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

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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

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

Get Safer Transit Its Day in Court - Chs. v. Flowers Assault on a CARTA Bus

Image, Above, Bus Stop on Meeting Street in Downtown Charleston. After people complained about the bench and the people waiting, it was removed. After public outcry, a new bench was installed. No-one in this image was involved in the incident. 

In June 2024, William J. Hamilton, Executive Director of Best Friends of Lowcountry transit was attacked on the #20 Upper King Bus. The man who attacked him, Ronald Flowers, is a chronic and notorious street bully and criminal in the city. He has been banned from CARTA's buses at least once before. Flowers is currently under a restraining Order prohibiting him from riding any CARTA Bus or loitering at or in the immediate vicinity of any CARTA bus stop. If you see him doing either, you should report it to the bus driver and call 911 immediately. 

Image, Right of Mr. Flowers taken immediately after the attack.

The next hearing in this case will be heard on

Please note correction of Weekday
Friday, August 16, 2024 at 8:30 am at the
Municipal Court at 180 Lockwood Drive
(on the CARTA/DASH 213 bus route)
See Google Maps Entry to put on your calendar.  

This will only be a status conference where Flowers will enter a plea, his court appointed public defender will appear with him, he will renew his plea of not guilty and a date will be set for trial. This hearing will be brief, but it's a good, short opportunity for transit riders and their friends to show the city and court that this case, and others like it should be taken seriously. 

Read the Statement Hamilton filed with the Police about the attack. 

Before and at the hearing, William Hamilton will ask the Prosecutor and the Court to Charge Mr. Flowers with the additional charge of violating SC Code 58-23-1830 which prohibits does not allow any passenger to "(4) obstruct, hinder, interfere with, or otherwise disrupt or disturb the operation or operator of a public transportation vehicle." in addition to the outstanding charge of 3rd. Degree Assault, which could add another 30 days to the Defendant's sentence. Read the SC Law

Most of the people Flowers harms are struggling to make ends meet and have the overwhelming problems one would expect of anyone who has to rely on public transit in the South.  Mr. Flowers knows that most of his victims won't be able to support a prosecution against him. They can't spare the time from work for court. They can't pressure elected officials to do their jobs. He knows that most of the time, he can get away with it. 

How One Assault Impacts the Entire Community

The two most often cited reasons why local people do not ride the bus is fear of crime and difficulty reaching or spending time waiting at bus stops. This reduces bus ridership and cripples attempts to improve service. 

After Mr. Flowers was arrested and placed in jail, there was a noticeable increase in ridership on the #20 bus It's clear his presence depressed ridership. People who were working class, disabled, elderly or poor chose to walk miles rather than risk being on the bus with him.

Flowers is not the only such offender. Unfortunately, when transit riders have problems like this, we are in the hands of people who have the privilege of driving cars wherever they want to go. One of the reasons drivers spend thousands of dollars a year buying and maintaining an automobile is to escape the risk of being attacked by someone like Flowers. They see transit riders as people too lazy or incompetent to obtain an automobile, people who deserve the abuse they receive. Their unstated belief is that car ownership is a burden every socially competent adult is required to bear, not the massive, publicly subsidized privilege it actually is. They're content to know that people like Mr. Flowers reinforce the value of their automobiles and validate their operation of them.

This has been the situation on transit in the US since shortly after the end of WWII, encouraged by lobbying and social manipulation by a trade group working for the automobile, petroleum and tire industries. Fear helps sell cars, gas and tires. 

It is also the reason why Charleston has ineffective transit, ridership which has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels, and traffic congestion which is making life in the Lowcountry increasingly difficult. 

Only the people riding transit can change this. It's a national problem, but we will impact it on a local level. Charleston is our home. These are our buses. This is an election year. We're going to use this case and the Freedom of Information Act to encourage local officials to act. This is the exact reason why the 5th. Amendment guarantees public trials. 

