Gregorie Running Against Legacy Projects

CHARLESTON - After spending a 32-year career as a federal employee, from an intern to the head of the Department of Housing and Urban Develpment's Columbia office, Charleston mayoral candidate Dudley Gregorie hopes voters now will hire him to head up the city.

It's his second run for the city's top office.

"I ran in 2007 on a change platform, and I continue to run on it," Gregorie said.

For Gregorie the change he is looking for is not just a change in personnel, but a change in priorities.

"Instead of investing in legacy projects, it is investing in projects that positively affect Charleston residents and improve their quality of life," he said. "Especially infrastructure, I'll put that and improving the quality of life needs first."

Always a manager, Gregorie said his first order of business if elected would be to determine the city's most pressing needs and address them accordingly.

"To determine the city's needs, the first thing is to assess all city departments to see if the current management structure is best," he said. "We had some problems in the fire department, we need to determine if similar problems exist in other departments. We need to rid ourselves of mismanagement, waste or duplication of services."

Gregorie said the city also needs to stop stifling businesses. He contends that it simply takes too long to set up a new business in Charleston, due to the requirements for various permits and other paperwork.

"We need to get out of the way of job creation and growth by cutting red tape, especially in economic development," he said. "I really believe business knows best what it needs to grow."

Gregorie, who is currently serving in his third year on City Council as the District 6 Representative, has not voted for any of the city budgets. Gregorie said all of them included either a tax increase or an increase in franchise fees.

"We need to find other ways of getting revenue," he said.

One avenue he suggests pursuing for increased city funds is to ask the S.C. General Assembly to give the city a per-passenger fee from the cruise industry that now calls on Charleston. He also said the city should begin collecting on the $23 million in outstanding loans from the development of the Charleston Place Hotel on King Street.

Gregorie said he would also put a halt to litigation aimed at stopping James Island from incorporating, saying current Mayor Joe Riley has wasted thousands of dollars in the thrice successful efforts.

"I believe in self determination," Gregorie said. "We shouldn't be involved in lawsuits to prevent that."

On another issue important to those on John's Island and James Island, the completion of I-526, Gregorie thinks the state should look closely at the existing road networks on the islands to see if they can be used or modified to accomplish the same thing as finishing the freeway loop.

"We should see if we can do something with the existing infrastructure before we invest half a billion dollars in something new," he said.

Gregorie said he also has been an ardent supporter and champion of installing more bicycle and pedestrian lanes throughout the city, and he continues to see such efforts as having positive effects on the city's quality of life.

But without jobs to support the residents, that quality of life will decline regardless of how many bike lanes line area roadways, he said.

He also said it is imperative that Charleston Harbor get dredged deeply enough to accommodate the larger Panamax cargo ships that will be used once work to upgrade the Panama Canal is finished later this decade.

"It's just as big as Boeing," Gregorie said about the harbor project noting that accommodating the larger ships will mean hundreds of job for longshoremen and hundreds of other jobs in other industries that depend on the port.