Geraldine Campbell
October 2007 issue
Tuesday, September 18, 2007;

1. Modell city
The first Charles Towne was established in 1670 across the river from the city's current location, which was designed according to an elaborate, somewhat utopian plan referred to as the Grand Modell. It called for 70-foot-wide main streets and a town center at the intersection of Meeting and Broad. The Original Charleston Walks leads daily tours through the historic area. 45 Broad St., 800/729-3420, charlestonwalks.com, from $18.50.

2. Greenery worth envying
Grassy public spaces abound in Charleston: White Point Garden overlooks the harbor and the city's Battery Park homes (2 Murray Blvd.); Marion Square hosts Thursday night movies in the spring (Calhoun St. and King St.); Waterfront Park has views of the Cooper River and a pier (1 Vendue Range). Ted's Butcherblock sells everything you need for a picnic: potato salads, paninis, and macaroni and cheese with gouda (334 E. Bay St., 843/577-0094, tedsbutcherblock.com).

3. Not your grandma's fried chicken
In a tiny yellow 18th-century house on Pinckney Street, the two-room Cru Café is the perfect retreat from the bustle of downtown. Diners can sit at small banquettes or at a bar-cum-chef's table facing the open kitchen where chef John Zucker cooks his upscale comfort food. The poblano-and-mozzarella fried chicken with a honey-chipotle salsa is a definite must. 18 Pinckney St., 843/534-2434, crucafe.com, entrées from $14.

4. Southern hospitality
Charleston has plenty of grand hotels, but the rooms at the Market Pavilion Hotel come with a gentler price tag; some even have views of the Old City Market, where women have been weaving sweetgrass baskets since 1841 (225 E. Bay St., 877/440-2250, marketpavilion.com, from $229). The vistas from the Roof Top Bar & Restaurant at the Vendue Inn are also spectacular--and the beers are $3. The interior queen rooms, a mix of French provincial and American colonial decor, are a good deal at $139 per night (19 Vendue Range, 843/577-7970, vendueinn.com).

5. A spot of tea
Bigelow Tea got its start in 1945 because Ruth Bigelow was looking for a little more zest in her morning cup. At the company's Charleston Tea Plantation, the only commercial tea farm in the continental U.S., visitors can follow the production process from raw leaf to finished tea bag. 6617 Maybank Hwy., 843/559-0383, charlestonteaplantation.com, free.

6. Where there's Smoak...
Stephen Smoak, known as Smoak to regulars, is one of the city's best bartenders. At Red Drum Gastropub, he mixes special-recipe ginger mojitos and espresso martinis that make for a nice pairing with chef Ben Berryhill's Southwest-influenced cuisine: crab tostaditas with red voodoo sauce, tuna tacos served with cowboy beans, and clams in a chili broth. 803 Coleman Blvd., 843/849-0313, reddrumpub.com, entrées from $12.

7. Top hats
When it comes to feathered fedoras and cloches, Leigh Magar is your milliner (as well as Michael Stipe's and Christina Aguilera's). "I'm currently obsessed with incorporating Greek gilded-wreath designs into my hats," says the South Carolina native, who gets her inspiration from travel. Her shop, Magar Hatworks, is inside a former beauty parlor. 557½ King St., 843/577-7740, magarhatworks.com.

8. Long live the King
This spring, one of America's oldest cities refurbished one of its oldest districts, Upper King, adding bluestone walkways and a string of new boutiques. A local favorite is B'zar, a shop owned by Brooklyn transplants Gustavo and Andrea Serrano that stocks affordable clothing and accessories, including totes named after the couple's dog, Roxy. 541 King St., 843/579-2889, shopbzar.com.

9. Hominy sweet Hominy
The place for sophisticated-but-homey Southern fare, such as okra-and-shrimp beignets with salsa and cilantro-lime sour cream, is Hominy Grill. Chef Robert Stehling uses only regional ingredients, right down to the grits, which come from a mill near his North Carolina hometown. 207 Rutledge Ave., 843/937-0930, hominygrill.com, entrées from $10.

