“Invictus” You will not! Beach Parking update March 24th

At a City Council meeting last night, March 23, the Isle of Palms Council again addressed “nonresident” parking in beach access areas.  The bottom line is they are only begrudgingly agreeing to what the SCDOT has forced them to agree to.  The 2015 parking plan previously approved by SCDOT will remain in effect with a new adjustment.  On Palm Boulevard, angled parking will replace parallel parking (the parallel parking that replaced the perpendicular parking because IOP thought it would be safer…it wasn’t). This change to angled parking on the land side will add 77 spaces.  This is progress, but the agreement between IOP and the SCDOT does not mean we can stop our efforts to reign in the beach communities’ selfish desire to isolate themselves from the public’s access to the beach.  Much more progress is needed including a substantial amount of “resident only” parking being returned to the general public.   Senate Bill S.40 is still very much needed.  All The IOP council meeting did last night was reinforce this.  

In addition to trumpeting themselves for agreeing to what the SCDOT mandated they do, the Council and citizen participants at the meeting left no doubt that they continue to think they should have – or in some cases people said they do have – the authority to make all parking decisions on “their” island.  They wasted no time trashing the SCDOT – they don’t fix pot holes fast enough, they interfere with the City’s management of parking and traffic, they reconfigured lanes on the IOP Connector without consulting them (Which in itself is laughable as the IOP council in September of 2020 attempted to permanently eliminate all parking on the land side of a state road without consulting anyone).  The entire tone of the meeting was that they will continue to defy the SCDOT and the public itself.  If they get the chance, there is no question that they intend to further limit public access to the beach in any way they can.  The only way to prevent this travesty is for the General Assembly to forbid it through Senate Bill S.40.  It is vital that this bill become law if we are to protect our right (guaranteed us by our state constitution) to access OUR beaches.

The Council meeting was complete with a feature found in all bullying efforts – a wealthy personal injury lawyer who lives on the IOP threating to sue the SCDOT over its poor management of traffic issues affecting the island.  Every person who cherishes their right to access and reasonably use SC beaches,that belong to us all, must contact their representatives in the General Assembly – tell them this bill must become law.  IfChip Campsen is your senator, you might want to remind him he is not the senator from IOP.  He represents all of the 43rd District and not just the island he lives on.  The City of Isle Of Palms has 4,360 of Senator Campsen’s constituents.  The other 96,190 do not live on the island.  Tell him to do the math and stop supporting his neighbors’ efforts to exclude the public from “their” beaches.  He may think he is hiding in the shadows, but it became clear last night which side of this issue he is on.

We should all also take some time to thank Secretary Hall for hanging in there and protecting the interests of all the people of South Carolina.  I’m sure it has not been easy standing up to the beach islands’ stubborn determination to strip from those people their right to use public beaches.  

It is time for the MARCH full court press!  Contact your local representatives and tell them its time for S.40 to become law.   The “reality” of some residents of our coastal communities istruly an amazing spectacle to behold.  Stand and fight the injustice they created.  And SHARE THIS PETITION!!

Out of the night that covers me,

      Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

      For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

      I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

      My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

      Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

      Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

      How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

      I am the captain of my soul.

Invictus – William Henley 1875