Roof Repair in Charleston, SC

A South Carolina town is “booming” with jobs — and people interested in moving there, a new report finds.

So much so, the town now ranks as the nation’s No. 1 hottest suburb. Summerville, near Charleston, topped a list of places where job growth and desirability are “well above national averages,” according to a Nov. 19 news release.

But Summerville wasn’t the only place in the Palmetto State to earn a high spot in the rankings. Conway landed at No. 2, and Bluffton was No. 6.

“The coastal South reigns supreme for its suburbs where people want to move in, and where far fewer residents considering a move-out,” the website moveBuddha wrote in its report, adding that all the top 10 places are within about a two-hour drive from beaches.

To create the list, the moving resource website studied more than 500 cities across the country. It narrowed the places to suburbs, defined as “any city in each metropolitan region that was not the single, primary (first) city listed in a ‘metro’ name,” a spokesperson told McClatchy News via email.

Using search data from its website and figures from the U.S. government, moveBuddha discovered that 43 suburbs met the criteria of having year-over-year job growth “better than the national average” and a high ratio of people interested in moving in compared with those wanting to leave. Each of those suburbs also was evaluated for home values based on Zillow real estate data, results show.

Summerville, a roughly 25-mile drive northwest from Charleston, is home to about 50,000 people. It reigned supreme after it was found to be the most attractive suburb, with a ratio of “3.76 people searching to move in for every resident looking to leave.”

“Summerville’s popularity among prospective movers may be due to the incredibly strong job growth in the metro area — 4.2% between August 2023 and 2024,” moveBuddha wrote. “Known for its red-brick historic district, farmer’s market, and community events like the Flowertown Festival, Summerville is also one of just three suburbs in the top ten with an average home value under $400K.”

Two other South Carolina towns ranked among the nation’s “booming” suburbs, putting the Palmetto State in a tie with Florida for having the most cities in the top 10. Also joining Summerville on the list were Conway — in the Myrtle Beach area — and Bluffton, near Hilton Head Island.

“The Charleston area’s popularity boom is benefiting the local economy,” moveBuddha wrote. “Between May 2023 and 2024, South Carolina added over 5,500 construction jobs to manage the growth. But the 80K+ jobs added in total point to an economy that’s fueled by more than just construction, helping establish South Carolina as a prime destination for new residents.”

After Summerville and Conway took the top spots in the rankings, here are the nation’s other top five “job-magnet” suburbs:

The Nevada men's basketball team will take its perfect record to the East Coast as it travels to Charleston, South Carolina for the Shriners Children's Charleston Classic, starting Thursday.

The Wolf Pack (4-0) plays Vanderbilt (4-0) at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, then will face either Seton Hall or VCU on Friday at either 2 p.m. or 4:30 p.m.

The Pack concludes the tournament on Sunday, Nov. 24 against one of the teams from the other side of the bracket — Drake, Florida Atlantic, Miami or Oklahoma State.

How to watch Nevada vs. Vanderbilt in the Charleston Classic

TV: ESPNU; Radio: 95.5 FM

Where: Shriner's Children's Charleston Classic, Charleston, S.C.

Thursday's game is on ESPNU, which is a cable channel and a streaming channel on DirectTV Stream. There are also four other options for watching ESPNU without cable, including Sling, Fubo, Hulu Live TV and YouTube TV.

The Wolf Pack has won four of the past five multi-team events it has played in. In the most recent KenPom ratings, Nevada is No. 38 and Vanderbilt is No. 86.

Vanderbilt is 4-0 for the first time since 2018-19 and coming off a 94-81 win over Jackson State. Vanderbilt freshman Tyler Tanner leads all freshmen nationally with 12 steals through four games.

Nevada has never faced Vanderbilt in men's basketball.

How to watch the Charleston Classic

In addition to Thursday's Nevada-Vanderbilt game on ESPNU, the tournament's other games will be broadcast by the ESPN family of networks. The full broadcast schedule will include (all times Pacific):

Thursday, Nov. 21

Friday, Nov. 22

Sunday, Nov. 24:

How Nevada matches up against other teams in the Charleston Classic

Depending on the outcome of the first-round games, Nevada will face either Seton Hall or Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in their second game. VCU is currently ranked 35th in the KenPom ratings, barely edging out Nevada for the top ranking in the tournament. Seton Hall is 97th.

The Wolf Pack will face an opponent from the other side of the bracket in their second matchup. Their KenPom ratings as of Wednesday afternoon:

Nevada (four votes) and VCU (two) are the only two out of the eight tournament teams to receive votes in the most recent USA TODAY Sports Men's Basketball Coaches Poll. VCU (17 votes) and Miami (10) are the only two tournament teams to receive votes in the most recent AP Men's Basketball Poll.

