Tree Servicein Charleston, SC

Superior Construction is expected to start work next year on a pedestrian swing bridge over the Ashley River in Charleston, S.C. If completed as planned in 2027, the 4,100-ft-long bridge—with a 225-ft-long cable-stayed center swing span for the passage of marine traffic—would rank as the first of its type in the U.S., according to Superior, the design-builder.

Working with design partner Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson, Superior expects to kick off design for the $72.6-million project in November. The anticipated groundbreaking, with at-grade tie-ins to existing infrastructure on each end of the project, is the second quarter of next year, says Richard Kirkman, Carolinas' division manager at Superior. Work on the bridge itself would start later next year.

The bridge would connect downtown Charleston to the city's West Ashley area. The plan is to build the movable span in the open position to minimize impacts to marine traffic.

“We were challenged by the city to come up with a unique design,” says Kirkland, that included the horizontal cable-stayed movable span. “When you approach a design-build project, you try to approach it with an open mind, and think outside the box.”

The design was developed with engineer TranSystems, and its subcontractor COWI, he adds. That helped the team secure the contract from the city.

According to a city website, the idea for the pedestrian bridge dates to an $18.1-million BUILD grant Charleston received in 2019. The city, county and the Medical University of South Carolina matched the grant to the tune of $4.6 million, for a total $22.7 million.

The city’s initial cost projections of about $42 million were found to be insufficient as firms began to submit proposals, local media reported in September. City officials cited inflation and construction costs for the increase.

The design-build project will be funded by Charleston, Charleston County, the South Carolina Dept. of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration. The bridge will be constructed with large-diameter drilled shaft foundations of 8 ft to 9 ft.

Five connected longitudinal spans will traverse the river itself. This includes the cable-stayed center span, with its hydraulics for swinging, and four others constructed of traditional girders with cast deck spans. On other parts of the bridge, 34-ft-long spans will cross the marshy areas with a precast prestressed concrete box-slab design stacked transversely to create the riding and walking surface, Kirkland says—an approach that’s expected to speed design, fabrication and construction.

The impetus for the bridge is safety. More than 63,000 cars cross the Ashley River every day on two parallel bridges with narrow sidewalks, which resulted in more than 100 pedestrian-related crashes from 2014-19, according to a release from Superior. A key feature of the bridge will be a V-shaped pylon, while the bridge’s outward-leaning stay cable plane will reduce risk of ice on cables falling onto the pedestrian path.

Most of the bridge will be 15 ft wide, with tapering portions to expand to 24 ft for the five spans crossing the river. The scope of work also includes new movable bridge operations with CCTV monitors, a touchscreen display and discrete pushbuttons for the gates, as well as s trailhead with benches, water stations and bike repair stations.

Today, I’m asking for your vote.

No, I’m not throwing my hat in the ring — heaven help us if I were. Instead, I’m asking you, my Charleston neighbors, to vote yes on a referendum that would provide $70 million to build and improve our parks, pools and playgrounds throughout the city.

Editorials

Given that we’re on the brink of two critical municipal elections, picking mayors and city councils in Charleston and North Charleston, it’s been a snorer of a campaign season, with many candidates and seemingly sparse interest from voters. Could democracy die and no one notices?

So maybe it’s not surprising that the ballot question for Charleston’s parks has become a sort of orphan. That’s too bad because the parks, from the peninsula to West Ashley and Daniel Island, matter.

It’s the public realm — our parks and beaches, our streets and the buildings that line them — that brings us together and makes Charleston the great place it is. A place we know we’re blessed to call home.

Iconic Charleston businesses such as Krawcheck’s, Condon’s and the Fort Sumter Hotel come and eventually go. The latest got-to-go restaurant and bar are here for barely a blink of an eye in the city’s long history, soon replaced by yet another. And another.

But King and Broad and East Bay endure. White Point Garden was built in 1837, Colonial Lake in 1869, Hampton Park in 1906. Hampstead Mall, my beloved East Side neighborhood park, predates them all at 1769.

Everyone loves parks. And like most bond referendums, this one has something for everyone.

Among the projects, all drawn from the 2021 parks master plan: a new recreation and aquatic center on Johns Island and new parks in West Ashley, Daniel Island and Cainhoy. In addition, it calls for upgrades to the existing W.L. Stephens Aquatic Center at Forest Park in West Ashley, the James Island Recreation Center and the McMahon and Corrine Jones playgrounds on the peninsula. And more.

The city of Charleston is huge, sprawling over 156 square miles, and there’s constant pressure to add new parks. My suggestion: Fix it first. Maintenance is what makes parks great. The city would be wise to prioritize catching up on its huge backlog of deferred maintenance before adding more parks it can’t maintain.

