While Charleston is a favorite destination for travel writers, its neighbor to the north doesn't get the same reviews.
In fact, Peter Greenberg has his won caveat about North Charleston -- don't go there.
It's the crime, Greenberg says, which puts North Chuck in the same breath as Detroit, East St. Louis, and Birmingham -- good places to avoid.
Of North Charleston, Greenberg wrote, "(its) identity includes a lot of drug-related crimes: homicides, shootings, stabbings, robberies."
Greenberg, who is a fixture on The Today Show, outlines his misgivings in his book, "Don't Go There: The Travel Detective's Essential Guide to the Must-Miss Places of the World."
Greenberg has a reputation as one of the more straight-ahead travel writers around; while many will gladly become shills or bend the truth for a price, the word on Greenberg is that he doesn't go that route.
North Charleston's Mayor Keith Summey's response was to call for a boycott of The Today Show and its advertisers.
"That jerk has never even been to our city, and he can keep his butt where he is," Summey says. "We don't want him here."
I always did like Summey. He's not one to keep his opinions to himself or his mouth shut.
North Chuck does have an image problem, and an identy problem. It's a separate city with its own government, and despite some gains here and there it's still considered the armpit of the Lowcountry. It's like every metropolitan area has a dumping ground, a place to put the paper mills, heavy industries, and people gentrified out of existence, and North Chareston it the place here. It's true there's no such place as "away," and in this case, "away" is North Chuck.
I mentioned some gains here. A year ago, North Charleston was ranked seventh most dangerous place to live. This year it ranks 10th in that dubious department. North Charleston is also the leader in retail revenue in South Carolina, and the area is looking much better than it did years ago. In this space I've mentioned new development in the Park Circle area and, most notably, the new construction going on at the old Navy Base.
OK, these are gains, but be honest. It takes a few years to graduate from armpit status to whatever the next step is. It's nice to know, though, that the arrow is pointing in the right direction.
The truth is, the traveler doesn't realize it's nearly impossible to bypass North Charleston to get to the good stuff on the peninsula. The airport is located in North Charleston, as is the Amtrak station. Interstate 26 cuts right through it. And, unless you can afford lodging rates downtown (and most can bankrupt a small country), you'll probably be staying in North Charleston.
The city is a little hard to avoid. For the time being, you might want to lock your doors.
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Other tidbits from Greenberg's book:
Worst airports: O'Hare, Miami, Cincinnati, Atlanta, LaGuardia. I can personally vouch for one of those there, having spent 10 hours at O'Hare while my connecting flight was being delayed. And I was lucky. My brother and his family ended up staying there overnight, and he wondered if he needed to file state taxes in Illinois.
Worst pollution: Vermont (really?) gets abysmal scores here, with 126 polluted rivers and lakes. "If you jump into Lake Champlain, you might want to read the book first," Greenberg says.
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