Quick Notes: Trends & Talk About Town

By Dennis Quick

They might not know it, but folks on the Gulf Coast ravaged by Hurricane Katrina have friends in the Lowcountry’s business community.

It is likely few, if any, hurricane victims can name one Charleston-area business. I will also bet that few in our business community personally knew those who lost homes, loved ones, everything they owned in that calamity.

No matter. Even though New Orleans is about 800 miles from Charleston, folks in our business community extended helping hands to the Big Easy and the Mississippi Gulf Coast like next-door neighbors.

Here is a sample of Lowcountry businesses and organizations that responded.

• The Humanities Foundation, a Daniel Island-based nonprofit organization dedicated to providing affordable housing, and the James Doran Co., a real estate investment and development company also on Daniel Island, teamed up to contribute $100,000 to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

• Berle Manufacturing donated more than 1,500 pairs of trousers worth a total retail value of more than $136,000.

• InterContinental Hotels Group raised more than $250,000 for the Red Cross.

• Trident United Way raised $50,000 in relief donations and helped refugees evacuated to the Lowcountry get settled.

• Water Missions International, based in West Ashley, shipped 11 water treatment systems—six to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, five to New Orleans.

• North Charleston-based tax resolution firm JK Harris & Co. allowed customers in the Katrina-stricken areas to defer their monthly tax resolution, debt settlement and other financial services payments for the remainder of 2005.

• Glasspro Inc. donated more than $6,300 to the American Red Cross’ Hurricane Katrina Victim Fund.

• The East Shore Athletic Club in Mount Pleasant sponsored a 15-hour run and bike event to raise money for the Red Cross.

• More than 25 of Charleston’s top chefs organized “Charleston Chefs for Hurricane Relief” to help the victims.

• Charleston Place Hotel hosted a hurricane-relief fundraiser.

• The American Lung Association received compressor-nebulizer machines for asthma sufferers from ABC Medical, Asthma & Allergy Consultants, Atlantic Respiratory Services, National Allergy & Asthma Centers and Medi-Home Care.

• Roper St. Francis Healthcare sent doctors and nurses to the Gulf Coast area.

• Rescue Resource Foundation, a nonprofit organization supporting South Carolina’s animal rescue groups, collected more than eight tons of supplies from 12 local pet businesses to help pets caught in the hurricane.

• The Business Journal employees donated $1,275 to help the hurricane victims.

There isn’t enough space here to list all the local businesses that participated in hurricane relief efforts. All over the Lowcountry, businesses and organizations, large and small, put business aside to come to the aid of their fellow Americans.

That is something to be proud of.

CARTA comeback. When gasoline prices soared to a stratospheric $3.50 per gallon in September, folks who considered mass transit something strictly for tourists and the working poor probably reconsidered, at least for a moment. (At this writing, prices at the pump are hovering around $2.70 a gallon, which is still high.)

I suspect the Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority is steadily becoming more attractive to the white-collar crowd. CARTA executive director Howard Chapman said that the transit authority’s ridership has increased since gasoline prices began surging at the beginning of summer.

Come January, when CARTA launches its express-bus routes from park-and-ride stations scattered throughout the Lowcountry, don’t be surprised if more commuters hop aboard, especially if gasoline prices shoot back up to $3.50 a gallon or beyond.

Dennis Quick is the senior staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@charlestonbusiness.com.

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