It is the ability to foresee what steps need to be taken today in order to be successful many, many years later. This is obviously not an easy task and hindsight is always 20/20.

Let’s agree that we live in a wonderful community and that many good things have been achieved in the last 20 years. Would it then not be best to assume that everything is fine and that we can continue to go down the same path as we have been?

In my opinion the answer is clearly no. We have to come to accept that our local economy and our home values are not as strong as they should be.

We missed many opportunities in the past to take actions that could have positively impacted the community’s standing.

Here are a few examples:

  • Why could we not have come to the same conclusions about how to get the airport extension done five or seven years ago? This would have made a big statement of who we are and where we intend to go, which in return would have prompted other investors to consider moving forward with their revitalization plans.
  • Why did we let the Technical College of the Lowcountry move off-island? The town owns 17 acres right next to the ex-campus. This would have been an opportunity for a public-private partnership that would have given that part of town (the Park Plaza area) an anchor tenant and would have revitalized the whole area. Instead we are left with aging office building structures, struggling restaurants and a movie theater that is need of an upgrade. Along with keeping young people here and giving all of us easy access to learning experiences, we could also have given the American Culinary Institute a home. This would have sparked the need to upgrade the already existing affordable housing facilities and would have given our island a vibrant and economically-feasible core. How are we going to attract knowledge-based businesses to our island if all our learning institutes are off-island?
  • On a much smaller scale, there have been efforts in place from engaged citizens to get the town to provide a public water access facility for fishing and crabbing that would also allow a youth-oriented rowing and sailing club to have a home. But for some reason or another after 10 years of discussions and promises, we have not achieved this simple goal despite the fact that the town already owns the land and all that”””””””””””””””’’s needed is a site cleanup, a dock and a permit.
  • What happened to all the great thoughts that went into the “Bridge to the Beach” plans? Why did we miss the opportunity to become a model for an environmentally-sustainable town?

Hilton Head Island had the potential to become a city of the future, but while we were hesitating, our competitors made huge strives. Savannah, Charleston and Kiawah Island are all very different places; but the fact is that they have made more positive progress over the last 20 years than we have.

There is a popular saying here in town: “We do not want to be another Myrtle Beach.” To that I need to ask: When is the last time that you have been to Myrtle Beach? And if you have, did you notice that the old clichés attached to Myrtle Beach do not necessarily longer apply? While I agree that we want to be a very different resort destination, we need to take a look at some things they do better than we do: The citizens, business leaders, town and Chamber work much closer together and align their goals better. In return they have demonstrated that they can get things done. They understand that tourism is their main economic driver (just as it is for us) and invest accordingly. Their marketing budgets (measured on per bed basis) dwarf ours.

It is not too late to take the road that leads to a better future, but it is time that we get going.I’m not blaming town council; I’m blaming all of us. Unless we the citizens speak up and declare our will and understand that we are in need of change, nothing will happen. The solutions are not particularly complicated or costly, but they can only happen if we elect a town council that demonstrates that they understand what has been holding us back in the past.

Marc Frey
Pathfinder

E-mail your thoughts to Marc at mfrey@freymedia.com; or comment on his blog at www.hiltonheadmonthly.com/blogs.