Queen Ruby’s Pirate Party Wed. May 24

Queen Ruby Handing out Pirate Booty

Queen Ruby’s Pirate PartyWed. May 24, 

  7 to 10:30 pm

Container Bar
2130 Mt Pleasant St, Charleston, SC 29403
On #20, Upper King Bus Route (Fare free)

Reserve your space on board now (Free, Eventbright). 

Container Bar will offer a half price discount or a single run drink to any person presenting one of Queen Ruby's pirate coins at the time they make the order. 

Most recent chapter in our evolving pirate drama. A Welcome Home Party for Queen Ruby. Come to the party prepared. 

Queen Ruby and her crew have magically arrived from year 1623. She’s evading  Pirate Anderson’s Cutthroat band who wants to rob her and the ladies in raiding of their ship and the magical key to the sea. Ruby is holding this party to start a Lowcountry pirate fashion trend in hopes of increasing her chances of keeping under the radar by filling Charleston with play Pirates, among whom she and her ladies can hide. 

Ruby's pirates have survived their first encounter with Anderson in this modern world, but life in the 21st century is becoming complicated. They're riding the bus because you can't rent or buy a car even with a handful of gold doubloons without an ID. A birthdate in the 1600s is bout to raise some questions down at the  DMV Ruby and the other lady pirates don't want to answer. 

Read the full, detailed back story. 

Pirate Party Games

Ruby has devised some party games to help build the Pirate fashion trend int he Lowcountry which will help her and her ladies hide. They may also identify people with sympathies and skills which might be useful in the future. 

Swordfight– Procure a partner. Show your daring do in our swordfight competition. Each team will be presented two foam Nerf swords and have two minutes to fight. Teams will be provided points based on costume (30%), hat (10%), choreography (30%) and drama (30%). 

Pirate Costume– Dress up and let your inner pirate out. 

Pirate Poetry- Present a short piratical poem. Must rhyme, 14 lines maximum. Must contain the words bus, booty and beach. 

Make buttons– Produce a pirate pin to publicly portend  your propensity to push preconceptions of an ordinary summer overboard

Image, left- Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit marching to the sea at IOP from Mt. Pleasant in July 2015 to protest lack of public transit bus service to the beaches in Charleston, 98 degrees, The march took the same route the bus does now. 

For More Information- To become involved contact William Hamilton at 843-870-5299 or wjhamilton29464@gmail.com. Contributions to support the effort can be made through act blue. 

 

 

 

Bus to the Beach in the Lowcountry 2022

2022 Second Season of Service to the Sea at IOP

Boarding Shuttle at Mt. Pleasant Town Centre

This page is now out of date, See,Updated information on the 2024 version of the Beach Reach Shuttle, Can the Lady Pirates stop Kenergy?

After a brief experimental operation in Aug. 2020, and seven years of transit advocacy by Best Friends including the 2015 March to the Sea, regular public transit bus service reached the beach in the Lowcountry on Memorial Weekend 2022. Now it returns for its second year. 

Official CARTA page on Beach Reach Shuttle. 

This year the Beach Shuttle has a direct and immediate connection to the #40 Mount Pleasant Bus. You can reach the shuttle on the #40 or just park next to the stop in Mt. Pleasant for free. The shuttle is also free. This year's stop at the beach is right next to the County Park where you can find bathrooms, showers and changing rooms.

The CARTA Board voted to run the shuttle again this year at their January 2022 meeting. 

We'll be presenting IOP City Council with their copy of the Key to the Sea on March 22 at 6 pm. 

Here is information on last years bus 2021 to beach effort.

Boarding the Shuttle on IOP

The 2021 Reach the Beach shuttle effort was moderately successful. Ridership was heavily impacted by COVID and a lot of bad weather. Ridership was building towards the end of summer with a strong Labor Day weekend finish. It was absolutely better than fighting traffic and parking on IOP. The company on the bus was pleasant. The views from the bus crossing the Dangerfield bridge are spectacular. You avoid the anger and aggression which is so prominent on the road there.  We found that brining a chair, small umbrella and small cooler got it done. So did Chole, our intensely controversial campaign to get people to pack light and enjoy the beach. Be like Chole really drove the monster truck to the beach people nuts.

On Saturday's, the transfer from the #40 Mt. Pleasant bus route, which runs from downtown Charleston at Mary Street where it connects with the rest of the CARTA system was reliable and generally immediate. On Sundays the two routes had different schedules and waits of half an hour, coming and going took place. Parking at Mt. Pleasant Town Centre was always available. A mid year change to a bus stop at IOP County Park where benches, shade and bathrooms could be found was a huge improvement. 

1. 

   The Key to the Sea

   Bus the the Beach 2021 Our main page June 2021 with updates during the season
   
2. Be Like Chole Video We thought this was just fun, big car people did not
3. Bus to the Beach Gaining Traction Report on the operating service, June 2021
4. May 2021 Making the 2022 bus fare free.  Quick action helps make the IOP bus fare free. Within two hours fare free operation was fully funded
5. July Summerville to the Sea Bus Trip Plans for a guided trip to the beach from Summerville
6. Open the Ocean for Kids Our effort to get kids to the beach. It struggled due to pandemic problems and logistical issues. We did get the summer program from Pink House to the fountain downtown. The basic problem is that the buses run on weekends and the summer programs for kids operate on weekdays. 

