Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Charleston To Hike Parking Fees, Enforcement

Posted by Greg Hambrick on Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 12:03 PM

The city won’t raise taxes, but it will increase on-street parking tickets from $8 to $14 per ticket after state reforms on parking tickets reduced city revenues by $300,000. The new state law prevents municipalities from charging late fees for parking tickets until 30 days after the ticket is issued. Prior to the new law, the city would charge an extra $4 per tickets after 10 days and $17 after 20 days.

Mayor Joe Riley says that it is an effort to pull people parking for long stretches off of the streets and into the parking garages.

“The parking garage daily rate is less than a ticket,” Riley says.

The city also announced that it would be increasing parking enforcement during college basketball games at the new Carolina First Center, particularly in downtown neighborhoods. They mentioned this weekend's game against the University of South Carolina, in particular.

Topics: City Hall

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IOP Keeping Photogs Off the Beach

Posted by Greg Hambrick on Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 11:45 AM

Kelli McKinney vacations on the Isle of Palms every year. With an engagement ring on her finger, the North Carolina stylist was set on a small beach wedding and shelled out thousands of dollars for a house. She went found local photographers online with hundreds of beautiful beach weddings. Then she tried to book one to shoot her nuptials. No dice.

Isle of Palms has had a ban on any business on the beach for several years, but recent warnings by police and a stiff, $1,100 fine has photographers turning away offers for weddings and family portraits on the island.

“I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’” McKinney says. “I’d rented this house and just wanted to walk out on the beach and have a simple wedding.”

The ordinance states that “no person shall sell or rent, or offer to sell or rent, any goods, merchandise, or services, or solicit any trade or business, on the beach, beach accesses, public parking lots, or the Breach Inlet bridge, except pursuant to a franchise granted by city council, or pursuant to a city-sponsored activity or event.”

The ordinance has done what it was intended to do, says acting Mayor Carol Rice — it’s kept the beach vendor free.

“What we don’t want is an atmosphere of a lot of business on the beach,” she says. “It’s very hard to draw a line in that sand, so to speak.”

McKinney called the town hall and the local police and was told by both that it was illegal, but that a “family friend” could take the pictures without worry, as long as no money was exchanged on the beach. After several calls back to photographers, McKinney was able to find a “family friend” willing to shoot the wedding.

Douglas Kerr, the town’s building director and the man in charge of codes enforcement, says the town hands out about two tickets a year to business owners violating the beach ban. Typically they go to surf instructors or people trying to rent out beach chairs. He doesn’t know of any fines to photographers.

McKinney notes that a few photographers she contacted suggested that she relocate the wedding to Folly Beach, which doesn’t have a similar ordinance. Bill Nixon, who runs a photography business with his wife, Kelli Nixon, warns potential clients on his website to avoid the Isle of Palms.

“If you have not rented a home on the Isle of Palms yet, choose Folly Beach instead,” it reads.

The Isle of Palms isn’t concerned about losing that tourism revenue if weddings are relocated to other beaches, Rice says. The town doesn’t claim to offer prospective brides anything more than the sun, sand, and surf.

“We’re not a catering venue,” she says.

Nixon says that his wife was warned while trying to take a family portrait on the beach and they’re not going back.

“We shouldn’t have to worry about something like this,” he says. “If you work out there with a professional camera, you’re at risk.”

Milton Morris, a Florence photographer who shoots in Charleston several times a year says he has photographed weddings on Isle of Palms before, but he’ll be avoiding them now. His past experience with municipal hurdles elsewhere has taught him that, in some cases, photographers are better off not knowing the rules.

“It’s one of those things where you don’t ask and you might get by with it,” Morris says.

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Wall Street Journal Visits Depressing Charleston Port

Posted by Greg Hambrick on Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 11:24 AM

It's okay when we gripe about the slowed port traffic, but it kind of smarts when the folks at the Wall Street Journal chronicle the bad times at the Charleston ports.

In recent years, Charleston has been losing market share to more innovative and aggressive East Coast ports, particularly Savannah, Ga., 100 miles to the south. From 2005 to 2006, as large retailers such as Target Corp. and Ikea began building massive distribution centers near Savannah, Charleston's container traffic dropped 9%, followed by a 7% drop in 2007, according to U.S. Department of Transportation statistics.

"We were very proud of our status as a significant port," said Robert New, president and chief executive of Charleston Port Services, which ties and unties vessels at the docks. "Now we're just worried about our survival."

Mr. New, whose company services roughly 1,800 ships a year, said he has reduced some of his employees' health-care benefits to compensate for the drop in business in the past year.

Dockworkers are working fewer hours, or sometimes none at all. On a recent midweek morning, Marsha Youngblood went to union headquarters and was disappointed but not surprised to find no work available. She works a variety of jobs on the docks, including latching down military freight headed to the Middle East. "This is the slowest I've ever seen it," she said.

Topics: City Hall

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Charleston Launches New Sustainability Office

Posted by Greg Hambrick on Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 9:07 AM

Though it’s a tight budget year, Charleston Mayor Joe Riley is looking to make departmental changes — all without increasing overall costs. He has proposed shifting the Department of Planning, Preservation, and Economic Innovation to the Department of Planning, Preservation, and Sustainability. The city will also create a sustainability director who will oversee efforts toward energy efficiency, recycling, green technology use, and sustainable land use policies.

“This person will save the city money — eventually we’ll save a lot of money,” Riley says. “But more important than that is for Charleston to seize the moment and be a leader in the sustainability movement.”

A business services division will also be created in the planning department to support existing businesses. The economic development division will be eliminated, with those efforts consolidated to the mayor’s office.

“This time is about opportunity,” Riley says. “We have to do more with less and not be defensive or reactive.”

Topics: City Hall

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City Budget: Worst in 33 Years

Posted by Greg Hambrick on Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 8:57 AM

The City of Charleston will be holding taxes at the same level next year, even as city staff call 2009 the toughest budget in 33 years. The city will dip into its reserves, to the tune of more than $2 million, due to an expected loss in revenues, the first year-to-year loss in decades. There is an increase in spending by only $719,000 — last year’s nearly $147 million budget included increased spending of more than $8.3 million.

“We just can’t raise taxes, with the pinch that everyone is feeling, that would just be the wrong signal to send,” says Mayor Joe Riley.

Property tax collections, construction permits, business licences, state aid, and tourism revenue are all expected to fall this year. Construction permits alone have dropped by more than 45 percent since 2006.

The budget includes 20 new public safety workers, including 12 additional firefighters expected to be hired in late 2009. That will mean 45 new positions added to the fire department since June 2007, when the city lost nine firefighters in the Sofa Super Store blaze.

Travel, training, office supplies, and cutbacks on hiring have all been put in place. Employees making over $60,000 will go without cost-of-living salary adjustments. But all police and fire staff will receive a flat 1.5 percent increase. Mayor Joe Riley will receive the 3 percent annual increase promised in his contract, but plans to refund that money to the city every quarter.

And don't look to 2010 to be better.

“It may be that the budget for next year will be just as challenging,” Riley says.

Topics: City Hall

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