Business owners express concern about bike rally plan
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By Rashad Midani
WBTW News 13 Digital Journalist/Reporter
Published: August 19, 2008
Tuesday’s Myrtle Beach City Council workshop may have carried heavy importance for the future of local businesses. And though the purpose of the workshop centered around the bike rallies, some said it may extend past that.
The city’s legal team explained to council members proposed ordinances. Those potential new procedures could affect city businesses all year round.
Tuesday’s workshop was designed to get city council members to better understand new proposals in the city ordinances. When it was all said and done, Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce President, Brad Dean, now knows he’s got his work cut out for him.
“They’re going to rely upon businesses to be a part of the solution to the motorcycle rallies. So what they’re discussing today literally impacts thousands of businesses,“ Dean said.
Among other things, local business owners were concerned about taking on too much responsibility with large crowds. And also how they do business.
“When you tell the businesses that they can’t advertise to certain people or even the chamber to advertise to certain people, I don’t think that’s a thing the city really needs to be doing,“ business owner, Woody Crosby said.
Myrtle Beach Mayor John Rhodes said the biggest weekend of the year back in the 80s was Memorial Day weekend when there were no rallies. Another local business owner talked about how much money the rallies bring to her hotel business. She said she’s worried about her businesses future.
“On an estimate, I took in around $300,000 for Harley Week at all 3 hotels. Ok, that’s a hunk of change for me as a small motel owner,“ Karon Mitchell said.
Mitchell also said she makes about the same during the Atlantic Beach Bike Fest.
Dean says from what he’s seeing on the proposed ordinances, it could affect businesses year-round, not just during the bike rallies.
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Posted by ( Concerned ) on August 20, 2008 at 7:39 am
It’s kind of like Woodstock. Nobody wants that kind of inappropriate behavior in their area ever again. Rules have to be made and enforced whenever you have large numbers of people packed into a small area or we have nothing but chaos and the potential for trouble.
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Posted by ( Concerned ) on August 20, 2008 at 7:31 am
You know, instead of spending so much time worrying how much revenue will be lost by the Rallies, why not try to figure out how to get families back to the beach? Maybe by offering some incentive, like family discounts or packages would help. I know of course that after all these years of Rallies people are afraid to come to the beach with their families, but if all the motel rooms were booked ahead by others, there wouldn’t be anywhere for the others to stay. My family was planning to come down for a vacation last May, but we decided to try to book on a later date, which was inconvenient for them with work. Consequently, they couldn’t come later as May was the only time they could come. They didn’t want the kids to see the “T&A;“ show and barely clothed women with their rear ends sticking in their little faces at stop lights, and so on and so on. They said if they wanted to watch that kind of behavior, they would rent a porn movie. Now what does that say for our area when family money is afraid to come here?
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