There are no free lunches. Or parks, either.

It costs $12 to get into Charles Towne Landing, a state park, and as much as $20 to park at Folly Beach County Park in the summer. There are no gates, no admission fees at Hampton Park, the West Ashley Greenway or any of the city’s parks. The bond referendum is how to begin improving and expanding our city parks.

The cost: $64 a year added to the tax bill of a median-priced home. Or about the price of a single decent supper downtown. We can afford this.

“If you are going to give the people something, give them something good,” I remember Joe Riley saying. If he didn’t, he should have.

Passage is hardly a sure thing, though. A similar $50 million referendum last year for parks and recreation in Mount Pleasant squeaked through by only 1 percentage point.

The Charleston campaign, such as it is, has been outsourced to the former mayor of Gainesville, Fla., who works for the San Francisco-based nonprofit Trust for Public Land, and the Charleston Parks Conservancy, whose promising new director, Darlene Heater, moved here from Charlotte only five months ago.

No matter who’s your candidate for mayor, he or she probably supports the ballot question (though no one has expended much political capital on it). In a questionnaire from the Post and Courier editorial staff, five of six of the candidates said they support the initiative. (Debra Gammons didn’t respond to the questionnaire or to me, either.)

Count me among park lovers. When we lived in London, an expensive place, we practically lived in the city’s glorious parks on the weekends like so many of our fellow Londoners. And over the past eight years in Charleston, I have spent hundreds of hours volunteering at Colonial Lake and Hampstead Mall. I’m a dedicated WS1 (Weed Specialist 1st Class).

I know the city’s parks department, warts and all. Parks director Jason Kronsberg and his deputy, Clark DeCiantis, do a lot with a little. Taxpayers will complain — that’s who we are — but we get our money’s worth and more from this crew. The $70 million will be well-spent.

I don’t pretend this is the most exciting column I have ever written. It’s not. But sometimes it’s better to do the right thing than the exciting thing. On Nov. 7, please vote yes on the ballot question to invest in Charleston’s parks.

Steve Bailey is a regular contributor to the Post and Courier Opinion section. He can be reached at sjbailey1060@yahoo.com.

Not all amazing cooks will make great chefs. Some of the best chefs are not the best cooks in their kitchen. What you don’t see in those TV cooking challenges or hear when entering culinary school are all the things that will be required of you as a GREAT chef. Not only do you have to create a menu that guests (and your entire staff) will be excited about, but it needs to reflect a growing, creative version of yourself. The menu is mildly a fraction of what the job entails.

So let’s talk about the unsexy side of being a chef. What else is required? To start, you need to be business-savvy and dollar-attentive. There needs to be a focus on cost, inventory and negotiating with vendors without sacrificing your ethos or quality. It also means that you need to be an in-house repair person. Time and money are a luxury in this business. You don’t always get to use a repairman. Profitability can’t be your No. 1 driver in a business where the national average is 3 – 5% profit annually. Creativity alone will not keep you in business for the long haul.

Another key component is growing into the role of being a teacher. A chef is the in-house professor. A true chef should never want line cooks to just stay put. Inevitably, we have to figure out how to help them grow and to reach their goals. But with staffing shortages, it’s tough when you and your sous chefs are jumping on the line.

None of the above includes the daily basics of scheduling, emails, owners or investors, PR meetings, interviews and social media for the restaurant and ourselves, all while making sure everyone that works under the roof is happy. It’s equally as tough if you are a chef like me with severe ADHD who has to work hard at keeping all things lined up. It is a concerted effort. You have to have systems and structure.

And this leads me to the No. 1 thing they don’t tell you about being a chef: You need to be self-aware. You need to be really honest with yourself. Yes, you must know your strengths but, more importantly, you need to ask, “What are my weaknesses?” They don’t tell you to take your ego out of this — to put your whole restaurant first. Simultaneously, you need to build a management team around you that feeds into the culture/vision while strengthening your weaknesses. It’s not about you looking good. It’s about bringing out the best in your kitchen. And this means there is no successful version of me at Husk without my kitchen management team.

Like many chefs, our motley crew was affected by 2020. Some of us made decisions to get back to our creative roots. Some took a step back in their careers to spend time with family — the reasons go on and on. The one thing we all agreed on is that we wanted to be part of a team. We were all exhausted from being spread thin in understaffed restaurants.

The professionals in our kitchen make me better, and they make the restaurant look like a rock star. We all have our quirks, but we are balanced. We push each other to keep growing creatively and, on a lot of days, just to keep going.

