Charleston Mayor Visits
Recipe for success: art, flowers, kids

BY MARK WINEKA
SALISBURY POST

Charleston Mayor Joe Riley, who could talk for hours and write books on urban design, boils down his recipe for a livable city into three simple ingredients: flowers growing, kids playing and the arts.

Riley went through scores of slides and numerous anecdotes Wednesday night in reviewing the challenges his South Carolina city has faced during his 23 years as mayor. But all of those city projects, controversies and successes seemed to converge toward the end of his presentation when he repeated his recipe.

Flowers, kids, arts. Treat your city as a family heirloom, Riley told his Salisbury audience. Believe that it is a gift to future generations. Have a vision. Without it, the kids leave and don't come back.

''We do it for our children and great-grandchildren'' Riley said.

Riley spoke to a large crowd Wednesday night at Salisbury's Meroney Theater as the first speaker in a series of educational forums being sponsored over the next weeks and months by the Salisbury 2020 Vision Committee.

The 16-member committee is drawing up a strategic growth and development plan to take the city into the next century, but first it wants to involve the public in a series of presentations on such issues as smart growth, regionalism, heritage, public safety and neighborhood planning.

Future forums will be hard-pressed to top Riley's appearance Wednesday. He went immediately to his slides and talked, without notes, for an hour and a half, throwing out nuggets of wisdom on urban development at every turn.

The challenges facing 300-year-old Charleston - home of the Spoleto Festival, Waterfront Park, a vibrant downtown and millions of tourists a year - are similar to those confronting Salisbury, though on a much bigger scale.

Riley talked about Charleston's approaches to public housing, parks, vacant lots, demolition, downtown revitalization, parking garages and new development with many before-and-after pictures to make his points.

Riley said he didn't come to Salisbury as a teacher. Rather, he visited as a fellow city resident and practitioner in the art of making cities more livable.

Here's a sampling of some Riley observations:

- Every citizen must embrace a vision. When they do, the city takes a quantum step forward.

- ''No one ever went to a city and came back and said, 'I didn't like that city - it had too many parks.'''

- Riley doesn't believe taxpayers want a city to settle for the cheapest piece of land. He believes they should get the finest piece of land, acknowledging that he rejected a free parcel of land for a new minor league ballpark in favor of one along the Ashley River that was much more picturesque - and expensive.

''It's now a very lovely spot in our city,'' Riley said.

- Scale is important. Put things on your terms. Six seven-story buildings are better than one 40-story skyscraper, especially when a city is looking for infill development.

- ''A thing of beauty is enjoyed forever.'' Riley said Charleston's much visited Waterfront Park was worth every bit of its $15 million price tag.

- ''Parking can be beautiful.'' Riley insisted that developers design parking garages and parking lots that blended in with the city's urban fabric, while also paying attention to landscaping. He told of how he likes to smell the flowering peppermint peach trees in one downtown lot.

- Riley has never been one to back down from people who said it couldn't be done. ''The city is ours,'' he said. ''We don't have to be timid.''

- Public buildings need to be downtown.

- Declare a war on Cyclone fencing.

- Put away the bulldozers. Cities and towns need memories. Riley insisted on saving buildings that he was told couldn't be saved, so that he could save whole neighborhoods.

- The ethic in Charleston: ''Build beautiful public housing.'' Don't build public housing as it has always been built because it doesn't work and has a stigma attached to it. Building beautiful public housing doesn't cost any more than ugly public housing, Riley said.

''There's never an excuse for government not to build something that's beautiful for the city,'' he added.

Mayor Susan Kluttz presented Riley with a key to the city. The mayor held a small dinner in Riley's honor at her house before the Meroney Theater presentation. Kluttz, Councilman Bill Burgin and urban resource planner Joe Morris also gave Riley a whirlwind tour of the city and some of the things Salisbury has tried to accomplish.

Riley was impressed. He praised the city for things such as Hurley Park, the depot restoration and the Robertson Eastern Gateway Park.

He also commended the city's initiatives downtown. Burgin, chairman of Salisbury 2020, noted that Riley capped off a big day in Salisbury. That morning, F&M Bank, the Rowan County Board of Commissioners and Salisbury City Council, joined in announcing the bank's almost $4 million plans in developing the former Norman's property on North Main Street.