Years ago Ford Motor Company had a major issue with quality control. Their reputation suffered and consumers began to say their name stood for “Fix Or Repair Daily”. The company went through some significant changes and devoted themselves to one key idea… “At Ford, Quality is Job One”.

It’s about time that City Council realizes that its new mantra needs to be “Public Safety Is Job One” in the City of Columbia. In the last few weeks, there have been two rapes reported in the downtown area… one near the old Tapps and one near St. Peter’s Church.

Last night, I drove those areas, and I have to say that I wouldn’t dare let any female member of my family walk alone down there after dark. Homeless roam the streets. The Main Street thoroughfare is in construction disarray. And in the few minutes I drove around, I saw not one police car.

Now, take a look back two days to Wednesday’s City Council meeting. Council voted to spend $16,000 for Christmas lights for downtown. Where the old Christmas lights went during the Main Street Streetscaping projects, I don’t know. Seems like they could have been saved. But regarding Council’s vote, Councilman E.W. Cromartie told WIS…

“You don’t want to come downtown Columbia and look like it’s dead.”

Cromartie went on to say that Christmas lights will get people, and hopefully their money spent downtown.

“Everyone is trying to engender the spirit of shopping early, and Christmas lights do that.”

Getting people to come downtown and spend money during the Christmas holiday season has nothing to do with Christmas lights Mr. Cromartie. Having a safe and secure shopping environment does.

Police Chief Tandy Carter announced earlier this year his goal to reduce violent crime in this city by 50% in five years, but he can’t do it when our city’s spending priorities are not focused on the number one issue at hand… public safety.

Among mid-to-large-sized cities in this state, North Charleston ranks highest in per capita violent crime, but Columbia doesn’t rank much better… landing in the top five.

You’ve heard the phrase when it comes to education in this state… “At least there’s Mississippi.” For Columbia’s sake, when it comes to public safety, we can say, “At least there’s North Charleston.”