Senate Update: Communities must step up for I-95 corridor plan

It is said that you must be the change that you want to see in the world.

Researchers reached a similar conclusion in a report offering strategies to improve the conditions of the economy and residents along South Carolina’s Interstate 95 corridor.

“(W)e recommend that communities in the Corridor stop waiting for the state to step up its commitments and instead look inward for the energy and direction needed for regional development,” wrote the researchers from RTI International, a nonprofit research organization based in North Carolina.

The report, “Creating Greater Opportunity in South Carolina’s I-95 Corridor: A Human Needs Assessment,” was released in December by Francis Marion University and South Carolina State University. The report’s authors states it provides “a blueprint for addressing the social and economic needs of the I-95 Corridor.”

The 189-page report, funded by the General Assembly, is touted as the “first detailed and comprehensive analysis of the region.”

The I-95 Corridor stretches for nearly 200 miles from the North Carolina border to the Georgia border. The 17-county region has nearly a million residents, or more than a fifth of the state’s population.

The study identified six fundamental needs and offered strategies to address them. Communities within the corridor were urged to:

• Build local capacity and leadership
• Develop a regional economic perspective
• Improve and extend the education system
• Close the infrastructure gap
• Modernize state and local finance structures
• Target disparities in health and social services

With Francis Marion and S.C. State providing leadership, officials within the region plan to set priorities and establish strategies to implement recommendations. The universities, which are located in counties within the corridor, serve as focal points for bringing about positive change.

The problems that plague many of our citizens across the state seem to be exacerbated within the I-95 corridor, according to the report.

The region contains some of the state’s poorest counties and logs some of South Carolina’s highest unemployment rates. Marion County, for example, had a December unemployment rate of 22.6 percent, the second-highest in the state for that month.

While urging the region to take the initiative in shaping its future, the report also calls for the state to become more of a partner in its success. “(A)t the same time, the state should step forward and support this effort with targeted investments that reflect the importance of boosting the Corridor’s overall development,” the report states.

In other words, we’re all in this together. But we cannot afford to wait for someone else to solve our problems for us. We have the capacity to begin to implement change – a change that begins with us.

Contact Sen. Williams at his Columbia office located at 602 Gressette Office Building at (803) 212-6008 or by fax at (803) 212-6011. His district office is located at 137 Airport Road, Suite J, Mullins, SC 29574, the phone number is (843) 423-8237 and the fax number is (843) 431-6049 or email WILLIAMSK@scsenate.org.