing and Prosperity for a Future Lowcountry

Map of Planned Lowcountry Rapid Transit System

Image, left - Current route plan for the Lowcountry Rapid Transit System (LCRT) See  a video on the LCRT

Trumps same cuts would end plans for the Lowcountry Rapid Transit System and affordable housing efforts. The courts temporarily ordered Trump not to shut down funding previously approved by Congress. Trump and Musk are determined to implement these cuts, called for in the project 2025 document. Given the chaotic nature of breakneck national politics, we'll have to refer you to the news for what is happening today. 

This report from Transportation for America has a map showing possible cuts by state and congressional district with over 146 million dollars in cuts expected in SC. https://t4america.org/2025/02/05/unflooding-the-zone-what-do-the-trump-administrations-latest-actions-signal-for-transportation/

All these sectors have and will continue to need large numbers of service workers who struggle with a rising cost of living here, bottomed on skyrocketing prices for housing within our urban core. Downtown Charleston, Mount Pleasant and North Charleston once housed many of these workers within walking distance or a very short bus ride from their jobs. Gentrification is rapidly consuming the affordable housing left within walking distance of our centers of employment. The most affordable areas to live in the Lowcountry are currently Ladson and Goose Creek, currently two hours or more from the downtown tourism district and medical center by Transit. Parking in our employment centers is still disappearing, while demand increases. 

When CARTA almost completely shut down due to a funding failure 22 years ago for two years, the impact was drastic. Employers and workers struggled, but that was a region where downtown, North Charleston and Mount Pleasant still houses many of our service workers. Hardships during that shutdown destroyed lives and even resulted in deaths as workers were killed walking or biking to work along inadequate infrastructure and at least one suicide when a worker found their bicycle stolen, lost his job and was abandoned by his family. 

This time the impact of losing our transit and failing to address our rising lack of affordable workforce housing will be much worse. We have a vastly larger tourism sector now. We also have an aging population and a falling local birthrate. Most of the people moving to the Lowcountry are coming to retire, not to work.  Many will move into nursing homes and assisted living as they age. They need services. These elderly residents won't be producing them. Flush with wealth accumulated in areas with more robust economies, these seniors are prepared to outbid our hotels, restaurants and hospitals for service labor. 

Image, Right, Best Friends of Lowcoutry Transit members fought for 7 years to successful return public transit to Charleston's Beaches, with service returning to the Isle of Palms in August 2020. 2018, Memorial Weekend, Folly Beach

Compounding this problem is the effort to deport undocumented immigrant labor, which composes a significant part of the workers in these sectors now, as well as local agriculture and construction. As immigrants are forced out of the area, the pressure on the local service labor market will increase. The costs of employment will rise. The struggle to staff existing business will grow more challenging. 

These are known problems. Local governments and organizations like the Chamber of Commerce have known about this looming problem for over a decade. However, a long standing determination to maintain plantation derived social power structures inhibits them from engaging the workers they depend on. Anything which might inform workers that they are valuable parts of the community, increases labor power and exposes the vulnerability of those in control. 

Image, Right - Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit's Transit Complete the Penny Campaign delivered the margin of victory to obtain local funding for construction of the LCRT in 2016. 

The Lowcountry can't indulge its delusions any longer. We already have commercial spaces sitting empty downtown because business operators can't find the staff to open. If businesses can't operate profitably, the value of the real estate they lease can't be maintained. The effort to staff tourism connected businesses this Spring will be exceptionally challenging. Other cities have been actively recruiting prime service labor here for years, offering better transit, a lower cost of living and superior schools to young, healthy capable workers. 

We can continue to operate and improve our transit and build affordable housing in the Lowcountry. We should be doing a better job. However without federal funding, these efforts will end.

 You must call your Federal Representatives today, or better yet visit their local offices and let them know you can't hire people, earn income, pay rent or pay taxes without workers. 

