Genteel S.C. port city balances tourism with quality of life

/Home/Articles about Charleston

Genteel S.C. port city balances tourism with quality of life
March 29, 2010
by Laura Bly
Canada.com

CHARLESTON, S.C. - The "congenitally gracious" residents of the historic port city of Charleston, S.C., also possess the "siege mentality of islanders" and a "scriptural belief that they are simply superior to other people of the earth." So writes best-selling author and frequent visitor Pat Conroy.

And as the grande dame of the South primps for the annual profusion of blossoms and winter-weary tourists (the Historic Charleston Foundation’s spring home-and-garden tour runs through April 17), a long-standing debate over the fragile equilibrium of hospitality, preservation and quality of life is heating up.

Among recent flashpoints: Carnival Cruise Line’s launch of year-round sailings from Charleston on May 18, preceded by Celebrity Cruises’ decision to base some Caribbean sailings from the port from February through mid-April. The moves have prompted the Charleston-based South Carolina Coastal Conservation League to warn of pollution, increased traffic and "hit and run" tourism.

All this is high on the agenda of a new civic task force addressing development in the city of 120,000 -- including a relocated cruise terminal and increased visitor access to the waterfront.

Founded in 1670 and notable for its concentration of exquisitely restored Georgian, Federal and Greek Revival mansions -- most famously in the square-mile neighborhood known as South of Broad (Street) -- Charleston claims to be the first U.S. city to enact a tourism ordinance, in 1984.

Designed to "protect and promote the aesthetic charm of the city and the quality of life for its residents" and updated in 1994 and 1998, the regulations manage the number of buses and carriages allowed to tour within the historic district, allow no more than 20 participants in organized walking tours, and license all tour guides. Also on the books: a ban on hotel construction along the Charleston Harbor.

"One of the reasons the city is so successful (as a destination) is because we’ve always worked very hard on this delicate balance," says Mayor Joseph Riley, whose 35-year term makes him one of the USA’s longest-serving mayors. He says this year’s anticipated 67 cruise-ship port calls and 110,000 passengers -- out of an annual visitor count of about 4 million -- will be "perfectly digestible," particularly since both the existing terminal and its proposed replacement allow for embarking passengers on only one "modest-sized" ship at a time.

Despite the steady clip-clop of horse-drawn carriages and cruise passengers browsing for sweet-grass baskets at the newly renovated City Market, the place Conroy once called "a town so pretty it makes your eyes ache with pleasure just to walk down its narrow, spellbinding streets" is no Colonial Williamsburg.

"Charleston, as rigid as it can be, is also a city of great surprises," Conroy says, from its flourishing arts and literary scene to a roster of restaurants that have moved far beyond shrimp and grits.

And despite a flurry of "For Sale" signs on South of Broad manses, many posted by out-of-state owners who have watched their net worths wilt faster than a debutante’s hairdo on an August afternoon, "Charleston is and always has been a living, breathing place," says neighborhood activist Charles Rhoden.

"It’s not a theme park, and we never want it to become one."