Half SC's population doesn't have a driver's license. They  shouldn't  be relegated to humiliation, abuse and injury because they can't driver a car. We will be forced to endure mistreatment and abuse until we stand up. 

It should be noted that our buses are generally safe and many wonderful people ride them. This is the only serious negative experience Hamilton has had since he began riding local transit in 1976. 

Please note that if you see these materials and are called to serve upon the Jury, you should report your exposure to these materials to the Judge. The Judge will probably excuse you and you may be assigned to another case. Mr. Flowers is entitled to a fair trial by an impartial Judge and Jury. He is presumed innocent until proven guilty. We're confident that the quality of the evidence (which includes a full video of the incident) will support a just verdict.

For more information contact

William J. Hamilton, III

Attorney at Law, Ex. Director, Best Friends of Lowocuntry Transit, Inc. 
wjhamilton29464@gmail.com
(843) 870-5299

Bus Be Best Way to Beach

We celebrate the return of our Bus to the Beach Memorial weekend. Last year, in part to our Pirates on the Bus project, ridership increased by 90%. There are still empty seats on nearly every run.

Schedule and route map - can be viewed on the CARTA website.

Right- Bus Pirate Day at the beach, June 2023

Isle of Pirates Day 2024 will be Saturday, July 13. Read the details and sign up on Facebook. 

Service Begins with a Boom- The Beach Reach Shuttle began running Memorial Weekend and carried twice as many passengers as it did on the same weekend a year ago. All available parking on the Isle of Palms was evidently occupied for most of the weekend. Many people drove out to the beach, searched for parking, failed to find any and ended up driving back to the mainland an hour or more later, never having seen the beach. Some found our bus and some, with disappointed children, gave up and returned home. If you have to search for parking the bus will always be faster. Your kids won't be bored in the car. They'll be having the adventure of a trip on the bus. 

#40 Mount Pleasant Bus connects the Beach  Reach Shuttle to the rest of the CARTA system, leaving the Mary Street Transit Center downtown once an hour where it connects to eight other bus routes running to other parts of downtown, North Charleston, West Ashley and James Island. Find a link to maps of this route on the Ride Carta fixed routes page. 

Pirates vs. Barbie/Kenergy- Our pirates will return to the beach this summer, probably on July 4, but this year they'll have rivals, the crowd from Barbieland, ready to beach under the leadership of Ken and the living doll herself. Doing something like this on a major holiday is always a space shot. If you would like to help, let us know. It's pink vs. black, so choose  your clothing to show your sympathies. The pirate crew seems pretty committed, so we'll need the Barbies and the Bros to come of the bench and out to the beach. We'll be burying treasure on the beach, doing some pirate games with the public. Ken and his friends will "beach." Pirates will challenge the Island's rum supply again while the folks from Barbie Land have specialty cocktails of their own. The bartenders of IOP have never failed us yet and the bus assures a safe trip home for everyone. 

We may also have another bus to the  beach party at Container Bar on the #20 Route downtown. Last year's Pirate Party at Container Bar was a blast with sword fights, drama and  an exceptional effort from the food truck and the bar, 

Free Fair, Free Parking, Free Beach- Free parking is available near the stop in Mt. Pleasant Town Center on Market Center drive. However you can also take the #40 Mt. Pleasant bus from the Mary Street Transit Center in downtown Charleston for regular fare. The schedules for the beach reach shuttle and #40 are synchronized so you shouldn't have a wait at Mt. Pleasant Town Center. 

Electronic Wayfinding- The Beach Reach Shuttle is represented on the Transit App which will allow you to track it's location and get ETAs in real time. You can also use the Transit App and Google Maps / Transit to plan your transit trip to the beach from anywhere in the Lowcountry which has transit service, however since the shuttle only works on Summer weekends and holidays these services will report no service to IOP unless you have set the time and date for your trip when the service is running. Here is a Google Maps trip plan for Memorial Day from downtown Charleston to the beach.   You should download the transit app now if you don't already have it on your phone. 

left - Pitching our banner at the entrance to folly beach on Memorial weekend, 2018

Your Tax Dollars at Work- The shuttle is free thanks to contributions from the Tourism Tax funds of the City of Isle of Palms and Town of Mt. Pleasant. We've encouraged the support of IOP by awarding them the Key to the Sea, which resides in a wooden case at IOP City Hall. It's companion key was tossed into the waves last year to open the ocean and celebrate the restart of service on a cold, wet memorial day. 

