Mount Pleasant's Mayor, Will Haynie, steps into our studio to weave a narrative of a town that's as deeply rooted in tradition as it is invested in progress. His insights into the region's transformation reveal a delicate tapestry of economic growth, cultural preservation, and community spirit. Listeners will journey through the ways Mount Pleasant cherishes its Gullah Geechee heritage, and how it ingeniously folds history into the modern advancements of this All-America City. From the charm of sweetgrass basket stands to innovative solutions for attainable housing, Mayor Haynie's discussion is a masterclass in balancing the demands of a burgeoning population with the soul of a close-knit community.
Our conversation meanders through the tree-lined streets of challenges and strategies, where Mayor Haynie illuminates the town's approach to traffic management and land conservation. He shares tales of initiatives that are more than just policy; they are a reflection of the town's heart, from protecting the shrimping industry to ensuring green spaces enhance property values. His stories echo the sentiment that Mount Pleasant's identity is not just maintained, but lovingly polished with every decision made under his guidance.
As we wrap up our chat, we uncover Mount Pleasant's hidden gems, turning over the lesser-seen stones of historical landmarks and enchanting trails. Mayor Haynie muses over the idea of a crab mascot, adding a pinch of humor to the mix and showcasing his knack for engaging with the community on both serious and light-hearted levels. By the end of our episode, listeners will feel as though they've strolled through the streets of Mount Pleasant, met its dedicated mayor, and discovered the essence of what makes this town a true gem of the South.
Presenting Sponsor: Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
Studio Sponsor: Charleston Radio Group
Production Sponsor: rūmbo advertising
Committee:
Kathleen Herrmann | Host | MPCC President
Michael Cochran | Co-host | Foundation Chair
John Carroll | Co-host | Member at Large
Mike Compton | Co-host | Marketing Chair
Rebecca Imholz | Co-host | MPCC Director
Amanda Bunting Comen | Co-host | Social ABCs
Scott Labarowski | Co-host | Membership Chair
Tammy Becker | President Elect
Jennifer Maxwell | Co-host
Darius Kelly | Creative Director | DK Design
Mount Pleasant's Mayor, Will Haynie, steps into our studio to weave a narrative of a town that's as deeply rooted in tradition as it is invested in progress. His insights into the region's transformation reveal a delicate tapestry of economic growth, cultural preservation, and community spirit. Listeners will journey through the ways Mount Pleasant cherishes its Gullah Geechee heritage, and how it ingeniously folds history into the modern advancements of this All-America City. From the charm of sweetgrass basket stands to innovative solutions for attainable housing, Mayor Haynie's discussion is a masterclass in balancing the demands of a burgeoning population with the soul of a close-knit community.
Our conversation meanders through the tree-lined streets of challenges and strategies, where Mayor Haynie illuminates the town's approach to traffic management and land conservation. He shares tales of initiatives that are more than just policy; they are a reflection of the town's heart, from protecting the shrimping industry to ensuring green spaces enhance property values. His stories echo the sentiment that Mount Pleasant's identity is not just maintained, but lovingly polished with every decision made under his guidance.
As we wrap up our chat, we uncover Mount Pleasant's hidden gems, turning over the lesser-seen stones of historical landmarks and enchanting trails. Mayor Haynie muses over the idea of a crab mascot, adding a pinch of humor to the mix and showcasing his knack for engaging with the community on both serious and light-hearted levels. By the end of our episode, listeners will feel as though they've strolled through the streets of Mount Pleasant, met its dedicated mayor, and discovered the essence of what makes this town a true gem of the South.
Presenting Sponsor: Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
Studio Sponsor: Charleston Radio Group
Production Sponsor: rūmbo advertising
Committee:
Kathleen Herrmann | Host | MPCC President
Michael Cochran | Co-host | Foundation Chair
John Carroll | Co-host | Member at Large
Mike Compton | Co-host | Marketing Chair
Rebecca Imholz | Co-host | MPCC Director
Amanda Bunting Comen | Co-host | Social ABCs
Scott Labarowski | Co-host | Membership Chair
Tammy Becker | President Elect
Jennifer Maxwell | Co-host
Darius Kelly | Creative Director | DK Design
Hello and welcome to the Building Business Podcast powered by the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce. We're recording in the Charleston Radio Group Studios. Thank you to them for being such a great partner and sponsor for our podcast. They are behind the camera and huge supporters of the chamber. I'm here, kathy Herman. I'm the current president of the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce and I am joined with Rebecca Imholtz, who was our director of the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce. And do we have one for you today? We have a very important person in the house today and no, no, mayor, we will all admit you're a very important person to everyone who lives in this town, thank you. So I am very, very excited to welcome the Mayor of Mount Pleasant, mr Will Haney. Thank you, appreciate being here, been looking forward to it. That's awesome and such a huge supporter of the Chamber.
Speaker 2:Yes, I try to be.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I think actually we have a great partnership with the town. In general we do, which is why I think we're all so successful.
Speaker 3:Absolutely and that's something as director of the chamber when I'm talking to members of our business community and our community citizens how much we appreciate the partnership we have with the town of Mount Pleasant. It is unique to the chamber world. Not all chambers have that wonderful relationship. So thank you so much.
Speaker 1:And so, before we start talking about I know what everyone wants to talk about is this beautiful town that we live and work in. Share a little bit about yourself, mayor, for those who might not know you.
Speaker 2:Well, I appreciate it. I'm a South Carolina native. My ancestors are from the Lowcountry and on one side of my family and on the other side they're from the upstate. So I was born in Greenville, moved to Mount Pleasant when I was five years old the first time, and then, when my dad was at the medical university and when he finished his residency there, we moved to the Midlands. So I grew up in the Midlands and then I moved back to Mount Pleasant after I graduated from the Citadel. Then work and life took me away and then I moved back again. So when people talk about the problem being all these people that have moved to Mount Pleasant, I've done it three times, so I'm a three-time offender.
Speaker 1:Did they tell you to leave too? Oh yeah, they told me to leave twice.
