Dangerous Five Points streets finally getting fixed. Here’s why some are upset with the work

Five Points has been an unsafe place to be a pedestrian for years. So unsafe, in fact, that a section of Harden Street was found to be the worst crash site for pedestrians and bicyclists in all of South Carolina in a 2019 transportation study.

After years of knowing about the safety issues, work is now underway to fix them — but not without some mixed feelings about what’s being lost in the midst of the project.

“There was a lot of data that said that it was one of the most dangerous stretches for pedestrians and bicyclists, and immediately people thought, ‘Oh, well, that’s because it’s a college bar area,’” said Steve Cook, who owns Saluda’s Restaurant and is the former president of the Five Points Association. But “that was not the case. It was actually more stuff happened during the day than at night.”

Between 2013 and 2018, there were 232 crashes on a half-mile stretch of Harden Street, and 27 of those incidents led to injuries.

City and state leaders have had the results of the study for half a decade and now, finally, construction on the $5 million overhaul is underway.

Orange cones line the median on Harden Street running through Five Points, as construction crews jack-hammer at cement.

When they’re done, Devine Street will shrink from four lanes to three between Saluda Avenue and Harden Street, and Harden Street will be cut from four lanes to two between Devine and Blossom streets.

There will also be new crosswalks on Harden Street, new foliage and improved pedestrian signals.

The aim is to have the project finished before football season.

But the details of the project have some Five Points leaders divided.

Richard Burts, a Five Points property owner who has run numerous iconic businesses in the district over the years, shared his concerns on Facebook.

“By the time you are in Five Points again, these trees on Harden will likely be gone,” Burts wrote on Facebook along with a photo of a line of trees in the Harden Street median. “As many of you know, I have fought against this part, (the median part), of SCDOT’s project for the last several years. I tried my best and failed.”

Burts has raised an issue over the removal of about a half-dozen trees from the Harden Street median as part of the construction work and wrote that he worries the new median will be a “visual divide/barrier.”

Burts did not respond to a request for an interview from The State by press time.

But comments on Burts’ post showed dozens of residents worried that the Five Points trees won’t be replaced, or that the work would lead to more pavement but less greenery.

“It feels like 5 Points has lost all the charm it once had,” one commenter wrote on Burts’ post.

State Rep. Seth Rose, D-Richland, who helped secure state money for the project, said he thinks concern over the trees’ removal has been overblown because the trees will be replaced with new greenery.

“A tree out is being replaced by a tree in,” Rose said.

The State has asked the Department of Transportation for the exact plans for planting new trees, but the agency did not respond by press time.

“This is a transformative $5 million project. At the public hearings, experts said the existing trees’ root systems would be disturbed (by the construction) and they would not survive because work is also happening underneath the road,” Rose told The State.

“We had to follow the experts’ advice, and so the project was adjusted to have new quality trees planted where the existing ones are located,” Rose added.

Rose stressed that the project relied on extensive public input, and the Department of Transportation held multiple public meetings to get public feedback on the designs.

At one point, the designs called for a fence running down the Harden Street median, but merchants worried that would kill foot traffic for businesses. So that idea was axed and replaced with the DOT’s current plans for the median, which will include replanting trees.

“We just thought that would be terrible for the neighborhood. You don’t want to chop the neighborhood up,” Cook said.

Instead, there will be multiple mid-block crosswalks to help residents safely cross Harden Street, rather than a fence that prevents crossing altogether.

Cook said he supports the project and agrees with Rose that the DOT took a lot of public feedback and made changes to accommodate business owners, like switching from the fence to crosswalks.

He also said he thinks this kind of project is necessary in Five Points not only to increase pedestrian safety, but also connectivity.

“Five Points sometimes feels not as connected,” Cook said.

The Saluda Avenue side of Five Points feels kind of like a town square. There are shops and people sitting outside for lunch, but farther down Harden Street toward Blossom Street, the neighborhood becomes somewhat disjointed and less accessible.

Cook also said that making changes in a neighborhood like Five Points is guaranteed to rile people up because there’s a lot of nostalgia around the district.

“When you talk about changing a neighborhood as iconic as Five Points by putting in new stuff, people want to say, ‘No, no, I love the way it is,’” he said, but added that Five Points could use a fresh coat of paint and new investment, and he thinks the work on Harden Street is a good first step.