You Have a Place at the Beach- The shuttle lets you off at the Charleston County Park on the front beach IOP. Since you don't have to pay for parking, use of the park is also free. That includes indoor, flush toilets in their air conditioned building, outdoor showers and changing rooms. 

IOP has City Bathrooms and Showers- In the middle of the commercial strip, the City of the Isle of Palms maintains it's own free shower and toilet facility. It's closer to many locations if you decide to beach west of the pier. 

Veteran Visits- If you are a veteran or active duty military, the VFW Post on the Coast will welcome you to their extraordinary beachfront location. Located next to the Windjammer, up a small walkway you'll find veterans enjoying a wonderful beachfront deck with a bonus view of the adjacent Windjammer stage where there is often music. The Post has toilets, a bar and sometimes food. There are events there throughout the summer. The VFW has been a strong supporter of the Beach Reach Shuttle since their members don't have to look for parking. 

IOP Front Beach Businesses- IOP has a wonderful, small beachfront business district with places to eat and shop. Let them know that you came on the bus since it's their tourism taxes helping pay for it. Here is a list of IOP restaurants. The ones near the bus stop are in the center of the island. 

Image right- A Bus Driver drink concocted by Coconut Joes on IOP as part of our July 2015 March to the Sea to help return Transit to the Atlantic. Has gold rum, red cherry and green lime (they ran out of limes that day) for the colors of the Best Friend train. 

Wonderful Wait- On your way home, the waiting area outside the park where the bus stops is shaded and has plentiful benches. With the sea breeze, it's probably the most comfortable bus stop in the Lowcountry on a hot summer day. 

Stopover on your way home. The #40 bus runs later than the Beach Shuttle so you can stop over on your way home at Mount Pleasant Town Centre. There's a Lowes, a movie theater, over 13 restaurants and many other shops and businesses. If you shower and change at the beach, you'll be OK to enjoy some time there. 

Not finished until we get to Folly. We still want a bus out to Folly Beach, where parking is now over $20 in their downtown area. Folly is a much tougher place to reach, but we were able to push the Folly Road bus further out to Sol Legare road at the Harris Teeter where it's an easy bike ride out to folly or a challenging walk, side walked all the way. Almost  there. We were also able to get frequency of service on the Folly Road bus increased. Bus ride to end of the Folly Road Bus line on Google Maps

The late Mary Smith appearing as Sylphide, our Transit Fairy

Nothing is Easy and even a Free Bus Isn't Free- It took seven long, hard years of grassroots advocacy aimed at both the East Cooper area and Folly Beach to get this shuttle running and we've put a lot of work into getting people to ride. All you need to do to make that effort worthwhile is to ride the shuttle and bring your friends. Several members of the team which fought to get the bus back out to the beach did not live to ride it. Julia Hamilton and Mary Smith (Our transit fairy) included. The struggle for better transit in the Lowcountry has been a long, hard one but we have progress to be proud of. There are hundreds of new shelters standing or planned for our exisiting bus lines. Service has been increase on the Northbridge and Dorchester Road routes. Ridership, though still below what it was before the pandemic is building. The LCRT, though reduced in scope, slowly advances towards construction and CARTA has stuck to it's guns in the controversy over the fairgrounds. There is a massive, now funded project to build affordable housing and walkable communties along and near Rivers Ave. Every inch of this progress was fought for and six of our core advocates have already taken their last ride. 

