A Dark Cloud Over Charleston: Cultural Ideology of a City I Once Loved
By Mark A. Leon
We live and breathe under a cultural ideology and it is this ecosystem that surrounds us all that shapes who we are and how we live. Shortly after completion of my graduate studies on the East Coast, where I was born and raised, I begin my formal employment career in Minnesota. Battling the elements of culture shock was my biggest challenge. After an awkward Hoedown on my first day of employment, I found myself questioning my ability to “fit in”. Then it happened on a Tuesday afternoon on a warm Summer day.
Just outside my office I saw our Communications Director, Affirmative Action Manager and Health and Safety Manager gazing outside the front window of the facility. This was my opportunity to bond with my new Midwest co-workers. As I quietly joined in on their conversation, I walked over and listened closely. The conversation was centered around a beautiful deer in the parking lot. I looked and found no deer. They raved and referred to it with intimate detail. Still, no deer.
Finally, I resisted my fear of being embarrassed, and finally spoke up asking, ‘what deer?”. All three looked to their left at me and pointed straight ahead. Still, no sign of a deer, but within seconds I came to the realization, that beautiful fawn was none other than a large green John Deere tracker.
I was a stranger in a strange land.
Having moved often within the states and abroad, I found a home in Charleston and once again had to adjust to a new culture. Now nine years in and I am still learning the culture. Most often enlightened, but still very concerned.
After only spending one weekend in Charleston, escaping the crowds of my temporary Myrtle Beach home, I fell in love. First, with the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. Then as I penetrated deeper, the Colonial architecture and cobble stone roads of historic downtown, embracing the kindness of strangers, the seamless transition of city and residential living and the embrace of local business. Finally, I absorbed the celebratory nature of the festival and events and the selfless support of human interest efforts on land and water. This was truly a place I could call home.
It was a place where I could walk the streets in jeans, t-shirt and flip flops, go into my local bar on King Street and be greeted by my favorite bar tender as live trivia roared the crowds all around. On a cool winter evening, I could put on a light jacket and head to a local theatre where some of the most talented actors in the South resided.
Charleston was a place where Jimmy Buffett or Warren Buffett could feel at home. Celebrities were just like you and I and the taste of Southern cuisine made you want to come back over and over.
Elegant, yet unassuming, warm and inviting, but still personal in its connection to nature. This was Charleston.
There was something so truly magical that all the Instagram’s in the world could not capture the cinematic beauty of a Charleston sunset over the harbor. Every morning was a gift and every evening a blessing.
Church bells rang reminding us that faith is as strong as blood.
Going to a high-end steakhouse for a burger and a glass of Pinot Noir was just as acceptable as dressing to the nines.
Charleston’s idea of Tinder, was sitting outside a downtown restaurant, exchanging a smile with passing stranger and then spending the next few hours learning about each other’s dreams.
Charleston “was” a magical place. A place historians, dreamers and visionaries could co-exist as one.
Times have changed. A cloud has stricken this city paralyzed. Instead of a wheelchair or crutches, we are restricted by cranes, bulldozers and detours.
Our enemies are not the northerners as so many claim, but expansion and the greed hungry mongers in government and institutional investment.
Housing/apartment/condo prices and dining and hospitality costs all have hit record highs, but at what cost?
What is the new Charleston Experience?
- Potholes and broken up uneven sidewalks
- Constant construction that shows no signs of ending with the approval of two new hotels and continued development throughout the city
- Traffic clusters throughout the metro and beyond
- A rotating door of store and restaurant closures
- Growth of common chain brands and reduction of local business owners
- Rise of the homeless on the streets once again
- Infrastructure on the East Side and West Side ignored
- Rise in highway fatalities, home fires and violent crime
- More restrictive parking laws and increased cost of parking
- Urban and residential flooding still without resolution
- Rumors of political greed and corruption
- A separatist movement between the left and right, north and south
- Disrespecting the beaches
This is not the Charleston I fell in love with nine years ago. The look, the attitude, the culture and the warmth are hiding somewhere, hoping this dark cloud moves offshore.
Charleston Daily
Charleston Daily is a concept in community. Its mission is to promote, assist, and celebrate in everything Charleston, South Carolina. By partnering with businesses, community leaders, volunteers and events, we are spreading the love that is Charleston. As this city continues to grow and prosper, we want to help spread the message to all about how wonderful this community is. Charleston is about the people, community, water, land, history, heritage and the true southern warmth it brings with each and every day.
