This Week in South Carolina: Welcome to our new newsletter

Chase Karacostas
·5 min read

Good afternoon, readers! I’m Chase Karacostas, and I report on tourism and business here in South Carolina for The State and The Sun News in Myrtle Beach. Welcome to This Week in South Carolina, our brand new newsletter where we recap the biggest stories Columbians need to know from around the Palmetto State every Friday.

In this newsletter, you’ll get coverage from across South Carolina — from Greenville to Charleston, Rock Hill to Hilton Head, and everywhere in between. Like what you see? Let me know!

Here are this week’s top stories.

1. All the houses in SC are going, going, gone

A house for sale that’s now under contract in the Market Commons neighborhood of Myrtle Beach, S.C. on April 2, 2021. The Myrtle Beach housing market has exploded in recent months as people seek to leave crowded cities in the northeast during the pandemic.
A house for sale that’s now under contract in the Market Commons neighborhood of Myrtle Beach, S.C. on April 2, 2021. The Myrtle Beach housing market has exploded in recent months as people seek to leave crowded cities in the northeast during the pandemic.

Houses in Myrtle Beach have been selling with lightning speed in recent months. Buyers are ending up in bidding wars and making “risky” purchases, and many sellers have people showing up at their doors hours after putting out a for sale sign. Real estate agents and economists are worried that low- and middle-income locals are getting crowded out of the real estate market.

Real estate sales in Myrtle Beach weren’t always this chaotic, and several real estate agents say they’ve never seen a market with houses selling this fast. How did we get here? I spent two weeks finding out.

Read my two-part series to find out what’s causing Myrtle Beach home prices to skyrocket and who, exactly, is flooding into town.

Real estate drama isn’t just a Myrtle Beach problem, though. The Island Packet’s Katherine Kokal has a wild story about “disturbing” changes that follow the construction of 10-bedroom rentals built in typically quiet Hilton Head neighborhoods.

2. SC doctor, wife, grandchildren, worker killed in York County mass shooting

A prominent Rock Hill doctor and three of his family members were killed in a mass shooting Wednesday.

Dr. Robert Lesslie was medical director of the Emergency Room at Piedmont Medical Center for 15 years before his death. He’d also written a book about emergency room care, which he described to the Rock Hill Herald in 2008 as a learning experience during every shift.

Police named former NFL player Phillip Adams as the suspect. Adams was was found by police in his family’s home, down the street from the shooting site after an eight-hour manhunt. He is believed to have shot himself, according to the York County coroner. His connection to the victims is still unknown.

A fifth person who was killed, not related to the other four, was working at Dr. Lesslie’s home at the time of the shooting.

The mass shooting comes on the heels of others recently in Georgia and Colorado. On Thursday, The Biden administration announced executive actions on gun control in response to the series of shootings.

The Herald’s Andrew Dys and Tobie Nell Perkins have the latest on the aftermath of the Rock Hill shooting.

3. John C. Calhoun is ‘living large’ in Charleston City Hall

In a room connected to Charleston City Council chambers, a life-size portrait of John C. Calhoun, left, looks at a bust of his own likeness. The portrait, which was commissioned by the city in 1850, depicts Calhoun’s last Senate speech. What was painted, though, never happened.
In a room connected to Charleston City Council chambers, a life-size portrait of John C. Calhoun, left, looks at a bust of his own likeness. The portrait, which was commissioned by the city in 1850, depicts Calhoun’s last Senate speech. What was painted, though, never happened.

John C. Calhoun, a notorious supporter of slavery, once called the practice a “positive good” in an 1837 speech as U.S. Senator for South Carolina. For decades, a nearly 13-feet-tall bronze statue of Calhoun stood in the heart of Charleston.

The statue, erected in 1887, now sits alone in a storage unit. But Calhoun still maintains a presence in Charleston City Hall in the form of a life-sized painting and two busts that reside near the City Council chamber and in the mayor’s office.

Today, discussions around Calhoun’s presence inside City Hall are emblematic of challenges the city faces in battling inequality and structural racism.

Learn more about how the city plans to deal with Calhoun, if at all, from The State’s Charleston reporter, Caitlin Byrd.

4. Lynching legacy still affects SC. Greenville honors victims by telling their stories

Lynchings in the 19th century might seem like a long ago occurrence in the United States and South Carolina. But the horrific violence perpetrated by white South Carolinians against Black people didn’t stop in 1900. It continued for decades.

Maxine Moragne heard the tale of how her great-grandfather was lynched by white farmers from her grandfather, who saw the aftermath firsthand. It was a scene that more closely resembled a slaughterhouse than someone’s home.

Today, the Community Remembrance Project of Greenville County wants people to confront South Carolina’s dark past. The group’s hope is that communities can continue to progress beyond the injustices Black people still experience — for example, in areas where lynching was once prevalent, voter registration remains lower today..

Read the full story from The State’s Greenville reporter, Lyn Riddle.

One last thing...

Stan Smith shares a park bench with Kermit the Frog at Bluffton’s Wright Family Park in a newly released ad for Stan Smith shoes by Adidas.
Stan Smith shares a park bench with Kermit the Frog at Bluffton’s Wright Family Park in a newly released ad for Stan Smith shoes by Adidas.

Why did Kermit the Frog hang out in Bluffton with a Hilton Head tennis legend? Stan Smith joined everyone’s favorite green Muppet to promote the new Stan Smith Forever shoe from Adidas — a shoe made from recycled materials with a recycled rubber outsole.

Smith said he and a crew filmed the ad about a month ago on a freezing cold day in Wright Family Park.

“It turned out great, and it’s a nice little park,” Smith said. “And Kermit didn’t have to worry about (the cold).”

The Island Packet’s Katherine Kokal has the tea on how the pair spent their time in the Lowcountry.

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