Locally Speaking

Big Numbers Expected At Myrtle Beach Harley Davidson Bike Ralley

Don't expect this year's Harley Davidson bike rally, kicking off next weekend, to be like last year's tame affair.

Officials predict more bikers will converge on the Grand Strand for the Cruisin' the Coast Spring Bike Rally - not near as many as during its peak years ago, but enough to know there's a rally in town, they said.

"We are back on the upswing," said DeAnna Fryar, who is in charge of the vendors at Barefoot Landing.

Several factors are contributing to the expected uptick: More aggressive marketing - the most advertising since 2009; an improving economy; and, some say most importantly, the repeal of Myrtle Beach's controversial helmet law.

This will be the first spring rally since the S.C. Supreme Court overturned the city's helmet requirement for all riders, part of a package of new rules the city approved in 2008 aimed at toning down the rallies. The actions sparked an outcry from some bikers who said they would not be back to the beach because of it.

City leaders said they had to enact the restrictions because the rallies - which had attracted as many as 500,000 people at the peak - had gotten too big and created traffic, noise and other issues for residents.

The state Supreme Court ruled that the city's helmet requirement was invalid just a couple of weeks after last spring's rally, saying it superseded state law, which only requires helmets for riders under age 21.

"People are ready to come back," said Denise Triece, marketing and event coordinator for Myrtle Beach Harley Davidson. "People are coming back that haven't been in years. They are saying they have missed the beach. ...We are expecting a lot more than last spring."

None of the experts have been able yet to estimate how many bikers might be here for the rally, which kicks off May 13 and runs through May 22. –Read more at Sun News 

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S.C. Could See Alcohol Sales Banned On Holidays

It might not be just the turkey that's dry in South Carolina on Christmas and Thanksgiving.

S.C. legislators want to bar liquor sales on those two holidays, adding to bans of retail liquor sales on Sundays and Election Day. People would still be able to buy liquor in bars on those days, where permitted. And beer and wine would still be sold.

State Rep. Dennis Moss, a Gaffney Republican, said for nearly 30 years, S.C. governors had used executive orders to shut down liquor stores on holidays. State law gives them authority to close them "in the interest of law and order or public morals and decorum."

But that stopped during former Gov. Mark Sanford's first term, Moss said. The last time they were banned on Thanksgiving and Christmas was in 2007.

Since then, liquor store owners have worried about whether they're breaking the law by operating, said John Kelsey, who operates two Rollers Wine and Spirits stores on Hilton Head Island.

"Every year, you never know if you're supposed to be open or closed," Kelsey said.

Changing the law by putting the closure days in writing would mean retailers can plan and not mistakenly open on a holiday - something that could cost them their license.

Moss said liquor stores in his district wanted the change, too.

"They are legitimate business people that want to be closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas," Moss said. "The employees want to spend time with their families. Most of the stores are closed Thanksgiving and Christmas, so why shouldn't ABC stores?"

While the law doesn't require the stores to open, Moss notes some liquor stores open in his area when their competitors want to close.

And Moss, a retired S.C. Highway Patrol officer, says holiday liquor sales can create domestic problems. "I think it's a family-friendly issue," he said.—Sun News 

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Census Reveals Rapid Housing Growth In Myrtle Beach Area

It's no secret that the Grand Strand experienced a building boom in the past decade, but data released by the U.S. Census Bureau today shows just how rapid the growth was, and indicates what buyers and renters might expect.

Nearly 64,000 housing units - houses, condos, apartments - were built between 2000 and 2010, almost double the number built in the prior 10 years, according to the census. There are a total of 185,992 housing units in Horry County, which has a population of 269,291, according to the census.

Greg Sisson, the vice president of the Hoffman Homes division of The Hoffman Group, said the data is a "blasting flash of the obvious."

"It verifies and validates our numbers and where we are," he said.

What makes the nearly 64,000 number seem even greater is that the majority were likely built in a three-year period at the peak of the real estate market, Sisson said.

"It just shows how ridiculously explosive of a time we experienced," he said.

In the early 2000s there was a sudden influx of residents and the demand for housing was greater than the existing supply, said Tom Maeser, a real estate analyst for the Coastal Carolinas Association of Realtors. The result was that property values rose and construction took off. The Myrtle Beach area was a different community in the 1990s than it was in the 2000s, which explains the significant difference in how many properties were built, he said.

"At the end we overbuilt primarily because builders, like the banks and everything else that fed that system, were greedy," Maeser said.

The building resulted in too many properties on the market, but Maeser said that has been diminishing recently. There are half as many condos on the market today as there were in 2006, though that may be partly due to homeowners choosing not to sell because of the market collapse, he said. –Read more at Sun News