Mayoral Candidate Forum - Part 3

 In this week’s issue, we continue our coverage of The Daniel Island News Mayoral Candidate Forum by bringing you two additional questions posed by Moderator Steve Ferber at the September 17 event, along with the candidates’ responses. Seeking Charleston’s top executive post are Ginny Deerin, William Dudley Gregorie, Toby Smith, Leon Stavrinakis, John Tecklenburg, and Maurice Washington. The Mayoral election will be held on November 3, with a likely run-off on November 17.

Q: It’s fair to say that everyone here tonight is in favor of improving our roads, enhancing public transportation options, creating more bike lanes and the like. Tell us specifically what steps would you take in your first year- and most importantly tell us how your plan differs from that of your fellow candidates.

Toby Smith: “One of the things that I’ve said all along is that we’ve got plans already in place. I very much would like to see us pull out the Century V, Tourism Management, and the Peninsula Mobility Report. We are a little bit behind in implementation and I’d very much like to see us get back on track to determine what’s viable, and if it’s not, cross it off the list and be done with it. I heard that we are going to start safety testing for bike paths in February, that’s a good thing to move us forward. We have the ‘Pitch Fork Plan’ that’s out there for the island, we have a number of things we need to advance. So we’re kind of in a hold mode right now. I want to see us pick those things up that first year, evaluate them and if they’re not workable, cross them off list and keep going.”

Maurice Washington: “Most of these roads are state-owned roads. There are over 26 current road plans on the books, some planned out, some under construction…The Century V Plan is a plausible and workable plan for the City of Charleston with citizen input. The COG (Council of Governments) has a plan by region which outlines very carefully the strategic areas where choke points are, particularly along Bees Ferry Road, Clements Ferry Road, finishing out the second phase of the Clements Ferry Road project over to the Wando Bridge. I certainly would work as a partner with government sectors to ensure proper fundings are in place to move the projects forward. In addition to that, I would also see that a comprehensive growth management and development plan is in place because once you start extending roads, widening roads, building new roads, more development comes, creating additional problems as opposed to solving the problems. So we want to strike at the core, and the core that drives traffic congestion is over development and growth.”

Ginny Deerin: “I’d like to address two aspects of transportation - one is we know that so many of our T&T initiatives are regional initiatives. I do think the City of Charleston is in a particularly good position to try some things, because sometimes people need to see something to really get enthusiastic about it. And there are two things I think the City of Charleston can go ahead and take steps forward on while we continue to work regionally. One is public transit. We know our transit system people who ride are the people who that’s pretty much their only option. It’s late most of the time. I rode it not long ago, the Express shuttle from Citadel Mall to MUSC. The driver had on a raincoat and boots because it was raining in the bus. I think what I’d like to do is buy some electric modern buses with wifi, put censors on them so when they come to green lights, the green light stays green and the bus, everybody all of a sudden is going to want to get behind the bus. I do believe that this is something that if we show people, then enthusiasm will be there to push and work with regional leaders to get things done.”

William Dudley Gregorie: “I’m not buying any buses. CARTA should be buying the buses. I’m not going to tax you so you have to start buying buses. I think there are things that we can do right now. We can carpool, we can develop express lanes, we can have hub parking so people can get out of their cars and come downtown on buses. So there are things we can do ourselves, but we all have plans. I’m a part of the Charleston City Council. We have transportation plans. The COG (Council of Governments) has a plan. And any candidates that have these great genius suggestions to me should bring them to us as we develop our plans and we may be able to implement them, we shouldn’t have to wait until the mayoral election is going on. For me, I would address the transportation problem first by addressing what we can do to alleviate some of the traffic on our roads. The other thing I would do is I would build neighborhoods that are self-contained, where you can live, earn and also entertain yourself. I think this (Daniel Island) is an example of such a neighborhood and if we move forward I will make sure that neighborhoods are self-contained so we can keep the cars off the road. You work, live and play at the same time.”

Leon Stavrinakis: “What we need is a proven leader with proven relationships with other local, state and federal leaders that can very simply do three things. Get together with our regional leaders and come up with a reasonable regional growth management plan that focuses on smart and sustainable growth and consistency between our jurisdictions where they meet, so that we have a plan for moving forward together. We can’t look at this as a city isolated any more. Those days are long gone for Charleston and this region. I have those proven relationships on the local level. Second, we need a regional transportation plan, one that makes sense for all of our sister cities and governments and especially for the City of Charleston. Part of the plan has to be finishing I-526, which I am proud to have secured a substantial amount of funding for, part of it has to be fixing that awful interchange at 526 and 26, has to be re-remaking our transit system, including rapid bus transit, and expanding park and ride lots, and then finally we have to have a proven leader that has not only the local relationships, but relationships with other governments to go get funding together with our other local leaders. I have a comprehensive plan…there are plans all over the place for transportation, but without funding they will do nothing but sit on a desk and collect dust. We need a leader that can solve these problems, that has proven that they can get funding just like I have for 526, the Ravenel Bridge, CARTA and other projects.”

