Are city’s parking garages dinosaurs in new mobility?

Charleston’s new mobility guru, Gabe Klein, says parking garages will be dinosaurs in one generation. Significantly, the city operates 11 garages. The garages are the culmination of what was an all-out effort by Historic Charleston Foundation in the late 1940s and 1950s for creation of more than a thousand off-street parking places downtown, initially proposed by its predecessor in historic preservation initiatives. Now HCF, with the city, is paying for Klein’s recommendations on Charleston’s future mobility that are sure to be 180 degrees away from cars and how to park them.

Urban mobility trends and how they’re likely to shape Klein’s proposals for Charleston — here.

Sea level expert from Charleston: ‘I’m more uneasy but not frightened’

Gary Mitchum, a top scientific expert on sea levels whose hometown is Charleston, has taken a close look at the recent report on what it called the “unstoppable” melting of glaciers in one especially vulnerable section of West Antarctica. The report attracted big and scary headlines. Mitchum, professor of marine science and associate dean in the College of Marine Science at University of South Florida, said the situation is serious for Charleston and other coastal communities, because ice is also melting into the oceans in the Arctic and East Antarctica. Yet he emphasized: “I’m more uneasy but not frightened.”

The Q & A with Gary Mitchum.

City’s new mobility guru says innovative fixes can be path to better health, more jobs

Gabe Klein (image at left), who has been called the guru of mobility for the 21st century, is coming to Charleston starting next week to help fix the city’s worsening transportation mess. Klein headed up transportation in two of the most traffic-congested cities in the U.S. — Washington, DC, and Chicago. He says transportation is not just a way to get from one point to another, but also the path to better health (through walking and biking) and to more “knowledge” jobs (when high-tech companies choose convenient, close-in locations that promote non-driving commutes).

 Go here for Q & A with Klein on the new relationship between transportation, better health and more jobs.

 Charleston ‘Reckless’ features she-likes-it rape

The new CBS legal drama “Reckless,” which is set in Charleston, premiered Sunday night with the provocative proposition that maybe women can enjoy be raped if they’re sexually cool and get into the violence. After a sweeping opening  aerial of the Ravenel Bridge, a Charleston police officer pulls over a woman driver for speeding, He takes her underneath the bridge and tells her to put her hands up on the chain-link fence. After handcuffing her, he begins a body search (illegal because there’s no suspicion the driver has a weapon) that turns into a grope, that becomes a clear-cut sexual assault…except the woman’s apprehensive face is suddenly transformed into a consensual smile. “I like the posterior,” she says in words scripted by show creator-executive producer Dana Stevens.

More about “Reckless” here.

5 million tourists — and 1% are black

The city’s two recent tourism management forums aired numerous concerns by residents that lax enforcement of regulations combined with swelling numbers of visitors have produced a dangerous “tipping point.” But two nights of testimony didn’t produce one comment about the racial imbalance of “heritage tours” — 98% white and only 1% black. Yet most of the region’s 5 million tourists come from parts of the country that have large black populations, including the metro areas of Washington, DC, New York City and Chicago.

Racial imbalance doesn’t come up at tourism forums.

Digital Corridor powers ‘knowledge’ jobs

Innovation districts are transforming economies in metro regions everywhere. A new Brookings report features many of them — but not the well-established Charleston Digital Corner, where PeopleMatter, among many entrepreneurial ventures, got its start in one room. “There’s no reason for Charleston to be disappointed,” reassures a Brookings analyst who helped put the report together.

Q & A with Digital Corridor founder Ernest Andrade, here.

PeopleMatter CEO on relocation: ‘We are pleased’

Three years ago, Upper King Street had a forlorn look. Many retailers had left the onetime premier Charleston shopping district and their replacement by trendy restaurants and bars hadn’t yet reached a critical mass. But that’s when PeopleMatter, the software company which sells a rapidly expanding suite of human-resource products to hotels, restaurants and other businesses in the high-growth service industry, decided to move its headquarters to Upper King from the Navy Yard in North Charleston. Local America asked PeopleMatter CEO Nate DaPore how the now-accomplished move is going.

Q & A with CEO Nate DaPore, here.

