Choose Charleston

The idea has been building for a long, long while.

The 20th Century brought many a change to these here United States, including a long-lived love affair with horseless carriages; newfangled contraptions that came to be known as automobiles, cars, jalopies. Chitty Chitty Bang Bangs. We polished them until they sparkled in the sunlight, gassed them up, and hopped inside for a trip from here to practically wherever.

They certainly were convenient when a trip between cities or states was what we needed, but gradually we grew so accustomed to riding inside of them that we would motor up even when we only needed to travel a few blocks down the road.

Somewhere along the way, a few forward-thinking minds thought: “Enough!” They shook one leg, then the other, revisited a few stretches that they learned in gym class many a moon ago, and rediscovered the art of walking. For slightly more distant travels, they dusted off bicycles.

And they soon found that they felt better. Not just in the cardiovascular sense, but also in the sense of noticing things about their towns that they had previously zipped right past.

When the James Island Connector spanned the mighty Ashley River, not only did our marvelous medical students gain affordable island housing that was suddenly just a quick trip over the water, but they also gained a great jogging path with a scenic view.

When the great Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge replaced its older cousins above the Cooper River, a walking and bicycling path was a key component in its design. Walking, running, or bicycling that path has fast become one of the most popular outdoor activities for locals and visitors alike.

Today, it seems like everyone with a bridge nearby wants in on that feel-good fit feeling. A meeting is scheduled for the end of the month at Charles Towne Landing to discuss how the North Bridge, linking West Ashley with North Charleston, could benefit from a dedicated walking and bicycling path, among other improvements.

If this blending of bridges and physical fitness continues, who knows where it might lead? Next thing you know, we might even have to launch a major annual international 10K… hm? What’s that? Oh… that’s right…

4-3 may not be a landslide decision, but it did the job.

The 12,500 acres that a recent Dorchester County Council proposal had suggested dropping from the Ashley River Historic Overlay District will remain protected from high-volume development.

Preserving historic areas and vital wetlands from unchecked development has no one-time fix, though. Like keeping blackspot off susceptible roses in the rainy season or keeping a garden well-weeded, it requires constant vigilance, keen foresight, and the willingness to work.

Ashley River Road is well known as not only a national scenic highway but also as home to historic treasures such as Drayton Hall, Magnolia Plantation, and Middleton Place.

 Top that off with the road’s position along the ecologically vital Ashley River and the necessity of maintaining a greenbelt for the area and one might think that this would be the last place anyone would dream of gouging out acres of old growth oaks and replacing them with new subdivisions.

Of course, as we all know, the battle to preserve Ashley River Road just goes on and on.

How bad is it already? Try to drive from Summerville to Charleston, or even just from Bees Ferry Road to the peninsula, during rush hour. The cars and trucks are lined up, bumper to bumper, for miles. How much worse will it be if developers are allowed to add even more high density subdivisions along the road?

A few sighs of relief came when the Ashley River Historic Overlay District was created, but now there is a proposal to reduce the size of that district.

Those who wish to make their opinion known on this should attend the meeting: Monday, June 18, at 7 p.m. County Council, St. George.

Rain, clouds, and scattered thunderstorms: when severe weather warnings scroll across the bottom edge of regularly scheduled programming on the television, Charlestonians know that some parts of the peninsula should be avoided if at all possible.

The western edge of the peninsula was once a far wilder and wetter place of ponds and marsh before the land was filled in to build on. The long-ago landfill is why driving down Lockwood Boulevard can have a mild “roller-coaster” feel of up and down, up and down, bump, bump, bump. Over time, the stuff the land was filled with has settled.

It is also why there are notorious patches of Bee Street and Courtenay Drive, for example, where attempting to drive during a downpour can quite easily leave you with a towing bill and heavy repair costs.

Drainage has long been a major headache for the city in the rainy seasons. This is, after all, the South Carolina LOWcountry and Charleston proper, being a peninsula, is surrounded by mighty waters. Sandbags are a staple item for many a downtown business owner or resident, just a little something-something to have on hand in case of emergency.

The reward of the heavy rain is the lush greenery that soon follows, vines growing so fast everywhere you look that you can practically measure their progress hour by hour.

Now in its fourth year, the Folly Festival Film Festival supports, encourages, and acts as a showcase for filmmakers, in particular for local talent from South Carolina.

The Folly Felder is a beautiful fit for Piccolo Spoleto, a local arts extravaganza that runs alongside the more internationally flavored Spoleto Festival each year.

Short film has become an increasingly accesible art form, thanks in large part to digital technology and new ways and means of distribution now possible.

A well-made short can be a special delight. Time constraints force artists to make full use of their talents, to snip away unneeded bits and keep the story in tight focus throughout.