Why Transit Service to the Beach Matters

Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit campaigned for seven years to get public transit in Charleston returned to our beaches. We continue to believe that it is the moral obligation of a wealthy community like ours which depends on low wage service labor in it's tourism and medical sectors to make recreation at our beaches available to everyone without their having to own an automobile. We also believe reducing automobile traffic to the beach improves everyone's beach experience and promotes a more sustainable human presence on our planet. Doubling transit ridership to the beach this summer is one of our five major transit goals for 2022. 

Support us and Contact Us

• You can support our continuing efforts for better transit by making a contribution online on Act Blue
• You can reach us by emailing executive director William Hamilton at wjhamilton29464@gmail.com or by calling 843-870-5299.

Location for Mt. Pleasant Arts Center Should be Transit Oriented

 By William Hamilton

Executive Director, Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit- www.bfltransit.com
Resident- 32 Sowell St., Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464
Ph. (843) 870-5299 or wjhamilton29464@gmail.com

Presented to Mt. Pleasant Town Council on March 14, 2023. 

At the end of his remarks, William Hamilton offered to restore and donate his late wife Julia's beloved 1920 mahogany Ivers and Pond Piano to the new art center. Julia was a stalwart supporter of music East of the Cooper, founding and performing with I'Onissimo! for ten years and playing 1st violin in the Mt. Pleasant orchestra. Julia played the large parlor grand instrument for 50 years. 

The proposed East Cooper Plaza location for an Arts Center is far more useful to the community and will generate less traffic because it can be served by strong public transit connections to outer Mount Pleasant and the Old Charleston area and transit hub. A greenfield site on currently undeveloped land on the north side of town would be impossible to reach by transit in the evenings and would have far larger environmental impacts.

I am the Executive Director of Best Friends of Lowcoutry Transit and run our East Cooper Hungryneck Straphangers unit. I have been riding public transit to and from the locations mentioned in this memo since 1978. I am a resident of I’On and take the bus into Charleston several times a week. Our organization is considered one of the leading Transit advocacy groups in the Southeastern US and the Town/Transit Teamwork effort which achieved a 308% increase in transit ridership in Mt. Pleasant between 2007 and 2012 is still a subject of national study today. Mount Pleasant wrote the book on suburban transit ridership development.

On the Reliable #40 Bus Line

East Cooper Plaza is currently on the reliable Mt. Pleasant #4O CARTA Bus line with stops right in front of the Plaza on it’s West end and in front of Sesame Burger just to the north, where two restaurants provide a pleasant place to wait for the bus and perhaps contribute to local economic activity and town tax revenue by enjoying a drink or meal. These restaurants and businesses also provide rain shelter while waiting. Transit riders don’t have the concerns about DUIs that car drivers have. While you can’t ride visibly inebriated, the professional drivers of CARTA, many with million mile perfect safety records are our designated drivers. The BP station also has snacks and a lighted place to wait out of the rain near the outbound stop.

For trips inbound to Charleston, there is a CARTA bus stop with a bench in front of First Reliance Bank, pm the frontage road across from CVS.. This inbound stop is also near Wood and Grain, Second State Coffee and several other pleasant places to eat or find a snack while waiting. The bank drive through provides rain shelter at this location. While the inbound stop could be improved by a shelter and the necessary space is available, it’s a perfectly acceptable all weather stop now.

Since inbound transit rides to Charleston require crossing Johnnie Dodds Blvd. Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit would recommend improved cross walk striping. Pedestrian push buttons are already in place and functional. Access to and from all directions is already fully sidewalked. The East Cooper Plaza location is also within walkable distance of over 1500 residences.

Student and Youth Visitors

Image, Right, Children planning future transit system for the Lowcountry.

Since this facility will have many student and youth visitors, who cannot drive access to transit provides a major opportunity to reduce traffic congestion. Parents or those assisting transportation challenged adults often make four trips between their origin point and the location of activity. One to take the young person to their practice or other activity, another to return to home or work, another  to pick the child up and finally another to return child and parent home or elsewhere. For students without a parent or guardian driver, youth cultural and civic opportunities are often inaccessible. Transit access is also of great value to Senior Citizens and the Differently Abled. Everyone who reaches this center buys tickets, fills seats and gains value for us all.

While it is a bit of a walk. The Coleman Blvd. #41 bus also has stops at extreme walkable distance of this location on Coleman Blvd. and Pelzer and Houston Northcutt, near town hall.

Image, left- Bus Stop at Mount Pleasant Town Hall, which with it's partner across the street linked by a world class pedestrian crossing with center Island is without question the finest bus stop on the CARTA system. 

