Time to postpone Bikefest debate, unite

The Myrtle Beach area will net millions of dollars from the Atlantic Beach Memorial Day Bikefest.

Many who oppose Bikefest twist themselves into pretzels to deny that reality.

In a previous column, I pointed out that Bikefest, at its height, brought in $34 million a day, based on a Coastal Carolina University study that estimated the average amount each participant spent and a Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce estimate of crowd size.

I asked Myrtle Beach officials how much the city is spending to deal with Bikefest this year.

“I’d estimate that we are spending approximately $4.1 million over the next two or three years, including the current fiscal year, for such things as police officers’ body cameras, pedestrian and vehicular barricades, on-street surveillance cameras, and the system to operate them, and other things,” Myrtle Beach spokesman Mark Kruea said. “Much of the new equipment that we are purchasing has a year-round application. While we are likely using it for the first time during the Memorial Day weekend, it will have a much longer life.”

Bikefest is Myrtle Beach’s biggest expense, surpassing even the Fourth of July. But the money for extra law enforcement officials is small compared to the $1.2 million the camera operating system, and overtime for city staff might amount to about $200,000, Kruea said.

Even if you (wrongly) attributed all of that expense solely to Bikefest, assumed all of it is for a single year and believe that Bikefest is half of its previous peak size, the Myrtle Beach area would still net several million direct dollars every day of the event.

That doesn’t include the broader economic impact.

Remember, just as relocated retirees who once raised hell during summer trips to Myrtle Beach when they were young now contribute to our local economy and social atmosphere, many Bikefest participants are introduced to the area the same way.

Another much-discussed assumption is that if Bikefest goes away, more tourists would come.

Myrtle Beach is attracting more than 17 million visitors a year — a number that has been growing in recent years. If Bikefest is scaring away a ton of tourists, it isn’t showing up in the numbers we have.

Maybe getting rid of Bikefest would bring in a different kind of tourist? (Bikefest visitors are tourists.) That may be true.

But if we got rid of “gentleman’s clubs,” maybe the golf tourists we’d lose would be replaced by Evangelical Christians?

Removing the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds and from various area front porches and store windows would make room for a different kind of tourist as well.

Just because we don’t like something doesn’t mean we get to banish it.

Here’s the bottom line:

There’s no need to push myth and hyperbole.

It is in the area’s best interest to hope the plans the city has put in place work well — even the parts of the plan with which we disagree. We don’t want any Ferguson- or Baltimore-like headlines.

For a week, at least, we need to put differences aside and do what we can to ensure Memorial Day weekend goes off with no major disturbances.

There’s a time to fuss and fight and debate. And there’s a time to unite for the good of the Myrtle Beach area.

That time is now.

This story was originally published May 13, 2015 at 11:14 AM with the headline "Time to postpone Bikefest debate, unite."