The city of Myrtle Beach and the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce have launched Web and print information letting visitors know that from the city's perspective, the May motorcycle rallies are over.
Myrtlebeachbikerinfo.com launched last week, and brochures are available for distribution primarily through local hotels.
"We have new laws, and we'd rather not surprise visitors," city spokesman Mark Kruea said. "We'd rather they have some idea of what to expect when they come here."
People who haven't followed the bike-rally news since fall might not know the city has implemented stricter noise and muffler rules, a local helmet law, rules about parties in parking lots, a juvenile curfew and more.
Chamber President and CEO Brad Dean said the site and brochures are not an ad campaign and will not be advertised or mailed out generally, but will be given to people who request information.
Dean said it's the chamber's job to provide information to visitors, and the group gets thousands of calls every year about the month of May - either from people who are interested in coming because of the rallies or in avoiding the area because of them.
"We anticipate those calls are going to increase as May gets closer, and we want to make sure we are giving out accurate, consistent information that is in sync with what the city has done," Dean said.
The Web site bears a message from Mayor John Rhodes, a list of the 15 ordinances and amendments the city approved last fall to target the two May motorcycle rallies it says have grown too large and too difficult to control, and a section of questions and answers.
For example, one of the questions in the frequently asked questions section is:
"The rallies bring a lot of revenue to the city and its businesses. Does the City Council realize how much money it stands to lose?"
The city answers: "Yes, the City Council is aware of the economic impact of the motorcycle rallies, but the rallies also cost the community, and more than just money. Certain business segments did well during the rallies, but others did not. [...] But perhaps the biggest cost of all was the effect the rallies had upon our quality of life. Residents were no longer willing to give up the month of May."
The top of the site says, "effective 2009, Myrtle Beach, SC will no longer host motorcycle rallies."
Though the city never officially hosted the rallies, "Myrtle Beach doesn't want to be the center of the motorcycle universe in May anymore," Kruea said.
The Harley-Davidson and Atlantic Beach Bikefest have drawn nearly half-a-million visitors over about three weeks in May to the Grand Strand. People from out of the area like to stay in Myrtle Beach during the rallies, and the teenagers who follow the Bikefest riders turn Ocean Boulevard into a street party over Memorial Day weekend. Locals complain loudly each year about the rally attendees' noise, driving, activities and trash. But in 2008, after a Coastal Carolina University student was shot to death in a dispute over a parking space during Bikefest, even though the shooting didn't involve bikers, the city said it would take steps to end the rallies.
The chamber designed the Web site and has paid for the brochures. Kruea said the city might reimburse the chamber, but that has not been decided.
Dean said the Web site was produced by chamber staff, so it will cost the city nothing, and so far, his group has spent about $45 producing a few hundred brochures, some of which went with Kruea last weekend to a sportbike public relations officers' convention, where he was able to pass along information to about 1,500 people who market bike rallies and events.
"We will print brochures up if people call and request them, and if hotels want to use them, we will allow them to reproduce the brochure at their own cost," Dean said. "But this is not part of the chamber's ad campaigns, and we don't want people to confuse this with our overall message, which is that we want people to come visit Myrtle Beach. The only intent is to answer questions specifically about the rallies."
... But before it becomes a ghost town it will see the largest influx of bikers it has ever seen and the largest element of 1%ers will show up just to cause the havoc and destruction that have not been part of the rallies in the past on the east coast (1%ers are mainly a west coast problem) in response to the town trying to 'ban' them.
So, Myrtle Beach, I hope you are prepared to live through your worst nightmare and remember you brought it on yourself.
Editor's Note: For those that don't know 1%ers are the 1% of bikers that are responsible for 100% of the negative image bikers have - they are the true outsiders and make up the criminal element that perpetuates the 'biker gang' stereotype(s).
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