The East Cooper Plaza location is also the closest available place for an arts center which could draw patronage from visitors staying at the Ravenel Gateway Hotels, all of which have very short, reliable transit links between Hotels and the Plaza.  It is also an easy ride from the transit hub at the Visitor’s Center Parking Garage downtown in Old Charleston, where CARTA lines link to the entire region and planned Lowcountry Rapid Transit System. Free DASH buses there bring tourists from throughout the city to make connections. If plays and concerts at our arts center are to succeed, strong transit is needed to fill seats. It’s also critical to provide access to the elderly and disabled.

If the town wants to take on a very ambitious cultural effort, this East Cooper Plaza Location, Town Hall, the Farmer’s Market, the I’On Mount Pleasant Amphitheater and Waterfront Park could all be effectively linked by a combination of existing CARTA public transit and town provided shuttles similar to that operated for the Blessing of the Fleet. Mt. Pleasant could go big with the sort of locally grounded cultural festival the City of Charleston, which has lost most of it’s citizen performers can no longer provide. Piccolo Spoleto was once a feast of local talent. Mt. Pleasant could take over that tradition with our own talent and voices, while Old Charleston services tourists with whatever out of town talent it chooses to market.

I attended a wonderful, but quite chilly Christmas concert on the lawn of Town Hall last December. The holidays remain hard on my because my beloved wife Julia, who filled our holidays with music as the leader of the I’Onissimo! Chamber Music organization was an accomplished violinist. The silence of the three Christmases since her death always burdens my heart. Hearing the music we shared performed by a local group of musicians and singers I knew filled by eyes with tears and drained away, for a precious hour, some of the grief and loss which arises from the silence of her piano and violin when Christmas trees glow. I remain grateful for that hour. I was able to find a ride with friends when holiday weekend surge pricing for Uber would have made the trips to and from town hall cost over sixty dollars.

Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit is already preparing a major summer 2023 effort called Bus Pirates, Queen Renee and her ladies in Raiding to support and build ridership on this summer’s Beach Reach Shuttle. We would be happy to reinvigorate our historically successful teamwork effort with the town to supercharge a cultural center at East Cooper Plaza with transit enabled access. We have ten years of experience producing cultural events in the I’On Community and 20 years of experience working to build transit ridership in Mount Pleasant. We can do this cheaply and effectively. We eager to help.

We’ll see you on the Bus.

Together, We Go Forward

William Hamilton

Century Forward- City of New Charleston

North Charleston was founded on June 12, 1972. City of New Charleston will depart from the Lowcountry’s obsession with the past to imagine the possibilities of a Transit enabled, future adapted North Charleston at its centennial, fifty years ahead of now. 

Upcoming Events- We do more than talk about the future

See our Facebook Transit Events page for upcoming transit oriented events in this effort. 

See our Lowcountry Up is Good page for events involving the Schools, Affordable Housing, and the Living wage efforts. 

Sponsors and Background

Image, Left- Community Shrine Gazebo Bus Stop Shelter in Chicora Community Garden, North Charleston.

Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit, Inc. & Lowcountry Up Is Good, PAC, Inc. have now been working towards a transit enabled North Charleston with many other organizations for 10 years. 

Marvin Pendarvis has been a partner in our efforts since he stepped on the #11 Dorchester Airport bus during his first campaign. He was impressed by the number of people riding in N. Charleston and shocked at how long and slow their bus trips were. From that moment, he's joined us in working for something better. So have many other officials and organizations focused on planning, affordable housing, human needs and education. 

Best Friends helped win the Transit Complete the Penny Campaign to fund construction of the LCRT in 2016. We worked with Rep. Marvin Pendarvis to obtain the SCDOT’s commitment to a complete streets policy in 2019 and are currently working with him to pass his Transit Oriented Development bill, no pending in the SC Legislature. In 2017 we canvassed every business we could reach along the full length of Rivers Ave. with information on the voter approved rapid transit project, helping start the ongoing transit planning process. In 2016 we build and deployed the Tiny House Fit for a King as part of what ultimately became a short lived tiny house village of five residences attached to a group home on Carner Ave. We’ve worked to improve the quality of life of residents in North Charleston with demonstrations and political actions to win the living wage and defend the independence of the community’s public schools. 

While we continue to work in other Lowcountry Communities and have dedicated projects on the Sea Islands, in Mt. Pleasant, in Lincolnville, Summerville and Ridgeville, we have always seen North Charleston as the Lowcountry’s essential hub. It still has functional communities focused on the needs of its own people. It has a magnificent store of installed infrastructure and will have the state’s first Rapid Transit System. While it struggles with problems and a sprawling, diverse landscape it has the potential for greatness as a home for the varied families of the future. 

The City of Charleston, while still essential to the region, has gentrified its urban care out of relevance to the future. It has largely become a tourist-oriented city of the past. It’s decision to accept having no portion of the planned rapid transit line within its boundaries, but instead to merely have LCRT buses operating in traffic south of Reynolds Ave. in N. Charleston is conclusive proof that while the future will happen to Charleston, the pressures of sea level rise and the need to accommodate competing for tourism income will shape its future.

