On today's show: 1. For the 13th Time in 14 years, Charleston Voted the Best Small City in the U.S. by Condé Nast Traveler Readers - https://holycitysinner.com/news/for-the-13th-time-in-14-years-charleston-voted-the-best-smal 2. South Carolina extends voter registration deadline after hurricane - https://abcnews4.com/news/local/south-carolina-extends-voter-registration-deadline-after-hurricane-wciv-abc-news-4-lowcountry-early-voting-in-person-mail-in-ballot-absentee-ballot-nov-5-presidential-election 3. Union agrees to suspend ports strike, Charleston workers to return Friday - https://www.live5news.com/2024/10/04/union-agrees-suspend-ports-strike-charleston-workers-return-friday/ 4. Helene's South Carolina death toll has surpassed 1989's Hurricane Hugo. It could continue to rise - https://www.postandcourier.com/environment/hurricane-helene-south-carolina-greenville-spartanburg/article_20cbb568-7f44-11ef-86c8-a706dbd65f9f.html 5. Court dismisses Alex Murdaugh's appeal of 40-year sentence for financial crimes - https://abcnews4.com/news/local/court-dismisses-alex-murdaughs-appeal-of-40-year-sentence-for-financial-crimes-wciv-abc-news-4-judge-gergel-fourth-circuit-court-of-appeals-united-states-attorney-for-the-district-of-south-carolina-adair-boroughs 6. Charleston Mayor Cogswell proposes tiny homes for unhoused men, seeks regional support - https://abcnews4.com/news/local/charleston-mayor-cogswell-proposes-tiny-homes-for-unhoused-men-seeks-regional-support-abc-news-4# This episode's music is by Tyler Boone (tylerboonemusic.com). The episode was produced by LMC Soundsystem.
Holy City Sinner Radio
Episode 300 - For the 13th Time in 14 years, Charleston Voted the Best Small City in the U.S - (10/9/24)
Holy City Center radio is episode 300 and I am your host Christian Sanger. Today is Wednesday, October 9th, 20, 24. [MUSIC] That's right, the big 300, 300 of these things done in the books. Well, this one's about to be anyway, that's insane to me. I know they're quick episodes, they're not these huge in depth things like our interview. So, when you're doing three a week, it adds up pretty quick, but still it's a huge number. And whatever number of those 300 you were on, whether you are a crazy person and have listened to all 300, just kidding, I appreciate you if you did. Or if you've only listened to a handful, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thank you so much, wild to me that a few years in here, we've got 300 total episodes just talking about Charleston and Charleston things. Of course, sometimes some national stuff as well, but I wouldn't be doing this. If one, it wasn't fun and I do enjoy doing it and however many people listen is good with me, whether it's one or a million and nowhere near a million of course. But I just greatly appreciate anyone who's listened, whether it's just for a few moments or several episodes, whatever it may be, thank you so much. Before we get into the latest news, I have lots to catch you up on. There was no episode on Monday because I am bad at planning. I forgot that I planned on going to the Lewis Hatch Chili Roast on Sunday, not realizing that I would put a decent dent in my weekend or on my Sunday rather when I normally record Monday's episode, and by the time I was ready to get home, I beloved New York Giants who finally won another game. They won a couple this year, but it's been a little hit or miss, but they won a very exciting game against Seattle. It was well past time to let my poor producer, Lindsey Marie Collins, who has had to listen to all 300 of these episodes far too late, and at that point, I'm tired, it was a long day for me. The Hatch Chili Roast was awesome if you're not familiar with it. John Lewis, who is behind Lewis Barbeque and Rancho Lewis here in town, puts us on. I think this was the sixth one. It's a really cool event where it's all centered around the Hatch Chili, which is a green chili that has been made famous because it's grown in Hatch, New Mexico. It's a big deal out there. John Lewis loves this chili. He incorporates it in some dishes at Rancho Lewis and Lewis Barbeque sometimes, and then hosts this annual event where a ton of local restaurants get involved. They each offer some kind of small offering, just little bites, little samples of some kind of dish that involves this Hatch Chili. It can be anything from in past. I remember someone made an ice cream one time, so it can be pretty creative or it can be something a little bit more standard and regardless, it's all delicious. The best part, all the food's free. There's a suggested donation of $10 to each year, they have different charities. They do suggest that, but people, you don't have to, if you don't want to, you don't have to give to any, you can give less, you can give more, you can give nothing if you really truly don't want to donate. It's all free to try out these bites. There was a couple things like, I think what's at King of Pops was there, there was a cotton candy vendor. You had to pay for those, if you wanted any adult beverages, you had to pay for those, but they had water was free, bottled water was just in those round containers all throughout. The property, which is where Rancho Lewis is, and the Edmundsos Brewing Company, Pacific Box and Crete, I think is the official name of that little plaza or whatever