Sometimes noble ideas should remain just that; such may be true of the fledgling, albeit financially struggling, American College of the Building Arts. Initially proposed as the first liberal arts college of its kind in the nation to offer an accredited baccalaureate degree in applied building arts, ACOBA now appears to be on terminal life support with little hope of long-term survival. By its own admission, ACOBA has quickly blown through four presidents and over $14 million in private donations and public grants during its first three years of existence. At best, ACOBA now has just a few dozen full and part-time students including only seven of its original Class of 2009. In an act of shameless desperation, its latest new president and board of trustees have turned to the City of Charleston in a last gasping attempt to secure critically needed operating funds to pay day-to-day expenses and salaries with a loan from waning City tax revenues.

City accepts optimistic projections and provides loan for building school

Council member Gilliard joins the state legislature at the beginning of next year. Many of us who were attending last night's meeting, and probably a number of the Council members wished it were sooner. The Council member and Council member Lewis were sponsoring an ordinance to stop what the considered indecent exposure by the youth of Charleston. It did not go down well with some Council members, one calling it silly and ridiculous. Council member Gilliard responded a number of times, each response becoming more shrill, heated and hostile. He derided the newly elected Council members, two of which spoke against the proposed ordinance. And if anybody were snickering, and that was his accusation, it was at the man, the hyperbole, and the exhaustion of all as the meeting pushed towards 5 hours.

Chronic flooding throughout the streets of Charleston has been the bane of peninsula dwellers for over a century, but its damaging impacts upon property, commerce, tourism and private vehicles continues to accelerate at an ever increasing rate due to the woefully inadequate action by the current City administration. For over three decades, the current mayor of Charleston has promised sweeping improvements to the peninsula’s all-too-frequent flooding woes. Like a frog croaking after a spring shower, each time a major flooding event occurs downtown, Mayor Riley resurrects the same old shop-worn rhetoric, his star-crossed Calhoun Street tunnel project, and other outdated drainage master plans as fodder for his loyal media cronies and speech-numbed citizens alike.

Questions need to be asked on Accommodation Fee funding

It didn’t need a crystal ball to forecast a necessary tightening of the Council’s budget. The decline in building activity over the last year is cutting fee revenue, and higher than anticipated fuel and other costs are boosting expenditures. This has forced the County to make adjustments to the current fiscal year’s budget. But according to the 5 year projections made by staff of revenues and spending for the General Fund, major adjustments will be necessary over the next few years.

A recent increase in the frequency of pressed duck being served to motorists frequenting Harbor View Road has motivated a few nearby residents to cry fowl and take matters into their own hands. But, short of posting a few hand-lettered signs to warn motorists of an all-too-fatal duck crossing, little support has materialized by way of a solution to this messy problem. Last week’s Journal, that sad little emasculated remnant of a once proud and independent James Island weekly publication, contained a feature article lamenting the loss of many Mallards and a few giant Canada Geese that frequent the grassy banks of the roadway shoulders in the Lawton Bluff Subdivision.

While researching materials for a upcoming series of articles on the cult of cronyism that has had a stranglehold on the City Administration of Charleston for nearly four decades, a previous Shrimp ‘n Grits article seemed to have already laid a solid foundation for the series. It is worthy of repeating as a harbinger of the light that will shine on Riley’s cult of cronyism this fall.

If last week’s flurry of Palter and Chatter articles and commentaries are any indication, Charleston’s imperial mayor and his deal-estate development cronies have a whole lot riding on their world-class visions for the future of Maybank Highway and the rest of Johns Island. Riley and his want-to-be environmentalist and sidekick, Dana Beach, recently conned County Council into second-guessing the will of the voters who supported the ½ cent sales tax referendum and voted specifically to widen Maybank Highway. In a local parallel to what Bill Clinton’s meaning of the word “is” is, Riley and his stable of sycophantic pettifoggers are now claiming that construction of turn lanes and bike paths would legally constitute the vote-approved roadway widening. Meanwhile, Riley’s hired “ringers from off” have been spinning more convoluted and contradictory visions for the development of Johns Island.

