Downtown?

Have I said this already? What North Charleston needs is a downtown. I don't get it. How does this place work? How does it function? Oh thats right, it doesn't

Now there were parts of Salt Lake City that felt kind of like this. The area near our apartment was kind of a wasteland. 3900 S near State street. Miles and miles of garbage stores and businesses. Spread out and unattractive. But still the area functions in a smooth and orderly way. The reason? Good roads everywhere. Built on a grid. All roads leading to larger roads that funnel everything into downtown.

Heres the deal. I'm not asking everyone to live like the Jetsons. I'm not against houses at all. I'm not entirely against neighborhoods that are somewhat secluded and set apart from the "hustle and bustle" What I am against is single passenger automobile trips and single person office buildings. I'm fine with people having homes and nice houses and huge yards and whatnot. But can't we at least work near one another?

You want traffic to get better? Then we have to maximize the roads and routes that we have. What North Charleston/Summerville needs is a downtown. Find a spot that already has really good infrastructure. There are a couple of places that do, believe it or not. Find that spot. Buy out whatever garbage buildings are there. Reconfigure and rezone the whole area. And start putting up some real buildings. I'm not talking about 80 story buildings. But some decent high density office space. Combine that with restaurants and some apartments and condos, for those of who don't feel the need to hide from the rest of the world. Suddenly, what you have is a real working and functioning city center. Where people come to work and live and shop and play. A small but higly dense area that supports the rest of the city. A place that is easy to get in and out of. And best of all, it keeps the rest of the city quiet, peaceful and green. Isn't that what we want?

But the people here cannot see past their dashboards. They can't see the real problems. So real solutions sound scary to them. If I say density, they think it brings more traffic. No it doesn't. It consolidates traffic into the areas that can handle it. If I say downtown they think Manhattan. Where no one can see the sun shine and there is nothing green anywhere. That isn't true. Columbia's downtown area is about 2 miles long and 1 mile wide. And its full of parks and green spaces and is very effecient.

In the end, its just frustrating, because North Charleston is clearly the central part of the Charleston area. Yet 30 years after it incorporated, it is still just a wasteland of randomly placed buildings and roads and strip malls.

Its too bad I want to do something with my life. Otherwise I might stay here and fix it.

-T