You are so full of shit. Why do you think your list exists. Because of people like you, people from off going on and on about how fabulous it is here, invite their friends and family to come and enjoy this beautiful place, and hey guys it’s fucking cheap here compared to NYC, LA, Chicago, any place in Ohio or NY and dude these people are stupid. So come on down and suck up all the real estate you can cheap, then screw the mall, now Charleston sucks in every way. so thanks.
Marti’s right. You’re oblivious to the fact that a combination of demand from a ridiculous amount of people who relocated here, greed and not enough land have distorted a once quaint city where its people could traverse without a care to a place that’s overpopulated with way too many people and vehicles, stop and go traffic, never a place to park and an obscene amount of hideous parking garage. It once was an enjoyable place to leisurely drive through and I used to love walking around the battery on a Friday night, dine at the fine restaurants because the hustle usually slowed down by evening. Now, its constant chaos, packed venues, and drunk college kids and never ending tourists.
Agree with Marti.
Also, I do agree with the corruption and TERRIBLE leadership, where the cheapest bidder gets the job, most often NOT local, and if they are local, they’re the Bobby Harrels and friends of politicians that get them. It wasn’t the locals disrespecting the beaches. It is the tourists.
Please… The OldeTymeCharlestonians ™ sold out long before anything else. Cash is the God of Charlestonians. They may whine, but the first opportunity to sell Grandma’s kidneys would have her on the mahogany dining table being carved up with the family silver.
Charleston sold out. It is in a downward spiral. Greed has won out. There is evil here.
I am so sad to hear all of these disappointing comments! I have visited. Charleston twice and fell in love with it and the people. I am considering making Charleston area my home. I only hope that what they are taking about is simply progress! I hope to come to Charleston and be a active part of the community! Hope I can make a difference!
Gail, it’s not “progress”. It’s the rape of a venerable old lady by greedy outsiders. I grew up in Charleston and the city is in a downward spiral. You cannot make a difference against the greed and corruption. Think about another place to live. I hear Savannah is nice.
Gail:
I don’t know where you’re coming from, but stay where you are… The entire Tri-County area is FULL!!!
I agree,I grew up there and when I go home, the traffic and rude tourists make it uninhabitable.
The tourists are like roaches WHEN the lights are turned on.
Charleston is no longer the “Holy City” but the “Hotel City”. Under Joe Riley, HE pimped Charleston to the world and made her his whore and the residents are paying the price.
Before Joe Riley their was no downtown.
Downtown Charleston is the #2 gentrified area in america. 40 years ago is was 85% Black. Now they all have been forced out By the powers that be. Look at those that own all those homes now, White ,wealthy, relocated from non southern states. The politicians sell out daily for more growth. Yes they love all that out of town money pouring in.But reality is the whole tri-county area is becoming another Atlanta, Miami Charlotte. With areas becoming like Chicago, Crime ridden. Rural Berkeley county is being flooded with high end housing. Summerville lost all its charm and beauty, Almost 40 years I have lived here and have watched 1 of the best places to live and raise a family be destroyed all for growth. There is plenty of blame to go around and yet it will never change anything. I am Blessed to have enough farm land out here in rural Berkeley county to not have all this growth on us. Those of us who came here young or were born here know what once was and sadly it is long lost You have many good points. Those that are to the left will not stay here long , they rather be in Ca or NY. Those to the right still love the freedoms we have here and can live with some of the issues in exchange for not being a willing slave to the Government.
40 years ago it was 85% black, but that was because whites had been moving out of there since the 60s. My grandparents had lived on King Street near Fishburne Street all my life, until the end of I-26 was put there, then they moved out to the suburbs. There were black people living in the buildings behind theirs (don’t know the name of the street). There was a grocery store across the street. The “I” changed all that. The store shut down, people who could or had to, moved. But Charleston was in a slump throughout the late 60s and 70s, businesses closing down to move out to the malls, Tourists being afraid to visit because of all the black people. Rents were cheap, though! I lived on Beaufain St. for less than $200 a month, nice big place, too! I don’t like the way Charleston is now, but that is the problem we all have, to grow or die. Charleston was dying back in the “good old days”. Now it’s growing. You can thank Mayor Riley for it, though. That much is true.
Charleston has come a long way from the early 1970s when I was a child and rode the escalator at the Sears and Roebuck downtown. My mom driving with, I fear, her eyes closed over the Grace Memorial Bridge. The dilapidated buildings that almost fell into themselves above Calhoun Street.