Minority gap widens at Jennie Moore arts magnet

Jennie Moore Elementary School for the Creative Arts gets “Excellent” state ratings year after year. But academic achievement by black students at this highly integrated school in Mt. Pleasant’s East Cooper neighborhood is lagging far behind performance seven years ago. The gap between black and white students’ English and Math scores at the partial magnet school have mostly widened since 2006.

 All the data and a seven-year performance chart, here.

City gives initial OK to limited late-night alcohol ban

The Charleston City Council gave initial approval last night to creation of an Entertainment District running up the length of the peninsula where new restaurants and bars would be banned from serving alcohol or otherwise operating after 12 midnight. Existing businesses with approval to serve alcohol up to 2 a.m. would be exempted from the new restrictions, according to Mayor Riley, although the ordinance itself doesn’t mention such grandfathering.

The proposal was prompted in part by a virtual ultimatum by several high-tech businesses that want to relocate to Upper King Street — as PeopleMatter did in 2011 — but are turned off by the atmosphere created by sometimes raucous and inebriated denizens who pack Upper King’s bars and restaurants and congregate on the sidewalks into the early hours of the morning.

The full story, with ordinance and Entertainment District overlay, is here.

Our ‘best’ (and ‘worst’): The listicle

There doesn’t seem to be a city “best” list that doesn’t include Charleston. Pet Friendly? Charleston’s is ranked. Then there are the “worst” lists, and Charleston is on some of those too.

Charleston rankings –in both resident and visitor categories –are here.

Future is now on sea levels, expert says

Martime science expert Gary Mitchum, who grew up in Charleston, says it too soon to quantify what the newly reported “unstoppable” collapse of glaciers in Antarctic will mean long term for sea levels in this region. But Mitchum, whose research is a key element of the National Climate Assessment’s verdict that Charleston is at “very high risk,” said local governments in metro Charleston should “come to the table with scientists, economists, policy makers, planners and developers to  produce the best strategy for reducing global warming while there’s still time.”

The full story.

‘Knowledge’ jobs big test for metro high schools

There’s a big but narrowing gap in how well Tri-County high schools are preparing their graduates for jobs in the region’s emerging “knowledge economy.” Thirteen of the region’s 26 high schools met the performance target developed by Local America from the state definition of “proficiency” for high school graduates

The story told in the numbers.

Region lags Raleigh, Austin and U.S. in tech pay

Metro Charleston is on a tear in adding high-tech jobs, but local salaries for almost all computer and software positions are significantly lower than in the tech centers of Raleigh and Austin, TX, and even trail U.S. medians, Salary gaps can range up to 30% and even higher. Charleston was No. 1 in one major area — web developer. According to the U.S. price parity index, the dollar goes a bit further in Raleigh than Charleston, and 2 percentage points less in Austin.

Are these pay gaps a hindrance to Charleston becoming a “knowledge economy”?

Metro Charleston has a way to go in health & wellness

As Charleston aims to develop a more-rounded, forward-pointing “knowledge economy,” it keeps an eye on Raleigh and Austin, TX, two communities that got started earlier on that curve. Local America will periodically look at how the three communities compare. Here we look at major health and wellness indicators.

What should be Metro Charleston’s top health priorities.

Calhoun toppled, figuratively

While John Calhoun continues to preside over Marion Square from his 80-foot-high granite pedestal, College of Charleston Prof. Joseph Kelly, a few blocks away, says the “Arch Nullifier” and other members of Charleston’s antebellum elite were “villains” of self-interest whose hard line on slavery stifled the emerging Southern half of the emancipation movement in the 1820s and put the nation on the path to Civil War.

Should Charleston be rethinking Calhoun?

‘We have reached the tipping point’

The City of Charleston is on what looks like will be a rocky road to a revamping of its tourism management program.

The first forum on what should be done produced many blistering comments from residents about the city not enforcing ordinances against noise and other adverse impacts of tourism.

Is there too much tourism? What should be done? Your recommendations.

56 Tri-County schools are on gap-closing path

Projections by Local America show that 56 of Tri-County’s 115 public elementary and middle schools are on the path to significantly narrow their stubborn minority achievement gap by 2016 But at 59 schools minority achievement is moving as a snail’s pace or actually losing ground, according to Local America’s analysis.

The story told in the numbers. What do you think?