Joseph Patrick Riley Jr. (born January 19, 1943) is an American politician who was the

Mayor of Charleston, South Carolina The Mayor is the highest elected official in Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charlesto ...

. He was one of the longest serving mayors in the United States that is still living, having served 10 terms starting on December 15, 1975, and ending on January 11, 2016.

Early life

Riley was born in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

. He graduated from

The Citadel The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, commonly known simply as The Citadel, is a Public college, public United States senior military college, senior military college in Charleston, South Carolina. Established in 1842, it is one ...

in 1964 and the

University of South Carolina School of Law The University of South Carolina School of Law, also known as South Carolina Law School, is a professional school within the University of South Carolina. The school of law was founded in 1867, and remains the only public and non-profit law scho ...

in 1967. As a member of the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

, he served in the

South Carolina House of Representatives The South Carolina House of Representatives is the lower house of the South Carolina General Assembly. It consists of 124 representatives elected to two-year terms at the same time as U.S. congressional elections. Unlike many legislatures, seati ...

from 1968 to 1974.

Mayor of Charleston

In December 1975, Riley was elected the

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

of Charleston becoming the second

Irish Catholic Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the British ...

to hold the position. He served for ten terms. Riley was elected to his seventh term on November 2, 1999, with 71% of the vote; city councilman Maurice Washington received 29%. Riley won his eighth term as mayor in November 2003 in the city's first nonpartisan election with 57% of the vote against other candidates including Jimmy Bailey (32%) and Kwadjo Campbell (9%). When the Confederate battle flag was flown above the South Carolina statehouse, Riley organized a five-day protest walk from Charleston to Columbia to promote its removal. The march began on April 2, 2000, with about 600 marchers; the crowd dropped dramatically during the week but rebounded to about 400 marchers before a protest held on the statehouse grounds on April 6, 2000. On July 10, 2015, the Confederate flag was removed from the South Carolina State House. Jozeph P

Development

Annexations

During Riley's tenure, the city of Charleston annexed vast swathes of land, often parcel by parcel. The most controversial annexation was that of Daniel Island in 1990. Riley's critics for the annexation compared him to

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...

. The city was able to annex Daniel Island despite the wishes of the Guggenheim Foundation which owned the island by annexing it alongside smaller but more valuable properties which offset the foundation's opposition. Other annexations during Riley's tenure include Cainhoy Plantation, Long Savannah on Bees Ferry Road, and the Neck Area below North Charleston.

Charleston Place

Riley's first major project was pushing the redevelopment of the central business district. City Council approved $12,500 for a feasibility study for a redevelopment plan on June 7, 1977. A Washington, D.C. consulting group recommended that the city should build a large hotel, commercial, and conference center, and the largely vacant 5-acre lot bounded by King, Meeting, Hasell, and Market streets was a prime candidate. In mid-1977, developer Theodore Gould made a proposal for a $40 million project to be known as the "Charleston Center." The conceptual plans called for a 14-story building with a 700-car parking garage, and preservationists came out strongly against the plans. On January 25, 1978, the first of several lawsuits was filed in an effort to scale back the massive size of the project. Work began in 1981 after several legal challenges. On May 16, 1983, revised plans were released showing the building as it would eventually appear: eight stories in the center but only four around the perimeter. When Gould was unable to secure financing, the city replaced him with new backers and renamed the project "Charleston Place." The center opened on September 2, 1986. Its final cost was approximately $75 million.

Other development projects

In 1987, Riley supported several projects meant to spur redevelopment, including a visitor center on upper Meeting Street and the Waterfront Park along the Cooper River. Riley had a deal with a landowner allowing the city to purchase the land for Waterfront Park for $2.5 million. The land was estimated to be worth between $3.3 and $3.75 million. In 1989, Riley served on the selection committee for the

Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence The Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence (RBA) was established in 1986 by Cambridge, Massachusetts architect Simeon Bruner. The award is named after Simeon Bruner's late father, Rudy Bruner, founder of the Bruner Foundation. According to the Bru ...

. Riley's legacy project, which he describes as his "most important work" as mayor, is the

International African American Museum The International African American Museum (IAAM) is a museum of African-American history being built in Charleston, South Carolina, on the site where Gadsden's Wharf, the disembarkation point of up to 40% of all American enslaved persons, once stood ...

. Kimmelman, Michael (March 28, 2018).
Charleston Needs That African American Museum. And Now
. ''New York Times''. nytimes.com. Retrieved April 1, 2018. Print version, "In Charleston, a Museum Long Past Due", March 29, 2018, p. C1, 4. Located on the former Gadsden's Wharf – the site where over 40% of all enslaved Africans brought to this country took their first steps – the museum is a $75MM project with world-class partners Ralph Applebaum & Associates and Pei Cobb Freed. Construction began in January 2020.

Charleston Sofa Super Store fire

In 2007, the Sofa Super Store fire killed nine Charleston firemen after the roof of the building fell in. In response, Riley created a panel of outside experts to investigate the incident. The panel compiled a list of needed reforms to the fire department a week later. In the aftermath, the International Association of Fire Fighters criticized Riley for being "anti-labor" and for failing to follow the

National Incident Management System The National Incident Management System (NIMS) is a standardized approach to incident management developed by the United States Department of Homeland Security. The program was established in March 2004, in response to Homeland Security Presidentia ...

despite Governor

Mark Sanford Marshall Clement "Mark" Sanford Jr. (born May 28, 1960) is an American politician and author who served as the U.S. Representative for South Carolina's 1st congressional district from 1995 to 2001 and again from 2013 to 2019, and also as the ...

previously issuing an executive order to do so. Under Riley's management, the city of Charleston purchased the land where the Sofa Super Store once stood and made it a passive park. Riley also controversially proposed making the Long Savannah Project, a county park currently being developed, as a memorial park.

