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