you want to call it off of Upper King Street, but had a blast, got the try, all sorts of different samples, everything from sausage that had cheese and the hatched green chilies cooked into it, which was phenomenal. They had nachos where you get some nacho cheese, and they had three different types of chili sauces that you could try, some hot, some not. There was a meatball made with the chilies from Renzo, and just all sorts of other stuff. Now, they had a lot of vendors, they had a group in the morning, I shouldn't say morning, it started at one, the first portion of the day, then they swapped them out for some others. So I didn't get to try everything, which would have been amazing, but it was a great time. Weather was pretty good, a little warm out there, a little sweaty, but hey, it wasn't too too bad, and I'm not going to complain getting all that free food. So yeah, it was a great day, got to see some friends and hang out with them and then watch the Giants game with them afterwards, which was a lot of fun as well. So had a fun weekend, that is why there was no Monday episode. I hope you don't mind, just delayed this 300th until today. And without any further delay, let's get you into the latest news. So first, I'm not going to get in great detail here, because so much can change in a few hours, let alone, you know, many hours, when I'm recording this in the afternoon, when you listen to this, there could be a ton of changes in the forecast, but obviously everyone is keeping an eye on Hurricane Milton, just right on the heels of Hurricane Helene, poor Florida is going to get hit again now, granted different areas, and thankfully the current forecast has this hurricane missing us. And more importantly, you know, missing the people north of us, you know, western South Carolina, North Carolina places, it just got hammered by Helene and are still recovering. But Florida has a lot of places that still have a lot of debris out there that can get extremely dangerous when the storm comes through, you know, they're frantically trying to clean up, but they also are forcing evacuations, because this thing is a monster. It's a category five. As of this recording, current forecasts have it becoming a category three when it makes landfall around Tampa. So it's it's going to be a big storm. I'm sure I mean, it already is gigantic, but it's it's going to cause a lot of damage. And I'm sure you've seen some of the things on the news, local officials, meteorologists, they're not mincing words. This is a big deal. So my thoughts are with anybody who is in Florida, hopefully, if you know anybody there and they're in the path of the storm, they're getting a hell out of there because this has potential to be quite devastating, just horrible that you know, these things happen, of course, but to come on the heels of a storm that some areas are still recovering from. And now either they're going to get hit a little bit again, you know, places, you know, like us, we got out fine in the Charleston area for the most part, but you know, we still may see some, you know, inclement weather. Thankfully, like I said, it looks like rain, maybe maybe some strong winds. So, you know, again, you don't want to, you know, underestimate these things. But you know, certainly thankful that we appear to be nowhere near the worst of it. So in any event, hopefully, if you know anybody in that area, they're getting out and they're getting to a safe place and just, you know, kind of hoping against hope at this point that something happens with the forecast was just wrong for some reason or the storm does something unexpected and, you know, drops to lesser category strength, you know, these things tend to be pretty spot on, you know, give or take, you know, they sometimes might say it's going to like make landfall at this city, but then, you know, maybe it's another city that's a few miles away, but you know, close enough. So but I'm just hoping against hope it's not as bad as they're predicting. So just wanted to touch on that and I will have an update on Hurricane Helene in a moment, a lot of restaurants and businesses in town are still collecting donations and materials to get to places like North Carolina. I'm continually posting them on holy city center dot com and on social media. So keep an eye on that if you want to help out. And unfortunately, I'm sure it's going to be weeks and weeks where restaurants and businesses are going to continue to do that. But this time, we're also going to have to, you know, look at probably Florida needing some assistance as well. So keep an eye on that. But that is where we're at right now. Hopefully it won't be as horrible as it seems it's going to be. So fingers crossed, and I'm sure we'll have an update on the next podcast. All right, moving on to better news, although I guess, I mean, certainly better than talking about a hurricane, but it might not be thrilling news to everyone. For the third consecutive year, in the 13th time in the last 14 years, Charleston has been named the best small city in the United States, according to Conde Nast Traveler Magazine's 2024 Readers Choice Awards. Yes, yes, I know I can hear most of you groaning, saying, Oh, we're full, don't tell people. We don't need. Look, I get it. These things were really exciting when Charleston