Comment on City officials refuse to meet with West Side groups

By Lori Kersey Charleston city officials say they won't hold public meetings about the progress of a 2008 plan to improve the city's West Side, despite a request from some of the city's black leaders this week. Representatives of the Charleston branch of the NAACP and the Tuesday Morning Group, sent a letter Monday to City Council President Tom Lane asking for meetings on the Charleston Urban Renewal Authority's West Side Community Renewal Plan, which they argue CURA is not following, in violation of state law. "The request for this Plan performance update is both modest, reasonable and in the interest of the public, especially, those citizens residing in the 'footprint' covered by the Plan and given the recent admission by CURA that most of the commissioners have little knowledge about the contents of the Plan or the performance of projects originally made a part of the approved Plan," the letter states, in part.