Speaker 2:And this time I said well, I guess if I get elected mayor they can't make me leave.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:But Mount Pleasant has always been in my blood and I remember when we moved here from a small upstate town that I'm a native of. It's called Belton. You may have heard of it. It's the tennis capital of South Carolina. I remember my mom saying when we moved to Mount Pleasant nobody knows us, nobody knows our last name. You just have to make friends and you know, if you make one or two friends, you'll feel at home. And that's why I have always felt about Mount Pleasant the way I do, because I have friends. And it's funny because a lot of those friends that I was in kindergarten with at Mount Pleasant Presbyterian are still here and they're friends and supporters and it just you know we'll talk about this in a minute it will always be a town. To me, it will always be a town.
Speaker 1:And so what made you want to run for mayor?
Speaker 2:When I came back, one of the things I had done up in North Carolina is I had written for newspapers. I was a columnist, and so when I came back here I wrote a sailing column for the Post and Courier because they were full of opinion columnists and so once that ink gets in your blood, once you're used to publishing, you want to write. So I was sailing competitively and stuff at the time and there was nobody covering it, so I started doing that and then, after that kind of ran its course, about six years, sully Witte was in at the Military.
Speaker 1:News Good friend of ours, I love Sully no-transcript.
Speaker 2:At least not. You can be in the newspaper but you're not the one writing it. So I was sitting there writing one about growth and stuff and my wife Suzette, who many people in Mount Pleasant know from her teaching days at Jenny Moore she have you ever thought about, you know, stepping out from the keyboard and just getting in the arena, just get in there and run. So I ran for council that year in 15, and then ran for mayor in 17. And here I am. What year is it? 2024?
Speaker 2:already seven years in office seven years as mayor and two as a council. That's almost a decade. I can't believe it. That's amazing, yeah.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I've lived in Mount Pleasant for 28 years and, like you, I've seen a lot of changes and I'm so glad that you refer to our town as a town, because it is a town to me. I've lived all over the United States because my dad had a military career and I came from Virginia Tech area before moving here in Virginia and it's just been such a joy to me to have three sons Last name of M Holtz Everybody knows who they are I'm like mind your manners, they're going to know who you are.
Speaker 3:But they have friends that they are still friends with from kindergarten and they're all grown up college graduates now but they're still friends with from kindergarten and they're all grown-up college graduates now but they're still friends with them and Mount Pleasant's a wonderful place to come back home and visit. So they don't live here anymore, but they do come back and visit and I really appreciate your commitment to making our town still feel like a town, such a beautiful place to live. Obviously, everybody has found us.
Speaker 3:Remember when we used to have Come On Over as our logo?
Speaker 1:Yes, are we going to change that? We have changed that. It's not on the logo anymore.
Speaker 2:Because you know they did it, they did it and that's wonderful. And you know, can I jump on one of the things you asked me?
Speaker 1:I can.
Speaker 2:Because I think it was very prescient that you put this in there. What one historical event in Mount Pleasant's past would I want to be present for? And you know what changed East Cooper and Mount Pleasant forever. You know George Washington being here aside, revolutionary War aside, because we all know the big battle on June 28, 1776. What changed this area was when the Grace Bridge opened in the 1920s. That's when people realized you can live east of the Cooper and work in Charleston, and then I was a kid when the Pierman Bridge opened. So you had the Grace Bridge remember when they were the two and then they went down in 2006 and the Ravenel Bridge was built and you can look at the numbers and most of our growth has happened since the Ravenel Bridge opened in 2006. So those bridges changed Mount Pleasant and all of the East Cooper community.
Speaker 2:Some would say for the worst. But people know. People say how do you feel about all these people that move here? If you move here and you live in my town, you're my constituent, I'm your mayor, I love you. I really do, and I am seeing, in the nine years that I've been in public office in Mount Pleasant, it has gone from. What is Mount Pleasant. Who are we going to be? Are we going to be urban or we're're gonna look like south florida? It has gone from that to everybody that moves here now. Sure, everybody wants a little something like where they came from, but most everybody says let's don't destroy this, let's preserve this town. I mean, you were telling us before you know, before we started the podcast you haven't lived here that many years but you care for mount pleasant like it is well, I mean I moved.
Speaker 1:I've been here eight years, but I was. I was asked to come here. I'm the marketing director at Mount Pleasant Town Center and the owner at the time found me on Long Island well and and it took him a few months, but they, they really wanted me to come here so I was blessed.
Speaker 1:I'll be the first one to admit that I didn't want to move. I had no desire to move. My husband's like let's just do it. And so we picked up. And I'd never been to Charleston before Isn't that crazy? Never. And so I moved down here with a purpose. They asked me to come, I moved down here and A I'll never go back. I love visiting, but I'll never as far as I'm concerned. I'm not moving anywhere, but I've also, I've also put immersed myself in the town. So I again, I do all the events and advertising and marketing for Town Center, which is the heart of the community as far as I'm concerned, then of course I joined the chamber and now I'm the president of the chamber.
Speaker 1:So I love this town. So I came down here and, I hope, made a huge impact on this town and I will forever do that because of what it means to me. But speaking of towns, one more thing. When you spoke at the chamber luncheon in February, mary, you mentioned I know it was 95,000 people now and so many new people don't understand why we're a town and not a city. Would, you explain that.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, legally there's no, there's no difference. We are a municipality and there's about 260 something municipalities in South Carolina. We are all basically allowed to govern under the state constitution and the powers vested in us come from the state legislature. But we can call ourselves the town of Mount Pleasant, and it's odd because you look over the connector. Our neighbors Isle of Palms has what? 3,500 full-time residents.
Speaker 1:And they're a city. They're the city of the Isle of Palms.
Speaker 2:Because we do not want to forget where we came from. We want to have that feel we want to be. We want you to move to Mount Pleasant and feel like it's a town. We want you to grow up here like yours did and feel like I grew up in a town, a town that cares about me, a town where I'm known and everything. And one of the things that reminded me the other day, one of my proudest moments of Mount Pleasant, whether I'm mayor or not, was when all those folks showed up to help Eugene Gillyard's sweetgrass stand be rebuilt. And I bet you Cheryl Woods Flowers, former mayor, she helped organize that and was Johnny on the spot and everything. But I bet you three-fourths of the people helping do that are not natives but they care about people, they care about our history. And when we went to denver last year and won our third all america city award they only give 20 a year and this was our third one and we were up against new york city, los angeles, san antonio, a lot of big.
