This is a shame. I go every year. The weather
is beautiful, the riding is great, and the local
businesses really go out of their way as far as
hospitality. I do think it is mostly
due to the North Atlantic Bike Week. About
30% of the businesses would shut down and
then fines were implimented because of the NAACP.
If a business shut down and did not have a "valid"
reason, they were fined. That's what I heard from
the owners of some of the local bars and businesses.

Here are some articles


http://www.naacp.org/news/press/2008-05-22/index.htm
http://www.blackpressusa.com/news/Article.asp?SID=3&Title=National+News&NewsID=3815

Mark7 wrote:
Living in the burbs of Atlanta(and for a while, downtown)I can state with the utmost honesty that the demise of Freaknik had nothing to do with the people or their numbers and everything to do with uncontrolled gridlock traffic.

It was a public safety issue. Nobody could move: Not First Responders, LEO, no vehicle was moving. Yeah, there were some bad apples here too(really bad ones), but the majority of the folks just wanted to have a good time.

M7

This was totally the case, Atlanta can handle quite a crowd IF they stay in one place, but the nature of freaknik was to get in your car and cruise the streets of downtown, that doesn't work, Its hard enough for locals to get around in atlanta, let alone someone from out of town....
MB is not like that tho, it is a typical seaside town with a main drag along the beach..one way in and one way out..Should this action take place, I will not return for any reason, bike or no bike...

Strange that the articles call the first bike week "Harley Week". Having relatives that attend regularly, I hear that this is not just a HD event at all. I grew up in NC and did have the misfortune of working near MB during BBWeek when I was younger and its quite a different crowd. The crowd that the local govnt is aiming at is the crotch rocket, lewd in public, loud music, theft crowd. Its far different than the typical "white" biker crowd. Likely its a minority (of the crowd) that's causing problems and the police have a hard time aiming at those few. Galveston has the same problem and their businesses close b/c of this too. I think it would be humorous to have naacp representatives standing on the strand, giving live reports about the people they are defending while their bikes roll by in the background. That would take some steam out of the lawyers engines!



Hades02 wrote:

Here are some articles


http://www.naacp.org/news/press/2008-05-22/index.htm

http://www.blackpressusa.com/news/Article.asp?SID=3&Title=National+News&NewsID=3815

Am I missing something here or is the one article happy that the Town of Myrtle Beach instituted the one way traffic pattern while the other article is upset about it? Seems they're screaming discrimination no matter what happens.

I think the two articles aren't close together in date. Amazing that a "press release" would be released without a date stamp. Typical for a newspaper with the other article though. Regardless, the point is that MB can't keep BBWeek under control and believes they lose more money by lost revenue than the crowd of BBWeek bring in. Seems like to me, the organizers of BBWeek should merge into the other week and just make that larger.

I've never attended MB bike weeks for the simple fact that they (whoever "they" is?) segregate them. I have several buddies I ride with that are black. I'm not attending a bike function where my friends would feel out of place.....or I would feel out of place for that matter.

I'm not starting a political/ethnic/ethical post here , just stating my feelings. Daytona is a good crowd of everybody. That's how I personally view a successful bike rally.

But to be honest , rallies are a headache anyway.....a lot of clutching and going no place fast. I go about every 5 years because someone I ride with wants to go. My thoughts. BB

The article calls it "Harley Week" because the
author is probably a non-biker and assumes that
all cruisers are Harleys. I, as many of you
do as well, always get the "compliment", "Nice
Harley" by the non-biker crowd and sometimes
by the urban biker as well.

As far as the bike weeks being segregated, That
was not setup that way by the Myrtle Beach Bike
Week organizers. I see lots of African Americans
on cruisers during that week. Like anything else
it was the African Americans that ride sport bikes
that decided that they wanted their own bike week. Probably
because "Harley Week" was and is primarily a white function
and primarily cruisers and customs.
It has only been recently that one has seen an increase
in African Americans, Hispanics, and other ethnicities
along with young males of every ethnicity riding cruisers.

Are there racial problems during "Harley Week"? Yes. Just like
you would find all over the United States during any time of the year.
MB is a great place to visit even during bike week. Lots of
roads and lots of beach front. There are enough roads to get
you around traffic and it is very spread out. Vendors
from Garden City all the way up to North Myrtle. The only
place I have ever gotten stuck in traffic has been trying to
get to the Harley dealership and the only reason that I went
there was because two of the guys riding with us had to make the
stop to get their T-shirts.

And by the way Big Bear, (not trying to pick a fight or argue) but
Daytona also has a "Black Bike Week".

i own a small business, i dont care if you are green, purple, blue red or black, i expect a certain amount of respect when you walk into my store and i will return the respect, but if i'm disrespected i will toss you out on your ear, i have the right to serve and the right not to, if i want to close i will, we also should not have to train law inforcement officers culteral ways, you know the differance between right and wrong, if you act wrong it is nobodys fault but yours and you need to take responcibility for your actions, i hear this all the time now from kids, it wasnt my fault he made me do it, treat people the way you want to be treated,

Hades02 wrote:
...I see lots of African Americans
on cruisers during that week...


First time I went to Myrtle Beach for Bike week, I saw a black man riding a Harley Fatboy wearing a rebel flag on his jacket. Blew my mind! I asked another guy about it and he said that there are a lot of black Harley riders that have no problem with the "Southern Pride" thing and realize it isn't necessarily racial. There actually were a lot of black cruiser riders there that week as well as a few early sport bike riders.

Hades02 wrote:
And by the way Big Bear, (not trying to pick a fight or argue) but
Daytona also has a "Black Bike Week".


No offense taken . Never heard of Black bike week in Daytona. The couple times I went ( 99 & 04 ) , I saw a very mixed crowd. Must be this rock I'm living under...... BB