A Year Long Effort Has Started 

Citadel Cadets and North Charleston Citizen, North Charleston Public School Teacher Jennifer Saunders planning a transit system for the Lowcountry at Park Circle Creamery in N. Charleston in October 2016 as  part of the Transit Complete the Penny Campaign. 

City of New Charleston will be a year long effort to imagine the transit enabled community of tomorrow which can grow up along and within one walkable mile of the LCRT line. 

The effort began on Feb. 23, 2023 when SC State Representative Marvin Pendarvis (D-CHS) introduced bill H. 4013 in the SC House of Representatives to amend Title 6 of the S. C. Code by adding Chapter 39 regarding Transit-Oriented Development Projects.

On March 1st. a lobbying, outreach team from Best Friends and Midland's Transit Riders went to the SC Statehouse to help build support for the Transit Oriented Bill, talking to over 250 people, including 50 members of the SC Legislature and SC DOT Transit office about the bill and planning a SC transit enabled future. We also made contact with over a dozen organizations representing the disabled, the Governor of SC, the University of SC and attended and leafleted a reception for all the State's transit agencies at the Columbia Convention Center. Co sponsors began signing on to the TOD bill by the end of the day. 

City of New Charleston will continue by organizing and funding a youth driven visioning project for the City’s future involving College and High School students across the state of South Carolina. These young citizens will be charged with imagining what the city could best become by its North Charleston centennial in 2072 and South Carolina’s Quadro Centennially in 2070. The students will use the internet and wireless technologies which have been integral to their life experience to share their work with the people of South Carolina, beginning with a preliminary statement of scope and goals before the end of the Spring, 2023 school term. 

An informal group discussion of the project is planned for Sunday Afternoon at Emergence, the burning may style event outside Summerville in April. 

There will be events sharing parts of the work with the community throughout the summer and early fall. Online and real world conferences, meetings and workshops will be held to both formulate detailed plans and to develop the real world capacity of these young people to lead the state towards a future which rewards its citizens with mobility, prosperity and the gifts of creative patrimony. 

North Charleston resident, the late Mary Smith, appearing as our Transit Fairy at the Atlanta International Transit Exhibition in 2018

The initial effort will conclude in late Fall of 2023 with the New Charleston Future Festival, where to the extent that we can, we’ll share all that they have learned and dreamed with the community and the entire state with participatory activities which will extend the creative process of shaping the future to everyone willing to join the effort. 

Once we have begun the future with the Festival, we’ll continue to support our young planners and visionaries as they join the traditional, often challenging effort to drive government controlled planning efforts towards the future they dream of, in N. Charleston an d across the state. 

The target for funding this effort is Eight Thousand, Five Hundred Dollars ($8,500.00) in cash funding, and an additional contribution in kind support of supplies, facilities and transportation services. Fifteen hundred dollars has already been raised by a grant of support from Marvin Pendarvis and the project can launch as soon as we have Twenty five hundred dollars committed, which will be sufficient to fund the largest visioning unit composed of undergraduates at one of the State’s Colleges or Universities for the first half of the project. 

More Information

Support and Contact Us

• You can support our continuing efforts for better transit by making a contribution online on Act Blue
• Contact State Rep. Maving Pendarvis through his office at the State Legislature in Columbia
• You can reach us by emailing executive director William Hamilton at wjhamilton29464@gmail.com or by calling 843-870-5299.

Pendarvis Introduces Bill to Accelerate Transit Oriented Development in SC

 

I

Image left- Representative Marvin Pendarvis rising the #11 CARTA Bus stopped at the Charleston International Airport. Since this image was taken a lighted shelter has replaced the basic outdoor bench at this stop.

North Charleston, SC- Legislation introduced Public Transit carefully fitted into SC communities which are allowed to leverage the mobility it offers to everyone will help create walkable, urbanized areas with lower crime, higher incomes, more rewarding civic and cultural life and less traffic congestion.

On Feb. 23, 2003, SC State Representative Marvin Pendarvis (D-CHS) introduced a bill H. 4013 in the SC House of Representatives to amend Title 6 of the S. C. Code by adding Chapter 39 regarding Transit-Oriented Development Projects. It has been Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means.

Image, Right, PlanningMap for N. Charleston Community improvement Meeting, 2018.

The district Pendarvis represents contains most of the separated busway section of the State’s first planned rapid transit system, the Lowcountry Rapid Transit System (LCRT) https://lowcountryrapidtransit.com/ online.  Charleston County voters approved funding for construction of the LCRT and other improvements to bus transit in November 2016. The LCRT is a Bus Rapid Transit system based on operation of articulated electric buses in dedicated bus only lanes, accelerated boarding and advanced electronic enabled wayfinding and fare payment.

The legislative findings set out in the bill begin by stating that, “Public Transit is a valuable element of providing mobility to the people of South Carolina and functions best in communities where density, walkable infrastructure, cycling and short distance transportation services can connect residents and workers efficiently between home, work, shopping, civic opportunities, recreation and education.” It goes on to note that transit benefits drivers by reducing congestion and making use of the existing roadways more efficient.

