If folks will get on board, Columbia’s best future will be found along its riverfront | Opinion

Develop that riverfront

Columbia’s future relies on embracing and developing its riverfront.

For the locals not on board with that, it is time for a reality check.

The City of Columbia and the University of South Carolina know that long-term development must move west to the river. Proposed riverfront parks and USC’s Master Plan show that local leaders know this to be true.

Columbians bristle at being seen as third-in-line for hospitality and tourism behind Greenville and Charleston in our state, but why has Greenville been able to garner the fantastic reputation they have?

They spent millions of dollars turning their downtown into a restaurant and retail paradise on the Reedy River.

By removing roadways and developing a public park, Greenville turned a normal main street into their crown jewel, bringing hundreds of millions in private investment to the area.

But when Columbia announces a private investment along the river that will stimulate the economy, bring people downtown and show off our best natural asset? Online petitions and thousands of comments in protest.

If Columbia wants to be seen as a legitimate destination in our state, Columbians need to support riverfront development for decades to come.

Finn Owen, Columbia

Animals and pickleball?

Note: The writer is a former longtime resident of Columbia who now lives in North Carolina.

I lived in the Columbia area for 28 years and always enjoyed Riverbanks Zoo.

When I lived in West Columbia, I often heard monkey chatter and the roar of lions since sound carried across the river.

The proposed pickleball complex is concerning from the standpoint of noise.

Nationally, many communities are in lawsuits over the relentless volume of the game.

Obviously, human neighbors along the river will suffer if the proposed complex is built, but it seems almost abusive to expose our zoo animals to a constant barrage of whacking and cheering every day, all day long.

I hope Riverbanks has a say in this debate.

Janna McMahan, Raleigh

Amend transgender bill

I am a young LGBTQ+ Democrat, but I am strongly opposed to the idea of minors receiving gender transition surgeries.

That is why I support the majority of the language in South Carolina House Bill 4624 (H.4624), which was recently pre-filed by some Republican lawmakers, but I cannot support the bill as written because it would force educators to out students who are questioning their gender to their parents.

There are some cases in which information a student tells a teacher should stay between them. And I know good and well that most people would not have wanted their teacher to tell their parents everything they told them when they were in school.

I know most parents just want what is best for their kids and that’s why parents should create an environment in which their kids know their parents will love them no matter what and their kids want to come out to them.

In my opinion, lawmakers should amend H. 4624 and remove points 2/B of section two of the bill and pass the rest of the bill.

Hayden G Laye, Walhalla

Tax ammunition

I urge our representatives at the State House to vote down a bill by Rep. Ashley Trantham (R-Greenville) to make small arms ammunition non-taxable.

Let’s use the tax on ammunition to fund better policing or to pay the hospital bills of people, often children, who are shot by accident.

Elizabeth Russell, Columbia