The Opinion Blog

Narrow Margins

Sunday’s editorial encourages the Myrtle Beach City Council to recognize the obvious message sent by the election - that the city is deeply divided right down the middle on the major issues they’ve tackled, and their duty now is to attempt to govern for all the people.

For a year and a half, a question that could only be answered by an election hung over Myrtle Beach: How did residents really feel about their City Council's controversial decisions to end the major May motorcycle rallies and to charge city shoppers an extra 1 percent tax to pay for out-of-the-area advertising?

More Rally Restrictions? Think Twice

Sunday's editorial considers the possibility that Myrtle Beach's efforts to control the motorcycle rallies last year might have gone too far.

Amid the radically altered landscape of this year's Harley-Davidson spring rally, the center of the party undeniably shifted down south to Murrells Inlet.

During the May rallies, the good folks at Suck Bang Blow and the Beaver Bar said their business was about as strong as any year during the second rally weekend, though business in the week leading up to it was painfully slow. With the dual challenges of a recession and a total crackdown by Myrtle Beach, that was probably about as good as they could hope for.

Even that attendance level, however, seems to have been too much for some Georgetown County residents. This month, the Georgetown County Council is considering reducing the number of vendor permits it issues to one per business, in hopes of lessening some congestion.

Our advice, after a year's worth of reflection on the sweeping changes enacted by Myrtle Beach, is to proceed with caution. Our area as a whole has undertaken a massive overhaul of its approach to visitors on motorcycles, the ramifications of which have yet to be fully realized.

Mayor's Race Opens on Raucous Note

Saturday's editorial observes the ugly start to local election season.

To be fair, the scene had every appearance of classic South Carolina political sabotage: the activist surrounded by his family behind a podium to announce his candidacy for office, only to have his every word drowned out by the roar of a strategically-timed lawn crew.

The Truth About the Bikefest

Tuesday's editorial praises the apparent recognition in Atlantic Beach that festivals do not represent the path to redevelopment.

The decision by Atlantic Beach officials last week to forgo the creation of a new annual fall festival for bikers and families was likely met in some quarters by applause, and others by lament. More notable than the decision itself, however, was the kernel of truth town leaders acknowledged in announcing it.

Representation Without Vexation

Thursday's editorial argues in favor of expanding south-enders' voice on the Myrtle Beach City Council, but suggests a more nuanced approach to it than angry rally supporters' current petition effort.

Changing the form of a government simply for the sake of political revenge seems destined to create more problems than it solves, and a petition circulating in support of single-member districts on the Myrtle Beach City Council falls into just such a trap.

The future of the bike rallies?

During a rather heated public-comment portion of the Myrtle Beach City Council meeting today, a number of speakers called for compromise on the future of the bike rallies. For example, hotelier Robert Kelley, a leader of the BOOST tourism-promotion group, noted that the debate has been dominated by two extreme sides: those who want the rallies to end, and those who believe bikers should be allowed to ride when and where they wish. 

Is a compromise possible? What would it look like?

Interstate 73 approaches, as does second rally weekend

Friday's editorials examine the possibility of a sudden jolt in money for one of the area's largest infrastructure projects, and note that this weekend will bring the Grand Strand the final results of Myrtle Beach's efforts to eliminate bike rallies.

Interstate 73 Speeding Up?

The good news about the proposed Interstate 73 has kept coming strong this week, as state officials focus on a small segment in Dillon County in an effort to lure major federal interest.

After a realization that I-73 missed the first round of federal public-works stimulus funding because it was not "shovel-ready," those spearheading the effort have redirected their efforts on its proposed interchange with Interstate 95 in Dillon County, and an 6-mile stretch of new highway from that interchange to U.S. 501 just south of Latta.

The Northeastern Strategic Alliance passed a resolution designating that stretch the first priority for I-73 last week, and the S.C. General Assembly unanimously endorsed it as well, said Myrtle Beach state Rep. Alan Clemmons, chairman of the National I-73/I-74 Corridor Association. Through a series of swaps involving the State Infrastructure Bank, I-73 also received $10 million this week from the S.C. Department of Transportation it was previously ineligible for.

