Groups end ties with club that denied black applicant

A South Carolina social club's decision to deny membership a doctor who would have been its first black member has prompted several local groups to cut ties with it.

Military veteran and doctor Melvin Brown was the only one denied membership to the Charleston Rifle Club in October, The Post and Courier reports . The 13 other candidates who were accepted were white, prompting accusations of racism.

Brown is a Navy veteran who served in Afghanistan and is an emergency room doctor currently serving on the Medical University of South Carolina's board of trustees.

Since he was denied membership, area bowling groups along with the Kiwanis Club of Charleston have stopped using the club's facilities, which sit on 14 acres (5.6 hectares).

Also, the club's favored charity, the March of Dimes, announced Saturday they will no longer accept club support. The club's bylaws bequeath half its assets to the March of Dimes if the club ever dissolves.

"We stand against systemic racism which largely contributes to the negative birth outcomes in the communities we serve — as such, we have chosen not to accept their support moving forward," said Jayna Zelman, head of public relations for the March of Dimes.

On Monday, the Kiwanis Club of Charleston said it will stop holding its weekly meetings at the Charleston Rifle Club.

Charleston Rifle Club president Dru Patterson said in a recent newsletter that members "divided over issues unresolved" should work from within to fix them. The newsletter also notes that, for now, no new membership applications will be accepted.

Patterson did not immediately return phone calls and emails from the newspaper.

Brown said he has stepped back from the club's controversy, which can only be addressed by its members. But he has received an outpouring of support from friends, colleagues and strangers.

Information from: The Post and Courier, http://www.postandcourier.com

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Under the gaze of the world’s media, the fragile lagoon city of Venice launches a pilot program Thursday to charge day-trippers a 5-euro (around $5.35) entry fee that authorities hope will discourage visitors from arriving on peak days and make the city more livable for its dwindling residents.

Signs advising arriving visitors of the new requirement for a test phase of 29 days through July have been erected outside the main train station and other points of arrival.

Some 200 stewards have been trained to politely walk anyone unaware of the fee through the process of downloading a QR code. A kiosk has been set up for those not equipped with a smartphone. Once past designated entry ports, officials will carry out random checks for QR codes that show the day-tripper tax has been paid or that the bearer is exempt.

Transgressors face fines 50 euros to 300 euros. The requirement applies only for people arriving between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Outside of those hours, access is free.

“We need to find a new balance between the tourists and residents,’’ said the city’s top tourism official, Simone Venturini. “We need to safeguard the spaces of the residents, of course, and we need to discourage the arrival of day-trippers on some particular days.”

Venice has long suffered under the pressure of over-tourism, but officials say that pre-pandemic estimates ranging from 25 million to 30 million visitors a year — including day-trippers — are not reliable and that the pilot project also aims to come up with more exact figures to help better manage the phenomenon.

By contrast, registered visitors spending the night last year numbered 4.6 million, according to city figures, down 16% from pre-pandemic highs.

Venturini said the city is strained when the number of day-trippers reaches 30,000 to 40,000. Its narrow alleyways are clogged with people and water taxis packed, making it difficult for residents to go about their business.

Not all residents, however, are persuaded of the efficacy of the new system in dissuading mass tourism, and say more attention needs to be paid to boosting the resident population and services they need.

Venice last year passed a telling milestone when the number of tourist beds exceeded for the first time the number of official residents, which is now below 50,000 in the historic center with its picturesque canals.

“Putting a ticket to enter a city will not decrease not even by one single unit the number of visitors that are coming,’’ said Tommaso Cacciari, an activist who organized a protest Thursday against the measure.

“You pay a ticket to take the metro, to go to a museum, an amusement park; you don’t pay a ticket to enter a city. This is the last symbolic step of a project of an idea of this municipal administration to kick residents out of Venice,” he said.

Venturini said about 6,000 people had already paid to download the QR code, and officials expect paid day-tripper arrivals Thursday to reach some 10,000.

More than 70,000 others have downloaded a QR code denoting an exemption, including to work in Venice or as a resident of the Veneto region. People staying in hotels in Venice, including in mainland districts like Marghera or Mestre, should also get a QR code attesting to their stay, which includes a hotel tax.

The tourist official says interest in Venice's pilot program has been keen from other places suffering from mass tourism, including other Italian art cities and cities abroad such as Barcelona and Amsterdam.