Nevada's all-time record against the rest of the field: 1-3 vs. Drake, 1-0 vs. Florida Atlantic, 0-1 vs. Seton Hall, 1-1 vs VCU. Nevada has never faced Miami, Oklahoma State or Vanderbilt.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The Medical University of South Carolina will open a brand-new innovation center Thursday.

The Blue Sky Labs innovation center is a 3,000-square-foot space on Calhoun Street that will be dedicated to research and development. The new center will provide researchers with the opportunity to look deeper into early-stage science discoveries like treatments for cancer and fibrosis.

While they are already looking for cures for those types of diseases and illnesses in the labs at MUSC, moving toward actual treatments requires a different type of structure and setup. Leaders at MUSC recognized a need for a space like this about two years ago as they saw a rise in the number of early-stage science companies both at MUSC and across the state.

Blue Sky labs will feature eight wet lab spaces that will be available for leasing to researchers, startup companies, entrepreneur programming and networking opportunities. The center will be the new, permanent home for MUSC’s Office of Innovation. It will serve as a way to foster innovation and entrepreneurship not just within MUSC, but with the surrounding community as well.

In addition to leasing space to the science companies, MUSC leaders plan to host community and education events and allow MUSC students to work with the companies in the lab spaces.

Jesse Goodwin, the Chief Innovation Officer at MUSC, shared her hopes for the future of this center.

“I hope it grows and starts to expand out. I mean I think in a year’s time having it be fully occupied with a wide assortment of companies with the downstairs area that is community-focused for educational programming just being sort of a place where you can come in and you can see people working and lectures going on and community events being hosted and really making it a really vibrant ecosystem of support is my sort-of short-term goal,” Goodwin said.

As for long-term goals, Goodwin said she hopes that the center is so successful and fully occupied that they will need even more space to grow to next.

For Goodwin, this project means a lot as many of the companies who will lease space at the center filed their first patents 10 years ago. She says it is gratifying to see the progress they have made together and now, they will have a permanent home to find the next generation of treatments and therapeutic options for people suffering from conditions and diseases.

“To get to a point where I am being able to offer this type of space on behalf of the institution to people that I have known for this long is really exciting. And so, to me, this is a really great milestone and a culmination of really a decadelong sort of growth of innovation as a culture here. Not just at MUSC, but I think as a state as a whole, we are really leaning into life sciences and saying this is something that we should continue to grow,” Goodwin said.

Goodwin said that this space was possible by not only leveraging existing space, but through a collaboration between MUSC, SCbio, the Charleston Regional Development Alliance and the Department of Commerce at the state-level.

MUSC will be hosting their grand opening of the Blue Sky Labs innovation center at 10 a.m. Thursday.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Parents of students at Charleston Catholic School are asking for answers and transparency after the school’s longtime principal was unexpectedly removed.

Fred McKay had served the school for 18 years before being let go on Nov. 5 with concerned parents saying the news was shocking.

At a school with less than 200 students, over 500 parents signed an online petition asking the school for a specific reason behind why McKay was let go in the middle of the school year.

“Why was he dismissed in such a harsh manner, you know, we love Fred,” David Moore, parent to two Charleston Catholic School students, said. “We want to know what happened. The welfare of our kids is what’s most important to us; it doesn’t feel like that’s the message coming from the school.”

Moore said his daughter first told him the news before an email was sent to caregivers.

“I was just shocked,” Moore said. “It was immediate; no warning, no nothing.”

A letter from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston was sent to parents on Nov. 7 and reads in part “Please know that Fred has not been accused of any misconduct or impropriety, and he leaves with our respect and genuine gratitude for his devotion and dedication.”

Following that letter, McKay sent a letter to families on Nov. 9 that read in part, “Endings are rarely easy and smooth, and certainly the timing of my departure has not been ideal.”

Parents are extremely upset and shocked that McKay was dismissed in such a harsh manner and Moore said communication from the school has been very sporadic and not aligned following the decision.

“We want transparency; we want to know exactly what happened. We want an investigation into any other misconduct, that may or may not have happened,” Moore said. “The letter from the diocese says that Fred is loved, cherished and he’s not been accused of any wrongdoing, which we appreciate, but on the other side we want to know.”

McKay was hired at the Charleston Catholic School in 2006 and some parents said they enrolled their children in the school solely because of McKay’s leadership and reputation.

“The reason that most people were at that school was because of Frederick McKay; that’s the reason why my kids are there.”

With students of the Charleston Catholic School being from preschool to eighth grade, Moore asked how do you even explain the confusing situation to children.

