To live in Charleston is to know what it means to be at the whim of Mother Earth. As a coastal city our livelihood is connected to the water, be it through fishing or tourism or trade. But as much as the water presents opportunity, it is also a very real threat to all of us here in the Charleston area. And our house meeting stories showed how serious the threat of sea-level rise and climate change are to our beloved Lowcountry. We heard stories of flooding during high tide or rainstorms. Stories of costly storm evacuations. Stories of ever-present mold in homes. Stories of astronomical utility bills. Stories of difficulty finding fresh and affordable food.
The good news is that there are solutions to these problems, and on October 25, 2021 CAJM voted to do what CAJM does best: research a solution and build enough people power to win that solution for our community.
CAJM opposes the development of the WestEdge apartment, office and retail complex plan to cap off and obliterate Gadsden Creek and its surrounding wetlands and build a massive, 12-story complex that will hover over a residential area, blocking breezes from the Ashley River and creating a heat island. Gadsden Creek is one of the last tidal creek’s on the peninsula and is located in Gadsden Green, a historically African AMerican neighborhood that has been the recipient of environmental justice for over 50 years in Charleston.
In the 1940s, owner-occupied housing was destroyed, and a segregated federal housing project was built. In the 1950s, the city landfill that led to the pollution of Gadsden Creek was built in the same area. In the 1960s, the Crosstown connector to U.S. Highway 17 brought further destruction and split the neighborhood.
Now, WestEdge claims that the landfill must be covered with buildings to stop it from polluting Gadsden Creek, citing biased and misleading studies. A credible study conducted by Engineer Joshua Robinson is available here.
Mayor William Cogswell has committed to restoring and revitalizing the creek. In June 2024, CAJM leaders conducted a walk along Gadsden Creek with the Mayor to emphasize the importance of saving the creek. The mayor reaffirmed his commitment to protecting the creek and noted that he is looking into funding sources that would help revitalize the creek. That same summer, the Supreme Court made the wrong decision to allow the State Department of Health and Environmental Control to issue permits for filling the creek.
However, this does not mean Charleston has to move forward with developing this historic waterway. We are calling on the City of Charleston to remain true to the mayor’s committment of preserving and revitalizing Gadsden Creek so that the neighborhood can be safe from increased flooding and can maintain an essential natural resource.
The time has passed for Charleston to bemoan past wrongs while inflicting new wrongs on any community.
The restoration of Gadsden Creek will be a sign to the community that environmental racism is a thing of the past and not simply something that has been repackaged with a new look.