Those moves, Clemmons said, could jump-start construction and thus position the I-73 for two much larger pots of money: a $1.5 billion grant program for large, long-term projects through the federal stimulus bill, and the upcoming highway reauthorization bill, which is only approved once every 10 years. Clemmons said the road could be in store for $30 million to $300 million.

The intersection between federal and state appropriations is ever uncertain ground, but as critical a project as I-73 will be for the Grand Strand, these developments are certainly welcome.

A Weekend of Discovery

As the first vendors were hammering their tent pegs into the ground Thursday afternoon at Club 2001 on Lake Arrowhead Road, about 20 motorcyclists clad in matching yellow T-shirts and black vests eased into the dusty parking lot.

Chaz Drummond, a 41-year-old oil-refinery engineer from Delaware, said the Ruff N Ready motorcycle club has been coming to Bikefest for about seven years. But if not for advance reservations on a North Myrtle Beach condo, they probably would not have come this year.

"Things are so strict, it intrudes on your fun," Drummond said.

The last two weeks saw a marked change from the first half of the May bike-rally season in previous years, as Harley riders left Ocean Boulevard and Myrtle Beach empty, congregating in smaller crowds north and south of the city. This weekend will provide answers to the second half of the "What will May bring?" puzzle, as the Grand Strand finds out how Bikefest attendees react to Myrtle Beach's new anti-rally laws.

On Thursday, helmet-clad sport-bike riders were already zipping around Myrtle Beach, but Ocean Boulevard, one traditional gathering point, was quiet. In Atlantic Beach, the other central Bikefest location, Town Manager Kenneth McIver said he has seen intermittent bikers, but noted that this will be the first year in recent memory in town that no one even puts up a stage.

Wampee resident Eva McMillan was also at Club 2001 on Thursday, wearing a vest for the Carolina Knight Riders motorcycle club that started the Memorial Day weekend Bikefest 29 years ago in Atlantic Beach. She said she expects riders to avoid Myrtle Beach's Ocean Boulevard as they did last week.

"We're just going to see what's going to be," McMillan said.

Live blogging "Cruisin' the Coast"

As the Grand Strand enters the final weekend of this year's Harley-Davidson "Cruisin the Coast" spring rally, The Opinion Blog will be on the ground seeking the thoughts of bikers, residents and business owners who are participating - or not. On Friday, we'll start at the north end of Horry County and work our way south, asking the controversial motorcycle-riding tourists and others about the shape of the rally to come. It is clearly different now - is this a change we can live with?

MURRELLS INLET, 10:28 p.m. | In roaring contrast to the rest of the Grand Strand, the southern end of Horry County appears unfazed by the changes in this year's rally climates. Around the Inlet Square mall area, motorcycles are lined at every intersection, property owners have rented every available square foot on their land for parking, and the big biker bars are booming.

"It looks like the rally finally started," said Gary Keith, a Charlotte resident who keeps a home in Garden City, as he enjoyed the crowd at the Beaver Bar.

Chief justice's bike rally memo only HER opinion

On Sunday, The Sun News said Myrtle Beach leaders should ignore the S.C. chief justice's motorcycle memo and let the courts sort out the legality of its bike rally ordinances:

It can't be good that the chief justice of the S.C. Supreme Court takes a dim view of the Myrtle Beach plan to deal with motorcycle infractions in its new administrative court. If Chief Justice Jean Toal's view that the administrative court system is unconstitutionally "repugnant" holds up in a formal court challenge, many of the motorcycle-control ordinances that the Myrtle Beach City Council adopted last year would be difficult - if not impossible - to enforce.

Could the MB Harley rally die of its own accord?

Gang: I came across this story on the decline of Harley Davidson in the Business section of today's New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/business/economy/22harley.html?_r=1&ref=business

The down trends described therein seem irreversible, though HD has been at death's door before and come roaring back. But when you couple its economic woes with demographically driven declining sales, it's as easy to envision a world without Harleys as it is to envision a world without, um, newspapers. If this perception is correct (and as we say in the editorial-writing game, only time will tell), the remaining MB rally, over time, could just simply wither away. dc

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