Letter: Neglect of flooding harms livability
Since 1981, I have owned what the residents of Robert Mills Manor always referred to as ’The Pink House” at 78 Beaufain St.
When there is a heavy rain, the pink house sits in a lake of putrid, harmful bacteria with dog feces that has slid down my neighbors’ driveways and mixed with the contents of the garbage containers overturned by floodwaters.
I went to the expense of having a “wake-stop” built inside the iron entrance gate that consists of a step-up-over-down, but the city’s failure to close the street during flooding allows huge buses and trucks to push waves of contaminated water onto my property.
My tenants have to walk in this to leave. This horrible deluge also covers the playground directly across the street in the federally owned housing project where children play. The kids also have to wade in this to get to school or home.
If our former mayor, Joe Riley, had spent as much time raising money for flooding and infrastructure as he has for a museum, maybe the children who live across the street from my pink house would find a safer environment.
Today, most of the board appointees, advisers, etc., during that “era of livability neglect” are still in place under Mayor John Tecklenburg. Mayor Tecklenburg needs to apologize for the shackles that are in place destroying the architecture and livability of this peninsula. He holds the key.
Enough is enough. It is time to scrutinize our mayor, City Council and County Council with our vote.
Jerry Lee Boyer
Rutledge Avenue
Charleston