We hope when you crest across the dunes at IOP and you feel the cool, fresh breeze of the ocean that you will remember our departed friends. You can do that by scratching our symbol, taken from the Best Friend of Charleston into the sand, awaiting the return of the ocean to wipe it away. If you are there on a lucky day, you might be able to dig up some of our pirate treasure. 

Support our Work, More Information - To support the work of Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit you can contribute on Act Blue. For information or assistance contact William Hamilton at wjhamilton29464@gmail.com or 843-870-5299.

Charleston Must Fight for a Sustainable Future of Transit Equity

On Wed. May 15, 2024 we expect to be confronted by another large pressure group from the Fairgrounds Organization attempting to pressure the CARTA Board into giving up plans for a Lowcountry Rapid Transit Stop at the Fairgrounds. Last month a group of nearly all elderly, white men outnumbered Transit advocates 50 to 1. Politicians make decisions by counting noses. 

2018 Folly Road Freedom Campaign for transit to the beach. While not bus goes to Folly Beach, we did win a weekend shuttle to the Isle of Palms.

Please join us to demonstrate and make our voices heard during the public comment period of the CARTA Board Meeting starting at 12:45 pm at the Offices of the BCD Council of Governments on Casper Padgett Way in N. Charleston, #12 CARTA Bus Route. 

The Fairgrounds are now the last stop on the Northern end of the Rapid Transit line since the plan to go to Summerville was torpedoed by that Town’s good ole boy’s political gang. Ladson, the area around the Fairgrounds and Lincolnville (Charleston’s County’s historically black town) are the regions’ most affordable housing opportunities now. 

With over a million open jobs in the national tourism industry, skilled hospitality workers are in high demand. Recruiters from Charlotte, Miami and Atlanta have been seen in Charleston in the past. If you are young, strong, and mentally stable with skills in hospitality, these recruiters will help you move to a city where your rent will be lower, the schools will be better, and you’ll be a short, highly reliable ride on good public transit to work. As a transit rider, I’ve seen people I’ve been on the bus with for years, shake those recruiters’ hands, leave the bus stop to go to Starbucks and never be seen again. Other people have been recruiting for the healthcare industry in other cities.

In its 350-year history, Charleston has never really cared about the quality of life of its working class. From colonization, through slavery, the suppression of the mechanics, reconstruction and segregation Charleston’s rulers have always been able to count on people with little power or choice to do the hard work from cultivating rice to cleaning the toilets of tourists. Inadequate transit, along with poor education and overpriced, inadequate housing have been the tools which maintain the money machine which is greased by racism and class privilege.

However, the 21st Century has brought greater connectivity and mobility to America’s working class. Thirty years ago, finding a possible job in Atlanta, Denver or Orlando would have required poking through the want ads of days old newspapers purchased at the Book Bag on King Street, that, and finding an apartment, and knowing how the area’s transit worked can now all be done on a smart phone in minutes. Schools can be rated, local crime statistics found, and necessities priced in seconds online from a bench at a bus stop.  It is no longer hard to leave. 

In the bitter, divided politics of Trump era America, the belief that everyone should pull themselves up by their bootstraps and buy a car so they can sit in traffic for hours a day may satisfy the lucky retired person, who finished paying for their fifty Thousand dollars house a decade ago. They simply won’t drive to their next meeting of the fair committee until rush hour is over. When they’re too old to drive, they’ll disappear into the carless underclass that doesn’t matter. 

However, such delusions do not solve the problems of young families trying to build a life here as well as relocating to a good, transit served neighborhood in another city will. Those cities which have combined good transit with better paying employment, more affordable housing, better schools, and lower crime will claim the reliable, capable workers the future demands. 

Charleston will not be winning its long war against the future which has seen it decline from one of the leading cities in the American colonies to a tourist’s amusement park over the last 200 years. Rice cultivation, phosphate mining and the Navy Yard are all long gone. The real estate for retirees’ industry will eventually exhaust the available high land. The ocean is rising. The expectations of tourists for something authentic and friendly won’t be supplied by skeleton staffing or robots. 