Then in the 1980s we had renewed growth, though my boyfriend who lived near the corner of Spring and Cannon did go on his rooftop to shoot pigeons to scare all the scarier people away from messing with him and his roommate, they were called the “crazy white boys you don’t want to mess with.”
Ahhhh, but post-Hugo the city that thought it was on her last leg jumped fully back with some needed changes and some atrocious ones.
The Naval Station closed and again many thought it was the end of times.
Now I see so much busyness without a lot of planning or left hand knowing what the right is doing. Or there IS a plan and I have too much going on to invest the time to learn about it.
I do know we need more affordable parking for residents, hospitality and other workers, TOUR GUIDES, college students, and guests. I do think we need to take care of our environment. I do want those folks that are definitely being displaced to be helped to find a new, safe home in which to live.
I do want the hotel construction to stop already.
But do I think all is lost?
Hell no.
We’ve come a long way and this is just another bump in the trolley tracks. Let’s all stop whining and be proactive instead. Heck, we are in CHARLESTON! How wonderful is that?
The Naval Weapons Station did not close. The navy base and the shipyard closed. Mendel Rivers was a friend of the Navy. After he died politicians did not fight for the base. AT the time the reason for the closure was to save money. All the ships were transferred and a lot of bases did not have enough berth space Va. is a good example. The money was found to build berthing spaces in Va. but not to keep the base open.
Robin, I was a child in Charleston in 1952. The influx of outsiders disgusts me. I don’t want your tourism dollars or your tour guides or your hospitality workers. I want you gone. Charleston is no longer wonderful. If you can’t see that you’re just another disgusting outsider.
You’re obviously no Charlestonian, or you’d have much better manners.
O wow
What a rude comment. You should be ashamed Lucy.
We moved from the north a little over a year ago No not from Ohio. After seeing Charleston during a vacation we thought it was a beautiful place and it would be a great place to escape winter. We thought we did our homework before the move checking out Schools,Employment,Cost of Living. The fact is you can’t know what it’s like to live somewhere when you’re seeing it through rose colored vacation glasses.
The Golden Age of Charleston was 9 years ago?!?! That’s absurd. Potholes, uneven sidewalks, flooding, political corruption and greed have been a part of the Charleston experience forever. The flooding is going to get worse, not better, no matter how much money we spend.
Homelessness and violent crime on the rise? It is nothing like it was in the 70s – the 1970s or the 1870s. Charleston has always been a very violent place. Violence has been on a significantly downward trend since the late 70s (North Charleston? Not so much.)
I, too, am concerned we may be overbuilding hotels. For one reason, I am not sure the hotel “model” is going to be all that viable twenty years from now. AirBnB and VRBO will likely transform what hotels do and how they do it. I am even more concerned about the architectural design of practically every new hotel and office building on the peninsula. For the most part, they are uninspired and uninspiring.
But, Chicken Little – if the first time you came to Charleston, you drove the Ravenel Bridge, you may want to take a step or two back and gain a little perspective. The sky isn’t falling. It just isn’t.
The Charleston of today is not what I grew up with (disclaimer: referring to the 90’s and early to mid 2000s). The landscape downtown is rapidly changing and the traffic has become beyond a nightmare. Some of the changes are good but most are detrimental to our way of life. We are becoming a bland, cookie cutter city. The charm and quaintness of our city is being broken down bit by bit.
Crime in Charleston has lowered , but crime in North Charleston is horrible ! I live in Goose Creek and it’s slowly growing ( WE WANT MORE RESTAURANTS – NOT FAST FOOD ! ) Heck , even Moncks Corner is growing and has MORE REGULAR RESTAURANTS than we do in GC ! The thing is ….GROWTH IS EVERYWHERE , not just Charleston , SC . It’s a ” sign of the times ” . I just hope that tax dollars etc go towards important issues , such as the roads AND let’s not forget about EVERYONE including the DISABLED ( accessible sidewalks & PEDESTRIAN RIGHT OF WAY CROSSING LANES )
Fuck you, go away, take a few johnny come latelys with you!!!
Everybody I know is either moving or wants to move ,I travel alot and Charleston is ghetto and trashy ! Joe riley made a mess ,annexed west Ashley ,James island and parts of johns island with no vision or thought of infrastructure!