For More Information 

about Best Friends and our 15 year effort to build, fund and protect better public transit in the SC Lowcountry

• Call Executive Director William Hamilton at (843) 870-5299 or email him at wjhamilton29464@gmail.com
• Follow us on Blue Sky at https://bsky.app/profile/wjhamilton29464.bsky.social
• Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/BFLowcountryTransit

Don't Give Up Your Seat Lowcountry SC

Update- Our report on Congresswoman Nancy Mace, the location of her new office off the transit system on Daniel Island and our effort to sensitize her to the importance of Transit on Feb. 4. Read the Report on Nancy Mace and Transit.

Protect Lowcountry Transit  

On January 28 at 5 pm the Trump Administration unilaterally and illegally shut off all Transit funding across the US. Unfortunately, due to the shutdown in communication from Federal agencies ordered by Trump, we do not have timely or complete information on the extent to which shutting down nearly all Federal Grant funding will impact CARTA and Tri County Link. However, these grants are critical both to ordinary operations and to construction of the Lowcountry Rapid Transit project, which voters approved in Charleston County in 2016. See national CNN report. 

Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit will launch a program to warn local workers and business owners of the risk Trump's defunding of transit and connected affordable housing initiatives poses to the Lowcountry's tourism and medical sectors on Monday, Feb. 3. The effort will continue through Transit Equity Week, which honors the memory of Rosa Parks, a woman who changed the world by refusing to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery Alabama. On the birthday of Rosa Parks, Tues, Feb. 4, Transit Equity Day we'll join a national town hall on public transit in the Carolina's from a meeting room at the Charleston County Library on Calhoun Street from 12 noon to 2 pm. We're also inviting local churches, businesses and organizations still willing to make a stand to share Rosa's pancakes that week, using her personal recipe. 

We will deliver notices to prominent Republican controlled businesses and organizations asking them to intercede on behalf of Lowcountry transit and housing initiatives with Trump to preserve their own supply of low cost labor. We will identify them to the transit riding public and report on their response. We will also ask the public to contact their Federal representatives in the House and Senate. 

Please expect this information to be updated, like many executive orders erupting from the Administration, this decision is incompletely explained and vague in application. We are willing to respond to questions through blue sky at wjhamilton29464.bsky.social; email at wjhamilton29464@gmail.com or (843) 870-5299

We will be maintaining a blog on this issue at https://bfltransit.blogspot.com/2025/01/dont-give-up-your-seat-lowcountry-sc.html

While Trump did carry SC in the Presidential Election, we're certain local Republican business owners never intended this outcome. Charleston's economy hinges on low cost, transit supplied labor from areas of relatively affordable housing to the downtown centers of our tourism and medical industries. 65% of CARTA passengers are traveling to and from work. Approximately 20% are tourists on DASH buses putting money into our tourism economy. Downtown Charleston's tourism and medical districts can't accommodate the amount of traffic and parking needed to transport these people to and from work. Most of these jobs don't pay enough to support the cost of maintaining an automobile while still paying astronomical local rents. 

23 years ago, CARTA and  LINK lurched into a near complete shutdown which had drastic impacts on the community. Several people died as a direct result. However the impact of another shutdown now will be worse. Nearby areas in North Charleston, West Ashley and Downtown which once supplied skilled service labor to a much smaller downtown tourism and medical establishment have been gentrified. The surviving labor pool has lost large amounts of younger workers to areas with better opportunities. An older, smaller and less able population of workers now has to travel further, over much longer travel times to serve our downtown area. Areas like Mount Pleasant, which once harbored native populations of service workers, have now been gentrified to the extent that nearly all such labor mast travel from distant areas like North Charleston, Goose Creek and Ladson. Most people moving to our area are retirement aged people dependent on service labor, not the people who will take those jobs. Local Republican employers struggle to staff basic operations. Charleston's historic culture of cheap labor enjoying a low cost of living and limited opportunities to leave the area for better opportunity elsewhere evaporated over the past 30 years. 

Trump's policies may strangle CARTA, kill the LCRT and shut down the desperately needed plans to build affordable housing in N. Charleston, the one place where a sustainable population of local service workers might be maintained. While low paying tourism is a lousy way to build an economy, the value of our downtown area's economy and commercial real estate is now bottomed on it. Without people to make beds, wash dishes and treat medical patients, businesses will collapse. We already have business locations all over Charleston which can't operate at full capacity because people to do the work just aren't available. A multi million dollar restaurant space like that at the corner of Market and East Bay Streets is worthless without reliable cooks, dishwashers and bus boys. 