For the first time in the history of the Holy City, it will be forced to value the quality of life of its working class or accepting the reality of an economy where the work does not get done. 

I am aware that the Exchange Club provides charitable donations. I’ve been informed that they intend to weaponize those donations to force their will on the community by forcing area nonprofits to support them. Their role in funding child abuse prevention is given prominence. 

Charity has not and will never solve the Lowcountry’s problems. The fundamental problems in our economy require major treatment and surgery, not band aids. Our private, child abuse prevention programs are often incompetent, tainted with racism and class bias and serve the needs of the people who run them. Families need jobs that pay, transit that works, safe places to live and decent schools. Without this, those families will fail. I know this from personal experience from 35 years of serving as an unpaid attorney in court appointed DSS cases. I have been in court where parents were threatened with the loss of their children because they couldn’t get to charity funded child abuse treatment appointments because we don’t have transit that works. 

I have been accused by members of the Exchange Club of being a know nothing woke do-gooder that meddles in public affairs. I’m white enough to get their approval, but I do the rest wrong. I have in fact been legally blind my entire life. I have never and will never be able to drive an automobile. I have been nearly killed crossing highways on foot and on bicycle to get to places I’ve needed to go. I fish for rides. I’ve paid fortunes for cabs, limos, and ride share. I have missed innumerable events because the cost to go there was simply too high, from my Senior Prom to the Mt. Pleasant farmer’s market. I’ve spent thousands of hours sitting at bus stops since the first SCE&G bus blew by me without stopping in 1977 on Coleman Blvd because white people in Mt. Pleasant did not ride the bus back then until last weekend’s delightful trip to Container Bar on the #20. I’ve done some of that waiting on bus stop benches I built with my own hands and paid for with my own money. I understand the cruel power of the car.

Left- Working for passage of the 2016 referendum on Highway 78 near the Fairgrounds. Campaign materials were handed out to passing cars stopped in traffic during the fair and delivered to Fair Management at the Fairgrounds. 

I have been told to leave the Lowcountry my entire life because I can’t drive a car. I probably should have, long ago. It’s too late now. My family arrived in SC in 1695. We’ve fought the Indians, the French, The Redcoats, the Yankees, the Germans, and the Japanese. We’ve built two schools two churches and one Town. I plan to stay. fight it out here and have my ashes interred beside those of my wife Julia who died after four years of helping me in this fight. I would like my ashes to be carried to Magnolia Cemetery on the LCRT. 

My decision to stay isn’t going to be too much of a disappointment to anyone. However, the young family packing up to take its energy, intelligence and capacity for hard work elsewhere will be missed. Their children and their grandchildren will be missed too. When the empty restaurant spaces and unopened hotel rooms are common enough, perhaps Charleston’s ruling class will grasp what they’ve missed.

The Lowcountry Rapid Transit Line should be built in the form promised to voters in 2016 in  the half million dollar I26 Alt Study with a stop at the Fairgrounds, all the way to Summerville, connecting with our train station, running outside of traffic into downtown Charleston. Less won’t resolve our region’s growing workforce deficiency. Charleston’s indifference to the quality of life of ordinary working people is no longer sustainable. It must end. 

William J. Hamilton, III, Exec. Director, Best Friends of Lowcountry Tranist, wjhamilton29464@gmail.com or (843) 870-5299 

Queen Ruby, Sir Isaac Newton and the Decision to Engage

Chapter 4 

To read the full Narrative see the Tale of Queen Ruby and the Ladies in RaidingOn Board the Jeweled Princess

Something Radical Onboard

Something truly radical had been going on during the years since the Ruby and the Ladies in Raising had liberated themselves from Pirate Anderson’s Marauders. Members of the crew had come and gone, many returning to their homes. Ruby and those remaining aboard have been recruiting women of ambition and intellect. Within the wooden walls of the Jeweled Princess, the greatest treasure being sought and stored is human knowledge. 

