Candidates challenging for the Myrtle Beach Mayor’s race in the November 7th election matched up at Fresh Brewed Coffee House beside City Hall this past Saturday night.
Ed Carey, Mark McBride, and C.D. Rosa articulated the current challenges facing Myrtle Beach, as well as, the future problems just ahead.
The debates offered real solutions, but also had key fun moments as exampled in the short clip here:
ED CAREY OFFERS SMART SOLUTIONS: PROMISES GREATER GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY
MARK MCBRIDE SAYS PUBLIC SAFETY IS THE MAIN ISSUE, BUT McBride is a habitual liar.
C.D. ROSA IS THE COMMON MAN’S MAYOR
Mrs. Bethune was scheduled to debate as well, however, she had to cancel as she was under the weather.
Also scheduled to appear was: John Rhodes -current Mayor, who has chosen not to participate in any public debates this campaign season. Mayor Rhodes is expected to participate in two “closed set” TV debates which will be held on Myrtle Beach Area Chamber Of Commerce taxpayer subsidized local television stations WMBFnews and WPDE T.V. 15. Voters will not be allowed on either set.
Mayor Rhodes Chooses To Avoid Voters By Skipping The Debate
Starting at 2:30 p.m. this coming Sunday, the Market Common will host the 2017 Mayoral and City Council debates.
As of today, incumbents have not committed to participate. Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce President Brad Dean has stated that the chamber can not sponsor the debates as Brad Dean says he believes the incumbents do not support public debates.
Also, all major local media, including talk radio WRNN 99.5, WBTW, WPDE, and WMBFnews are refusing to promote the Market Common debate event.
The Market Common Debates are the only featured debates of the 2017 campaign season.
Incumbents and Chamber President Are Not Supporting Oct. 15 Public Debates
With a current emphasis on re-allocating Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce tourist tax dollars towards downtown city police and infrastructure, the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber has not been overly enthusiastic about having publicly held debates.
With the current climate of high crime, high debt, a tax payer funded library, eminent domain, beach access parking issues, boulevard barricades, and beach bacteria pollution, incumbents are hoping to skip the debate and avoid the voters publicly as well.
Current Myrtle Beach Mayor John Rhodes was one of several candidates for city government who chose to sit out the debates at Fresh Brewed Coffee House held beside City Hall this past Saturday.
The organizers of the event stated they invited Mayor Rhodes, Randal Wallace, Mike Lowder, Gregg Smith, and Jackie Vereen.
All incumbents chose to sit out the debates.
Mike Lowder Sits Out DebatesCouncilman Randal Wallace, left, avoids debates in front of voters
This coming Sunday afternoon from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Market Common will hold the Fall City Council followed by the Mayoral Debates at 6 p.m. Details Here
As of this date incumbents Lowder and Rhodes are once again expected to not show. Mr. Wallace has left the issue murky as to whether he plans to attend or not.
EVENT FLYER
TIME: 2 PM meet the Council Candidates 2:30 to 4 PM
CITY COUNCIL DEBATE 4 to 4:30 PM
Meet the Mayor Candidates 4:30 to 6 PM ….THE MAYOR’S DEBATE FOLLOWS
New FBI Crime Numbers are now officially in for Myrtle Beach. The raw data shows that within the city of Myrtle Beach, S.C., the number of violent crimes increased from 484 in 2015 to 538 in 2016 (the current year for FBI latest statistics) – an increase of 11.1 percent.
The high profile shootings are now occurring on a weekly basis. Myrtle Beach Police Chief Amy Prock informed Myrtle Beach City Council this past week, “I have called in agents of the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) to review the numbers with me to ensure that the FBI numbers are accurate.”
SHARK BITES, BEACH BACTERIA, AND SHOOTINGS – Bad For Family Tourism
Before 2014, Myrtle Beach residents could largely expect no front page news of a shark bite, a shooting or a beach bacteria spike. Local TV might cover it, but it would likely be buried. As Brad Dean, Myrtle Beach Area Chamber C.E.O. might say, “Such news is bad for tourism.”