Issues on Procurement Policy and Accommodation Fee funds

There would probably be little disagreement with the opinion that the highlight of yesterday’s Council Meetings was the short video at the beginning. Chairman Scott gave no inkling of the video contents. But the reaction, predictably, was surprise. The video was a commercial for Duke Mayonnaise which featured no less than Ms. Beverly Craven, Clerk of Council. Ms. Craven has served Council for many years, sitting figuratively and literally at the right hand side of the Council Chairmen. Amiable and permanently in good humor, she is a sort of den mother for Council members. She would have been our first choice for "mom” in an “American apple pie” commercial. Seems Duke Mayonnaise sort of agrees. Ms. Craven received a strong ovation and gave us the broadest of smiles.

Last week’s Palter and Chatter article about the City of Charleston’s purchase of right-of-way for extension of the Glenn McConnell Parkway was informative as far as it went, but David Slade either has a very short memory, lacks the in-depth journalistic skills needed to adequately research his subject matter, or, more likely, is just another wooden-headed puppet dangling from the strings of the Riley Palter and Chatter sycophants that sign his pay-check.

If there was a Pulitzer Prize for disinformation Brian Hicks would be on the short list. His recent piece on James Island displayed, in only a few hundred words, an amazing facility for factual error, distortion and misinformation.

A worthwhile confrontation in our opinion

City Council meets only once a month over the summer period. It normally meets twice a month and in the past, the reduction of the frequency has been offset by the length of meetings. We can remember in past years where some meetings in summer have extended to about 10 pm. This is long haul for a meeting beginning with Ways Means at 4.30 pm. Whether its the weaker economy and a diminution in commercial and housing projects needing approval, or just an aberration, yesterdays meeting was no longer than normal. There were no speakers during Public Participation which promoted the Mayor to joke that the public was mindful of the desire to get home to view a major sport event. Indeed, excluding those who turned up to participate in the award ceremonies, the public attendance was probably less than 10.

The City’s latest planning and engineering consultant “from off” may have unintentionally spilled too many beans as he extolled the virtues of his planned “network of streets” proposed as his “top priority” for solving growing traffic congestion on Johns Island.

Sunday’s Palter and Chatter lead story, “CLOGGED and getting worse”, made a good argument for considering commuter rail and other public transit options as worthy alternatives to spending $300 million for the widening of I-26 to alleviate rush-hour gridlock down the spine of the upper and lower Charleston Peninsula. Unfortunately, like all complex problems and their equally complex solutions, there are other underlying variables and a few five hundred pound gorillas in the equation that must also be considered if the Lowcountry is to remain economically competitive and viable in the next century. The increasing cost of energy and its impact upon the region’s equation of commerce, coupled with the unintended consequences of previous regional land planning strategies, will dominate the actions of local policy makers for decades as they attempt to out-guess several other rapidly changing national and international market forces.

With all the national campaign hype about the need for change in the Executive Branch of our national government, it’s easy to become desensitized to the various meanings of change. Webster defines change as an alteration, transformation, substitution, or exchange. For the remaining readers of the Palter and Chatter’s editorial page, one can only hope that the retirement of Barbara Williams as editor of editorials brings either of the former definitions but neither of the latter. For nearly four decades the editorial page of the Palter and Chatter has been little more than a convenient political broadside in defense of the never-ending Riley Administration. Seldom, if ever, have local editorials seriously questioned the covert nature, politically ruthless, single-handed tactics, or misguided visionary choices of Charleston’s unique career mayor. To the contrary, countless favorable editorials, blatant platitudes, and journalistic influence upon the composition of Charleston’s City Council has underpinned, defended, supported, and colluded with the Riley Administration to forge a symbiotic relationship that has benefited the Palter and Chatter and sustained Riley in a position of unchallengeable local power and influence for nearly four decades.

Request for State to address issue of safety on Johns Island roads

There was little on the agenda for yesterday’s Finance Committee that seemed contentious. But Council Member Thurmond took exception to the fiscal 2009 annual allocations for road and drainage work financed by the half cent sales tax. He did not object to the spending but questioned as to how the specific projects were chosen.