Image, Left, Children at N. Charleston Farmer's Market plannng model transit system for the Lowcountry on 12 x 16 foot map, October 2019

The bill notes that Transit benefits the disabled and other groups not often considered in making decisions about transportation planning, including “those who have lost their driver's license or lack insurance, reducing the number of illegal drivers on the road the costs of the collisions in which they are involved, which increases the cost of uninsured motorist insurance coverage.”

Unlike many bills introduced in the legislature which have been drafted by national special interest groups, this bill was drafted by Representative Pendarvis with the assistance of Lowcountry Transit riders, people who actually ride transit on a daily basis in his district. Research failed to find similar legislation in other states, so laws from other countries such as New Zealand and Canada were reviewed to help complete the proposed law. The law allows for establishing district and a district authority that can work with government and the private sector to build or redevelop neighborhoods, commercial properties and manufacturing facilities in areas where transit is or will be available.

Image, Right Jennifer  Saunders and the late Dave Crossley rampaging with Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit for passage of the half penny sales tax for Transit, Transportation and Greenspace during the Coastal Carolina Fair in October 2016.

The Berkeley Charleston Dorchester Council of Governments, The City of North Charleston, The City of Charleston and the Town of Lincolnville are already planning for improvements to the areas along the LCRT to create a safer, cleaner and more rewarding community where car ownership will not be a necessity. While this type of development can’t be constructed everywhere and may not be desired in other areas, its critical to the Elderly, Disabled, workers in Charleston’s critical hospitality Industry, Students and those otherwise unable or unwilling to drive to have some areas available in a region which are adapted to their needs.

Representative Pendarvis will now work with transit advocates, organizations working to build affordable housing and local governments to help the bill H. 4013 get the necessary committee hearings and votes in the house to cross over to the senate and ultimately be ratified by the Governor’s signature over the rest of the current two year legislative session. The LCRT is currently planned to begin rapid transit operation between the Fairgrounds in Ladson and MUSC in downtown Charleston in 2028.

Image, Left, Pizzeria Owner Ben D'Allesandro posting banner supporting improved transit in downtown Charleston, April 2017.

For more information on the Transit Oriented Development Bill see the full text at https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess125_2023-2024/bills/4013.htm or see the Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit, Inc. at www.bfltransit.com online. Representative Pendarvis can be contacted through his legislative office at (803) 212-6716 or via https://www.scstatehouse.gov/member.php?code=1457812326 online. Pendarvis is planning community forums to discuss this and other issues related to improving the quality of life in his district and elsewhere in SC in the future.

Transit- Security and Peace for Ukraine & America Built With Transit

Charleston, SC- It is easy to feel helpless when you are powerless and alone. A two year pandemic has taken our friends, emptied our buses and disrupted our lives. All of us hoped for better days, a spring which opened into peace and happiness. We haven't surrendered the hope of getting there. As always, it's a longer, harder bus trip than we hoped for, but if you have your transfer, you may get there. 

Our Transit Planning Children's Activity

Image, left, children from 4 continents, speaking 7 languages helping plan a model transit system, N. Charleston Farmer's Market, Fall 2019, Some of these children have cousins in Eastern Europe now.

Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine reminds us while we may volunteer to clean up a bus stop or help an elderly passenger on board, there are still brutal, cruel forces in the world who force suffering upon the innocent to gratify their insatiable egos. They burn their name into the tortured memory of history. They want to join the men we are eager to forget, but which perpetuate themselves in our schoolbooks: Genghis Khan, Francisco Pizzaro, King Leopold, Hitler, Putin.

Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit now functions as a component of a national network of Transit Advocacy Groups leading the effort to rebuild safer, sustainable cities like Charlotte, NC, Atlanta, GA and Indianapolis, Minn. with powerful, community uniting transit systems. Yesterday, our corps of conductors completed a canvass of every hotel in Mt. Pleasant to get tourists out of their cars, on to our buses to help ease congestion on our highways and streets.  Last night we challenged Congresswoman Nancy Mace to take a stand regarding the status of our rapid transit system. She didn't answer, but being Americans, we'll go back until she does. On Tuesday, March 1,  we'll stand, speak and sing at Charleston County Council to try to end the go nowhere excuse based planning which has failed the commitment voters made in 2016 to fund a rapid transit line linking Summerville and Charleston. 

Made in SC, USA Proterra Battery Electric Bus

Our own Christopher Jackson, founder of the legendary lightning crew which took door to door transit information to thousands of homes in Dorchester County now drives an 18 wheel, over the road tractor trailer. When he stops, he reaches out to communities across the US helping start and encourage transit improvement efforts. He calls it the Continental, Together We Go Forward Initiative. Chris is out pulling the national supply chain and bringing people together to begin the journey for better transit. 

Putin has made it clear we can’t stay where we are. We can’t live with his target on our backs. Charleston has been at the forefront of America’s defense since we repelled the British at Ft. Sullivan in 1776. We built the ships which liberated Europe at our Navy Yard in N. Charleston during WWII. We stood the long, terrifying watch of the Cold war with our Polaris Submarines at the Charleston Navy Base. 