Speaker 1:They've got nothing on us. I'm sorry, mayor, nothing on us.
Speaker 2:And and you know what? They gave us our award last because they said we were such the crowd favorite that once we got our award all the others would just sort of be also ran. So we had to wait and we thought, oh no, there's only one left and our theme was woven together like a sweet grass basket. That was our whole thing, which was the theme of my state of the town address back in February that you were just talking about. And so to see our community rally around.
Speaker 2:And it's ironic because when we got the award and we got ready to leave, they asked me to make a little speech and I said the chore for us is not just come out here and market that and give it lip services, to live that out in Mount Pleasant every day. Live out those values. Live out that we will never forget our Gullah Geechee culture. We'll never forget our settlement communities and part of this was we'll never forget the disabled or differently enabled in our communities, which the chamber has been big on in embracing, just Be our autism-friendly designation. We've got to live those out when we get back, and we just saw that in Mount Pleasant when people helped rebuild a sweetgrass stand Didn't have to do that. A lot of people move here. You know some Midwesterners move here and think that's a funny shape for snow fences because the Denver airport they have things that look like sweetgrass basket stands. But it's to catch snow.
Speaker 1:Well, that's the first thing that any family or friends that have never been here before and they come and they're driving down 17,. They're like, what are those? And of course, I launch into this whole diatribe about how important they are to our culture, whole diatribe about how important they are to our culture. And so whoever may be listening that does not know they are Sweetgrass Baskin's Dance and they are protected by law.
Speaker 2:Protected by law. And if you go online to the College of Charleston, there's a whole study about them. There's a map of their locations, the town has them, they're all cataloged. And if there was a development, the last one I can remember was indigo square not, far from from where you are at town center.
Speaker 2:They have to show the impact on them and they have to deal with if there's any displacement of sweetgrass basket stands. But that is holding on to your roots and I think any town that does that. You know, if you heard me talk last year, the whole theme of my state of the town but the whole theme of the podcast I did too was there's this thing that's called the placemaking dividend and many people decide where to live because they went on vacation there. You know that happens here all the time.
Speaker 1:I see that everywhere. We were there on vacation last year when can I get a house now?
Speaker 2:But you know, for years and years, anything cool, new, different economic development that happened. It happened out in a business park, it happened out in some new office complex. The theme of this seminar I went to is Main Street is cool again. Everybody wants a Main Street, everybody wants a town, everybody wants to belong somewhere. And that's our challenge because, you know, at one time we were the fastest growing municipality east of the Mississippi and we were beginning to lose the feel of the town of Mount Pleasant that's. That's a long answer for why did I run answer and as long as I'm mayor.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm gonna.
Speaker 3:That's what I'm gonna represent well, I appreciate you um mentioning how important it is to remember our roots.
Speaker 3:And yet, as mayor, you've also been so instrumental in bringing to the forefront things like embracing neurodiversity with our citizens and our businesses, making them aware that they can serve people who are neurodiverse and how to educate them to do that through Just Be, our partnership with Just Be and Layla Luna and the town and the chamber. It shows that you're willing to be progressive as well, that, yes, our roots are important. However, times are a-changing, just like not having the Grace Bridge anymore, which I'm very grateful because I used to pray before.
Speaker 1:I would get on there with my three children strapped in that it would get me over to Charleston.
Speaker 3:I was thrilled to have the Ravenel come around. So thank you for doing that and I also want to touch on your comment about Main Street is popular again. There's so many folks that moved to Mount Pleasant who had another career, another business and they've come here and they understand the acceptance and how much the town supports new business.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:So it encourages them to start their own business, something about the next best phase of their life. I hear that a lot about boomers next best phase of our lives.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:And so tell me why that's important, as mayor, that we do embrace and support these new businesses that come to town.
Speaker 2:Sure, one of the statistics that I, you know, tried to load up in my short-term memory is we have an average household income in Mount Pleasant of $164,000. So we are a retailers and small business dream. And you know, kathy, from being with Town Center, the, the scale, the what's, where I want to say not the scale of, but the whole scenario of big-box retail is changing. It doesn't mean it's going away, but it's changing a lot and what's the statistic?
Speaker 2:I saw 80-something. 90% of businesses in America are small businesses. But one of the things, rebecca, that you're talking about is we can either be a whole vibrant community with people opening businesses, employing people, having family members come back and work in the family business which is something we will get to about affordability or we can just be a resort where people are done, working, done, producing, done, innovating and enjoying life, because there's a lot of quality of life to enjoy here. But you know you, basically you know you got your tea time and when you're going out to eat. But it's good, rebecca, that people are coming here and saying I'm not done, I'm going to start a business or whatever. So we've got a new economic development, strategic economic development plan for the town of Mount Pleasant. I'm on the one region roadmap commission that did one for the whole area. We hired the same consultant to help us write the one for the town, because you know we're not going to out-rec what the charleston regional development alliance is able to do. We're not able to travel to trade shows in france and germany and asia and all that they do. But we can do.
Speaker 2:What we have just done is the harbor entrepreneur center. We we got that to mount pleasant. The town put up money to get them to come here. They are the lead agent for the sectors of the impact area of our economy in this region IT, life sciences or bio, architectural engineering, marketing and publishing and finance. We don't have rail in Mount Pleasant so we're not going to get industry. You know, boeing and Volvo and Mercedes are in North Charleston, in the North area. But we'll get the things like like Moondog, who just announced they're investing more money, and I've and I've got it right here. They are going to Ben Davis, the CEO. They're an animation immersive experience producer. I don't know what an immersive. I know what animation is because I love cartoons. But they're at the Harbor Entrepreneur Center and there's proof that if we just gave that in Mount Pleasant, if we fan that flame of local entrepreneurship and tech oriented, finance oriented, engineering oriented businesses, we can do that in Mount Pleasant and I'm glad to see it's happening. You know it there. That's amazing.