Social issues and climate change

Mother Emanuel Church shooting

Mayor Riley was mayor of Charleston on June 17, 2015, when the city experienced its deadliest mass shooting, known as the

Charleston church shooting On June 17, 2015, a mass shooting occurred in Charleston, South Carolina, in which nine African Americans were killed during a Bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Among those people who were killed was the senior past ...

. Riley was friends with several of the victims including state senator

Clementa C. Pinckney Clementa Carlos "Clem" Pinckney (July 30, 1973 – June 17, 2015) was an American politician and pastor who served as a Democratic member of the South Carolina Senate, representing the 45th District from 2000 until his death in 2015. He was ...

and arrived at the scene shortly after being called by the police chief. In the wake of the shooting, Riley stated that "nine beautiful, loving people in a meeting about prayer and their religion were killed by a maniac" and that the country didn't "let bad people like this get away with these dastardly deeds." He also called for stricter gun control laws, stating that "there are far too many guns out there, and access to guns, it’s far too easy. Our society has not been able to deal with that yet.”

Sea level rise

Over the decades that he served as mayor, many extreme weather events such as

hurricanes A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

flooded the city, and these flood events increased over time as a result of

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

and

sea level rise Globally, sea levels are rising due to human-caused climate change. Between 1901 and 2018, the globally averaged sea level rose by , or 1–2 mm per year on average.IPCC, 2019Summary for Policymakers InIPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cry ...

. Riley worked to implement flood management programs, and released a Sea Level Rise Strategy just before leaving the office.

Other ventures

From 1986 to 1987, Riley served as President of the

U.S. Conference of Mayors The United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) is the official non-partisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. The cities are each represented by their mayors or other chief elected officials. The organization was founded i ...

and on its Executive Committee. He founded the Mayors' Institute on City Design. In 1994, Riley ran for

Governor of South Carolina The governor of South Carolina is the head of government of South Carolina. The governor is the '' ex officio'' commander-in-chief of the National Guard when not called into federal service. The governor's responsibilities include making year ...

. He finished second in the Democratic primary behind

Lieutenant Governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...

Nick Theodore Nick Andrew Theodore (born September 16, 1928) is a former American politician from South Carolina. He was the first Greek-American elected to the South Carolina State Legislature. He served as a state representative from 1963 to 1966 and 1970 t ...

. Riley is a member of the

Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition Everytown for Gun Safety is an American nonprofit organization which advocates for gun control and against gun violence. Everytown was created in 2013 when Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America joined force ...

, a

bi-partisan Bipartisanship, sometimes referred to as nonpartisanship, is a political situation, usually in the context of a two-party system (especially those of the United States and some other western countries), in which opposing political parties find co ...

group with a stated goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets." The Coalition was co-founded by former

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Mayor

Thomas Menino Thomas Michael Menino (December 27, 1942 – October 30, 2014) was an American politician who served as the 53rd mayor of Boston, from 1993 to 2014. He was the city's longest-serving mayor. He was elected mayor in 1993 after first serving three ...

and former

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Mayor

Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a ca ...

. He is also on the Board of Selectors of

Jefferson Awards for Public Service The Jefferson Awards Foundation was created in 1972 by the American Institute for Public Service. The Jefferson Awards are given at both national and local levels. Local winners are ordinary people who do extraordinary things without expectation ...

Awards and recognition

* President of the National Association of Democratic Mayors (1988–1992) * Outstanding Mayors Award by the National Urban Coalition (1983) * Distinguished Citizen Award by the

National Association of Realtors The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is an American trade association for those who work in the real estate industry. It has over 1.4 million members, making it one of the biggest trade associations in the USA including NAR's institutes, so ...

* South Carolina's Order of the Palmetto * South Carolinian of the Year * Verner Award by the South Carolina Arts Commission (1982) * Municipal Leader of the Year by American City & County (1991) * Thomas Jefferson Award from the American Institute of Architects for Public Architecture (1994) * Seaside Prize from the Seaside Institute (1997) * President's Award from the U. S. Conference of Mayors, for outstanding leadership (2000) * Urban Land Institute J. C. Nichols Prize for Visionary Urban Development (2000) * Keystone Award, by the American Architectural Foundation (2002) * One of the twenty-five most dynamic mayors in America, Newsweek Magazine (1996) * The American Society of Landscape Architects named him an Honorary Member, for leadership and vision * Recipient of The

National Medal of Arts The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and Patronage, patrons of the arts. A prestigious American honor, it is the highest honor given to artists and ar ...

(2009)White House Announces 2009 National Medal of Arts Recipients
- Presented by President Barack Obama

References

Sources

Reagan Archives - ''Appointment of Two Members of the US Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations
, January 16, 1985]

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Riley, Joseph 1943 births Living people Democratic Party members of the South Carolina House of Representatives Mayors of Charleston, South Carolina United States National Medal of Arts recipients The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina alumni The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina faculty University of South Carolina School of Law alumni American people of Irish descent American Roman Catholics Presidents of the United States Conference of Mayors