While famed for their acts of charity and their fights against the cruel pirates and monopolistic West India Company, these women have been educating each other. Ruby began teaching the other women as soon as they were free. Her Admiral father was a member of the Royal Society when it was led by Sir Isaac Newton. Ruby has her father’s books and continues to cultivate some of his connections to intellectual life in Britain and Europe. The booksellers of London don’t know the heavy orders of scientific and philosophical literature being sent overseas to a number of fictional names end up in the library of a pirate ship. Over time, other exceptional women have joined the crew bringing what they know, learning and teaching others.

Sir Isaac Newton

The Jeweled Princess is the most advanced institution of higher learning in the Caribbean and equal to most colleges and universities in the Western Hemisphere. In a world where women are barred from formal higher education, these lady pirates are probably the largest collective of educated women in the New World. Their outfits and theatrics they delight in mask their true nature. Their mastery of Newton's calculus contributes to the exceptional precision of their artillery fire. 

Ruby also met and has read the writings of John Locke, who wrote, "The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only have the law of nature for his rule." 

Locke felt that women had the ability to reason, which entitled them to an equal voice. He wrote, "It may not be [wrong] to offer new... [ideas] when the old [traditions] are apt to lead men into mistakes, as this [idea] of [fatherly] power's probably has done, which seems so [eager] to place the power of parents over their children wholly in the father, as if the mother had no share in it; whereas if we consult reason or [the Bible], we shall find she has an equal title." 

John Locke

At this early stage of the Enlightenment, science and reason are on the rise. Many people look to the new world as a place where these ideas can be developed. Locke drafts parts of the fundamental constitutions which set up government in the colony of Carolina. Locke invests in the new world and is one of the stockholders in the “Company of Adventurers to the Bahama Islands.” Locke also invests in slave trading, which Ruby and the women abhor. 

Ruby had been attempting to discover how the key to the sea worked, but that is far beyond the science of her time and ours. A rigid separation between science, religion and magic hadn’t yet evolved, but Ruby is certain she can solve the riddle of its power. She has no idea why or how the power of a major hurricane has thrown the ship and crew 300 years into the future, carrying a boatload of the Kings Guard and Dread Pirate Anderson’s band with them. She doesn’t know how the key landed her back on the surface of the Earth when the planet and the sun had moved billions of miles through space in 300 years. 

Uneven Progress in the World of the Biscuit Which Mesmerizes

Everywhere that Queen Ruby and her ladies go in the modern world, she discovers how uneven human progress has been. Medicine is a wonder, though Ruby isn’t sure how they’ll access a modern hospital if one of them becomes injured or ill. There are computers, aircraft and electricity. Poverty, disease, and oppression are still everywhere, even in an advanced society like the United States. Though chattel slavery is gone, race and sexism are still huge issues. 

Having struggled to obtain books and scientific equipment in her time, Ruby is shocked to see how little universal instant access to all sorts of knowledge has contributed to human happiness. She resents “the Biscuit that enthralls,” her invented term for the smartphone. Everything necessary for human happiness can be found in this world, often in abundance. Much of it is wasted. In Charleston she finds huge libraries of books, videos, and access to electronic information, often nearly empty. In California she sees brilliant minds wasted and as companies seek quick profits and discard human talent. 

There is a rising tide of violence which could be avoided. Politics is as corrupt as ever. Ruby knows she can’t rob the massive corporations of this century and hand out necessities to the homeless around her and long survive. The ship’s store of treasure is large, but it won’t hold out forever. 

Wary of the risks of becoming entangled in the modern system of documents and identification with the bogus identities offered to her by her high-tech friends in California, Ruby and the Ladies in Raiding are locked out of large parts of the economy. They’re able to sell their antique doubloons for huge amounts of money, but since they’re limited to cash and some experiments with gift cards they can’t book a hotel room or rent an automobile. 