Speaker 3:So yeah, another, um, what I so much appreciate about being a citizen of mount pleasant. Um, I've known you and I've known previous mayors as well through my volunteer wisdom and education and, even though the town does not run the school district, we completely understand that the town is so supportive of educating our children in this area and you're always willing to listen and figure out how you can support the schools. And we have, as we know, some of the best schools in the state right here and I think in part, in great part, it goes to the support of the town of Mount Pleasant. So thank you for doing that, thank you.
Speaker 3:As well as looking at affordable housing. I sat on the first task force on affordable housing under Tomasina.
Speaker 1:Oh, did you Stokes Marshall loved her, missed her dearly.
Speaker 3:You could never say no to Tomasina.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 3:If she asked you to do something it's like all right, I will make time in my schedule when you want to meet. Yeah, and so thank you as well for the talent taking that and moving forward and taking that and moving forward, thanks.
Speaker 2:Well, when you look at regional issues, I made a list here. This is right off of the one region roadmap. I get tongue-tied there. One region roadmap Affordability is number one, because it doesn't do any good to recruit businesses to our area if they cannot find people to work. You know who knows where it's going from here, but in a recent month the average home sale price of the closures for that month in Mount Pleasant this was within the last six months was right around $900,000. How many young people with a family who are working a tech job, no matter what level of education, training or experience they have, are going to be able to afford that? And then I saw you know I'm not gonna, you know I'm not calling out one but there's an old, old apartment complex that many of us who cycle through our young, uh lives in this town might have rented an apartment there.
Speaker 2:so this is not the newest and the best, but it's been remodeled one bedroom, one bath, one thousand seven hundred and seventy five dollars a month, so affordability is huge. We're working I'm on two affordable housing task forces right now and in that Commission you were own has turned into housing for all Mount Pleasant, which is a standalone nonprofit. But we have got to address affordability and I said this at the chamber back in February and I'll say it again today. The thing that I go to bed sad about at night as mayor is that when I see young people and people in college and people graduating from high school, the chance of them being able to afford to live in their own hometown in the next 10 years out of high school is very slim and that's heartbreaking.
Speaker 1:So how do you? I mean, how do you, how do you fit? You can't just take the town that's got an average house of 900,000 and then go. Okay, well, you know, we're only going to charge $500 for that apartment.
Speaker 2:I mean, how does it?
Speaker 1:and I'm not, I'm just being naive, I guess. I mean how does that? How do you do it?
Speaker 2:Three prongs. You look for ways to have attainable housing, and affordable is out now, and workforce housing is out because that has a bad, you know, connotation. It's not subsidized, it is income restricted to, based on a percentage of the area median income of the AMI. And so you get the private sector and our. Our first, you know, proof of point was Gregory Ferry and Tony Berry did that and and it fits exactly what attainable housing is supposed to do young professionals, I mean almost overnight, right.
Speaker 2:And so the same people are working on getting another one approved. That would be a hundred. That was only 38. So, gosh, 138, we have 42,000 residences. And what good does that do?
Speaker 2:So, attainable housing and I've always said and I recently went to a reception with Jamie Diamond, who's the head of the largest bank in the world, of Chase, jpmorgan Chase he came and wanted to meet with local mayors and I said I've always wanted to have a face-to-face with a financial genius. And here's one. They are the largest bank in the world and they move $10 trillion of money every day in some form or the other $10 trillion. And I said, if you can help us unlock attainable housing through, you know, if we have the housing market that we have if we can find ways that young families can afford to get it, you can't change the price, but maybe, maybe, like a housing trust fund or something like that, that loans, borrows, people pay back all of that type stuff. And the third prong is job development Get the kind of jobs where you can afford to live in this town. So those three things are what we're going to have to do.
Speaker 3:Well, it sounds like with the Entrepreneurial Center that's part of that number three to get more IT in this area which I'm so glad to see happen, because clearly that's what we need.
Speaker 2:And the great thing about IT is that they can expand. I'll say tomorrow they don't have to go buy land, build a factory. You know Berkeley County has got all these things coming in. Somebody joked and said South Carolina has gone from being the Bible Belt to the battery belt, because every new thing we get you know the big one Scout up in Columbia, $1.4 billion, and the one in Berkeley County, redwood, who has to do with car batteries and stuff that's going to be $3 billion of economic investment.
Speaker 1:But we need those businesses too.
Speaker 2:Yes, we need those, but we can't get those in Mount Pleasant, but those take years. But when a tech company expands whatever, they can basically be up and going very quickly, and so that's where we can benefit from this, and you don't have to find a site and get approvals and do wetlands mitigation. You just get more people doing technology.
Speaker 1:I'm going to change the subject for just one second because something just popped in my head. Mayor, if you don't mind, I just read something about more. There was more land that we what's the word Conservation. That's it. There was one that was just approved, and then I heard you say you want to do more.
Speaker 2:Did I read that right? Oh yeah, okay, I used to run the Low Country Land Trust.
Speaker 1:I was the executive director for almost a decade, and that's just as important on maintaining the town to be as beautiful and welcoming as it is, is to make sure that we keep certain parts of the land underdeveloped correct.
Speaker 2:Yes, and we're working to try to get another track right now under conservation easement. That was a big one, I think the one you're talking to that was announced like late January or early February down down the coast.
Speaker 2:But when I worked at the land trust and would go every year to the National Land Trust Convention, there was no more partnership better than what we have in the low country, because they don't compete. You know ducks and limited nature conservancy, low country land trust we used to have East Cooper but it is now part of Low Country Land Trust. And if you live in Mount Pleasant, here's another thing Boone Hall is not in the town but the Low Country it is not in the town of Mount Pleasant but it's right in the middle. If that had gotten developed, can you imagine the nightmare it would have?
