Story last updated at
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Serenity being lost
Having read Jessica Vanegeren's Sept. 4 report on the James Island Connector ("Route helps island connect, prosper"), I can tell firsthand what happened to James Island and the surrounding area when the work was finally finished.
I lived on James Island from 1986-1994 and will always consider the island my hometown. Which James Island is my hometown is most definitely the one that existed before 1993.
When I commuted to the College of Charleston from 1989-1994, I was glad to see the bridge open up. My commute shrank from about 45 minutes to seven. As a result, I spent a lot more time downtown, doing all the things Mayor Joseph Riley would want me to do, spending money, making use of public parks, and so on.
I know there is no turning back on this road of progress, but how fast the changes were. In the 10 years since the bridge has been in place:
Kitty Ellis' house and acreage, where I worked one summer restoring her patch of camellia bushes from the ravages of Hurricane Hugo, has long since been plowed over, making way for a home-improvement superstore and a chain of luxury apartments designed for young upwardly mobile single people.
Kmart left its site at the corner of Rivers Point Row and Folly Road. Wal-Mart, which has a reputation of evaporating local businesses, moved in. Then came Applebee's, a new Harris-Teeter, a Publix and several other non-local stores.
With these additions, or prompting these additions, there came the influx of more people. What once was a nice-riding Folly Road, from the banks of the Wappoo Cut to the shores of Folly Beach, is now a nightmare of an SUV-saturated traffic jam on any given day.
If the tomato fields aren't completely paved over yet, and if the remnants of the Confederate chain of earthworks haven't completely disappeared yet, one need only wait five years. Such is what people call "progress."
James Island may or may not be ruined. I merely get tired of feeling foul about the changes when I visit old friends. Knowing that, I thank goodness that the so-called traffic relief in the completion of the Mark Clark Expressway over the James and Johns islands has not been achieved. At least Johns Island is relatively safe from such serenity-depleting expansion -- at least for now.
WORTHY EVANS
524 W. Calhoun St.
Sumter