Quick Notes: Trends & Talk About Town

By Dennis Quick

Economists here and in Columbia say the Lowcountry’s economic growth will continue throughout the New Year.

About 11,000 new jobs are projected for the tri-county area, the construction industry shows no signs of slowing down, the port is bustling and prepping for expansion, and folks from elsewhere keep arriving in search of new opportunities.

Here’s a New Year’s resolution we should make as our region enjoys a prosperity others envy: Remember the “little people”—the small businesses, the mom and pop neighborhood stores, the hardworking employees who serve the meals, bus the tables, clean the buildings, work the counters, assemble the parts and perform a host of other unglamorous tasks that keep our economy running.

Let’s grow with them rather than without them.

If workers need to be retrained for other jobs, let’s retrain them.

If we can find a niche for that neighborhood bookstore or art gallery or coffee shop, let’s find it.

Yes, I’m dreaming. And my bleeding heart is bleeding by the quart.

Progress, economic or otherwise, is rarely gentle. It comes like a bludgeon—and at great human cost.

Smaller businesses get swallowed up or wiped out by bigger ones; workers lose their jobs to higher technology or to the desire for fatter profits; people have to move from where they’ve lived all their lives because their wallets are no longer deep enough for them to stay.

So when I hope that our region grows without anyone getting hurt, I might as well be praying to Saint Jude, the patron saint of lost causes.

Still, I hope.

I hope that workers who earn a modest living can still afford to live here. Our quality of life, of which we’re so proud, depends on this.

If the Charleston-North Charleston metropolitan area becomes an enclave strictly for the affluent, with everybody else living in the outskirts, our quality of life will deteriorate.

Maybe that sounds odd. But a high quality of life doesn’t depend on private marinas, gated communities and golf courses. As impressive as those things are, they’re just that—things.

A mix of people from a variety of backgrounds—different people contributing their singular spice to our Lowcountry cultural brew—and a clean, scenic environment for all to enjoy are crucial “quality of life” components.

Also essential to a high quality of life is a diverse job market where folks have opportunities to move up the economic ladder.

Economists Al Parish of Charleston Southern University and Donald Schunk of the University of South Carolina say we pretty much have such a job market. The jobs they forecast for this year will come from different sectors—the port, the construction industry, health care and numerous professional services, in addition to hospitality and tourism.

This leads to another resolution: that, as we try to raise our region’s per capita income, we prepare our existing workforce for the higher-paying, knowledge-based jobs we want to attract.

Of course, if the locals show little desire to improve their skills through literacy programs, Trident Technical College courses, the Trident One Stop Career System, the Lowcountry Graduate Center, the Lowcountry Manufacturers Council and other such organizations, and if our public schools fail to produce students who can compete with students from elsewhere, then that’s too bad for us.

So let’s resolve to become as passionate about education—in the schoolroom, the workshop, at the training facility—as we are about football.

If we land more king-sized deals like North Charleston’s Vought-Global Aeronautica aircraft assembly facilities and the DaimlerChrysler Sprinter van plant in Ladson, let’s make sure our existing, smaller companies get to share in the prosperity by giving them first dibs on contract bids.

And if another big-box retailer sets up shop and puts smaller stores out of business, let’s try to help those out-of-work retail employees get jobs elsewhere—like at the big box that displaced them.

Finally, as our population continues to grow and as gasoline prices are rising again, let’s resolve to implement more mass transit options.

It is encouraging that the Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority is replenishing its buses and bus routes, but let’s take a serious step further by planning a light rail system tailored for us. That way all of us can get to work with relative ease.

Also, bus and rail stops would make great locations for mom and pop coffee shops, bookstores and other small retail outlets.

If we grow the right way, everybody can prosper.

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

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