When I was a boy, Soviet boomers patrolled just off our coast and American Attack subs from our Navy Base, armed with nuclear torpedo's, shadowed them in hopes of blowing the red sub out of the Atlantic before they could fire on Charleston. Now those Russian subs are probably back, just off our coast. I grew up with that. I remember the horror of learning what was going on and what the Sub Captain that was our backyard neighbor was doing. Evidently, he did it right. We've lived up to now. It's not polite to talk about that reality in Charleston. I've seen the shock of young people today learning how this works. I can't decide weather I should tell them or not. For Charleston, still on the target list due to our Air Force Base and Nuclear storage facilities which may or may not still have missiles, it will could be over, without any warning in an instant. Most of us will never even know.  

Charleston once attacked America when we fired on Ft. Sumter and started the American Civil War. That time, Charleston learned the hard way fighting on the wrong side of the long struggle for human dignity and freedom against the United States of America means losing. My ancestors learned that at Missionary Ridge on Nov. 25, 1863. So will Putin when his day comes. 

However, thanks to the efforts of thousands of people (from lonely transit advocates leafleting rainy bus stops to President Biden signing the infrastructure bill) we have not arrived at this dark day unprepared. America and the West are no longer barreling towards an auto dependent, petroleum fueled future where Putin’s status as ruler of the second largest petroleum exporting nation makes us his slaves. 

In Greenville SC Pro Terra manufactures the finest battery electric buses made anywhere in the world. We have over a dozen running right now in Charleston, SC. In Mt. Pleasant, SC, Hubner makes the complex, robotic articulations which allow buses to bend around corners and put big vehicles with lots of passengers on narrow historic streets like the ones in Charleston efficiently. 

Sr. Citizens visiting Best Friend of Charleston Replica

While all of this conserves fuel, it also brings people together. Strangers become transit buddies at stops and on buses and trains. They learn that people different from them can still be their friends and that all those friends, together, are Americans. 

The price of gas is going to rise. It ought to. We cannot fill our greedy tanks with Putin’s oil when it buys the bombs and bullets which send death to Ukraine. We’ll need our transit system, recovering from Covid, to pull us together and move us ahead.

It may be that this, with Best Friend’s of Lowcountry Transit’s continuing efforts, will hasten the day when we have our own rapid transit line linking Charleston, N. Charleston, Ladson, Lincolnville, Summerville, Hanahan and Goose Creek. We’ll be able to join the elite group of rising cities moving out of congestion, pollution, and climate killing carbon fuels to a faster, cleaner and more hopeful future.

Right now our CARTA and LINK buses are slower than your car. Sometimes they’re crowded. Some people on board have evident struggles we would prefer not to share. They don’t always go where they’re needed or show up when promised, but each rider on each trip moves us further away from a world men like Putin and the oil funded terrorists of ISIS control. It’s a trip worth taking. It’s time to get on board. If you don't know how to ride, call me. I'll talk you through it. If that doesn't work, one of our conductors will ride with you. Together, We Go Forward!

Join us on the bus. It’s one way Americans Go Forward!

END END END

For information on Better Transit in the SC Lowcountry see www.bfltransit.com or contact Executive Director William Hamilton at (843) 870-5299 or wjhamilton29464@gmail.com. 

Vaccination, Masking and Activism- A Charleston, SC Response

The late Mary Smith, costumed as Syphide,
 the Spirit of Mobility

We've been invited to participate in some community events in the near future. Some of the organizations involved have decided not to require proof of vaccination or masks for their events. This morning, we transmitted our response to one such invitation. 

" Given the extreme transmissibility of Omicron and the likelihood that we'll be in the midst of a massive outbreak by the date of your January event, proof of vaccination or recent negative test and masking are necessary precautions now and should be the standard for your planned gathering. So is masking. 

You don't want to take out the entire sustainable living community in Charleston in one night. A single carrier of Omicron could well infect half the people present at this event. D_____'s wife died from complications of Covid 19 Delta after having been fully vaccinated in July. She was unable to get into a hospital due to overcrowding until it was too late. Had people been vaccinated, she could have been admitted, treated and probably be alive today. 

Summerville Transit Advocacy

I understand that the anti vaxxers are loud and persistent. I also understand that a number of them can be found in the healthy living component of the environmental movement. They hate big Pharma. They honestly believe herbal supplements and their personal superior health will keep them from getting Covid, getting sick and dying. They're wrong. 

Sometimes you have to do the right thing, for the right reason even when it costs you. When the price of compromise is killing irreplaceable members of our small, lowcountry struggling progressive community, that is too high a price to pay to satisfy the person who believes being a vegan, trips to the gym and recycling makes them immune to a virus which has killed about 15 thousand people in SC and continues to kill 20 people a day, an increase from about 10 a day two weeks ago and on it's way back to the 100 a day we were experiencing last summer, after we all could have been vaccinated.  

