Fifty never looked so good! Throughout the year, we’ve been celebrating our golden anniversary with “50” features, such as January’s “Charleston Bucket List,” and surveys of the city’s evolution since 1975, including a dive through the magazine’s archives for May’s arts timeline. Sure, it’s been a ton of work, but it’s also been enlightening and entertaining—and the staff and I have appreciated all of your kind notes. While we technically reached that milestone last month, we wanted to keep the celebration going—and why not? It’s a pretty big deal for a city magazine to achieve this kind of longevity.
For this annual Luxury issue, we brought back a special reader-driven feature, giving you the chance to have your say. Over the summer, we asked subscribers, social media followers, and contributors to weigh in with their top local indulgences—“large or small, expensive or priceless; they just need to be local, and go!” Of course, some perennial favorites appeared—sweetgrass baskets, fresh-off-the-boat seafood, and the ever-popular (and elusive) downtown parking spot—alongside many fantastic new additions. Reviewing the myriad suggestions, I was heartened to see that our neighbors still value “the little things” most of all. Check out “50 Lowcountry Luxuries” (page 96) for yourself, and then tag us @charlestonmag when you post your own!
This month also marks another important milestone—one year since Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina. With hard-hit Asheville being our sister city in the mountains, we sent travel editor Sandy Lang and photographer Peter Frank Edwards to get the lay of the land. In “Asheville Revival” (page 128), you’ll find their hopeful account of this beloved artsy-outdoorsy town, where the scars of the flooding are still evident. But with the river now reopened for recreation and locals and businesses steadily rebuilding, this seems like a good time to plan a visit and support our neighbors.
Enjoy!
Darcy Shankland
dshankland@charlestonmag.com