Speaker 1:been and you live next door to it and I live next door to it and one of the reasons why I brought this up and I found so important again. I've been here only eight years, but one of the first things that I said, oh my God. I said, look at this. And I went and visited it and it's actually one of my favorite places in town to go. I go numerous times a year and I said could you? I said in New York everything would have been ripped down.
Speaker 1:And it would have been a high rise you know, that's just you know, and I'm like I wonder if anything will ever happen here. And then, shortly after, I heard that it was not and I just again, being a resident here and loving this town, that means a lot to me, Right? Good. You know not just because of traffic, but because of the history, like we were talking about before, we can't take everything out of the town.
Speaker 2:No, you can't take everything out of the town. No, and you didn't know that I had brought this with me. But, um, there is a survey nationwide that green space in the proximity of a residential neighborhood increases values by 30 percent. For just what you're saying, you want to always know and you know the ace basin, which is basically from the end of charlest County down to Beaufort all of that is named one of the 50 last great places on earth because it's all been. When I was at the land trust from 2003 to through 2009,. That was the main thrust was to get all of that as much as we could conserve, so it'll never be developed. You won't see golf courses and stuff down there. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could get that done from here to Georgetown as well, on the other side of the Francis Marin Forest? That would be wonderful. Wow, that's amazing, yeah.
Speaker 3:And I'm so glad that the town has really taken an active design approach to making this a more walkable, livable community. My husband's a big cyclist so I just cringe every time he leaves and goes out. So the more parks and green space we have, I mean, that's just better for all of our citizens and we keep cars off the road.
Speaker 2:We do, and not only that is the big word now sustainability and resiliency. If you live on the coast now and this is just you were talking earlier about how long I've been doing this when I came on council nine years ago, there was some talk about drainage and stuff. But now, with the increased number of the high tides and the flooding incidents and stuff that we have, if you don't have a resiliency plan, your bond rating as a municipality gets docked. And we just did that $50 million bond issue as part of the recreation referendum and we had to show them our resiliency plan, that we now have a standing flood resiliency committee, which is a result of the Dutch dialogues in Charleston that Mayor Tecklenburg invited me to participate in and brought that idea back from there. And now we have that Citizens Green Commission made up of people credentialed people who deal with resiliency plans. We have somebody in Mount Pleasant that works all over the country doing climate resilience plans and I had never met her. It's amazing. And she works all over the country doing this and she's on there. Jim Westerhold from Boone Hall is on there, but not only is it pleasant and all that, but green space is part of your resiliency.
Speaker 2:You need that. You need the surface that absorbs water and slows water down. One acre of wetlands will hold 1.5 million gallons of water. Acre of wetlands will hold 1.5 million gallons of water. So whenever you see something about filling in wetlands, and yes, it's mitigated.
Speaker 2:A lot of what's conserved around the low country is a result of Boeing, because it was built in wetlands but mitigation money went into a bank and that money was used to preserve other wetlands. But one and a half million gallons of water goes somewhere for every acre of wetlands. It's got. A half million gallons of water goes somewhere for every acre of wetlands. It's got to go somewhere. So it's just something to think about. We had the head of the State Flood Waters Commission who is a big fan of Mount Pleasant. Tom Mulliken is his name. He's also the guy that does South Carolina 7. You'll see us doing the Mayor's Bridge Walk as part of that and the excursion out to Bulls Island and everything. Well, he's got a resiliency conference at the Isle of Palms in April and he asked Mount Pleasant to make a presentation because he considers Mount Pleasant the leader in the state for all things resiliency and green space and all that.
Speaker 1:That sounds like you'd be very proud of we're very proud of that we really are. And back to when you attended our meeting back in February. Another thing I was very interested in is when you mentioned the two questions you get asked about most. Yes, Traffic, Traffic and development. And of course they're tied in together.
Speaker 2:They are tied in together.
Speaker 1:So for those who weren't at that meeting, what? Can you tell us about it.
Speaker 2:I have always maintained that nobody that lives here would know how many new people were moving in every day or notice, if it weren't for the traffic right, maybe the schools, but that number is watched closely and all that Well, having to build another high school, having to build another high school and all the cottages on campus with the new school, the trailers, so you notice it there.
Speaker 2:So it's not the fact that we grow or people move in. It's the effect of that and traffic. I live near the foot of the Ravenel Bridge and some days I just sit there and watch in the morning everybody leaving town that's got the high paying jobs in other places and the people coming in. Everybody swaps positions and it's about the same amount of traffic going in each direction and so there's we're not going to pave our way out of this, and I saw a nationwide poll the other day that 80 percent of Americans do not think paving more roads is the answer. Managing your traffic is the answer, and so we did a study. Stantec did it for us. It's all digital. It's fascinating. You can go to our website and look for it. It's called this bothers me because it's called the Mobility Action Plan, which I think. That's like getting me out of my chair and doing more steps today.
Speaker 2:This is really about how we get traffic in and out of Mount Pleasant and move it and it shows where the flashpoints are. It shows where traffic slows down. Could you all guess? Maybe you remember from my talk. Could you guess how many cars a day use the Ravenel?
Speaker 1:Bridge.
Speaker 2:Dadgummit I000 and then it shows where it splits off and the traffic patterns have changed in the last five years because now a whole bunch are getting off on the mathis ferry but it shows us how many continue all the way up Johnny Dodds or 17 North, and so we are working on one having a fast response team. We're going to roll out two new vehicles and I am pushing to have a naming contest to have those vehicles named because we could have fun with that.
Speaker 2:And do you all remember when they did that in England for a new marine rescue boat? Yeah, Brian remembers it.
Speaker 1:You know what name was. No, what was it?
Speaker 2:Boaty McBoatface. Oh okay.
Speaker 1:We could do much better than that. Here I was going to say that one won.
Speaker 2:And since.
Speaker 3:Mount.
Speaker 2:Pleasant used to be known as Hungry Neck and we still have. You know, there's Hungry Neck Soccer and Hungry Neck Boulevard and all that.
Speaker 3:I think hungry wreck something might be good for one of them. I can't. That's mine. Nobody does this with the cranes.