“The other issue that I have, personally, is that I now have to have conversations with my kids about why things aren’t transparent and how you know what they believe is true? They have to make up their own mind,” Moore said. “We shouldn’t have to explain something that you don’t even know what happened.”

When Live 5 reached out to McKay to get his side of the story, he said that he signed an NDA when leaving the school.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston released the following statement in response:

“Fred McKay served Charleston Catholic School well for 18 years, and we are grateful for his service. But in the past year, the school experienced financial challenges from a sharp decline in enrollment, so in August new priests were appointed to lead the school. After a careful review of the situation, the school administrator determined that the time had come to bring in new leadership, and so a nationwide search is currently underway to find the next principal who will strengthen the school’s identity and mission. During this transition the diocesan Catholic Schools Office is working closely with the interim principal to provide support to the entire CCS community.”

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

I receive a text in a group chat with four people I don’t know. It’s two hours before my reservation at Raw Lab in Charleston.

The message is so long I have to click through to a second page. “It’s yer host at Raw Lab, Kevin Joseph,” the owner starts before diving into a list of do's and don’ts when having dinner at his 12-seat restaurant. A similar note is sent when I book a table at LTLE Fish — Raw Lab’s scaled back a la carte offering in the same building — a few weeks later.

For the small restaurant’s signature tasting dinner, we’re to be collected outside the Market Street address at 6:35 p.m. and seated two minutes later, the instructions said. The 90-minute oyster and caviar service will be a prelude to the full meal that follows.

Each of the six bivalves we’ll try is from the same stretch of Charleston water, produced by a local farm just for Raw Lab. To start, Joseph, who leads each service, places one without toppings on an ice moat lining the bar.

We slurp it back, savoring the surrounding liquid, and are greeted by the briny hit one expects from a South Carolina oyster. The ensuing compositions pair that same raw oyster with various seasonings, juices and dressings.

Food

“The control in the lab is the oyster, and the experiment is the different accouterments,” Joseph has said.

Next, a squirt of lemon finds a spicy friend in freshly grated horseradish, showered over the shell like snow. The second “roots and fruits” pairing covers the oyster in lime juice and wasabi, macerated by hand using a paddle made of stingray skin.

We’re off to a good start.

What comes next, though, is more spectacle than substantive, for the performance often takes precedence over the preparations at Raw Lab.

Social media and restaurants

Raw Lab opened about three years ago next to Port of Call, the food hall-turned-Southern restaurant on Market Street. A lack of signage makes us feel as though we’re entering a speakeasy-style cocktail lounge when we walk inside.

Each of the 12 assigned seats crowd a small square bar shielded by a ceiling of living plants — in pristine condition despite being in a windowless room. Levers, pulleys and magnets allow Joseph to easily corral knives and fresh basil from the ceiling or wall. His efforts have turned a former apparel shop into a nautical wonderland.

Though I’d never been before September, I went into my visits well-informed about what’s called “the earth’s only omakase-style raw bar experience.” All I had to do was type the restaurant’s name in the search field on TikTok — many thousands of posts have been created about Raw Lab.

Videos galore flashed across my screen. The footage featured bright lights, spinning glasses, caviar bumps, lively music and porrón chugs. Luxurious bites filled most well-lit frames.

In some cities, TikTok is transforming the way diners consume restaurant news one swipe at a time, according to a recent report by Eater. In response to the current climate, food critics have questioned this form of restaurant reviewing, for it often blurs the lines between marketing and genuine criticism.

Social media has become an effective promotional tool for restaurants, many of which are strapped for cash as margins tighten amid rising costs. While some “influencers” pay for meals, many engage in partnerships that exchange free food for a positive review. As the pay-to-play influencer industry balloons, it’s becoming more challenging to know who to trust when scrolling on your phone.

“I can’t even pick a favorite because it’s all just so fire,” one creator said during an enthusiastic TikTok narration of her experience at Raw Lab.

The tempting theatrics play well on social media, feeding into the hype and compounding the disappointment when the real-life experience doesn't meet expectations.

Food

The TikTok videos I encountered failed to mention the heavy hit of apple cider vinegar on one of the oysters. Or the fact that an omakase-style experience — a word traditionally designated for Japanese sushi restaurants offering an eclectic variety of fish — only exposes guests to one type of oyster. Or how some of the accouterments, especially the mignonettes, overpower the delicate bivalves’ true flavor.

Then again, those vinegar-laced dressings are exactly what drew Joseph’s assistant chef, Sandra Ochoa, to oysters after she started the job without a taste for shellfish. The mignonettes are mostly balanced and always blended in-house, making oysters more approachable for those who are still wary of their texture and intense salty flavor.