10. Preserving the past
The Old Slave Mart Museum has the last intact slave-auction gallery in South Carolina. The museum has been closed to the public for the last 20 years, but it has plans to reopen this fall. It will acknowledge the city's disturbing history: Roughly 40 percent of all slaves who were shipped to this country between 1700 and 1775 disembarked in Charleston Harbor. 6 Chalmers St., 843/958-6467, oldslavemart.com, $7.

11. South beach
Folly Beach, just 12 miles south of downtown, has a laid-back vibe, authentic crab shacks, trinket shops, and a surfer-friendly stretch known as the Washout. follybeach.com.

12. And the food is good
Mustard- and olive-colored walls, rustic hutches, and dreamy landscapes by local photographer John Duckworth set the stage for the elegant fare served at FIG, short for Food Is Good. Popular dishes include a garlicky frisée salad garnished with lardons, and South Carolina lamb with a goat cheese and potato puree. 232 Meeting St., 843/805-5900, eatatfig.com, entrées from $20.

13. Bridging the gap
In 2005, the 2.5-mile, eight-lane Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge was completed, connecting downtown Charleston to the suburb of Mount Pleasant. (It's named after a former state senator whom many South Carolinians affectionately know as Cousin Arthur.) Bike the Bridge Rentals offers three-hour, self-guided tours. 360 Concord St., 843/853-2453, bikethebridgerentals.com, $15.

14. Better homes and gardens
Each fall, the heavy wooden doors and garden gates of the city's private historic houses swing open to the public. Throughout late September and October, around 180 residences participate in the Preservation Society of Charleston's Fall Tours of Homes & Gardens, some of which are evening walks (147 King St., 843/722-4630, preservationsociety.org, $45). Certain homes, such as the Edmondston-Alston House--where Robert E. Lee took refuge during the Civil War--offer tours all year long (21 E. Battery St., 843/722-7171, middletonplace.org, $10).

15. The telltale tavern
Sullivan's Island is a sleepy town (population 1,873) with wide, sandy beaches. It's also the site of Fort Moultrie, a significant battleground during the American Revolution and the Civil War (1214 Middle St., nps.gov/fosu, $3). Edgar Allan Poe was stationed as a soldier on the island from 1827 to 1828, and Poe's Tavern pays the author tribute--of a sort--with such dishes as Edgar's Drunken Chili and a Pit & Pendulum burger made with applewood-smoked bacon and sharp cheddar (2210 Middle St., 843/883-0083, poestavern.com, sandwiches from $8).

16. Have a Pleasant day
Little has changed in Mount Pleasant's old town over the last 70 years: Thick malted-milk shakes and mortar-and-pestle-ground prescriptions (called compounds) are still sold at Pitt Street Pharmacy (111 Pitt St., 843/884-4051, pittstreetpharmacy.com), and the Old Village Post House remains the best inn in town. The B&B's six rooms have original hardwood floors, 10-foot ceilings, and soothing whirlpool tubs (101 Pitt St., 800/549-7678, oldvillageposthouse.com, from $145).

17. Here's the beef
Charleston's revered downtown burger shack, Your Place, recently relocated to Mount Pleasant. Die-hards may bemoan the new nautical-themed decor--life preservers and photos of lighthouses cover the walls--but the monstrous cheeseburgers topped with bacon and jalapeños are still drawing them across the bridge. 217 Lucas St., 843/388-8002, burger $6.50.

18. This little piggy went to market...
The stalls at the Charleston Farmers Market, held Saturdays from 8 A.M. to 2 P.M., aren't limited to fresh produce. Vendors sell everything from pulled pork sandwiches at the Omelette Station to sweetgrass scrubs at The Charleston Soap Chef. Marion Square, 843/724-7309, closed late December to early April.

19. On the sauce
Barbecue in Charleston is all about the right base, but Ciarán Duffy, the chef at Tristan, has added an unexpected ingredient to the mix: cocoa. His sauce comes in three flavors--chocolate, chocolate chili, and chocolate pomegranate. 55 S. Market St., 843/534-2155, tristandining.com, entrées from $17.

