Joseph Patrick Riley Jr. (born January 19, 1943) is an American politician who served as the 60th

mayor of Charleston, South Carolina The mayor is the highest elected official in Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoi ...

from 1975 to 2016. A member of the Democratic Party, he also 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, seatin ...

from 1968 to 1974 and was the 44th President of the United States Conference of Mayors from 1986 to 1987. Riley's 40 years as mayor were the longest in South Carolina history at the time of his retirement and are the longest in Charleston's history.

Early life

Riley was born in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...

. He graduated from

The Citadel The Citadel Military College of South Carolina (simply known as The Citadel) is a public senior military college in Charleston, South Carolina, United States. Established in 1842, it is the third oldest of the six senior military colleges ...

in 1964 and the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1967. As a member of the Democratic Party, he served in the

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 corporation, 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 responsibilitie ...

of Charleston, becoming the second

Irish Catholic Irish Catholics () are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland, defined by their adherence to Catholic Christianity and their shared Irish ethnic, linguistic, and cultural heritage.The term distinguishes Catholics of Irish descent, particul ...

to hold the position. He served for 10 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 State House, 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. The Confederate flag was removed from the South Carolina State House on July 10, 2015, in the aftermath of the

Charleston church shooting An Anti-Black racism, anti-black mass shooting and hate crime occurred on June 17, 2015, in Charleston, South Carolina. Nine people were killed, and one was injured, during a Bible study (Christianity), Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist ...

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 (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

. 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. Riley's legacy project, which he describes as his "most important work" as mayor, is the International African American Museum. 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 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 from 2013 to 2019, and as the 115th govern ...

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

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

. Riley was friends with several of the victims, including state senator Clementa C. Pinckney 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 with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its locat ...

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

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

and

sea level rise The sea level has been rising from the end of the last ice age, which was around 20,000 years ago. Between 1901 and 2018, the average sea level rose by , with an increase of per year since the 1970s. This was faster than the sea level had e ...

. 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 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. Riley is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, 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 is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Mayor

Thomas Menino Thomas Michael Menino (December 27, 1942 – October 30, 2014) was an American politician who served as the 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 mont ...

and former

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

mayor

Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman and politician. He is the majority owner and co-founder of Bloomberg L.P., and was its CEO from 1981 to 2001 and again from 2014 to 2023. He served as the 108th mayo ...

. He is also on the board of selectors of Jefferson Awards for Public Service.

Awards and recognition

* 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 had over 1.5 million members, making it the largest trade association in the United States including NAR's institute ...

* 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) * One of the twenty-five most dynamic mayors in America, Newsweek Magazine (1996) * 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, January 16, 1985

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Riley, Joseph 1943 births Living people 20th-century mayors of places in South Carolina 21st-century mayors of places in South Carolina Democratic Party members of the South Carolina House of Representatives Mayors of Charleston, South Carolina United States National Medal of Arts recipients The Citadel alumni The Citadel 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 20th-century members of the South Carolina General Assembly