So here’s a shout-out to my team — and to teams across Charleston — that make me and my fellow chefs look better every day.

Ray England is executive chef of Husk Restaurant in Charleston.

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Some nights call for a finely plated dish with an Instagram-worthy smear of sauce and gently placed garnish. Others, though, call for a dish that’s a little less delicate but packed with flavor and textures — a mishmash of different ingredients tossed in a single bowl and ready to eat on a table or in your lap on the couch. Sounds simple, right?

Food bowls are pretty simple but can be very versatile. Think of them like evolved salads with endless possibilities. Instead of a leafy green base, you can start the bowl with a grain, such as a short-grain rice or quinoa, then top it with several proteins, fruits or vegetables. Finally, garnish it with citrus juices or a spicy sauce — whatever you’re craving.

“I love bowl food because you are getting a little bit of a lot of things,” said Basic Kitchen executive chef Charlie Layton. “It’s easier to get a lot of nourishment out of one dish, especially when it comes to a restaurant setting.”

Added Kairo’s Mediterranean owner Cary Chastain: “It’s simple and fast, which is a big part of it.” And it’s perceived as healthy — if the restaurant that is providing the bowl is really acting like a restaurant and serving customers fresh ingredients. “It goes well with just about any cuisine.”

Many restaurants in Charleston are hopping on the food bowl train. Here’s where to find some in what may be becoming the, ahem, Bowlcountry.

Basic Kitchen82 Wentworth St. (Downtown)(843) 789-4568basickitchen.com

Basic Kitchen has a variety of different bowls on its lunch, brunch and dinner menus, but its namesake bowl, the Basic Bowl, can be found on all three.

“It’s got your three key food groups,” Layton said. “We base the original [Basic Bowl] on kind of like a macro bowl and then try to balance everything out.”

As of Oct. 1, the Basic Bowl is made with roasted sweet potato, broccoli, citrusy kale, curried chickpeas, chimichurri and grains. But Layton said the bowl will soon change “into something new and a little bit more balanced and just a bit more healthy,” so keep an eye out on the updated bowl, or stop in now to try it as is.

Beech864 Island Park Circle (Daniel Island)1739 Maybank Hwy. (James Island)315 King St. (Downtown)475 E. Bay St. (Downtown)1973 Riviera Drive (Mount Pleasant)beechrestaurants.com

Beech’s menu focuses on health-conscious food with several acai and poke bowls packed with fresh fruits, granola and vegetables. Each bowl is based on “the four pillars of a balanced diet: fruit, fish, rice and vegetables.”

With its acai bowls, like the Beech Bowl, the restaurant uses organic fruits and gluten-free granola for a bowl filled with nutrients and antioxidants. Its poke bowls follow the same method, using fresh fish, grains and vegetables for a flavorful Hawaiian-inspired bowl.

Dellzville (Edit: Dellzville has closed to concentrate on getting their products into stores)1617 Ashley River Road (West Ashley)dellzville.com

Dellzville, once the beloved Dellz Uptown on Rutledge Avenue, is now a fun spot in West Ashley with a bright pink building and red sign on Ashley River Road. Like the other restaurants on this list, Dellzville offers health-focused foods, making nearly every dish from scratch and sourcing from local farms. Though many options on the menu are vegan and vegetarian-friendly, there’s options for meat-eaters, like the Mahi Bowl.

The Mahi Bowl is a well-rounded dish of creaminess, crunchiness, sweetness and acidity. With wild-caught mahi, the bowl’s base uses organic rice, topped with black beans, tomato and carrots and mixed greens for some crunch, and mango salsa and avocado for a creamy texture. Squeeze the lime wedge served in the bowl to balance the meal with a tart topping.

Gogibop221 Spring St. (Downtown)(843) 793-4441gogibop.com

Gogibop is one of the latest additions to downtown Charleston, located just before the bridge into West Ashley. Inspired by the Korean dish, bibimbap (rice and veggies in a bowl), Gogibop offers combination rice bowls with vegetables and fresh-cooked proteins such as pork, chicken, shrimp, tofu and beef. Think of a poke bowl, but with hotter ingredients.

While Gogibop offers a handful of signature bowls, you can always customize your own, picking from dozens of ingredients. First, start with a base, choosing from different kinds of rice, sweet potato noodles or kale. Follow it up with a protein, vegetables and fruits such as corn, bean sprouts, mango and more, house-made sauces and dried toppings like wonton chips or peanuts.

