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Post by Pat on Jan 15, 2009 0:38:02 GMT -6
We have been reviewing the After Action Report by Horry County from the Spring 2008 Rallies, concentrating on the statistics for the Harley Davidson Rally in Myrtle Beach and found a few interesting items of note. - Attendance was estimated at between 225,000 and 275,000, making for about a 10 times increase in population over the locals during the rally
- A number of "adult entertainment" events were scheduled or advertised, but a "significant percentage" were either cancelled or never occurred
- Traffic congestion on 501 was significantly reduced owing to improved traffic management into venues
- There was no correlation between service calls and venue locations (eg- no "spike" within 1/2 mile of major venues)
- Traffic accident calls increase by factor of 2 to 4 during rallies while population increases by factor of 10. This indicates rally participants are 2.5 to 5 times safer drivers than local population.
- Calls for service from police increase by factor of 2 to 3 during rallies while population increases by factor of 10. This indicates rally participants are 3 to 5 times more law abiding than local population.
- Overwhelming majority of accidents occur between noon and 11 PM
- County cleared $140,000 after expenses
Taken together, these statistics seem to call into question some of the Mayor's claims regarding the rallies, the rally participants, and the need for the raft of new ordinances. You can find the complete report in the Info Pages section.
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Post by ovation on Jan 15, 2009 18:29:52 GMT -6
Mr. McDonald, I am a bit confused with the numbers, It says "Attendance was estimated at between 225,000 and 275,000, making for about a 10 times increase in population over the locals during the rally" My underatanding is the (City of Myrtle Beach) has a population of about 25,000 and Horry County has a total population of around 250,000 people...... Is it 10 times the pop. of Myrtle Beach City or double the pop. of the County?....Help Me
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Post by Pat on Jan 15, 2009 19:01:56 GMT -6
Mr. McDonald, I am a bit confused with the numbers, It says "Attendance was estimated at between 225,000 and 275,000, making for about a 10 times increase in population over the locals during the rally" My underatanding is the (City of Myrtle Beach) has a population of about 25,000 and Horry County has a total population of around 250,000 people...... Is it 10 times the pop. of Myrtle Beach City or double the pop. of the County?....Help Me Doug, You be on the ball! You are correct that the report is for greater Horry County and yet I chose the population of Myrtle Beach as the baseline for the factors I presented in my original message. I did so for the following reasons: a. While the report was for all of Horry County and includes calls from all over, it is specifically for the Spring 2008 rallies and concentrates attention on the major venues within Myrtle Beach and Atlantic Beach. They spend a fair bit of time analyzing geographical distribution of calls looking for correlation to those venues in fact. b. Mayor Rhodes has used increased crime and traffic accidents as a basis for the new ordinances, as well as a generalized claim that the city resources are overwhelmed by the rallies. Clearly he believes and is stating that the rally participants are concentrating their activities within the city limits. If this is so, then I am justified in using the population of Myrtle Beach as the baseline for comparison since that is where the increases would be occuring. If it is not so and the increases occur largely outside the city limits, then he has no leg to stand on and it becomes an issue for discussion by the Horry County Council and not the city. Take your pick. Your implied point that the report can be interpreted in more than one way is certainly true, which is why we placed the full report on the website for anyone interested to look over and draw their own conclusions.
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Post by classic53 on Feb 5, 2009 7:35:15 GMT -6
I know this really doesn't have much to do with the horry county report, but is does have to do with the old argument about crime in the city. I got this from south carolina criminal defense blog. Here it is:
Wren says that a review of 14,000 booking reports shows that 83% of persons charged with violent crimes, including robbery, aggravated assaults, rape and murder, are locals. Out of 671 bookings for serious violent crimes, 551 had home addresses in Horry and Georgetown Counties. He also points out that the Myrtle Beach metro area has more than double the crime rate of the New York metro area, which has 44 million tourists a year. Also,
The Atlantic City, N.J., metro area has a permanent population roughly the same size as Horry County's and claims 37 million annual visitors. That metro area had 1,594 reported incidents of violent crime last year for a rate of 589.5 crimes per 100,000 residents. The Myrtle Beach metro area's violent crime rate also is higher than tourism Mecca’s Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla., both of which attract about three times as many annual visitors as Horry County.
Just a little food for thought.
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Post by geezer on Feb 5, 2009 10:05:19 GMT -6
Hmmmmm, I wonder if the mayor's office knows about this. Maybe you need to email him that report. It would seem that the bikers would be way down the list of problems he needs to correct.
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Post by classic53 on Feb 5, 2009 11:05:14 GMT -6
now that would be interesting! consider it done!
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