Image, Right, Former Congressman Mark Sanford being reminded of the importance of public transit. He later lost the Republican primary due to his opposition to federal transit funding. 

The Lowcountry's economy is committed to a future where much of it's income is generated from tourism and medical services. These services are not nor will they ever be possible without transit and housing for service workers. A robot McDonalds may be possible, but nobody spends a thousand dollars per day on a vacation to eat at one. Trump's sudden and illegal interruption of grant funding threatens those jobs, those employers and the value of the real estate they lease or own. 

Even in a political world where the happiness and dignity of the Lowcountry's service workers isn't valued by those in power, their Republican bosses must have their work to generate income. Since President Trump only values the opinions and needs of his MAGA supporters, it is up to them to make sure their supply of workers remains available. If we are to continue to sell moonlight and magnolias in the City Rhett Butler was from to tourists and to supply medical care to those who need it, we must make sure housing and transportation for those  people remains available. 

Remember Rosa Parks and Don't Give up Your Seat for Lowcountry Transit Feb. 2025

 

Don't Give Up Your Seat in Feb. Remember Rosa on Transit Equity Day Charleston, SC, USA- This year's Transit Equity Day (Feb. 4)  is important because we know a major effort to defund public transit in the United States is on the way. The MAGA agenda is anti urban and destroying the quality of life in our cities is a central tactic. Nothing robs people of their freedom more effectively than rendering them immobile. Charleston's excruciatingly slow progress towards construction of the LCRT might end if the Trump administration manages to defund Transit. Like Rosa Parks, we need your help to prepare to hold on to our seat, our place, our dignity and our rights.  Project 2025's anti transit agenda Update- Our report on Congresswoman Nancy Mace, the location of her new office off the transit system on Daniel Island and our effort to sensitize her to the importance of Transit on Feb. 4. Read the Report on Nancy Mace and Transit. Help Inform the Public Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit will begin our effort with a public information campaign on Martin  Luther King Weekend promoting our local effort to the Lowcountry Progressive Community. its important that people wanting to be involved step forward so we can promote their contributions to this effort. Local media is no longer strong or effective enough to help us, so we need to reach our own people and activate the community.  Join a Carolina Transit Regional Conference on Feb. 4 Public Transit in the Carolinas will be the subject of a regional town hall on Feb. 4, Transit Equity Day from 12 noon to 2 pm in which Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit will participate with a live meeting linked to the electronic one at the Charleston County Library at 68 Calhoun St, Charleston, SC, US, 29401, on the CARTA DASH 210 Bus Route. The local meeting will be linked to a regional zoom conference with participants from Columbia, SC; Charlotte, NC and the Research Triangle expected.  Issues to be discussed will include sustaining progress made in Charlotte, continuing to advance towards construction of the LCRT in Charleston and resisting attempts to defund public transit as planned in the Project 2025 plan connected to members of the Trump administration. This regional meeting is one of several being run that day across the United States for Transit Equity Day by the Labor Network for Sustainability, an annual observance on the Birthday of Transit Equity and Civil Rights Heroine, Rosa Parks.  You can also participate in the regional conference online from your home or office. We'll post a link to the meeting here closer to the date.  Ride with Rosa That week We'll be putting posters honoring Rosa on selected CARTA buses. You can sponsor this entire effort for $100.  Rise with Rosa Right, Social Media Banner Promoting Rosa Pancake Effort, from 2022.We'll also be doing several pancake breakfast efforts that week to connect the community with the memory of Rosa's struggle with our own Civil Rights Hero, Louise Brown. If your church, organization or business wants to serve the pancakes, we'll provide PDF versions of posters and handbills to drive participation and raise awareness not only of Rosa, but also Charleston's own Mary Bowers and Esau Jenkins, Charleston's Transit Equity Heroes. We can be present with multimedia content to empower your members or customers.  If you would like to help, now is the time. We'll soon be involved in a fight to save the millions of opportunities to ride transit provided by CARTA and Tri County Link. A little organization now, will prepare us for a much stronger effort later. We're not going to give up our seat and the opposition will learn that, however if we're strong at the start, the damage the conflict will cause can be reduces and get us to a better future sooner.  We'll be announcing the effort at next week's CARTA Board Meeting, so anyone who can pitch in now will really help. If you can help, reply to this message or Contact William Hamilton at 843-870-5299 or wjhamiton29464@gmail.com