Chris Jackson on the
Bus to Beach

As advocates of a sustainable human presence on this planet, we have to recognize the reality that our individual decisions impact others and the planet. We cannot be free to do whatever gratifies our immediate needs. The unlimited individual volition model is the property of our gun toting, gas guzzling opposition. They don't care how many people die from covid, global warming's natural disasters and famine or the military conflicts which erupt from their boundless faith in the economics of take, keep and use up. 

I've been going to the door of gatherings for the past month, counted the number of people in the room, noted the lack of masks and turned around in the cold and headed home. I'm not the only one who does this.

Our organization marches to a motto, "Together, We Go Forward!"  Together means we value every person with us. We don't leave them behind or alone. We see a future worth fighting for ahead. We've lost four wonderful people in the past few years: Moya, Mary Smith, Katherine and Julia Hamilton. Had Covid not hit, my wife would have probably gotten the treatment she needed and not died from sepsis. That's 20% of our core strength. If the devil wants any more of my people, he's going to have to fight me for them. I'm not going to make it easy. 

Do the right thing for your gathering. Mask up, require proof of vaccination and I'll bring you a box of 100 personal bottles of belt loop carabiner hand sanitizer for you to hand out at the door."

If we cave in to the antivaxxers in hopes of filling some rooms and holding events, we surrender to the core values of our opposition and exile the disabled, and medically vulnerable to the sidelines. If we do that because our antivaxxers are physically attractive people who exercise a lot and believe their freedom is more important that the survival of the vulnerable among us, that is ableism. It is a close cousin to the fascist concepts of racial and personal superiority we've fought WWII, the Civil Rights movement, the Gay Pride movement and the movement for the rights of the differently abled to liberate ourselves from. 

Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit remains, at its core a social justice organization dedicated to a society that offers life, mobility and survival to all on the way to a fulfilling, inclusive community. Just as we stand up for the elderly and disabled when the seats run out on the bus, we should mask, vaccinate, test and distance to protect our fellow passengers on this journey to a more just and healthier society. 

 Make our New Isle of Palms Reach the Beach Bus Fare Free and Open the Ocean for Everyone

From Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit, Inc
To SC Press and Media

Release May 20, 2021

At the May 19th. CARTA Board meeting, Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie announced that the Town of Mount Pleasant was prepared to pay half of the Sixteen Thousand Dollar cost of making the planned Summer CARTA Beach Reach Shuttle between Mt. Pleasant and the Isle of Palms fare free. The City of the Isle of Palms had apparently considered paying the balance, but as of the meeting had either decided not to do so or was still considering it.

Image, above, right Outreach in N. Charleston's "Macon" district helped begin an outreach effort which has already reached 12 thousand potential transit riders with information about the Reach the Beach Shuttle.

On January 31, 2021, the Isle of Palms showed a balance of Two Million, Forty Thousand and Two Hundred and Three Dollars ($2,040,203) in its accommodations tax fund for tourism development on hand, almost all of which was paid by visitors to the beach. See ATAX Agenda for Feb. 2021. https://drive.google.com/file/d/11iQk4jJVWk6zJ4Tf_aQPbTk2HB5nKoW9/view?usp=sharing Making the beach shuttle more successful will improve everyone’s beach experience this summer, even if you drive to and park at the beach. 

During the CARTA board meeting, It was suggested that other municipalities such as the City of Charleston or North Charleston might step up to contribute the balance needed. 

Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit supports the effort to make the beach shuttle fare free. We call upon the City of Isle of Palms and other area governments and business associations to pitch in the additional Eight thousand dollars to make the last leg of the transit trip to the beach fare free. We also believe benches need to be installed at the temporary bus stop on the Island which lacks shade and is two blocks from the town center where shade and seating is available.

Image, Right, Transit Outreach West of the Ashley, May 18.

A family of transit riders traveling from N. Charleston or West Ashley will need an hour or more on the bus to reach Mount Pleasant Town Centre where they can transfer to the Beach shuttle. Since those trips require a transfer from other lines such as the St. Andrews of Rivers Ave. Bus to the Mount Pleasant #40 bus, those riders will have to pay another Two Dollars over the original Two Dollar fare they’ve already paid for the first two legs of their trip just to complete the last, short run out to the Isle of Palms.  In many cases, people using the system for the first time or not fully understanding the fare structure, may discover they lack change to pay and won’t have time to leave the bus to obtain change, meaning an hour wait for the next bus.

This last year has been an incredibly difficult one for our community. Some transit riders worked through the entire pandemic. Other transit riders have been returning to work in our critical tourism and medical sectors.  Bus ridership has already doubled over a year ago. Many of these people work two jobs. On their rare weekend or holiday off, we need to do everything we can to make their family's precious trip to the beach easy. Best Friends is already organizing transit beach outings for these children and families, many of whom have never been to the beach, despite living in the Charleston area for a lifetime.