was winning them, you know, 13 years ago, 10 years ago, because you're like, yeah, darn right. This place that I call home, I have chosen to either in some cases, if you were born here, stay here. If you came from somewhere else, you decided to stay here, like darn right, now everybody else knows what I know. But then after a while, you're like, okay, all right, well, you know, we have to win it every year, you know, we don't have to keep telling people how great we are. We've got a good amount of people and a good amount of tourists here really need to keep this thing going. And so I get it, trust me. And yeah, people do take these awards seriously. The readers' choice awards are pretty much regarded, you know, as one of the most, I don't know if they're the most viewed or the most respected, but it's the longest running. And you know, certainly a lot of cities believe this to be a prestigious recognition. And it leads to an influx of tourists, which of course brings dollars to certain cities. So, you know, there is that, but so in that event, sorry to be the bearer of that kind of bad news for those of you who are just like, oh, no, come on, please stop talking about these things. Please stop winning awards. I wouldn't expect it to stop anytime soon though, so you might as well just resign. We all might as well just resign ourselves to the fact that the secret is not just out, but it's not even a secret anymore, that the city is pretty great. And there's just going to keep bringing more people here and it doesn't look like any of that's going to change. All right, a couple updates involving Hurricane Helene. What involves voting, South Carolina's voter registration deadline for the upcoming election has actually been extended. This happened on Friday after ruling by Circuit Court Judge Daniel Coble. This was all confirmed by the Charleston County Board of Voter Registration and Elections. So, if you're not registered to vote, and by the way, if you're not sure, and even if you're pretty sure, go check because there's times where people like that, I'm registered and they'll go look and something has happened. They've been removed from the voter rule for some reason, or maybe the address is out of date, doesn't match your driver's license. Go check. Places like CHS Votes is a great website that you can go to and check. I think there's SC Votes as well. I mean, there's tons of websites that you can check your voter registration on. Please do so because we're running out of time. Very quickly, Monday, October 14th, is now the last day to register to vote. So you can vote in the upcoming election on Tuesday, November 5th. So again, you have until Monday, October 14th to register. Go check to make sure you are, even if you're pretty sure. I checked mine last week, just for hahahas, just because I knew I was going to say that to you all. You know, I was like, you don't want to practice what I preach. And I checked. I'm good to go. Awesome. But if you're not, you only have a handful of days to get this thing done. So why did this happen? Well, the state's Democratic Party actually filed a lawsuit on Friday seeking an extension due to the destruction caused by Hurricane Helene. So obviously they're just, hey, people are dealing with something that we're expecting to can throw off plans. Let's make sure they have the opportunity to register to vote. Obviously, the judge agreed. And that's why the extension is now October 14th. Go check. Make sure you're registered. This is a big election. I know we've been saying that for many of these elections, but be sure to check and get registered if you're not already. Another story that thankfully didn't drag on a lot of ports on the East Coast specifically, workers were going on strike last week. And this could have been a huge deal where it dragged on for a while, could have potentially affected deliveries of all manner of things, which also, depending on how long it went, could have affected stuff getting delivered that's meant for the places that were hit by the hurricane. But thankfully, the Union for over 45,000 U.S. dock workers agreed to suspend what was a three-day strike until January to negotiate a new contract after reaching a tentative deal last Thursday. So good news there. After three days, and you may have seen the strikers, the picketers I did when I was driving downtown on Morrison, Morrison Drive, I did see them out there and thankfully the strike is over, they have a tentative deal in place, that's good news. So the Union, the International Longshoremen's Association started working immediately after this was announced. And this temporary end to the strike came after the Union and the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents ports and shipping companies, reached that agreement on wages and both the Union and the ports released a joint statement saying that. One of our local news stations here, LifeIVE News, spoke to someone who was briefed on the agreement and gave them some details, but they didn't want to be identified because the agreement was tentative so they didn't want their name out there. But according to this, the ports kind of sweetened their wage offer from about 50% over six years to 62%. So that was a nice increase that the workers were happy to see. And any wage increase