Tag Archives: travel

04/17/2025 · 12:16 pm

Lowcountry Lowline is Officially Launching It’s First Phase

The Lowline project envisions a central spine of parks and mobility systems connecting downtown to West Ashley, North Charleston and Mt Pleasant. The plan will transform an abandoned rail line and neglected highway corridor into a continuous green corridor that supports the surrounding communities and provides places for active and passive recreation.. 

Charleston City Council recently approved a $1.1 million design-build contract, officially launching the first phase of construction for this long-awaited project. A community open house is scheduled for Thursday, April 24th from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. at Palmetto Brewing Company, located at 289 Huger Street in Charleston.

THE NORTH CENTRAL CORRIDOR:

  • The North Central Corridor runs from Romney Street to the planned transit hub on Mount Pleasant Street
  • The North Central Corridor provides areas for active and passive recreation in “The Columns” beneath the elevated highway
  • “The Columns” area also provide ample space to host a neighborhood market
  • This district will include pocket parks where neighborhood streets end into the Lowline property
  • The potential transit oriented redevelopment of the Parks Department building provides an opportunity to create a new pedestrian district at the North end of the Lowline

THE PARKS

  • The Parks District runs from Romney Street to Line Street
  • It is bookended by two new park spaces: New Market Creek Park to the North and Lowline Park to the South
  • Lowline Park is a large open space designed for events and gatherings
  • NewMarket Park is an enhanced Salt- and Fresh- water ecosystem
  • NewMarket Park provides a natural amenity for the public to enjoy while also enhancing stormwater management for the surrounding neighborhoods

THE URBAN CORE

  • The Urban Core District of the Lowline runs from Line Street to Marion Square
  • The District currently has the most diverse mix of uses and the highest density on the peninsula
  • The Lowline in the Urban Core is envisioned to be a series of alleys
  • Some portions of the Lowline already exist as alleys between Mary and Hutson Street
  • The side streets that connect King and Meeting streets will become important access points. Improvements to these connecting streets will be included in the Lowline
  • This Network of interconnected pedestrian walkways will enhance the entire district

Read More at Lowcountry Lowline

Gena Glaze

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01/20/2025 · 2:24 pm

South Carolina Has Officially Become The Number 1 Moved To State in America

South Carolina has officially become the number 1 moved to state in America, surpassing Texas. This significant change reflects a growing trend of people relocating to the number 1 moved to state, driven by various factors such as job opportunities, more affordable housing, and a desirable lifestyle. According to data from U-Haul, South Carolina has knocked Texas out of the number one spot for the first time in history.

The trend of southern states netting larger numbers of one-way U-Haul® continued during 2024, with South Carolina topping the U-Haul Growth Index for the first time.

Texas, North Carolina, Florida and Tennessee round out the five leading growth states.

California experienced the greatest net loss and ranks 50th for the fifth consecutive year.

Growth rankings are configured by each state’s net gain (or loss) of customers utilizing one-way U-Haul equipment in a calendar year. The U-Haul Growth Index is compiled from well over 2.5 million one-way U-Haul truck, trailer and U-Box® moving container transactions that occur annually.

“State-to-state transactions from the past year reaffirm customer tendencies that have been pronounced for some time,” stated John “J.T.” Taylor, U-Haul International president. “Migration to the Southeast and Southwest continues as families gauge their cost of living, job opportunities, quality of life and other factors that go into relocating to a new state. Out-migration remains prevalent for a number of markets across the Northeast, Midwest and West Coast — and particularly California.

“U-Haul continues to expand its network, rental fleet and self-storage footprint so that wherever people move in 2025, we will be there to meet their needs.”

South Carolina climbed three spots in the rankings to unseat Texas, which was the No. 1 growth state for the previous three years (2021-23). Of all the U-Haul movers coming and going from the Palmetto State in 2024, more than 51.7% were arrivals.

Texas has ranked first or second among U-Haul Growth States each year since 2016. Florida has been fourth or higher every year since 2015.