This year’s festival paid special recognition to three extraordinary shorts. The bronze went to local filmmaker Richard Almes of Mt. Pleasant, the silver to Merrill Weekley, just up the coast in Surfside Beach, and a well-deserved gold to Barry Battles and Griffin Hood of Alabama.

The major film industry, as we all know, has had more than a few flirtations with Charleston and other South Carolina locations. While this is an obvious choice for films about the American Civil War, it is also becoming recognized that the spectacular landscapes and beauty of the South Carolina Lowcountry make it outstanding for other features as well.

Hey, here in Charleston, we’re always ready for our close-up.

Shall we dine? 

Breaking bread is a time-honored means for folks to get to know another. It also works quite well as a way to become better acquainted with a city or region.

Charleston has been a diner’s delight for as long as history has been recorded and even a bit before. If prehistoric shell rings serve as any indication, native peoples were enjoying the plentiful oysters, clams, and conch in these coastal waters long before the first brick was placed in the foundation of Charles Towne. A great example of a shell ring (also known as a shell midden or mound) can be viewed just shy of Awendaw on a nature trail off of Doer Road.We’ll talk about that a bit more when I discuss the lore and legend of the Sewee.

That’s called a teaser, so stay tuned.

It should surprise no one to learn that seafood remains a large slice of the local fare. But what might raise a few eyebrows is that fact that a great deal of the seafood supped upon in local restaurants is not harvested from local waters. It may seem counterintuitive to think that frozen shrimp from Asia can be purchased in bulk for less money than it costs to buy from a local fisherman whose boat is docked just a few yards down from the restaurant doing the buying, but that’s just the world we live in.

Many folks are doing their part to support the local fishermen and farmers, however. Choosing foods harvested in South Carolina has become an increasingly popular form of activism. There are good reasons, in terms of supporting the regional economy, for making local and sustainable choices, but mostly, I think, people just like it because it feels better, being able to put a face to the name.

That’s the philosophy of one of our top local (not to mention James Beard Foundation nominated) chefs, Mike Lata of FIG, who can tell you exactly why the kale, beets, or triggerfish on your plate tastes so good. He knows the name, methods, and reputation of the man or woman who grew or caught it before it was delivered to his restaurant.

There’s an enormous amount of pride in Charleston cooking. We do love our rice – any rice, really, but especially we love the rice with a local history, like Carolina Gold.

We love our sweet tea. It pains us when we travel and are offered, in far-away restaurants, unsweetened tea with a couple of sugar packets to the side. It is simply not the same.

We love our shrimp and grits, Carolina Gold, and sweet tea as well as we love our fried chicken, drop biscuits, and greens but we are also becoming more and more open to other influences and culinary styles as well. Today, downtown Charleston features a wider array of ethnic and experimental restaurant choices than ever before.

We adore our pastry chefs. May I have an afternoon just to sing songs in their honor? Sweet things, only know that if we foodies had our way, statues of each and every one of you would be on pedestals in Marion Square.

So that’s it, right on the table, in a nutshell. Dining in Charleston isn’t supposed to be a means of filling up before rushing off to the next attraction.

Child, dining in Charleston is the next attraction. So, slow down and savor every bite of it.

Introduction 

There is a distinction in the local parlance between the come’yuhs and the bin’yuhs. Should you be a bin’yuh, your ancestry may well stretch back to the time of the original walled city of Charles Towne, fortified against attacks by the Spanish, to the time of Northern Aggression, or perhaps only to the early to middle years of the twentieth century. Come’yuhs did exactly that: they came here after being born somewhere else.

I am a come’yuh, just so you know.

This is fine by me because it has, over the last 17 years, allowed me the joy of discovery.

The American South exerts a powerful, at least cinematic if not outright mythic, pull on the imagination. Is it any wonder that brides consistently choose Charleston as one of the most popular destination wedding sites? The semi-tropical coast, barrier islands scattered along its length, is a place of salt marshes and live oaks, Spanish moss slung from the languid dark branches like a lingering image from a half-remembered dream.

Travelers from around the world are drawn to the architectural grandeur and hand-detailed craftsmanship of Southern mansions. Fascination with the history of the plantation system and the war between North and South grabs hold of them and then wild-caught shrimp from local waters, Carolina Gold rice, and sweet tea does the rest.

Little wonder that many a new resident to Charleston, Beaufort, Savannah, or the islands in-between tells a tale of having visited many times, each time lingering a little longer, until finally deciding to pack up their belongings and come here to stay.

Each time you visit, you find a little more to savor.

And I’ll be sharing exactly that, post by post, with you in the days ahead.