There’s A Westward Wind a-Blowin’

Next week, when Charleston City Council meets again, Mayor John Tecklenburg will ask for permission to repurpose $350,000 for a master plan for West Ashley.
The master plan will address a laundry list of problems vexing this side of the Ashley River, placing West Ashley back on the front burner in City Hall.
Tecklenburg, a West Ashley resident, will be making good on a promise he made on the campaign trail last year, and more recently at a municipal government retreat.
“As a West Ashley resident himself, Mayor Tecklenburg understands that West Ashley revitalization may well be the single most important city initiative of the next ten years – and it’s essential that we get it right,” said Jacob Lindsey, the city’s director of planning.
That’s why he’s proposed the development of a comprehensive West Ashley master plan, which will allow citizens, neighborhoods, business people and others to have a real impact on all the biggest quality-of-life issues facing the area – economic growth and development, traffic and transportation, parks and recreation and more,” said Lindsay.
Lindsay continued: “As somebody said recently, West Ashley is ‘what’s next’ for Charleston, and this master plan will give us the road map we need to make that happen.”
But how the money came to already be in the budget, and the request for repurposing, perhaps is a better gauge of how committed Tecklenburg is to West Ashley.
According to City Councilman Bill Moody, he and what he winkingly deemed the “Gang of Five” pushed then-Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. to put a $300,000 line item into the city’s 2015 budget to study traffic in West Ashley.
The “gang” included Moody, West Ashley councilmen Keith Waring, Marvin Wagener, and Aubry Alexander, along with Kathleen Wilson, who represents James Island, but was interested in a natatorium being constructed.
Moody said the gang was excited when the budget came out, and the number had grown to $350,000. But the gang’s mood soured, he said, when they noticed it was now designated for a citywide study.
That study never began, apparently because it was too late in Riley’s tenure. And so Moody and the remaining gang members began working over Tecklenburg, who apparently agreed with them.
Waring said this week the focus of the study needed to be solely on West Ashley.
“Including all the other areas of the city would just slow it down,” said Waring. “Making it a citywide study would likely mean having to get regional, county, and state input.”
Waring said the mood on Council that “right now, West Ashley is up; it’s time to focus on West Ashley. There’s no disagreement on that.”
Moody said last week he was glad that the mayor was taking the leadership role on the effort. “It’s going to take leadership from all of us … we all need to follow through on campaign promises,” said Moody.
“We all ran campaigns, and we all made promises; and after the campaign comes time to govern,” said Waring. “Governance takes action. We need to have steps after the plan is completed. We must follow through.”