They’re riding transit and camping out with the homeless. Ruby notes that a trip around Charleston is slower on transit stuck in traffic than it would be on horseback. Nearly everyone has a car that can go 80 knots, but they’re sitting still in them. 

With the Key to the Sea thrown in the ocean for safekeeping, Ruby has to find a way forward for her and her ladies. They can’t hide out forever. Sooner or later, someone is going to make a mistake and law enforcement, or some government agency is going to discover there are women from 300 years in the past walking around the Holy City. Questions will be asked that can’t be answered. If that happens, Ruby’s ladies will need friends, people who share her hatred of oppression and long for progress. 

Ruby visited the VWF Post on the Coast on the Isle of Palms on Memorial Day using the Bus to the Beach (no way to use Uber) hoping those old warriors might be able to help her. She meets many women who have fought in the modern armed forces. As one of them tells her, the cannons and wooden ship thing sounds cool, but she wouldn’t stand that up against her RAH-66 Comanche Helicopter Gunship. The veteran lady shows Ruby a video on her “Mesmerizing Biscuit.” Ruby smiles when she thinks of what Comanche helicopter gunship could do to Anderson. 

Ruby has already made some friends who pay her fee to march in Charleston’s Pride Parade. She’s no stranger to issues of gender and sexuality. In the watery frontier of her time, she’s seen a lot and she and her ladies have accepted the variety of human choices. Ruby knows that given the staggering risks of modern existence racism and sexism have long outlived their time. Having fought these things her entire life, she and her ladies resolve to take the Ruby Flag down the streets of Charleston with hundreds of other marchers. 

They’re still undercover. Most people regard the Ladies in Raiding as a fun, but rather strange sorority with quaint mannerisms and an acute interest in severely dated social philosophies and scientific ideas. Sapphire is up to date on Isaac Newton, but she’s still working on Einstein and Quantum Mechanics. Locke is great, but the crew is still chewing through the Feminine Mystique and the Shock Doctrine. Nobody has heard of their favorite woman playwright, Ana Caro, whose romantic comedies they sometimes presented to each other on deck. To relax, the crew are big fans of science fiction. They prefer Picard to Kirk and Janeway to both of them. They hate pirate movies.

They still wear their pirate outfits some of the time. Most guys never see beyond the fishnet stockings and corsets. That’s very useful. They’ve gone thrifting and bought modern clothes as well.  They’re making friends, but it’s time to move.

Opening the Rolls for Enlistment of Modern, Remarkable Ladies

Queen Ruby and the ladies vote to open the rolls of the Ladies in Raiding to people who identify as modern women. They’ll sign them up to march with them in the Pride Parade. Another friend gets them a listing on Eventbrite, though Ruby would prefer a quill and parchment. She prefers clear, committed relationships to vague electronic entanglements. Someone has modern copies of their tattered ruby pirate flag made. Crystal’s new friends from Summerville are already on board. It’s cool to be a pirate. Dress shops are having run on black dresses and leather. They’re setting a style. In a time of uncertainty and oppression, it’s fun to pretend to be a pirate. 

On Saturday, June 3 the crew will march with their new friends who don’t know they are joining a hip new club with some very senior members. Some of the intellectual stuff sounds interesting. The crew’s already doing Yoga. Many of the modern women find the martial arts training a bit dated but functional. Emerald reluctantly agrees that cutting an overly handy man down in a Charleston bar with a cutlass really isn’t a practical option. They use less lethal defensive moves. Nobody touches a lady in raiding unless they want them to. 

Later in June, the crew will muster their new recruits on the Isle of Palms as Ruby figures out how to manage their new fight with their old ones. Anderson is still about and knows all about the Ladies in Raiding’s modern activities now. The King’s Guard is still stumbling about, disoriented, and getting no help from the British Government, who dismisses them as crazy people. The British Army won’t remit their pay. The men they claim to be disappeared in a storm in 1723. 

Summer’s heating up in Charleston.