“red rover, red rover, don’t send anyone over!”
The June 21 Post and Courier commentary by Bev Miller announcing the creation of the Barrier Island Preservation Alliance is interesting on several levels but it is not convincing (article linked to this update). Ms Miller rightly praises the beauty and importance of the beaches on our barrier islands, including the Isle of Palms. She claims that she and her fellow residents of the IOP welcome visitors, even saying she hopes that many will visit on July 4th. She mourns the inability, she says, of the IOP to host what had long been the annual July 4th fireworks display because of – of course – COVID. While other communities have moved past the COVID paranoia and will be holding fireworks displays, the IOP just can not bring itself to do so. The truth is obvious and Ms Miller’s past involvement in the effort to keep visitors off of “her” island proves that the IOP doesn’t want to host the fireworks show because they don’t want visitors coming. They want to exclude as many people and as often as they can. Unfortunately, Ms Miller’s own words prove her claim to welcome visitors to the IOP is false. What she wants is the opposite. She wants as many day visitors as possible kept off the island, and all “residential only” parking within the state on right of ways left intact.
In a comment on IOP Emergency Ordinance 2020-11, MsMiller said that “day trippers and guests are the real targets” and implored the City Council to craft its ordinance to keep those people off the island and not to “punish” the residents of her island by interfering with their use of the beach (I think it’s worth noting that Bev only moved to SC a few years ago). Most revealing, she said, “Close the bridges again – yes, you will need to have the political will to do it. Protect those who have made the investment here.” One who calls for a repetition of the outrageous and illegal action taken by three of our local beach communities in seizing control of state-owned bridges so as to exclude non-residents is not someone who wants visitors to come to her island. It is the angry cry of someone who wants to selfishly turn a public beach community into a private enclave for her. This bears repeating, Ms Miller wanted the IOP City Council to AGAIN seize control of state-owned bridges – something they had been forced to stop doing only through a lawsuit filed by Charleston County. This action by the IOP, Sullivan’s Island and Folly Beach was the most naked abuse of power by local governments in living memory.
Ms Miller’s new organization, of which she is Executive Director, has only one goal. That is to limit public access to our state’s beaches by any means possible, legal and illegal. The Alliance she heads is quite simply the enemy of the rest of South Carolina. She complains the legislature passed a law to keep the governments of beach communities from doing again what they did last year – dishonestly using the COVID pandemic as an excuse to seal themselves off from the rest of our state. She sees the mainland population as the “target” and she wants to knock us down so we can’t come over and use the beaches on these islands.
It is an outrage that these same beach communities seek to keep the public off their islands, but will still stick their hands out looking for Federal, State and County money for, among other things, beach renourishment. All of us who are committed to protecting beach access must be even more vigilant than before.
S40 being passed into law was a big win, and everyone who helped make that a reality should be proud. However, we must continue to make our legislative delegation members aware that we strongly oppose the goals of this new Alliance. We must encourage the Attorney General to fight against any challenge to the new law forbidding exclusionary parking policies by these communities. We must encourage the SCDOT to closely examine the negative impacts of any residents only parking rules on these islands and where they find them burdensome, forbid them. And we must let these communities know we will never back down, not today, not tomorrow, never. Smooth, disingenuous talk will not fool us or lull us into complacency.
I will respectfully request The SCDOT act now in addressing the residential only parking, golf cart only parking, as well as, all encroachments in the right of ways on all these islands that have been reported to them and are intended to prevent parking by day trippers. I hope all of you will again make your voices heard and push to see that this is done as soon as possible!