Posted on 07/01/2017 8:05:33 AM PDT by upchuck
Just as summer is ramping up, Myrtle Beach, a top South Carolina summer destination, is dealing with a flurry of violence that has city and state officials scrambling to calm worried visitors and residents.
In the city's most prominent incident, at least seven people were injured in a June 18 shooting that was live-streamed on Facebook. That shooting -- and two others that weekend -- followed six over the Easter holidays in April.
The violence prompted South Carolina's Republican Gov. Henry McMaster to visit the city not long after and order steps to beef up security, such as bringing in officers and staff to support local police. The city, meanwhile, has placed barricades along Ocean Boulevard, the beach's central artery where the June shooting happened.
"Whatever it takes to make sure that this aberration does not take place again," Gov. McMaster said. "Our tourism industry is huge; it's very important to us."
The state estimates that tourism is a $20.2 billion industry in the Palmetto State, generating about $1.5 billion in state and local tax revenues in 2015, according to the latest data available.
Tourism drives Myrtle Beach's local economy, and each group visiting the city spends about $2,766, according to the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.
The Grand Strand, a group of South Carolina beach communities which includes Myrtle Beach, has seen an increase in tourism in recent years, with arrivals via plane rising 6% in 2016 from the year before, according to data from Myrtle Beach International Airport. The vast majority of visitors drive to Myrtle Beach from the Southeast.
With only about 32,000 year-round residents, Myrtle Beach becomes "a relatively large city" every summer and the police force hasn't grown enough to meet current needs, said Brad Dean, president of the chamber.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...
Last time I ever went near that street on the weekend. I'm good at knowing when my ass is about to be kicked.
You couldn’t drive the crowds away from Myrtle Beach if you set off a nuclear device.
I’ve lived in the MB area now for four years. And, like any other large city in the USA there are areas that I won’t venture to/thru after dark. There are also areas that are quite safe except for an alligator or two. I also keep extra mags in the car door pocket.
I haven’t been there in years and don’t miss the place at all.
The last time I was there a lot of hotels were boarded up and streetlights were out.
Wonder if it’s anything like Black Spring Break in Biloxi ... they did a pretty good job of warning and stamping out a lot of the violence fro past years.
Well, when you live in a big city you have to expect these things
“Din’t do nuf’fin.”
That would be the first place to start.
Guess that Confederate Battle Flag wasn’t the panacea you claimed, eh ex-Governor nikki haley?
We always knew you were dumb as a box of rocks.
With Facebook real murder and mayhem has become Entertainment. Perhaps the Oscars could establish a new catergory or there could be a new award altogether, maybe called “Facies” with an artistically arranged brown pile on a golden base.
...”With Facebook real murder and mayhem has become Entertainment”....
Same with You Tube.....Idiots pulling all sorts of stunts, crimes and mischief just so they can put up their video and get hits on them. ...especially fights on public transportation and at schools.
A young man and woman across the room were obviously distraught.
When I finished eating, I approached and asked what was wrong.
They said that they were returning from Myrtle Beach, that someone had stolen the man's wallet there, and that they didn't have the money to buy gas enough to get home.
I asked if $50 would get them there. They said it would.
I gave them $50.
They asked for my name and address so they could repay me.
I said: "I don't want you to know who I am or to repay me. Just remember: There are more of us than there are of them."
So much for Myrtle Beach.
No mention of MB’s Black Biker Week. Wonder why not?
The Carolinas have a large number of amazingly wonderful, family-oriented vacation beaches; Myrtle Beach is not one of them.
However, Myrtle Beach does serve the useful function of attracting the trash and keeping it concentrated in one place, leaving all of the other beaches trash-free.
The rule seems to be that once a place reaches a certain level of attractiveness people pour in from other areas until they destroy what brought them there in the first place. I grew up within a hundred and twenty miles of Myrtle Beach and I recall when it was a great place to go. In 1972 I began working as a tech rep on offset printing equipment and copiers and I was in Myrtle at least once a week for ten years on business. In ‘72 I spoke to a lady who worked at the Caravelle Motor Inn who was nearing retirement age. She told me that she recalled when the land on the ocean side of Hwy. 74 sold for ONE dollar per acre! She said the only catch was that if you wanted the highway frontage you had to buy the land all the way to the surf because the ocean frontage was considered “worthless”! My, my, how things do change. Now that same land is worth a fortune but I never go there because you have to go through too great a mass of urban sprawl and wall to wall people to get to the water.
Didn’t Yogi Berra say something about some restaurant or something like, “Nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded.” I’m with Yogi.
Isle of Palms, Seabrook Island and Kiawah Island are all very nice, but totally different from MB if you are looking for things like putt-putt, amusement park rides and arcades to keep young children entertained. I enjoyed going to MB when I was little (I thought the Gay Dolphin gift shop was the greatest thing ever), and the times we stayed at North Myrtle Beach, which was much less developed in the 1970s, I thought we were in the boondocks. The wide, clean, uncrowded beaches at NMB were wonderful, though.
I need to take a virtual drive through MB via GoogleEarth to see what the place looks like now.
Two weeks ago I took my 8 year old daughter to Wonderworks at Broad Way at the Beach, in Myrtle Beach. The first step we took onto the sidewalk from the parking lot we look down, she finds a penny on heads and I find a shell casing not even a foot away. It was at 1:00pm. We didn’t stay long.
What a shame. Glad you stayed safe.
There was a time when Myrtle Beach had a reputation for very aggressive, even over-the-top cops. They’d drag you out of a car on Ocean Drive for yelling out of an open car window. That’s not to say that there haven’t always been shady places in Myrtle Beach, but you had to go looking for them. The tourist district was policed thoroughly to the point of excess.
I guess that’s not true anymore.
I remember going to Myrtle Beach in the 1960’s as a kid. Sometimes a day trip, we would rent a locker and change at the Pavilion. Sometimes we would stay over night at one of the one or two story family owned motels that lined the beach in those days, no reservation required. Back then you could see the ocean from blocks away. As late as 1980 you could find a motel room on the beach for $25 a night, no reservation required.
The last time I went to Myrtle Beach in 2008, I couldn’t even see the ocean from Ocean Drive with all of the high rise hotels and condos. Crowds of unsavory looking people hanging around everywhere. Never went back.
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