Take a Stand for A Better CHS Transit Plan - Aug. 2020

Bus Stop in Mt. Pleasant

The system has failed again. 350 years of instictive oppression has birthed another tool for stunting the hopes of the next generation of hard working people trapped in the SC Low-country while those in power cruise to another generation of undeserved power. 

A pathetic plan. 

After 25 years and over Ten million dollars in tax payer funded meetings and design, the plan for rapid transit from Summerville to Charleston which is emerging is utterly inadequate. Real rapid transit runs for only 11.5 miles of the system in dedicated bus lanes from Success street through N. Charleston before ending at I-26 & Highway 78. The proposed system is mostly buses running in regular traffic 5.4 miles from MUSC to Success St. In N. Charleston. From Charleston Southern University for 7.4 miles running in congested traffic to Summerville. 

Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit will begin outreach on August 7 and a series of 3 meetings beginning August 14 to change the way we plan transit and affordable housing in the Lowcountry. That will be the foundation for an educational and voter information effort that we'll carry through the elections in November and into a final push for the best possible transit plan for the Lowcountry to be funded by the US Government in January 2021 after the economy demands an multi trillion dollar infrastructure stimulus bill. The meeting schedule is at the end of this post. We will carry this effort through the pandemic, depression and near civil war. We are ready. Go get your boots, mask anddrum and join us. The future will be worth it. Our grandchildren will thank you.

The opportunity to bring the system into the city on the old railroad line beneath I26 has been abandoned to a park proposal which gives the rich a place to play while the people who wash their dishes and sweep their street wait in buses snarled in traffic on Meeting St. The promised additional bus services, including service to area beaches promised in the 2015 I26 Alt Study still aren’t running. This isn’t the system which can liberate Ladson, Lincolnville and Summerville from congestion and lost hours in the car. It won’t support the dense, walkable communities we need to provide affordable housing or a higher quality of life in North Charleston. It won’t reconnect downtown Charleston to the region. 

Not What Charleston County Was Promised

Chris Jackson sets up Tranist Planning activity

This isn't what the I26 Alt Study promised in 2015. It's not what we voted for. It's not what Charleston County shoppers been paying for since May 2017. This plan represents a decision by elected officials, hiding behind the Council of Government’s black box of non accountably, to build a system sure to fail so working people will continue to live lives so frustrated by the automobile and traffic that they will never present any threat to the aging and inadequate political power structure which is allowing our quality of life to erode. We must make our own plans. This is our last chance to build a landscape which can be a home tens of thousands of people who can create community rich in civic life, art and the type of transit which recovers time for family, community and citizenship. The coming federal stimulus bill will provide the funds to build the system right. 

We have to have the right plan in place to meet an upcoming multitrillion dollar emergency infrastructure bill sure to emerge after the November election. If all we have is an inferior plan, all they'll fund is an inferior system. 

For those who want it, a traditional car based suburban landscape will still cover most of the Lowcountry. Over 100 thousand new single family homes have already been permitted, mostly on dead end suburban streets hung on highways expected to receive over 3 billion dollars in planned expansions. It hasn't worked anywhere before and it will only result in worse congestion here. However, people will have a choice. If a live in and with your car, isolated by traffic is what you want, that will be available. 

Join us at one or more socially distanced meetings outdoors to begin planning the future. Let’s fashion an enforceable demand for what we need to build rapid transit which works from Summerville to the sea. Lets prepare to take that demand into demonstrations, government meetings and finally to the ballot box in November. We’ll lose the future we could have if this disastrous plan is adopted. 

Bring your mask, your own chair, hydration and a drum if you have one. Bring your neighbors if you can. 

After the meetings, We'll be contacting the elected officials on the COG Board to ask them to adopt a plan that meets the commitment made to voters and transit riders.

Three Meetings, Aug. 14 - 18 

 Please attend one of more of these three meetings. Each is slightly different in focus and activity. We welcome your input and suggestions. Bring maps and drawings if you can. Models are even better. 

Transit Outreach in N. Charleston with Jesse Williams

Outreach Begins August 7. Help us reach our community. The COG is spending tens of thousands or taxpayer dollars to drown out objections to this plan with a professionally executred PR plan under a new PR director, in addition to two other paid staff. We'll push back on the ground. Intensive community outreach in support of these efforts begins in Charleston on Friday, August 7 and will continue through to Wed. August 19. If you would like to help as a grass roots communicator, put on your boots and your mask and contact Lowcountry Lightening Political Communications, LLC, 

• Chris Jackson & Linda Saylor will be leading the effort in N. Charleston, Ladson, Lincolnville, Summerville and Berkeley County. 
• William Hamilton & Donna Gill will be leading the effort in Charleston, East Cooper, and West Ashley. 
• Millicent Middleton will be leading the effort on the Sea Islands and in Walterboro.

August 14, 2020, 6 to 8 pm Charleston- Grassroots Lowline Community Planning, Lowline Alternative Visioning. How can we save Charleston as a place to raise a family, be a citizen, create and enjoy life as a resident of modest means. Can Charleston be saved from becoming a playground for the tourist and the rich? If it can't be saved, how can we build access that is fair to the workers who can't afford to live there, but must work there? Congressman Joe Cunningham will have staff at this meeting. The skatepark was made with salvaged materials, upcycled into a beloved gathering place. What can we learn from that example? Huger Street Skate Park (700 feet North of Huger Street, under I26) Charleston, SC 29403  Facebook signup for Charleston Meeting. 

Skylyn talks transit in 29403

Tuesday, Aug 18, 2020, 6 – 8 PM Summerville, Ladson & Lincolnville Meeting Design Life Outside the Car. Making Highway 78 & Ladson work as a new and risign tranist enabled community, Connecting the Fairgrounds and Flea Market, Summerville as a transit empowered regional social and civic hub. Lincolnville Town Hall Picnic Shelter 141 W Broad St, Lincolnville, SC 29485 Facebook signup for Summerville, Ladson, Lincolnville Meeting.

Thursday, Aug 20, 6-8 pm North Charleston Meeting Envision New Community, Safe, Walkable, Affordable. a future for North Charleston rising as other places sink beneath the sea. At the Workshops at Howard Heights 1886 Riverview Ave. North Charleston SC (1/2 block west of Spruill Ave on Riverview)  Facebook signup for N. Charleston Meeting. 

More information

We've been blogging and organizing about these issues for over 9 years and working on it intensely since 2016. This blog contains most of our important communications.

You can reach William Hamilton at (843) 870-5299 or wjhamilton29464@gmail.com