Speaker 2:So so that'll be something. But what we, what we know, is that the average response time is a few minutes, but for every one minute that traffic is stalled, it takes six minutes for it to get back to normal. So if you've ever been coming in over the bridge and there's just a fender bender and traffic is backed up for 20 minutes, for 20 minutes do that times six. That's how long it's going to take traffic to get back to normal. So these things, they'll have those air jacks. They can push the cars off. They don't tow, because that's a whole different legal realm, but they get them off the road, they clean the road off. They can do. They can do things that a regular police car can't do. One's going to be stationed at Bowman Road and the other's going to be stationed at Highway 41, and it'll be ready every day during rush hour.
Speaker 1:You need one at Highway 41.
Speaker 2:And so you know, and I want, I know, and I want to have the name. I don't care what we name it, but it just sounds better than you know. Mount Pleasant is timer traffic. Incident management is emergency responses on the scene. No, we want to have, like you know, freddie Bob is there, you know, whatever it is, and then you can look at the map and there'll be the little light.
Speaker 2:Look who's? You know we're here, we're here to help and all that. And the other is the signaling. We know that the signaling of our lights, those get out of sync sometimes and our staff knows that and we're doing everything from this study to try to keep that traffic flowing. But that's a quality of life issue. The time that you're sitting in traffic, you're not home with your family, you're not picking up your child from practice or lessons in time. So we want to fix that.
Speaker 1:And what about development?
Speaker 2:Development. Well, this goes back to my first term, back when I was a freshman mayor. We did a building permit allocation system and we just renewed that it only sets the maximum limit because we know what limit we can grow with. You can't play around with things like permitting without there being a clearly stated and measurable objective. Clearly stated and measurable objective and ours was when we studied Mount Pleasant if we grow at more than 2%, we start clogging up our schools, our drains, our recreation and our roads. So we will never grow more than 2%. So we've got that in place. The other things we have done is we've lowered densities, we've lowered building heights and we are. We are always tweaking a little bit our designs because I said back in my first term, if I see one more four-story flat roof building go up in Mount Pleasant, we want an interesting skyline in Mount Pleasant. But you can. You know, still there's only two places. You can do 80 feet. 80 feet is the height of the buildings when you come in into Mount Pleasant.
Speaker 2:The parking garage that sticks over the bridge that was a miscalculation feet is the height of the buildings when you come in into Mount Pleasant. The parking garage that sticks over the bridge. That was a miscalculation. It was the height. They were supposed to be below the bridge. They did the right height. I'm not saying they're in violation, but the height was wrong because they thought the bridge was going to be higher, because it would be nice to look across Patriots Point and see Charleston Harbor. Now you see a parking garage. Across Patriots Point and see Charleston Harbor Now you see a parking garage.
Speaker 1:You sure do, but I've got an idea on how we can work together. Can we spray paint the pool or something? I think it would be a great place for a mural, it would be a great place for a mural.
Speaker 2:If they are interested. It's privately owned. The town doesn't own it. There is no paid parking run by the town of Mount Pleasant. All that Shem Creek parking. We don't run that. We don't own that. The town has no parking revenue at all.
Speaker 1:Well, he's at this town center, by the way. That's why I think people love one of the reasons why people love we have adequate parking and no, and we're going to have the beach shuttle again.
Speaker 2:That was announced not too long ago and the town of Mount Pleasant and the city of the Isle of Palms fund it free and it's out of town center and thank you all for that. That's a great service to our town. We had a 90-something percent increase in ridership last year. I know.
Speaker 1:I mean I took it once. I don't like traffic right. Or I don't like driving in traffic, right. If I'm sitting on a shuttle bus with my book, I'm fine, right, and then not having to worry about where to park. How much am I going to pay for it? Will my car be there when I get back? And I just got to enjoy the day at the beach and get on the shuttle and come right back.
Speaker 2:And that having been said, we are in our third year now of a very focused partnership between the county, the town of Mount Pleasant, isle of Palms, sullivan's Island and the city of Charleston and Folly Beach. But they have a different beach issue but ours is if traffic stalls getting onto the Isle of Palms or Sullivan's Island, it backs up into Mount Pleasant. So we have this partnership now, we have a media partner and all of that stuff. We had 16 million hits on the page over the last three or four years. But all of that is to keep traffic moving on beach Saturdays because, as our population in the Tri-County region approaches a million, those beaches and the number of parking are no bigger than they were when I was a teenager here and you didn't have to think about when to go to the beach, you just drove. Now you've got to plan it because traffic backs up, and so we have pre-positioned units there.
Speaker 2:Again, the town has a different sequence of lights for beach traffic that's than the normal, like if you go out and it's a monday, the lights are going to be different, because on saturdays and sundays it's to move traffic on and off the beach and it's a great partnership. We have this big luncheon meeting once a year and and we all go over it, we go over the numbers and it's one of the best partnerships I've ever been a part of and it makes life better for our citizens. That's what you got to do every day in this job. Wake up and say how can I make life better today?
Speaker 3:and the partnership that the town has with Florida is so important, because we've talked about having companies here that are IT. So, a lot of folks can work remotely in IT, but we have such a strong food and beverage hospitality sector in the town. As you know, every year we have a Dine when you Live campaign and we can eat at some fabulous restaurants, have wonderful cuisine. Never leave Mount Pleasant, but the workers have to get over here. They don't all live over here.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 3:So I love the fact that we have Carta and talk about your relationship with Carta, the fact we have town council that serves on Carta, I serve on Carta, you serve on Carta, I do. I don't know when you have time to sleep, mr Mayor. I serve on Cardass, I do. I don't know when you have time to sleep, mr Mayor, I serve on it.
Speaker 2:And one council member? I don't. And did I tell you this is part-time right? This is a part-time job yes.
