For more than a year I’ve commented ranted about the various motorcycle rallies and the city council fiascos.
Many concerned city governments do their best to dissuade motorcycle rallies altogether using a series of tactics designed to run off motorcycle tourism. By raising vendor and booth fee’s or trying to rein things in with stricter vendor rules or outright banning activity. And if that doesn’t work they’ll pull the “P” card…exorbitant costs for policing the event to protect against the villain that doesn’t exist.
There have been boycotts by motorcycle enthusiasts, public forums, petitions, protests, organizations formed, news reports, and lawsuits filed (Myrtle Beach for example) so, I backed off on beating this dead horse which had begun to dominate my posts. I won’t say motorcyclists lost because we are still riding when, where, and how we want to, but some of the cities got their wish and several rallies were cancelled or downsized to the point where riders washed their hands of the whole thing.
Well, frankly I’m over it and looking forward to Laughlin River Run 2010. If all goes well I will be saddling up in April. I’ve attended this rally in various forms nine of the last 10 years.
Our posse is like most Laughlin River Run visitors in most cities that host motorcycle events. We don’t belong to a club or motorcycle gang. We don’t ride recklessly because we want to make it home in one piece. We aren’t going to walk out on our check or assault your families. Hotel furniture remains unbroken! Several in the posse own a family business. And most all have worked their way up the ladder and been in management at a number of white collar companies. All are family men and just looking to get away from the work-a-day world for a few days. We’ll spend money on lodging, we’ll go to restaurants, we’ll shop the vendors, we’ll have a few laughs, smoke a cigar or two and then we’ll go home. We’re the same people that cities work to get our tourist dollars, but have tried just as hard to run off as “villains.”
I read an article in, the Feb. 10 edition of The Sun News who reported that “For the first time in many years, hospitality revenue didn’t grow in Myrtle Beach in 2009, leaving the city with a larger-than-normal financial gap to overcome to balance its budget.” I told you so, Myrtle Beach. But in reality we could [insert any city name USA here!] rather than Myrtle Beach.
Call my crazy, but here’s a novel idea for the Pacific Northwest Chambers of Commerce…in your city’s Chamber of Commerce embrace the, well… commerce, generated by the motorcycle rallies and maybe even play a key role in promoting them. Yes, there will be times when city officials will have to deal with some complaints of congestion and noise. Instead of pulling the plug on tourist dollars hold the elected officials, heads of law enforcement, and Chamber of Commerce feet to the fire and ask them to do their jobs and address the issues.
Almost a year ago there was a CNN article where Kevin Kilian (Sr. VP of Daytona Beach/Halifax Area Chamber of Commerce) stated that their spring (Bike Week) and fall (Biketoberfest) motorcycle rallies generate $650 million dollars a year.
Could the same be true here the northwest?
Photo courtesy of Random House and Chip and Dan Heath.
I went to Hollister last year. It was the first time I had gone since I had moved to Oregon in 06. It sucked. plain and simple. What used to be a great rally week, was reduced to…not worth the gas it took to get there.
Who suffers, not us bikers, we, as you stated, still ride, travel and spend money. Who suffers is the local people at those locations that shut down our events.
Gas sales are off, restaurants business is off, hotels, motels, inn’s and campgrounds business suffers. So do your every day convenience stores, and all forms of commerce in general.
Why, well, in a nutshell it is easy to answer.
Local police and sheriffs get big dollars from the federal government if they happen to have a gang task force. In order to have a gang task force, well, it would of course require gang activity, even when there is none. Hey, easy solution, lets call that local MC a gang instead of a club, and lets call their gatherings gang activity. This, keeps those federal dollars flowing in.
Of course, they must continually legitimize themselves to city counsels and supervisors, so, this is why we have MC’s being focused on as the monsters all the time.
I loved the story going around at the beginning of the year from Kentucky where the local sheriff, (running for re-election this year) busted up a wild biker party new years day, I mean, that vegi plate they had was just getting out of hand. As has been stated several times, they could have made a vastly larger bust at the local college dorms, but, well it just wouldn’t do to have some polititicos son or daughter busted, so…lets stick with the bikers.
Of course part of the presentation package to city governments when a rally is proposed is the woe’s about the troubles bikers will bring with them. The loudest voices heard at counsel meetings are those of law enforcement.
I say, gladly, let these towns and city’s die. Let them dry up, and blow away. Let those dollars in our pockets go to the next county down the road, perhaps one that realizes it is not Attila the hun and his hordes coming to rape and pillage, that in fact there will be no pillaging unless it is that of parking spaces, and that at the end of a three day event, their coffers will be full, and their citizens happy.
I went through Hollister a couple weeks ago, I can tell you, they are feeling it, they are feeling it bad. And you know what, I’M GLAD THEY ARE. Perhaps, when they realize that they elected the mayor, and they elected the city manager, who in turn Hired the chief of police, they will start rethinking how it was that a town that saw great revenue for many years because of a wonderful event that never had a single major incident, now suffers because of their voting choices and subsequent appointments.
I wish every town, that listens to their law enforcement nay saying community, instead of the voice of reason and statistics, the same exact fate.
~Here, here, Windy! Some cities, towns and counties fit my favorite saying to a tee! “You can’t fix stupid!”~
~Be sure you attend “Run 21” this year! Adults Only….~
“Switch” is a good read and like “Made to Stick” is a fine tool for reorienting one’s thinking. I just believe most are not life long learners and have stopped thinking or finding solutions.
Change is hard, not for me of course, just those other people. “Somebody” needs to do something!
Windy,
Maybe the reason you hear Law Enforcement talking so loudly is because of incidents in other communities that didn’t turn out so friendly.
Here are just a few to help you remember.
These involved shootouts between rival clubs.
Selah
Laughlin
Norco
Sturgis
Thankfully, they are far and few between. Law enforcement is trying to keep it that way.