20. Just call them Social drinkers
There are more than 50 wines sold by the glass at Social Restaurant & Wine Bar, a new spot in East Bay with industrial track-lighting and bartenders who wear WINE STUD T-shirts. The Kiona, an inky cabernet with hints of chocolate, is excellent. 188 E. Bay St., 843/577-5665, socialwinebar.com, from $3.

21. Sugar and spice and everything nice
Ex-Manhattanite Kristin Kuhlke has made a name for herself on King Street with Cupcake, a bakery that sells over 30 varieties of cupcakes, including red velvet (433 King St., 843/853-8181, freshcupcakes.com). Before opening the bakery, Kuhlke worked for a cell phone company, fielding complaints. "When I moved back to Charleston, I just wanted to make people happy," she says. "And who doesn't love cupcakes?" Another good spot for a sugar fix is Three Smart Cookies, where iced cookies come in dozens of shapes, from polar bears to pink polka dot bikinis (334 E. Bay St., 843/937-9229, 3smartcookies.net).

22. Water, water everywhere
The best way to explore the city's network of salt marshes is via kayak. Mount Pleasant's Coastal Expeditions leads half-day tours through estuaries inhabited by manatees and ospreys. 514-B Mill St., 843/884-7684, coastalexpeditions.com, $58.

23. Thursday night fever
The Hot Wheels Skating Center on James Island, a 10-minute drive from downtown Charleston, has a Rolling Back in Time night every Thursday. It's a bargain at $3, including skate rental. 1523 Folly Rd., 843/795-7982, hotwheelsskating.net.

24. From rice to riches
The plantations that made Charleston into a wealthy city were built along the banks of the Ashley River. The most iconic is Drayton Hall, the oldest preserved plantation house in the South. 3380 Ashley River Rd., 843/769-2600, draytonhall.org, $14.

25. Going to the chapel
The oldest church in town, St. Michael's Episcopal Church, has a 186-foot tiered steeple (71 Broad St., 843/723-0603). St. Philip's Episcopal Church, meanwhile, is known for its graveyard, the resting place of Edward Rutledge, a signer of the Declaration of Independence (142 Church St., 843/722-7734). Sunday mornings, look for the procession of boys in seersucker and girls in Mary Janes.

$4M authorized for downtown flooding

The city of Charleston is expected to get $4 million from the federal government to alleviate constant flooding in the area known as the Fishburne/Spring drainage basin. Flooding in this area occurs during heavy rains and is made worse during high tides, at which times much of the area between Spring and Fishburne Streets, including the stretch of U.S. Highway 17, can be impassable.

Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. credited state lawmakers in Columbia for securing the government funds for Charleston. Congress has also authorized stormwater improvement funds for other areas around the state under the Water Resources Development Act of 2007.

Riley said once the $4 million is appropriated, more could follow. Drainage problems in the Fishburne-Spring Street area are expected to be the most costly to fix among flood-prone areas addressed by the city's 1984 master plan for drainage projects.

By Daily Journal Staff

IMAX theater passes into history

The Charleston IMAX Theatre closed its doors for good today, a victim of declining revenues despite the popularity of such recent features as "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."

Charleston-based Rivers Enterprises, the owner of the theater, said in a written statement that the decision to close came after much "thoughtful consideration."

The statement, which was released through the city of Charleston, said the company concluded that the "most prudent business decision was to close the theater."

The city and Rivers Enterprises are now working together to find a new occupant for the location, the statement said.

The closure of the Charleston IMAX came so abruptly that its Web site on Monday was still advertising upcoming features. The Web site is trumpeting the showing of "Transformers," which opens on Sept. 21 and was to be shown "only for a limited time."

Attempts to reach personnel at the theater for comment were greeted by a somber message announcing the closure.

Rivers Enterprises' decision to close is the local manifestation of a nationwide trend that has engulfed IMAX, a technology company specializing in larger-than-life films based on its 70mm film format. IMAX Corp. recently reported second-quarter results that showed a 28% revenue decline nationwide, a precipitous drop that added up to a $4.57 million loss for the quarter.