Full details on the Reach the Beach Shuttle can be found at https://bfltransit.blogspot.com/2021/02/bus-to-beach-2021-unlock-ocean.html

Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit will continue its Open the Ocean effort is support of this new transit service with a multicultural community block party called Sea Island Luau at the Pink House Playa on Saturday, May 22 from 4 to 7 pm at the Pink House Neighborhood Resource Center West of the Ashely and a Bus to the Beach Barn Jam at Awendaw Green on Wednesday. The effort has already reached 12 thousand potential transit riders. 

Our new beach shuttle service is the result of a six year community effort to return transit to the Atlantic and open the ocean. It should be a celebration for better things to come offered to the community in a way which will assure its success.

For more information contact Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit Executive Director William Hamilton at (843) 870-5299 or wjhamilton29464@gmail.com 

 

End End End

Open the Ocean for Kids

Open the Ocean for Kids, will use our new public transit link to the Isle of Palms to make days at the Beach available for some who have never seen the sea. Our inland communities, mere miles from our beaches are home to many children who have never seen the Atlantic Ocean. 

Rev. April 30, 2021

State Rep. Marvin Pendarvis is the honorary leader of the effort. He's actively involved, but until the Legislature is out of session, William Hamilton (843) 870-5299 or wjhamilton29464@gmail.com is handling organizational work. 

This effort is sponsored financially partially by the AFL-CIO and a number of local unions. You can contribute as well online on act blue at https://secure.actblue.com/donate/best-friends-of-lowcountry-transit--inc--1?fbclid=IwAR2LGKxdmMUqJKvcGZGKYPlZKfC0qfcvvk5SyqC0M1FAzs3556LTDvSSEi0

Children designing a transit system in Summerville.

While it seems inconceivable to those of us who grew up going to the beach there are many, many 12 year olds living in Ladson, Lincolnville, Summerville, Goose Creek, Sangaree and North Charleston who have never heard the surf, seen the sea or crossed the inland waterway. There are seven year old children here who have never lived in a Charleston where travel to the beach on public transit existed since it ended in 2013 when CARTA can celled the poorly operated Island Flex Route. Regular, reliable operation of the beloved IOP bus route which ran from downtown Charleston through Mt. Pleasant and Sullivan's Island to IOP ended with the CARTA shut down of 2002.

Open the Ocean for Kids will attempt to bring children from our inland Lowcountry communities to the beach at IOP for swimming and other fun starting with Reach the Beach Day, Saturday of memorial weekend. We'll be working with churches, youth groups and community pools to prepare children with swimming lessons, organize buddies and safety teams and make sure that these kids are adequately equipped for the ocean with bathing suits, towels, snacks and hydration. This is not a simple undertaking. Any activity involving children is inherently dangerous and requires careful preparation and security arrangements against both human and natural risks. The beach is a wonderful place but it can become a dangerous hazard for an inexperienced person in seconds. No single person can every be alone with a child unless they are a proven member of their immediate family selected with approval of their parents. Maintaining these standards while making sure that kids have fun and return to their communities empowered and enriches is not, ironically “a day at the beach.”  We'll be working with established partners like Pink House Neighborhood Resource Center West of the Ashely. 

The official kickoff for the effort will be Sun, May 16th. Duppy Conqueror's Bus2Beach Party in 

North Charleston, SC. and we'll continue with trips to the sea for kids on an irregular basis when the buses are coming until the Opening of the Ocean on July 17.

Pink House Neighborhood Resource Center

Trips will begin at neighborhood bus stops on Summerville, Ridgeville, N. Charleston, Downtown and West of the Ashley. Our conductors and experienced water safety professionals will help the Kids reach the beach, enjoy the ocean, have a snack and get home safely. 

While planning and development of this program has been ongoing for a month and builds on existing community efforts, we can't yet say how many children we'll be able to take to the sea. For families wanting to go, the effort is easier. We'll begin the effort Memorial weekend with guided rides to the beach from major bus stops for family groups.

We're confident that several dozen kids will make the trip at least. We need social workers, teachers and other people certified and checked to work with children who can swim and work in the hot beach environment to help with this effort. Our goal is a two adult to four kid team supervision structure. 

For the children who make it, we have a recognition in the form of a traditional Polynesian bone fish hook pendant which will show they've made it through their swimming lessons, reached the beach and returned safely from the sea on transit. 

While we're proud of this important effort, we need to prepare the public for the careful way in which sharing it with them has to be conducted. We don't want to humiliate children or their families by revealing their identities to the community at large. Expect a lot of pictures of feet, sand pails and sand castles and few, if any images of faces. We have to put a face on the struggle of our community to share the shore with it's children without showing the faces or revealing the identity of those children struggling with extreme circumstances. 

Activist Milicent Middleton

We're still working out the cost for this program, but our provisional budget allots One Thousand Dollars for the effort, plus some in kind donations of things like towels, flip flops, swimsuits and sun hats. Most of the money will go for safety swimming lessons at community pools and bus passes. The children can travel on CARTA for free, but we'll need bus fare for their parents or caretakers. We're accepting donations now through act blue or you can contact William Hamilton at wjhamilton29464@gmail.com or (843) 870-5299.

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