Huriyali Gardens401 Huger St. (Downtown)2016 Wappoo Drive (James Island)(843) 207-4436huriyali.com

Though many health-conscious folks flock to Huriyali for its juices and smoothies (winning Best Juice/Smoothie Bar in City Paper’s Best Of awards for several years), the couple-owned establishment is known best for its acai bowls (winning Best Acai Bowl in Best Of Charleston 2023).

The chocolate acai bowl may not sound healthy, but it’s packed with nutrients and antioxidants. It’s a tasty treat that can be both dinner and dessert. The bowl is based with acai, banana, strawberry, cacao, house-made peanut butter and coconut water for an acidic, sweet and bitter trifecta of flavor and topped with cut fruit, cacao nibs, coconut flakes, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds and vegan peanut butter bars for a crunchy texture. A house-made chocolate drizzles the flavor-packed bowl for some extra creaminess.

Kairo’s Mediterranean975 Savannah Hwy. (West Ashley)1100 Bowman Road (Mount Pleasant)1200 North Main St. (Summerville)eatkairos.com

Though Mediterranean food can typically be found wrapped in pita (gyros, for example), a lot of traditional Mediterranean ingredients such as hummus or tzatziki “jive well together” with vegetables, proteins and falafel, according to Kairo’s Mediterranean owner Cary Chastain.

With the Kairo’s Bowl, you can make it a whole different meal each time, choosing from dozens of options of greens, rice, protein, vegetables and even sauces. For Chastain, his go-to Kairo’s Bowl is half a scoop of rice and lentils, chicken, sweet potatoes, cucumber, cabbage, feta and red peppers, topped with hummus or a spicy harissa.

Poke Bowls

Poke bowls are a classic food bowl from Hawaii, with a rice base, ahi tuna and some vegetables. The poke bowl has found its way across the world to the Lowcountry with a handful of shops dedicated to sharing the fresh delicacy of the islands.

Emoji Poke3510 Park Ave Blvd. (Mount Pleasant)(843) 654-9220emojipoke.com

Poke Bros644-H1 Long Point Road(Mount Pleasant)5070 International Blvd.(North Charleston)1305 N. Main St. (Summerville)eatpokebros.com

Poke Burri835 Savannah Hwy. (West Ashley)(843) 887-8744pokeburri.com

Poke Tea House441 Meeting St. (Downtown)(854) 444-3591poketeahouse.com

Yoshi Poke & Kitchen2875 Ashley River Road(West Ashley)(843) 207-4562yoshipokekitchensc.com

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The Charleston County School District (CCSD) Board of Trustees on Friday unanimously approved a mutual settlement agreement to end Dr. Eric Gallien’s employment as superintendent. He started July 1. His deputy, Horry County native Anita Huggins, was named acting superintendent.

In today’s deal, approved 8-0 by trustees and signed off by Gallien, the educator will get more than $350,000. He’ll be paid 12 months of his annual salary of $275,000 in bimonthly installments, plus an extra $50,000 “non-wages.” The district also agreed to reimburse expenses from July to September and pay $34,000 in Gallien’s attorney fees. In return, Gallien agreed to dismiss his pending lawsuit against the district for breach of contract.

Friday’s decision wasn’t the first contentious end to a CCSD superintendent’s tenure. Gerita Postlewait abruptly resigned without much explanation at the end of 2021 after serving six years as head of the county’s consolidated school district. What’s more is the settlement with Gallien comes after controversy about his initial hiring and the rate of his $275,000 salary, which was a substantial increase.

The settlement came after an early Friday meeting of the board, including an executive session out of the public’s ears. It followed an investigation into Gallien’s behavior after a complaint by a CCSD employee who alleged “the superintendent’s actions led to a hostile work environment.”

An investigation, which the school district said would be made available to the public on Nov. 3, was conducted by local attorney Allan Holmes, who concluded there was no evidence to support the allegations. But the settlement did note that “Dr. Gallien has violated a clear, published directive established by the CCSD Board.” No explanation of what was violated was released.

But a news release said that after Gallien received a clear warning, he continued to violate the directive. Such behavior “improperly and significantly modified the terms and conditions of the complainant’s employment to her detriment,” according to the settlement.

Meanwhile, the settlement also said Gallien alleged his employment contract “superseded” his violation of the directive. As a result, Gallien filed a lawsuit on Oct. 5 against CCSD — which was still pending before Gallien agreed to drop it in the settlement.

The settlement also stated Galliend consented to “waive any notice requirement under the Employee Agreement.” The cause of his removal is listed under the Employment Agreement as “no reason.”

Finally, the district and Gallien essentially agreed to hold each other harmless in the settlement, agreeing that “neither payment nor any action taken pursuant to this agreement shall be considered or construed as an admission or establishment of wrongdoing on the part of either party.”

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