Second-quarter profits from continuing operations replaced a $0.04 per share profit a year earlier with a deficit of $0.11 per share.

Despite the IMAX closure, the city of Charleston continued Monday to tout the Aquarium Wharf area for which the theater served as an anchor as "a vibrant and exciting part of downtown Charleston."

Other active enterprises on the wharf include the South Carolina Aquarium, Fort Sumter Tours, Charleston Water Taxi, Sandlapper Water Tours, Spiritline Cruises and Charleston Harbour Tours.

By Dan McCue , Staff Writer

Snee Farm subdivision OK despite lawsuit

The Mount Pleasant Town Council granted final approval of a rezoning request Tuesday that will allow the I'On group to build 57 homes on seven acres owned by Snee Farm Country Club, even as some residents begged council to await the outcome of a lawsuit challenging whether the developers have the right to build there.

The meeting room was unusually packed by the dozens of residents from Snee Farm, Mount Pleasant's oldest golf course community, who came out to speak on both sides of the emotionally charged issue. As residents went to the podium one after another, their neighbors sat in the audience either applauding or shaking their heads indignantly.

Town council voted 6-3 on the second and final reading after little discussion; the land was rezoned from conservation/recreation/open space to planned developed/mixed use.

Mark Lipsmeyer, I'On Group's chief operating officer, said he would like to see development begin within a year. The company is purchasing the seven acres from the Snee Farm Country Club, which has said it will use the money to pay for replacement of the aging clubhouse and pool.

The proposal has divided residents of Snee Farm. Some believe it will improve the value of the neighborhood, while opponents worry it will increase traffic, create storm water drainage problems and establish a precedent for building on what they claim was legally set aside as recreational land. The golf course was not rezoned, though some fret that a developer will one day attempt to take that land too as the town continues to grow.

"I would say their main concern is they bought their houses and paid a premium for them based on that recreational area, that it would always be there", said Thomas Goldstein, who is representing a group of residents in their lawsuit against the country club owners, JKM Holdings LLC, who bought it four years ago from Club Corp. of America for $2.4 million.

"It's a slippery slope. If you can cut off (these) acres today, how many acres will they want to cut off five years from now, where does it stop?"

The lawsuit is based on a deed restriction dated Nov. 19, 1975, that states the land in question will remain as a recreational complex only. The developers argue they are not impeding the clubhouse, nor do they have plans to touch the golf course, though critics say they will be taking aesthetically pleasing open space.

Goldstein told council members they should wait to act until the lawsuit is settled, though attorney Larry Richter, who is representing JKM Holdings LLC, told council the outcome of private litigation is "none of your business"."Why act?" he asked rhetorically just before the council vote. "Because the lawsuit is as bogus as the accusations you've heard here tonight.

"If there were a delicate way of saying you could judge the credibility of those who came here tonight (opposing the project), I would say it."
Lipsmeyer called his project "smart growth". Infill development, he said, is the best way to add new homes to the increasingly popular town while attempting to mitigate the impact on existing infrastructure. The controversy, Lipsmeyer said, reflects the growing rub between the developers looking to serve the needs of the massive numbers of newcomers heading to the coast and the residents who have lived in the greater Charleston region for decades.

"It's a constant battle," he said. "People continue to move to this area of the country and this city, and that's the way it's going to be. The city and infrastructure needs to accommodate the growth in some fashion."

By Molly Parker , Staff Writer

Tri-county median home price dips in August

The median price of a Lowcountry home in August decreased by half a percent from the same time last year, the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors reported Monday.

While the median home price in Charleston County dropped, median home prices in Berkeley County and Dorchester County increased.

For the 531 homes sold in Charleston County in August, the median sales price was $245,000. In August 2006, the median price for a home sold in Charleston County was $269,700.

In Dorchester County, 236 homes were sold in August at a median price of $195,500, compared with a median price of $193,900 for homes sold in Dorchester County in August 2006.

In Berkeley County, 263 homes were sold last month with a median sales price of $188,200, compared to a median price of $163,932 for homes sold in Berkeley County during August 2006.