Speaker 2:And I sit on the airport board and I sit on the corridor board and I sit on the Charleston Regional Development Alliance board and I sit on the Patriots Point board and Mount Pleasant Water Works and the Medal of Honor Leadership Center and try to be mayor and try to do it part time. So I'm not saying I get it all done, but I do it willingly and it's it's the leadership privilege of my life to do this. I love doing it but it is a lot. But they asked me a few years ago, especially with the bus rapid transit coming up, if I would, instead of sending two council members, they want some mayor presence on there. So I have always had a council member that goes with me and I usually get one of the newer council members to go because it's great exposure to sort of get your head out of just Mount Pleasant and see what the region and how we're a player in the region and the region affects us. But one of the hardest things at CARTA is that that route, which is Route 41, has nothing to do with Highway 41, but the bus route by Shem Creek, where all those restaurants are, is one of the least used ones in all of Carta and our per rider cost is over $10. Yeah, and you compare that to the most ridden route, which is down by the medical district, and the ridership cost is extremely low.
Speaker 2:Now, carta is not in the business of making money. It's there to be part of our, you know, transportation infrastructure, but that's one that we have always tried to figure out. We are trying to figure out how we could have a collector come from North Charleston, come to y'all, come to Town Center and bring people, and then the silver chalet in transit is the last mile Y'all probably know this from where y'all have to locate and all People might can get to Mount Pleasant, but can they get that last mile to the door where they work? And that's the hard part in mount pleasant right now? Yeah, you can get to mount pleasant, but can you get to where you need to be done to go to work?
Speaker 1:well, I know we have two. We have two carter stops at town center yeah, we're very lucky for that yeah, so I know quite a few different routes. Right, that stop there.
Speaker 2:Right, it's the 40 on the northern end of town and 41 on the lower side of town and we have more ridership up on the northern end of town than we do the lower end of town. Never been able to figure that out. But but another thing, that's a big. That's a big problem and one we might have a solution. Not a solution, but at least something that helps with is everybody knows parking in the shim creek area. You ever tried to park down there on a on a saturday?
Speaker 2:night or friday night locals don't go to shim creek a lot on fridays because it's just so. We're trying to figure out if we could work with carta or another system to have, like on fridays and saturdays, a little transportation loop where you could park somewhere like waterfront where there's ample parking, and catch on a nice bus and go down there and not have to worry about finding parking. That'd be great.
Speaker 1:Wow. Yes, I'm also always afraid I'm going to get towed because I don't know, there's some free parking and then there's some paid parking and then it's only paid parking free at lunch, but then you have to pay for dinner and then I wonder if I park somewhere I'm not supposed to be? Are there binoculars outside? The restaurant watching me go to, not their restaurant, and is my car going to be there when I get in?
Speaker 2:And it's sad we have that great boardwalk park. That if I told anybody, if you want to get the feel of Mount Pleasant, go walk that, see the shrimp boat Shrimping entertainment. You know it's funny and it's not funny, but years ago Chim Creek was a shrimping creek with a drinking problem.
Speaker 1:Now it's a drinking creek with a shrimping problem.
Speaker 2:And that tussle between entertainment and shrimping. We're dedicated to keeping a working waterfront there. We bought the Wando dock. We're getting ready to put a million five in to upgrade it and and just fix that dock is falling apart. But as long as the current council and I are in office, we are going to keep a shrimping fleet going.
Speaker 1:Well, after Boone Hall, shem Creek is my second favorite place in town. Good, I mean just, it doesn't matter what time of year winter, summer, spring fall. You're just going down there watching the sunset, the dolphins. There's nothing like having a drink at.
Speaker 2:Soul Water.
Speaker 1:Cowboys and looking over, and there are the dolphins frolicking. Where else do you get?
Speaker 3:that and I say I live here Local shrimp. I went on a shrimp boat with Wayne Magwood before.
Speaker 1:Did you? Yes, I did.
Speaker 3:And I left at 4 o'clock in the morning got back at four o'clock in the afternoon. Wow, it was the most fun miserable day of my life because I got quite seasick.
Speaker 2:Could you imagine working that every day?
Speaker 3:No, I left that experience and I went we really should pay more for our shrimp, I know. I really had no idea, and it tastes different. I don't know why, but it's much more flavorful and has a sweetness to it. You don't need butter with it.
Speaker 2:It's amazing. I love our local shrimp, that's awesome. Insist on local shrimp.
Speaker 1:Well now that we're talking about some fun stuff like our shrimp cake we have some fun questions for you, mayor if you don't mind, yeah let's go. Okay, all right, it's nothing too bad. It's not like waffles or pancakes or anything.
Speaker 2:Oh man Okay.
Speaker 1:What's the answer to that question?
Speaker 2:Huh, waffles or pancakes, waffles, okay.
Speaker 1:Can you share your favorite secret hidden gem in Mount Pleasant?
Speaker 2:I know you might not want to because then everyone's going to go to it. But you know how? About your second favorite? You?
Speaker 1:can keep your favorite to yourself. And by hidden you mean really hidden? Well, no, just like a place that maybe not many people know about that you love Palmetto Fort, the trail and the observation tower in the six-mile area. Oh, there it is.
Speaker 3:We've got a sign there.
Speaker 2:I'm going to write that down Palmetto Fort and there's a neighborhood it's right by Oyster Point but there's a gravel parking lot and you go there and then you climb up in the tower and you look out and you're looking at Isle of Palms and Dewey's and Capers and Bull's Island and a lot of people don't. Everybody knows about Pitt Street Bridge and Shem Creek and Waterfront Park. Very few people know how great Palmetto Fort is. Well, I had absolutely no idea there was something called Palmetto Fort. Like I said earlier, I learn something from you every time I speak to you.
Speaker 3:And if we had a town mascot, what would you like it to be? What are your thoughts on?
Speaker 2:that you know everything's sweetgrass, that you know we are everything sweet grass and so we we're sort of. You know, even the colors in the chambers of of town hall are, of council chambers are to match sweet grass colors and if you look you can, you can see it. But, um, but that's not a mascot. You know you can't have a basket as your mascot and I think years ago they got somebody in a crab costume to be the crab, because it's seafood and it's local, because a shrimp costume would be a little bit freaky. But I think it would be a mascot, would be something like a crab and then we can have we'd have a contest.
Speaker 1:I love the naming crab and remember we do have in in.