New York, at No. 47 on the list, has its lowest growth ranking in a decade.

Oklahoma (+30), Indiana (+19) and Maine (+18) are the biggest risers year-over-year on the U-Haul Growth Index. Colorado (-31), Nevada (-24), Wyoming (-22) and New Mexico (-21) saw the biggest slides in 2024.

Find past growth rankings and reports at uhaul.com/about/migration.

Gena Glaze

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10/21/2024 · 3:12 am

SC Growth Shows No Sign of a Slow Down.

South Carolina is among a handful of Sunbelt states where growth is pulling away from the rest of the country, and one of the region’s top economists says there doesn’t seem to be anything on the horizon to stem the acceleration.

“I don’t see anything in the data that makes me think that growth in the Carolinas, in particular, is going to slow down,” Laura Ullrich, a Charlotte-based economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, said during the S.C. International Trade Conference on the Isle of Palms.

The lures that have drawn newcomers from other states — jobs, weather and relatively lower costs — aren’t going to change, Ullrich said. Already, South Carolina ranks as the nation’s fastest-growing state percentagewise, with 1.7 percent growth in 2023, according to census data. That’s nearly 91,000 more people than the previous year, with roughly 19,000 of them moving to the three-county Charleston region.

“And, quite frankly, we still have several mid-sized metros that have a lot of growing to do,” Ullrich said

“If you live in Charleston, things seem super expensive here,” she said. “But it’s a lot cheaper than a house in Fairfax County, Virginia, and a heck of a lot cheaper than San Diego. So, if you look at the areas where that migration is coming from, they are very expensive. Yes, it’s expensive to buy a house in Mount Pleasant. But if you move from San Diego, you might buy a house in Mount Pleasant and another on Lake Murray.”

At the same time, wages are often much lower in South Carolina, and that can amplify the housing crisis regardless of cost comparisons.

“Everybody is worried about housing,” Ullrich said. “The only ways to fix it are, basically, subsidies and density. And people don’t want to talk about density. It’s really hard because everyone wants affordable housing but when density is going up down the road, people complain to their city, and they don’t do it.”

There are a few intangible variables that could crimp growth, such as rising geopolitical tensions or a surprise event that no one can forecast. But Ullrich said the biggest question is how quickly the Fed will lower interest rates going forward.

“Is it going to be an elevator or slow stair steps?” she said.

The answer could go a long way in determining how the housing crisis — both affordability and availability — shakes out in the Charleston region and throughout the Sunbelt.

Read more at Post and Courier

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02/02/2024 · 8:49 am

CARTA Proposes Controversial Park and Ride Facility at Ladson Fairgrounds

Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority’s (CARTA) plans to build a park-and-ride facility at the fairgrounds. This park-and-ride facility is a part of CARTA’s Lowcountry Rapid Transit Plan – the first-ever large-scale transportation project in the region.

CARTA Chairman Mike Seekings, says this $600 million plan is the result of over a decade of regional planning. If plans go through, the facility will take up about six acres of the 180 acres available for parking on the fairgrounds.

Mike Jernigan, a member of the Exchange Board as well as the former president of the Coastal Carolina Fair, says that their initial discussions with CARTA were about leasing an acre to an acre and a half of land for a bus stop, but he said that CARTA wanted more land to either purchase or take by eminent domain.

Seekings is surprised by this response. He says that they spoke with the leadership of the fairgrounds early in the process and have had conversations over many years about this area of land.

Officials with the Coastal Carolina Fair say that their issue is not the size of the facility, though, but the location. The park-and-ride facility would be located in lot 2A of the fairgrounds which is adjacent to Highway 78 and Gate 2 – one of the major entrances of the fairgrounds.

“We feel like supporting public transportation is a good thing. We’re not opposed to that in any way,” Jernigan says. We just feel like this location is the wrong location. That there are other options that are available adjacent to our property, or even at a different place on our property, but not to take our prime parking spot.”

Read More – News Article

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