The average days on the market for a home in Charleston County in August was 105. In Dorchester County, the average number of days on the market for a home last month was 81 and in Berkeley County the average number of days on the market for a home was 86 days.

Berkeley County had the greatest increase in the median home price last month, with a 14.8% rise in August 2007 over August 2006.

The median home price in the tri-county region in August was $215,000, with 1,065 units sold. Homes spent an average of 92 days on the market last month. The median home price for the tri-county area in August 2006 was $216,000, with 1,256 units sold. Homes spent an average of 69 days on the market in August 2006.

Year-to-date, the median home price in the Lowcountry has risen by 1.7%, from $207,474 to $211,000. Year-to-date sales are down 19.1% from the same period in 2006.

as provided by Charleston Regional Business Journal

S.C. homeowners to get big tax cut
Residents soon won't pay for school operations because of sales tax boost

WHAT THE TAX SWAP MEANS TO YOU

A recent study by the Strom Thurmond Institute at Clemson University analyzed how the tax swap a 1-cent-a-dollar increase in the state's sales tax to pay for property tax relief on owner-occupied homes would affect homeowners and renters. Here's what the study concluded:

Most homeowners will pay less in taxes. The increase in the amount of sales tax for most homeowners will be less than the property tax relief they'll get.

All renters will pay more in taxes. Rental housing does not qualify for property tax relief under the bill. But everyone, renters included, will pay more in sales taxes.

Homeowners in school districts with higher property tax rates will receive more tax relief than those with lower tax rates.

Homeowners with modest incomes and modest homes will benefit less than homeowners with higher incomes and more expensive homes.

S.C. residents likely will get a larger-than-expected cut to their home's tax bills "possibly totaling $88 million" according to state economists.

Beginning this fall, homeowners will no longer pay for school operating taxes for the home in which they live, typically 50 percent to 60 percent of their property tax bill. Statewide, school operating taxes total $500 million.

The additional windfall, the result of a 20 percent increase to the state sales tax this year, means homeowners will not pay about a fifth of their county and city property taxes as well.

However, those savings won't appear until next year, when tax bills are sent out in fall 2008.

The Board of Economic Advisors said two weeks ago that a recession could loom in South Carolina's near future. But Bill Gillespie, the state's top economist, said sales tax revenues should continue to grow despite that possibility.

Historically, Gillespie said, the sales tax has grown about 5.5 percent a year. Slower growth could cut into the amount of sales tax money available to pay property taxes, he said, but the sales tax surplus still would be at least $70 million, based on current data.

According to state projections, residents will pay a total of $372.9 million in city and county property taxes in 2007. After paying homeowners school taxes, any sales tax revenues left over from the additional penny sales tax would help pay city and county bills.

The windfall also likely means the state will collect enough money from the increased sales tax to pay in full the growing cost of homeowners school operating taxes for the next few years.

The money raised by the penny-a-dollar increase in the state's sales tax is placed in a separate account. It can only be used to pay homeowners property tax bills.

"That is great news,"� said state Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, a skeptical supporter of the property tax relief plan. "(But) we're not out of the woods if the economy were to peak out on us."

Martin said the sales tax surplus gives lawmakers a chance to see how well the new property tax relief plan is working and make adjustments. Historically, Martin said, school taxes have increased faster than state tax revenues have grown.

School districts and local government also are worried the growing cost of education and services might lead to future budget cuts, because their ability to approve tax increases is capped by the new law. However, Martin said a surplus would give lawmakers a chance to address those concerns, if needed.

Emerson Read, whose NoHomeTax.org group helped lead the charge for tax relief last year, said the surplus is good news. But Read still wants all home taxes eliminated.

In addition, Read said, the property tax relief law did nothing to address years of overtaxing or taxes on other properties, including rental property, second homes or businesses.

Read said his group likely will propose eliminating taxes on the homes of senior citizens and the disabled next year.

"I feel very sorry for (them)"� Read said. "The taxes are still too high in many cases."� Reach O'Connor at (803) 771-8358.

By JOHN O'CONNOR - joconnor@thestate.com