Best of Charleston 2009

Our hairiest issue yet!

These are pretty hairy times for sure. The Dow is continuing to do a nose dive, and folks are being laid off like eggs in a hen house - one after another after another.

March 4, 2009

What Your Facial Hair Says About You

The Mountain Man Hey there, guy with the Grizzly Adams beard.

By Erica Jackson and Chris Haire | March 4, 2009

Beard Becomes You

The Holy City Beard and Moustache Society Wants You!

The age of the metrosexual is over. Dead and buried. From Seattle to Austin to Charleston, American men are ushering in a new golden age of hirsute pursuits.

By Paul D. Roof | March 4, 2009

Tickets to the Best of Charleston 2009 party

Free mustache rides!

Contest closed. Congrats to the winners!

February 25, 2009

Best Use of a Library

The Rave at CofC

December 10, 2008 It was finals week, fall semester, 2008.

By Anna Linesch | March 4, 2009

Best Extreme Makeover

College of Charleston Campus

Man, during the last few years, the College of Charleston has transformed itself from a sleepy small-town school to a bustling, sprawling, growing urban campus that seems to be taking over downtown. First you had the completion of the massive new library on Calhoun Street in 2005.

By Stephanie Barna | March 4, 2009

Best New Development with the Worst View

One Cool Blow

1 Cool Blow St. Downtown www.onecoolblow.com

By Erica Jackson | March 4, 2009

Best New Neighborhood ... In 2029

Horizon Street

In January, the City of Charleston rolled out an ambitious redevelopment proposal for the area near Brittlebank Park and Joe Riley Jr. Stadium that's currently a wide, barren parking lot used most days for MUSC parking. The vision is for a multi-use community anchored by medical and tech-based businesses.

By Greg Hambrick | March 4, 2009

Best New Development for Downtown Homebuyers

Cottages at Longborough

Property values keep rising in Wagener Terrace. In the nearby I'On-esque Longborough neighborhood, they're pretty out-of-reach for the average homebuyer.

By Erica Jackson | March 4, 2009

Best Street On Which to Paddle a Canoe

Bee Street

Downtown There's some heavy competition for this category (just turn any corner on the peninsula after a particularly hard storm and you'll see what we're talking about).

By Greg Hambrick | March 4, 2009

Best New Sports Arena

Carolina First Arena

Carolina First Arena 40 Calhoun St. Downtown

By Chris Haire | March 4, 2009

Best Old Fire House

Old Fire House

262-264 Meeting St. Downtown Want an easy way to entertain a young'un in downtown Charleston that doesn't cost a thing?

By Stephanie Barna | March 4, 2009

Best Reclamation of Heritage

Scanlonville, Mt. Pleasant

The quiet Mt. Pleasant neighborhood of Scanlonville (a.k.a. Remley's Point) may seem like a nice enough marsh-front community to those few who even know it's there, but it's actually a culturally valuable community with a deep and fascinating history dating back to the 18th century. Scanlonville's heritage was almost irrecoverably disturbed during a recent legal battle between longtime residents and a local developer.

By T. Ballard Lesemann | March 4, 2009

Best Island You Can't Get To

Dewees Island

There it lies, off the northern tip of Isle of Palms, just below Capers. It's a rugged environment, home to a green development spearheaded by John Knotts back in the '90s.

By Stephanie Barna | March 4, 2009

Best Place to Photograph Dolphins

Shem Creek

Coleman Boulevard. Mt. Pleasant

By T. Ballard Lesemann | March 4, 2009

Best Place to Get Your Gall Bladder Removed While Enjoying Some Art

MUSC's Ashley River Tower

MUSC's Ashley River Tower 25 Courtenay Drive.

By John Stoehr | March 4, 2009

Best Cemetery Without Gravestones

Charles Towne Landing

Charles Towne Landing Old Towne Road.

By John Stoehr | March 4, 2009

Best Rehab of a Plaza

St. Andrew's Shopping Center

975 Savannah Hwy. West Ashley The Coburg Cow has a little more spring in its spin these days.

By John Stoehr | March 4, 2009

Best Place to Slake Your Thirst on Homegrown Leaves

Charleston Tea Plantation

Charleston Tea Plantation 6617 Maybank Hwy. Wadmalaw Island

By Nick Smith | March 4, 2009

Best Way to Save the Economy

Buy Local

www.lowcountrylocalfirst.org First of all, we have high hopes for Obama's stimulus plan, which really needs to hurry up and get working.

By Stephanie Barna | March 4, 2009

Best Place to Put a Turn Signal

Calhoun and King

We had this category on our Best of Charleston readers' survey for years, and every year you, the people, voted for Calhoun and King. We took the category off simply because we got tired of it.

By Stephanie Barna | March 4, 2009

Best Example of Greening an Event

Charleston Green Fair

Sept. 28, 2008 www.charlestongreenfair.com

By Erica Jackson | March 4, 2009

Best Way Off the Peninsula

Coming Street

Downtown Over the past few years, the City of Charleston has been turning one-way arteries on and off the peninsula into two-way avenues, with a goal of making them more pedestrian friendly.

By Greg Hambrick | March 4, 2009

Best Resurgence

Loggerhead Turtles

Loggerhead turtles are finicky nesters. After years of swimming the high seas, they'll instinctively come back to lay their eggs in the region, and usually on the very beach where they were hatched.

By Greg Hambrick | March 4, 2009

Best New Sign

The "Alternate Merge When Congested" on Harbor View

The Harbor View merge on James Island has been a nightmare for years. First, you've got the local yokels who refuse to use the right lane themselves and will be damned if they're going to let anybody else get by them on the right, so they straddle both lanes, preventing the big-city folks (i.e., people from cities and states where road planning makes sense) from moving traffic along.

By Stephanie Barna | March 4, 2009

Best Place to Ruin a White Dress

Lunacy Parties at Voodoo

Voodoo 15 Magnolia Drive. West Ashley

By Erica Jackson | March 4, 2009

Best Speed Trap

Off-ramp from Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge to Coleman Boulevard

The beautiful view from the Cooper River bridge is enough to make you forget just how fast you're going. Thankfully, a 55-miles-per-hour speed limit and a healthy amount of traffic can usually keep a driver out of trouble.

By Greg Hambrick | March 4, 2009

Best Place to See Beautiful People

Charleston Fashion Week

www.charlestonfashionweek.com In only its second year, Charleston Fashion Week 2008 was a hugely-popular, nearly sold-out series of events.

By Erica Jackson | March 4, 2009

Best New Parking Feature

The City of Charleston Parking Card

Earlier this year, the City of Charleston unveiled a new way to pay for the parking meter: a prepaid charge card. Other communities, including Isle of Palms, have replaced meters with central parking kiosks where you pay for your time and put a receipt in the window.

By Greg Hambrick | March 4, 2009

Best Excuse for Being Late to Work for a North Chuck Resident

Trains

The folks that call the Park Circle area home know there's a downside to the otherwise quaint mini-burg — sometimes you just can't get out thanks to the trains that cross over East Montague on one side and North Rhett on the other. If you get caught at the tracks, you can easily plan to spend the next five to 10 minutes sitting in your car waiting for Thomas the Tank Engine to pass.

By Chris Haire | March 4, 2009