How Charlotte fixed its downtown government issues

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David Hucks
David Huckshttps://myrtlebeachsc.com
David Hucks is a 12th generation descendant of the area we now call Myrtle Beach, S.C. David attended Coastal Carolina University and like most of his family, has never left the area. David is the lead journalist at MyrtleBeachSC.com

In March 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported:

The under-40 set took majority control of the Charlotte, N.C. City Council last fall with new priorities for one of America’s fastest-growing cities. One was to live-stream meetings. Another was banishing the term millennial.

We made a conscious effort to abandon the word,” said City Councilman Larken Egleston, a 35-year-old liquor salesman. “It was often used to describe us as a group as not ready or whatever it’s code for.”

The city of Charlotte passed the torch to a new generation of fresh thinking leaders.

While the town had been one of America’s best cities for decades, voters put these millennials in charge. The group brought a free market, small business mindset to city government.

Fast forward two years, the town is thriving.

THE AFTERMATH OF MYRTLE BEACH ELECTIONS FALL 2017

It’s like a nursing home or worse an HOA meeting”

At the same time, Fall 2017, the City of Myrtle Beach elected an incoming Mayor who promised city government reform, to clean up the image of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, to tackle downtown crime, as well as, promote limited city government and free markets.

Said one downtown merchant, who asked to remain anonymous, “Attending a Myrtle Beach City Council meeting is much like attending a nursing home, or even worse, a home owners association meeting of angry board members.

Mary Jeffcoat
San Francisco Mary

San Francisco Mary – Council-Woman Recuser

Councilwoman Mary Jeffcoat gets most of her “fresh” and new ideas from the left leaning Municipal Association of Cities. Every big government idea proposed by this group, she adores. Her spat with Representative Russell Fry on her belief that the City of Myrtle Beach has rights to legally seize the assets of tourists, without charging them for a crime, is legendary. To witness this spat, click here.

While she has not announced that she is running for re-election this Fall, she is campaigning hard in the Market Common district. Oddly, every time a vote comes up concerning Market Common, Council Woman Jeffcoat must recuse herself because of her husband’s involvement in that very district.

Myrtle Beach – NO FREE MARKETS

In a city business model that prefers to collect taxes from 1 percent sales taxes paid by locals and tourists (who can’t vote in Myrtle Beach), Myrtle Beach is considered (by its own small business community) to have few, if any free markets.

MBACC
The Chamber has a monopoly on advertising

The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce has a state and city tax payer financed monopoly on advertising.

The Downtown Redevelopment authority has a city leveraged monopoly on parking

The Myrtle Beach Downtown Redevelopment Corporation, through its ownership by the City of Myrtle Beach and its agreement with Lanier Parking has a city sponsored monopoly on public parking.

City Hall
Myrtle Beach City Hall – monopoly on real estate

Myrtle Beach City Hall has fully entered the private real estate sector through heavy armed zoning and public land purchasing. As the city re-engineers the downtown, the city now has a monopoly on “inside the city” real estate, backed by its ability to shut down any downtown merchant it so chooses.

AND THE RESULTS OF THIS BIG GOVERNMENT APPROACH ARE?

Homelessness city-wide, among the state’s highest
Ongoing high profile business failures

Business Vacancy Recidivism

In Myrtle Beach, once a business location closes, that business location is likely to sit empty for 3.7 years minimum.

123 vacant store fronts city-wide. Many vacant 7 years plus

Legal Fights with city merchants and Horry County

High Crime

Crime City Myrtle Beach
With ongoing shootings, Myrtle Beach now considered a high crime city both nationally and locally

The city has among the highest crimes per capita of any city in the nation per FBI statistics.

THE CONTRAST

Charlotte NC and Myrtle Beach

Charlotte and Myrtle Beach are two different cities heading in two very different directions and proof that elections do have consequences.

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