Amusing the way Charlestonians blame the outsiders for the changes. And yet every single politician is “born and raised” here. Who is on the zoning board? And the comments here on this site out-rude anything a New Yorker could think of on their worst day. Traffic’s a nightmare ‘cuz so many of you can’t drive. Y’all need to look in the mirror if you want to see what’s wrong with Charleston. I love it.
One of the areas that is being ruined is my old stomping ground Folly Beach. The way Folly is being sold out is a disgrace. For one example the Folly Beach Pier. Since fools at the Charleston County Parks allowed Pier 101 to build the bar and grill on the pier which is mostly a bar. Now i hear that the parking for the Folly Pier will be leased out to the Tides. I THAT WHAT ARE TAX DOLLARS WENT FOR TO HELP THE TIDES MAKE A LARGER PROFIT. JUST WALK DOWN THE PIER IN THE MORNING AND TAKE A LOOK AT ALL THE PLASTIC CUPS AND TRASH THAT WILL EVENTUALLY END UP IN THE OCEAN AND OUR BEACHES. SEEMS TO ME THAT THAT THE CITY IS TAKING A VERY POOR STEP IN PROTECTING FOLLY AND IT’S BEACHES AND PEOPLE. SHAME ON YOU SO CALLED FOLLY MAYOR AND HIS ADMINISTRATION.
I happen to agree with, Mark A. Leon.
My husband and I are originally from Los Angeles, CA. We were in Charleston for 3 months at a time in 1989 and again in 1992. We loved it. It was quaint and small compared to where we were from. When we decided to leave LA in 2007, we agreed that Charleston would be a place that we could call home.
We arrived in Mt. Pleasant in December 2007. We fell in love all over again. Time passed, the recession lifted and construction began in 2009.
Over the years we became aware of how Mayor Joe Riley was transforming the beautiful, quaint Downtown Charleston and how other tri-county mayors (Summey, Swails and now Linda Page) followed suit. The goal is to urbanize every inch of the tri-county. Mr. Riley and his cronies do have a plan, and the plan is to social engineer every SC citizen out of their cars and become dependent on public transportation, walking and riding their bikes. It is called “Sustainable Development” known as “Live-Work-Play”. It is a very progressive ideology and it has taken hold in just about every state, city and town in the USA. Back in 2008 Joe Riley became one of the first dues paying members of the “International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives” (ICLEI). Check it out.
Joe Riley now teaches Sustainable Development at the Citadel and the College of Charleston.
In 2010 several of us did our best to inform residents throughout the tri-county what was about to take place in their neighborhoods. You know the ones that fought us the hardest? The locals, not those that you call “from off”. Sometimes the so-called “from off” people may know more than you think we know.
Needless to say we moved out of SC in February. It was just too darn depressing watching what was happening to a once beautiful city.
Maybe voters should stop blaming others and start taking responsibility for their lack of involvement in their communities.
I love Charleston but I don’t like it anymore…CofC 1984
I am a native of downtown Charleston, being born in Baker Hospital, on Colonial Lake, where two of my grandparents eventually died. I miss the Charleston of my youth, the quaintness, friendliness, gentileness & cultural charm that has been compromised by in-movement & the change driven by those who want to recreate it into what they left…people who invade your home & then want to tell you how you should live. Someone made the statement that Charleston was 85% black & has been gentrified. Though I agree that the peninsula has been gentrified, the gentrification has been the displacement of middle class & poorer Charleston natives, both black & white. For many decades, (until very recently) the population was about evenly split between black & white residents who lived in harmony side-by-side. This is fast disappearing with the influx of people from the ultra-liberal NE, & NW areas of the country who seek to destroy our way of life, divide our people & over-develop downtown.
Sir my great grandfather was a doctor at Baker Hospital at the Great War. I was born much later by grow up right there learned to play baseball at Moultrie park, played all over that area with friends from Charleston Day. We moved to my families home closer to Hazel Park after my grandparents passed but many I miss the community all around lower Charleston peninsula I feel has been lost mostly in the last 15 years.