would have had to be approved by Union members as part of this ratification of a final contract. So it appears everyone's on board and the strike is over. Now there could be some holdups with some details and things, but it seems like they've come to enough an agreement where they believe that both sides will be happy with what's happened. So good news on that front for sure, although you may have seen the news that some, you know, tractor trailer, truck drivers, you know, they are talking about going on strike as well. So there's that that is now out there. When there's more information on that strike, I'll be sure to pass it along. Did want to update another Helene story. I should have mentioned this earlier, but had forgotten about it. And I had mentioned on a previous podcast that Helene was on pace to surpass the death toll of Hurricane Hugo, which happened in 1989, and a lot of you know how devastating of a storm that was, especially in the Charleston area. So to hear that this storm, you know, the most recent one, Hurricane Helene was going to surpass that was somewhat surprising. But then again, once you started seeing some of the devastation in places like North Carolina, it didn't seem to be such an out there concept. Now we haven't seen quite the level of destruction, you know, we're talking about whole towns wiped out in certain parts of North Carolina, but obviously parts of South Carolina did have devastation. They are still picking up. They are still there are places that still don't have internet or power still not the most reliable thing right now. So clearly, although here in Charleston, we kind of breathe a sigh of relief and went along business as usual, other parts of the state were certainly struggling and we're seeing that as we, you know, this Hurricane Alina is now officially passed Hugo in terms of deaths here in the state. Last I saw I was 48 or 49 people in South Carolina had died, which puts us again ahead of what Hugo's totals were. So a sad mark to be hit and, you know, here's just hoping that we've hit the end of that count and we're not going to have any more and also hoping the same for the other states that have been hit by it as well. What would be a Holy City Center radio update podcast without something from the Murdoch Murders and associated trials while we have one, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the government's motion last Tuesday to dismiss convicted killer Alec Murdock's appeal of his federal sentence for financial crimes. You may remember that addition to being convicted of the murder murders, excuse me, of his wife and one of his sons, Alec Murdock also faced a ton of financial crimes, you know, that he also had a court case for, he ultimately pled guilty to, not in every case, you know, there's some other civil cases and stuff like that, but he basically said, "Hey, no, I'm going to plead guilty. I admit I did this. I'm sorry." And he was also trying to use that to say, "See, when I commit a crime, I will admit to it. I didn't actually commit those murders. I'm still saying I had nothing to do with those, but yes, I did the financial crimes." After getting a sentence, Murdock and his team said it was basically amounted to a life sentence, you know, based on how much penalty he was given, and they felt that that was excessive, you know, for financial crime to essentially go to jail for the rest of your life. And so they were appealing it. Well, that appeal was denied, as I just mentioned. So in the order, the three-judge panel concluded that Murdock knowingly and voluntarily waved his right to appeal after reviewing the record in both sides submissions. So basically they're saying, "Hey, you had a chance to deny this. You had a chance to change things. You reviewed everything and went forward with it. Sorry. You don't get a chance to appeal." So as I mentioned before, you know, Murdock had this pretty long sentence for financial crimes. US District Judge Richard M. Gurgle sentenced Murdock to 40 years for those crimes on April 1st. Obviously, he was already serving a life sentence for the murders. So I mean, you know, he was already in jail for life anyway, but there are still trying to, you know, work on some possible appeals for that. So of course, the hope was, "Hey, if we can get a lesser sentence for these financial crimes, who knows if something gets overturned or there's a retrial order for the murders, you know, could possibly get out of jail way earlier than we thought." So that was part of that thought process as well. But ultimately, as I said, the appeal did not go through. So in addition to those 40 years, Murdock was also ordered to pay over $8.7 million in restitution and $10 million in forfeiture. So again, as far as the financial crimes are concerned, and at this moment, the appeal was denied, that sentence is still in place. We're still waiting for the murder trial appeal that involves a clerk of court. You may remember all that. And of course, I will keep you updated whenever there are some new news. So that part of the punishment as well as the 40 years in jail have been upheld at this point. The appeal was denied. Obviously, we still have this murder conviction out there that's being appealed because of the actions of a clerk of court that Murdock's team has alleged may have