Speaker 2:Council. Member gm whitley was the brains behind this. We have those oyster shells art on the hash.
Speaker 1:We have two at town center.
Speaker 2:We love them those are wonderful and I and I love that, and those around communities I know I used to live in hendersonville up in the mountains and theirs are bears and we have oyster shells and other communities have other things. But I think if we had like at the blessing of the fleet and the christ parade, if we had the, the crab, I think it would be wonderful.
Speaker 1:I think we need to do that. Yeah, so if you could have any celebrity, santa Claus, if you could have any celebrity, serve as mayor for a day. Who would you choose? Whoa, and it doesn't have to be a local celebrity. I guess anybody you would like gosh, that's.
Speaker 2:That is a tough one. I would probably say Clint Eastwood see Clint. You know I'm trying to do this, clint, can't you see him?
Speaker 1:he wouldn't take any crap from anybody in this town.
Speaker 2:He was the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea in California.
Speaker 1:That's right, I forgot about that.
Speaker 2:I would like for Clint to come and run Mount Pleasant for a day.
Speaker 1:A day? Yeah, I think that would be cool. You think it's day, huh, you think else.
Speaker 2:you say I love this place, I love it here, I'm not leaving.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's great, that's great.
Speaker 3:We've talked a little bit about the history of the town and your experience, but if you could attend a historical event, go back in town, okay, one time what would you do?
Speaker 2:The one I mentioned earlier would be when they opened the Grace Bridge, because that's. But there's another one. That's the one for just the impact that we're still still feeling.
Speaker 2:The historical moment to see is if you stood at hadrell's point, where, during the battle of sullivan's island and now carolina day um, which was june 28th before, july 4th of 1776, one of the ships, I think it was the arcadia came over towards mount pleasant and they got it with with coastal artillery and set it on fire and it burned and sank and that was right there and I would think, wow, that that would be a moment to see well, yeah, our side's winning.
Speaker 1:I don't want to see any other boats burn and sink. No, but that's amazing that would be incredible.
Speaker 2:That would be incredible especially the skyline, and how everything looked back in those days, just yeah, just how amazing that was, because they came down this way to try to fire, you know, from the side towards the fort, because it was the fortress, was facing the harbor and they thought, if they came and they ran aground and the tide went out and people run aground there all the time, now it's probably right where Crab Bank is now. Oh, wow, yeah, there was no Crab crab bank. The crab bank is man-made, by the way.
Speaker 3:The whole. Thing. Okay, yeah, never used to be a bank there.
Speaker 1:The historical event.
Speaker 3:I attended was when the Hunley was oh wow, and I took my boys with me. We're on the Yorktown and it was hot, you remember that day or not. Well, I didn't live here then, but I watched it on CNN, so my mother watched it on CNN and she could see everything and I couldn't see anything. Oh my gosh. And my boys were like why are we here? I'm like because it's history. It is history.
Speaker 1:And you can say that you were here.
Speaker 3:And I had a picture and they were there.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's great. Well, my favorite story about that and I hear, though my mom always told me I got to see- the astronauts.
Speaker 2:I'm going to age myself.
Speaker 1:Astronauts landed on the moon. Oh yeah, I was a baby, but I was put in my bassinet right in front of the television. Good for you. So my mother could tell me that I watched the first steps, wow.
Speaker 3:I love it.
Speaker 1:That's something I'll never forget. I always say, I was there. I remember when that happened. That's amazing, but of course I age backwards, so I'm not that old anymore. You're Benjamin Button's sister, we got one more for you, okay, okay, the weirdest or most interesting piece of trivia about our town that people don't know.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, that's one I didn't. That's the last one on the list, I would say it's about our town. It didn't happen in our town. But the mayor of Charleston, for whom the Grace Bridge, the old two-lane bridge that you saw your life pass before your eyes said of Mount Pleasant that it is neither a mountain nor is it pleasant. Oh, that is fantastic, and you notice we tore down the Grace Bridge, so that's kind of that's a piece of trivia. Yeah, he said it is neither a mountain nor is it pleasant.
Speaker 1:Oh, that is fantastic. Now, every time I think about it, I'm just going to laugh. Yeah, oh, that's great. Is there anything else you'd like to share with our listeners? Mayor before we let you go. We know you're a busy man.
Speaker 2:I would say we live in the best town in America. I love it. And somebody that was running for council said what's the most important thing to remember? I said if you love the people of Mount Pleasant, everything else falls into place.
Speaker 1:So hold me to that, and I try to do that every day. That's amazing, rebecca, do you have anything else for the mayor before we go?
Speaker 3:no, thank you so much for everything that you do to make this such a wonderful community to live in and I never want to leave. Thank you so much well, everyone keeps.
Speaker 1:You know, I keep getting letters in my mailbox every five minutes to sell my house.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And my husband just looks at me. I go no.
Speaker 2:I said I am never ever leaving Right and and I thank you for a lot of that.
Speaker 1:Mayor, because I was here right before you became mayor, Wow and that I've been extremely pleased with the way the town has grown and the way it's been managed. Because you know, I still want to go out to really nice restaurants, right.
Speaker 3:But live in a little small town, exactly. So I think you're doing an amazing job. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Especially with our local businesses, which are, of course, the the basis of the of the chamber and its success. So thank you for that.
Speaker 3:And thank you for spending your very busy part-time schedule with us today. We took up a lot of your part-time hours today, didn't we?
Speaker 1:but we're worth it. Yes, you are. Yeah, we're worth it. Thank you. So, um, and before we leave, we're going to thank again our sponsors, the charleston radio group amazing to work with brian cleary's here with us at all of our recordings a great. If you want to be a sponsor or a guest on our podcast, please reach out to Rebecca Imholz and be sure to like and subscribe us on all of our media channels. We are on Spotify, itunes, youtube, instagram, facebook and LinkedIn. I'm going to make you a super star, you see that on all those channels Okay.
Speaker 1:So thank you for being with us today. Until next time, Mount Ple today. Until next time, Mount Pleasant, Until next time listeners.