I left Charleston, my home, and moved to Columbia (SC) 9 years ago. I was overwhelmed, land-locked and stressed out up state. Everyone asked me, ‘why would you leave Charleston?’ Personal reasons sent me packing. I’m home now and I never felt more like a stranger in my own home town. It’s depressing. My historic holy city is expanding upwards and busting at the seams. Developers are killing our natural habitat and way of life. The schools are still teaching out of the same schools I went to 40 years ago. Trying to rent a house is impossible because cost of living has not caught up to the ‘cost to live in this city’. Roads are poorly maintained and (always)have been 10 years behind the growth, but this explosion of development in a city that is only so big is crazy. Why hasn’t there been a hault on developing? Why is Mt.P expanding so beautifully and the WA to Ravenel area still bare the weight of 30 year old roads +\- a few unnecessary or not large enough roads. We need to stop developing now! Fix and recycle what’s vacant. Cleanup roads and bring the cost of living up to ‘the cost of living!’ My 2cents or sense ?
Learn how to spell tractor
I came into Chas. riding a ship into the Navy Shipyard. 10 years later I moved home to Ohio but I still have a large part of my heart in Chas. My last few visits were startling, very little left of the city I knew during the 80’s. I still enjoy my visits to Charleston, so many memories and so much change. Most of the friends I had while I was there have moved, but the city will always have it’s charm.
Native speak… Charkeston’s still great. If you don’t like it… Leave.
My name has been here sense the beginning literally have records of paying taxes for land back in 1672. I was fortunate to grow up on our family home built South of Broad by a great-grandfather in 1840. The house was hit by Yankee cannon balls in the War of Northern Aggression. Anyone that is “From Off” ie grow up outside of Charleston Proper is seen as the enemy in my eyes. Everyone that at least didn’t grow up in the True South is a Damn Yankee and we need to stop this new War of Northern Aggression at all cost to save this city. I was born in the 1980s and even I know that y’all are killing this town. Anyone that says they visited here and loved it so they decided to move here for what ever reason needs to go back to the slum you growled out off.
The idea that Charleston is destroyed is ridiculous. Travel outside of your mystified nostalgia a bit. Time continues to march on EVERWHERE. Ancient cities around the world have had to adapt. The issue that we face in Charleston is the resistance to the change that comes with that adaptation. Charleston is a growing city. It is not a small, lazy town anymore . Barring a catastrophe, it never will be again. While it is necessary to recognize the rich history of this beautiful place, we cannot live back there. Only when we embrace our future and look towards it versus back to the unattainable past, will we start to plan for that future. Sustainable metropolitan infrastructure should be the focus. The more that we are “taken by surprise” by this growth the more it will foster frustration. Plan for, prepare for, and welcome The inevitable change.
We need to slow growth downtown. Charlestonian have always been concerned about the impact of traffic on the peninsula.It took 40+ years to build the James Island Connector after it was initially proposes because it would cause what we are seeing now. Downtown Charleston does not have to grow and become just another metropolis. To the contrary, the city needs to be very protective to ensure that doesn’t happen. There are many areas on the perimeter that could handle growth. Cain Hoy, Berkeley & Colleton Counties. Those areas can support more industry & population while keeping our National Treasure. Those born before 1960 appreciate our history, culture & way of life.
I left Charleston in 1981, and a day hasn’t passed since, that I don’t spend a few moments mourning that decision. What I wouldn’t give to endure a few of all your whiney-ass woes, if it means I’m back in that stew, even just for a little bit? When a place gets in your blood, and you fall in love with it, you stick by it, heart and soul. Get over yourselves, folks.
Charleston was, and still is, a wonderful city. It is certainly changing, and as is the case with all growing cities, some of those changes are good and some are bad. However, if Charleston has any interest in becoming a 21st century city, it will address its significant flooding issue downtown. No amount of historic charm or great food can compensate for the fact that many downtown streets are unfit for walking or driving when a rainstorm happens during high tide. The fact that this issue is even a discussion in 2018 goes to show how ignorant Charleston’s leadership has been for many years.
It’s sad there is so much venom directed at outsiders on this forum when the real threat to Charleston’s future lies not with outsiders but native politicians across the state who refuse to recognize the threat of climate change and the very real possibility that Charleston may be flooded out of existence. Your worries about traffic and crowded sidewalks will pale in comparison when Charleston starts looking more like Venice Italy after every rain storm. Time to stop whining about ‘yankees’ and get your brain in gear and work towards preparing the city to face the scary environmental future. One thing is certain, and it was proven in Houston last year, is that when developers pave over wetlands the water that falls from the sky and comes out the rivers has nowhere to go except into people’s living rooms. So please Charlestonians….wherever you come from, only support politicians who understand what is happening to the environment otherwise you won’t have a city to love sooner than you might think.