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Nobody devalued your opinion, they just disagreed with it. Nobody made any personal derogatory comments about your personal opinion or taste but you did. You attacked all of us that enjoy Mt.Pleasant.
Some of us like Mt.Pleasant. Glad you like where you live. Sorry you don't like it here but still have to come at least twice a year.
I've been in Mt. Pleasant the past two days, and I have visited quite often. I throughly enjoy this special place in SC.
I read here with some disappointment that people are not feeling its worth.
Those of you who are lucky enough to live there should be very proud of this town.
I've traveled north and south, east and west in Florida and don't really get the feel I get in Mt. Pleasant. This is mention for those I have read are comparing Mt. Pleasant with Florida. It is just not so, this town is a remarkable place.
I love the way Mt. Pleasant has nestled its stores into the environment. When looking for Target, on one visit, I could
hardly find it beneath the trees and greenery. What an smashing shopping village area that was.
Sure there is a lot of construction going on and that is a good thing because when its done traffic should flow better.
You have everything at your fingertips and thats a plus. There is no store or speciality store that you lack.
The quaintness of some of the stores and restaurants is so very unique. I adore all the outdoor cafes and charmingly lit outside dining areas.
One of my favorite places to visit is Shem Creek Park. Little did I know in the beginning that that gorgeous park was so close to Mt. Pleasant. Walking far, far out on the walkways was just a pure joy. While walking you meet others with their pups doing the same and everyone happy to meet and greet. Getting closer and closer to the fishing fleet was an eyeopener for me. I love to see the old, rusted, and sea-worn sailing fleet. The wild life there was great also. We even saw a stork! When the walk is over there is a water fountain just for the dog. Someone was surely thinking this plan out.
I could spend all day at the beautiful Shem Creek Park.
Patriots Point is also a nice area to visit, or take ones company to. The Yorktown Carrier was so very huge. It looked much better then the sighting from the Ravenel Bridge. People seemed to come from near and far to see the ship.
You have also in Mt. Pleasant one of the best ( IMHO) Surgical Vets in Specialist Veterinary Hospital.
So then you might say..." to live here is different." Well, I can not for one second see what would be bad. You even have the Isle of Palms beach on the ocean just minutes away. You can fish, you can shop, you can ...Oh boy now here is one, take a cruise! You are one lucky bunch. Even your airport is close. Not to mention one of most historical and unique places, Charleston!
So, Mt. Pleasant...no matter what you say, you are the best. There is just nothing more you could ask for except perhaps to borrow one of our "towel shops." By gosh, I sure know you don't want one of those and we have plenty here in Myrtle Beach to share.
Chins up, smile....I'll be posting some pictures soon.
I love aircraft(that is a given), but I also love the large ships and trains as well.
Me too. I love aircraft and large ship and even small ships are wonderful to gaze at. Trains are
enjoyable too. There is a great history and train exhibit in Scranton, Pa. Steamtown National Park.
How awesome to see a huge, huge, cruise ship pull in. Lucky people...
Im not against growth. Not at all. North Charleston is growing.....in a positive way. Crime rate going down (from way up, to not as way up). Roads are being widened, and less congested. Smart growth.
Mt P's government is reckless. They are ruining the place.
Hey have you got any ocean front property to sell in....Arizona?
We all see where the crime is happening and it's not all in Mt P! Sure there is a modest amount of crime but nothing compared to portions of N. Chuck. Tell me you're just trying to be funny?
The newly widened roads will be congested right back to the same nightmare.
Unfortunately this problem is not special to Mt. Pleasant. This has already happened on Ashley Phosphate. It is starting to happen on I-26. It will happen on the section of Dorchester Road past Trolley.
I-26 took a long time to widen, and so far the only positive outcome is that the bottleneck is a bit lighter... on a good day. One traffic accident (or simply a car and officer on the side of the road) will create a traffic backup. In the morning, one traffic accident can back up the interstate for miles and clog secondary roads for hours.
The planning and execution of improved infrastructure is poor everywhere around here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by moneill
Growth brings good and bad.
We should do a tour of towns that have had 0 growth in the last 25 years and folks are leaving in droves. No growth has good and bad.
There are multiple factors that have contributed to the demise of small towns, and most of them directly lead to major growth in other areas. The drastic change in the agricultural industry is a primary component. Once considered the backbone of American society, the country's largest farms are owned by or in debt to giant corporations. Be it Monsanto's ridiculous patents or Tyson Foods bankrupting small-time chicken farmers, any semblance of an agrarian society has gone down the tubes. Small farms struggle, and organic farms rely on large cities for clientele who are willing to pay higher prices for more expensive food.