John Tecklenburg: “Leon is right. Funding is so important and that’s why I was disappointed this year that state legislators did not add to our state highway tax, our gasoline tax. It would have been a great year to do it with prices going down as they have on gasoline. This is the major funding source for our roads, it’s not in the city government’s budget. But let me say folks that we’re growing as a region like it or not…we’re about 700,000 folks in the Charleston metro area. In 15 to 20 years, we’re predicted to be close to a million. We’ve got to get folks to be able to get around through public transportation - long term that’s got to be a key element of what we need to do in Charleston. You know CARTA hasn’t really provided a viable alternative to folks driving their cars, but the COG (Council of Governments) is doing a study now as to what would be a reasonable alternative to I-26, which is our most traveled corridor. And I believe they are going to recommend a Bus Rapid Transit System for that corridor. We should expand that to East Cooper, West Ashley, James Island, get it priced out so we know how much this system will cost so we can go to Uncle Sam with a price tag and say Uncle Sam this is what our community agrees upon that we need and this is how much it’s gonna cost. And we need your help. And that can be done, but we have to get on the same page and get a public transit system that works for our region.”

Q: The events over the summer at Mother Emanuel showed some of the strengths and weaknesses of the Charleston community and the racial climate here. What specific steps will you take in your first year to create greater social and economic equality (reader submitted question)?

Ginny Deerin: “The Sunday before the Emanuel tragedy, I worshipped there and I felt very lucky because it was Children’s Sunday, and Senator Pinckney was in the back of the church getting the kids all lined up and came in and embraced me and I can still feel that. Like many of you, we all have our emotional connections to what happened. Specifically what would I do? Number one I would work with the school districts to bring lessons into the schools to help children understand the importance of fairness and justice. WINGS for Kids does a lot of that kind of teaching. I would be a robust partner in the Charleston Area Justice Ministry…it’s a very powerful, large organization and I bet it’s going to be twice as large at its next meeting.”

Toby Smith: “I think the loss of the nine and the suffering of the additional three is something that will stay in our hearts for a long time. One of the things I would like to see is having Sunday dinner in every neighborhood, every quarter. Go and visit, sit and talk to the residents and find out what’s going on and what they would like to see happen. Another thing that I would like to do is work with community members to develop a strategic plan, a long range plan for the community. And a third thing I’d like to do is develop a compendium of Charleston’s history. We just lost Honest John’s Record Shop on King Street, Miss Alice’s was across the street, Ruben’s Men’s Wear was near that. There is no vestige left of any black folks downtown on King Street for a lot of different reasons. I’d like to capture those stories before there is no one left to remember who was there and why.”

Leon Stavrinakis: “One of the great legacies of our great mayor, is that through his whole life he took courageous stands against social injustice. Of all the things that I’ve learned watching him over the years that’s something I’ve really learned and carried forward. As a kid I watched my parents who had a restaurant downtown, a small 18 stool restaurant, feed poor people in Charleston and like I told you earlier my Mom and my Dad talked to me a lot about being good to people and about social justice. Part of the trust and courage that you have to show as a leader is not just when cameras are on but when they’re not on, fighting daily to help people overcome unjust situations. It deals with economic opportunity. It deals with educational opportunity. Unfortunately, too many times those injustices follow people of color. And as a leader you have to step up and take on those issues whether it’s popular or not, and I’ll do that ……we have to step up and take those issues on and I’ll do that as mayor.”

William Dudley Gregorie: “As a trustee of Mother Emanuel I really experienced that tragedy first hand. Our City Council has already put some things in place to try to deal with the racial divide. One of those things is to establish the Mother Emanuel Memorial District, a district where Calhoun will flow through to Freedom Square to the African American History Museum. In addition, what we’ve put forth is another resolution, that next year on June 17 we will have nine events and some of those events will deal with racial relationships, economic equity and disparity, and so forth…so our City Council has already put in place some measures to try to deal with the racial inequities that exist in our city. We don’t have to wait until January to do it. We’re being proactive and we’re doing it now.”

John Tecklenburg: “Unfortunately, Charleston, and the South particularly, has a history of racism…You know Charleston was one of the richest places in the Colonies, and it was built on backs of enslaved Africans who were brought here against their will. Even since the Civil War our culture has been through discrimination and Jim Crow, we’ve really been steeped in racism in a way. The Civil Rights movement removed some of those outer vestiges but we still have inequities in education and housing and job opportunities that we need to work on. In my first year as mayor, I plan to call a reconciliation in the community and maybe just to get together and say ‘I’m sorry’ and we also need to take those tough issues, the disparities, the achievement gaps in our schools and our housing and in economic development opportunities, and work on those. It will be difficult, but I believe we have the unity and resolve after this terrible tragedy to do just that.”

Maurice Washington: “In 1974, the City of Charleston black population was about 64%, today it’s 27%. We have too many schools that are segregated in our city. You look at District 20, almost 97% are made of black kids. More African Americans are living in public housing today on Peninsula City of Charleston than in homes that they’re buying. Unacceptable. We have to find ways to create good top notch quality schools and integrate them. We have to again invest in education and invest in workforce development and we have to stop segregating race by neighborhoods and by schools. I think we can accomplish that by working together. Let’s not separate diversity from inclusion. Diversity is a mix, inclusion is getting the mix to work well together and that’s what we need to continue to do.”

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