The efforts to improve conditions on Charleston's East Side are so broad I decided to split the story into two blogs to better convey the big, beautiful picture. This is an exciting time to live in Charleston!
"As new housing projects and new commercial spaces open up on the East Side, more residents and visitors will seek the area and the city has been setting up mechanisms to curtail crime, said Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen.
'There’s a theory out there called ‘broken windows’' Mullen said. 'If you live in an environment that appears to people from outside that you don’t care about it, that kind of gives people incentive to go in and do bad things. I think anytime you can renew sidewalks, put up lighting, and refresh segments of the area, all of that is a benefit in fighting crime.'
East Side residents will get new sidewalks and a whole lot more by spring. The city plans an extension of the bicycle and pedestrian path off the Ravenel bridge onto East Bay Street extending to Charlotte Street.
The 12-foot-wide path will include trees, benches, a drinking fountain and a new fence screening the railroad along the SPA’s property. The project will cost slightly more than $1 million, with $500,000 coming from the S.C. Department of Transportation and the balance from the city.
Steve Livingston, director of the city’s Department of Parks, said construction of the path will begin this fall. He believes the Ravenel bridge, which attracts throngs of people every day to bike, walk or run its pedestrian lane, has been a catalyst for redevelopment on the East Side.
'I think it’s shown the power of what a pedestrian connection like that can do to a community,' Livingston said. 'There should not be a bridge built that doesn’t have that and we should retrofit every one that we have.'"
For the full Charleston Regional Business Journal article: http://www.charlestonbusiness.com/pub/13_14/news/9775-1.html
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