The death of main street is another factor. While excessive deregulation has allowed large corporations to put farmers out of business, excessive regulation is one factor that has made it difficult to revitalize business in a small town. Corporations such as Wal-Mart have also had a direct hand in this. Buy relatively cheap property in a small town and build a Wal-Mart, with a promise of bringing jobs and other opportunities to the community. These jobs consist of low-wage, zero-opportunity positions to be filled by high school graduates (or drop-outs) who don't have the motivation or resources to leave their hometown. Community involvement by a Wal-Mart consists of allowing the local scout troop to sell cookies outside. After a Wal-Mart is built on the outskirts of town, many of the local stores die out due to inability to compete. This leaves a main street where the most active building is the courthouse.
The Interstate Highway System has also contributed to making many small towns obsolete. What used to be intermediate destinations became bypassed and lost on money from commuter traffic.
Small towns centered around manufacturing suffer from similar problems that agrarian communities face. With the advent of factory technology and the politics of business, many small town economies that relied on blue collar workforces imploded when factories were relocated or refit to provide a lighter, unskilled workforce.
Many small towns that aren't absorbed by nearby big cities either stagnate or become ghost towns. The combined factors mentioned above, as well as a host of other things, are directly to blame for this. This is not to say that people who live in small towns bear no responsibility. Be it apathy or the idea that small towns are inferior, the basic attitude of many people who live in these areas can prevent growth from happening. I think that growth in a small town requires citizens of that town to take what they have and improve it. This idea can be extended all the way up the ladder. Instead of taking the old strip mall and doing something with it, more trees are cut down for a different, newer one a mile down the road. The old one is left there to rot, with the empty buildings attracting vandals and the empty parking lots taking up space.
Thanks to anyone who has read this rant. Moneill, this post is not in opposition to your comment, but an attempt to shed some light on why small towns have died over the last 40 years. For the most part you are right when you say that people are leaving these towns because there is no growth. However, the reasons these towns are not growing really wouldn't apply to somewhere like Mt. Pleasant anyway, simply because of its location in relation to Charleston. Mt. Pleasant could slow down on growth, and the most likely outcome would be a state of stasis. It's doubtful that a town like Mt. Pleasant could actually regress, like most small towns have. The agrarian aspect of Mt. Pleasant, although severely diminished, is kept alive by the tourist industry and the proximity of farmer's markets that cater to a large urban population. Mt. Pleasant has been able to keep a "main street" feel in many neighborhoods because of, once again, the tourist industry. Some specialty shops and other local businesses can rely on the local population and adventurous tourists to support them in spite of big box stores. Wealthy homeowners have contributed to this as well in areas such as the Old Village and I'On.
I am ambivalent about the growth of Mt. Pleasant. I don't live there, but I travel there fairly often for work and pleasure. But I can see the development of Mt. Pleasant mirroring that of Summerville and North Charleston. My only hope is that, 50 years or more down the road, urban and suburban sprawl doesn't blanket this area like the cancer that is Los Angeles.
You didn't say anything contradicting what I said..you just expanded on the points. Of course there are many factors that contribute to the demise of a small town. I simply stated that I would rather be in a growing town with growing problems rather than a small town with zero growth and other troubles.
The planning and execution of improved infrastructure is poor everywhere around here.
Not just around here. Every municipality struggles with the planning & execution of infrastructure. Financial resources are limited for municipalities even in the bet of economic times.
Having lived in a small town for a big part of my life I love seeing some growth that is done well, as in Mt. Pleasant.
I think the way everything is nestled in makes the area quite beautiful.
Your road improvement is going slow but things should look up when all of that construction is done.
When living in my small town I really wished for some growth. It took us forever to get to a store we needed.
I think personally that Mt. Pleasant is giving its residents every store and shopping area they need.
I don't get the feel of poor planning when I drive around your area at all. Its quite beautiful how so much greenery surrounds the buildings. I love it.
My dad moved us to a similar "boom town" (Huntsville, Al) in the 60's with phenomenal growth similar to what Mt P is going thru, but under totally different circumstances. It was basically a military base (Redstone Arsenal) that tested rocket engines; going to the moon was of vast importance in those days. Scientists, NASA, Boeing, and all the other gov't sub-contractors moved in at a fast pace, also computers were the hot up-and-coming technology used on these ventures, so we also had IBM, Wang (any one recall that old computer company?) and their people moving there all at the same time. We went from a small town to a huge city in less than a decade.
If Mt P ends up anything like Huntsville did after 50yrs, it will spread out past Huger and McClellansville.
The major difference is that Mt P's growth isn't coming from employment.
So where is it coming from?
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