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Prevent Lowcountry Transit From Being Taken Hostage by I-526 Referendum

Charleston, SC - Join us in resisting the plan to hold Charleston Public Transit hostage to the unpopular I526 November road referendum.

July 30, 2024

CHATS Meeting, July 29, 2024

On Monday we attended the CHATs meeting, which coordinates (rubber stamps) road and transportation planning in the Lowcountry. Its membership consists of elected representatives from local municipal and county governments.  Transit, pedestrian and cycle planning now gets regular lip service at these meetings, but now is always about asphalt. Buses, sidewalks and bike lanes are the future. 

We were told by Howard Chapman, a member of Mt. Pleasant Town Council and former CARTA Chairman, that the County Council has set up the November referendum so its failure would trigger a shut down of the CARTA and LINK public transit systems. Almost all revenue from this referendum will go to fund construction of the unpopular I526 extension.

We spoke during the public comment period to inform the elected officials present that this was cruel and unfair to an electorate that voted eight years ago and has paid seven years of taxes to build better transit we haven’t seen. Now the alleged hostage plan forces people who have to rely on limited and unreliable transit services to pay taxes for decades to build a road most of them will never see just to keep CARTA and LINK buses running. 

Not one of the over 25 officials present corrected us or indicated transit services hadn’t been placed in jeopardy to forced support of more roads. 

Battery electric Proterra Bus on Meeting St.

In 2016 our organization delivered the margin of victory in the half penny sales tax referendum in order to secure 600 million dollars in funding for the future of transit in Charleston County for the next 20+ years. County council passed a resolution reserving those funds for the Lowcountry Rapid Transit System and supporting CARTA and LINK. The County Council has not kept that commitment in good faith. The LCRT keeps slipping further into the future. CARTA continues to be starved for funds. A change in operating companies hasn’t resolved the reliability and safety problems. Charleston County Council calls it the “Pay, Go Plan.” Transit riders pay, car drivers go. 

We've been demanding that further major road projects in Charleston stop holding back progress on the Lowcountry Rapid Transit System. The Lowocuntry can't pave its way out of traffic congestion. Downtown Charleston, most of N. Charleston and most of Mt. Pleasant simply have nowhere to put more lanes or roads without bulldozing existing neighborhoods and businesses on an unimaginable scale. Read our flyer on why work on 526 should wait until the LCRT is running. 

Obviously we should have been far more careful in our dealings with the County Council in 2016. Other groups pulled their support for the 2016 referendum. Every other community which voted to build a bus rapid transit system that year now has one running. Our is now planned to be shorter, slower and less capable. It is still at least five years into the future.

 

Here is how you can help protect transit:

Image right, sharing strategies with other Transit Advocacy Groups regarding the referendum on Zoom

• Help us plan how to reach Republican and Independent Local officials in the two week. We've made progress with local Democratic leaders already, but more work is needed there as well. Email you input to William Hamilton at wjhamilton29464@gmail.com

• Help us get out the word to your fellow transit riders, friends and neighbors. Download our printable one page flyer

• Stand with us at Charleston County Council on Tuesday, Aug. 13 at 6:30 pm to demand that Public Transit continue to be funded with proceeds from the 2016 referendum funds as decided by Charleston County voters eight years ago. Place August 13 at CHS County Council on your calendar and sign up. 

• Help us get candidates for public office to ride the bus with us this election season. It’s a powerful way to show them the reality of local transit. 

Input and More Information

As always, we are happy to talk anytime. Contact William Hamilton at (843) 870-5299 or wjhamilton29464@gmail.com