influenced the jury. So we'll see what happens there. And of course, when there are any updates, I'll be sure to pass them along here on this podcast. And the last update, I just found this kind of interesting. I hadn't heard of this before, although it appears other cities in other states have done this. But Charleston City Mayor William Cogswell recently presented to the community this project that aims to use smaller model homes, basically, I mean, even less than tiny houses, like smaller than tiny houses that they hope will help the community temporarily, at least with unhoused men specifically. So we'll get into why it's just men in a moment. So these structures, like I said, they're small in a tiny house. They can fit just a bed, a table, an air conditioning. And the plan is to have these available to unhoused men that they will be able to temporarily stay in the mayor's plan, which has been called the Low Country Rapid House. Housing Initiative would put 118 tiny houses on city-owned land around Harman Street in downtown Charleston, but they would be available to use by people throughout the area for just around 90 days. So this is very much a temporary project, although, depending on how it goes, it could be expanded. The plan would ultimately be a shared cost of more than $5 million for the first year and around $1.5 million each year after, again, considering that this would continue after that 90 days. So there was a group meeting about this. Nothing is finalized on this project at all. So this could just go up and smoke and not end up happening. It could go down just the way I described it. There's a lot to go on. And if you're interested in learning more, in addition to, of course, going to the city website and looking into it, there is going to be another group meeting on this potential project on December 1st, so there'll be another chance for the community to ask questions. And some of the questions they asked were basically, you know, some people gave where this is just a band-aid, which the mayors seem to acknowledge and said, "Yeah, we're just trying something. There's not going to be a cure-all for unhoused people." So we're just trying new things to help them, you know, keep them safe, get them off the streets, you know, especially at night, and just try to help them in any way we can. Other people ask why women and children were not included in this project. And although I didn't, unfortunately, don't have the answer to that. I'm guessing, number one, in this town, the most unhoused people are men, so that might be a chunk of it. You know, this may have just been the easiest way for them to pilot this program. It's just a single individual going into these tiny homes that only have one bed anyway, so it might just be the easiest way for them to kind of pilot this, is what my guess would be. But for more information, and I hope there is an actual official explanation for that, again, will be in these other group meetings and things. So just an interesting plan. I honestly don't know what to think of this. I appreciate the mayor looking into some new way to help unhoused people in this city. I don't have any knowledge about how this has gone in other cities. It's something I plan on looking into, kind of understand it more. What exactly is the plan with these structures? Have there been any incidents or problems with these? How exactly is this whole thing going to work? So still a lot to be worked out. But this was the first public meeting where they were first getting a look at this low country rapid housing initiative. I'm sure there'll be plenty of updates at that December 1 meeting. I'm sure they took in some comments and questions from the audience, and it will adjust the plan accordingly. Just like everything else, I'll be sure to keep you up to date. And that will do it for this edition of Holy City Center Radio. Thank you so much for listening to this episode and also a big thank you to Lindsay Marie Collins with LMC Soundsystem, who has produced this and the 299 other episodes before it. And also Tyler Boone, whose music you've heard in each and every one of those episodes as well. If you want to say thank you for, you know, just give me a little pat on the back. Go ahead and like, rate, subscribe, review, whatever you can do for this podcast. I would appreciate it. You can also go that extra mile and go to patreon.com/holycitycenter. Have a great rest of your week. I'm sure you'll be keeping an eye on Hurricane Milton. I will be doing the same. Like I said, I hope if you have any family, friends in that area, they're getting out and any property or anything that they have left behind gets through the storm. You know, again, we're just hoping against hope. It's not as bad as it potentially is projected to be. So I'm sure we'll be talking about that on Friday's episode. So all of you stay safe out there. Pay attention to the weather updates, although it seems like we're going to be fine as far as extreme weather. It still could be inclement, which means there's always that chance, trees, branches, things like that could fall with high winds and things. So just be careful, listen to all, you know, local meteorologists and local news and just stay safe out there. So I'll be back on Friday. Until then, good night and good luck. [MUSIC]