Last month, I visited Charleston for the Democratic debate. Here are my thoughts on the debate itself. The next day, I got to walk around historic Charleston. It has some beautiful old Southern houses, and some great commercial streets with historic brightly colored townhouses. For a small city, it has some pedestrian activity in the evenings, though the jobs aren’t downtown except for those around tourism, so during the day the city is very quiet.

I also noticed (but couldn’t get good pictures) that when you get just a short ways outside the city, the buildings deteriorate very quickly to run-down warehouses with poorly maintained sidewalks. The neighborhoods change from rich and white to poor and black quite quickly (and then surrounded by suburbs).

Continue the conversation about urbanism in the Washington region and support GGWash’s news and advocacy when you join the GGWash Neighborhood!

Tagged: charleston, photography, photos, urban design

David Alpert created Greater Greater Washington in 2008 and was its executive director until 2020. He formerly worked in tech and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco Bay, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He lives with his wife and two children in Dupont Circle.