The weekly high profile crime in Myrtle Beach, however, has made this a topic that local media can no longer ignore. While incumbents Randal Wallace, Mike Lowder, and Mayor John Rhodes point to the large influx of summer tourists as contributing, FBI numbers also show that the city of North Myrtle Beach is not having these violent crime issues.
IMPACT ON TOURISM?
Long Stay Families Are Now Choosing the Beach Towns of North Myrtle Beach, Surfside Beach, and Garden City Over Downtown Myrtle Beach
Merchants are now beginning to question what they can expect in tourism numbers in 2018. Was 2017 an anomaly? Was 2017 the beginning of a new normal?
The crime numbers have only increased.
IMPACT ON NOVEMBER ELECTIONS
Several Key Downtown Merchants Support Wallace – 16 Years In Office
If current downtown merchant support is any indication then high crime, barricades, eminent domain, a tax payer funded library, beach bacteria pollution, beach access parking, a tourism tax, and high debt are unlikely to affect the campaign of 16 year incumbent Myrtle Beach City Councilman Randal Wallace.
Several prominent downtown merchants have publicly stated they support him. His yard signs can be spotted at multiple downtown beach wear stores.
MyrtleBeachSC.com learned today that Myrtle Beach City Councilmen Randal Wallace and Mike Lowder intend to entirely sit out the Fall debates held in front of Myrtle Beach city residents. Elections are held this November 7th for these two incumbents’ seats.
This after a Myrtle Beach town hall held earlier in July 2017. Residents showed up in mass to let City Hall know how citizens and merchants felt about the way the town is currently being run.
“It appears the intentions of these two incumbents are to run out the clock avoiding the residents publicly, hoping that the nearly $500,000.00 in Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce board member associated PAC monies can get them re-elected,” said Horry County local Veril Anderson.
The following debates are currently scheduled, but City Council incumbents have not agreed to attend:
FRESH BREWED COFFEE HO– — USE: This Saturday Oct 7th starting at 5 p.m. Mayoral Candidate Brenda Bethune, Mark McBride and selected challengers for city council are expected to attend. Fresh Brewed previously held a debate where Ed Carey and select council challengers spoke.
Market Common Recreation Center: October 15th. All candidates for Mayor and City Council will be debating. Incumbent Mayor John Rhodes and Councilmen Wallace and Lowder have informally stated they will not attend.
Mayor Rhodes, Ed Carey, Brenda Bethune and Mark McBride are scheduled to debate on two closed set TV studios at the end of the month.
Mayoral Candidate Mark McBride promised to bring high paying, high tech jobs to Myrtle Beach last night. McBride brought the Executive Director of the Charleston Digital Corridor, Ernest Andrade to explain to city residents how he and his team accomplished this in Charleston, S.C. This is just another lie offered by Mark McBride.
Andrade’s accomplishments include positioning Charleston as a premier destination for tech companies by growing the Digital Corridor in Charleston, S.C. from 18 to 400+ companies since 2001, launching a year-round CODEcamp initiative, developing two business incubators in Charleston and a third in Beaufort, and developing software products for use by other communities and business development agencies including the State of South Carolina.
Working with Charleston Mayor, Joe Riley, Mr. Andrade spearheaded a movement that made Charleston the digital high tech capital of South Carolina. Charleston now experiences diversification above and beyond traditionally lower paying, tourism related jobs.
The organization launched both Flagship 1 and Flagship 2 below:
Earlier this year, Mayoral Candidate Mark McBride payed for and scheduled Ernest Andrade, Executive Director of the Charleston Digital Corridor, to speak with Myrtle Beach city residents at the Mary C. Canty Recreation Center (formerly Canal St Rec Center) about bringing high tech jobs to Myrtle Beach.
More Myrtle Beach drama brought to us by Mark McBride and the City of Myrtle Beach.
The event was scheduled for 6 p.m., October 2nd. Mr. McBride was informed, however, yesterday morning that the event had been cancelled by the city of Myrtle Beach for a “lack of event insurance”.
At 4 p.m. in the evening, after Mr. McBride had moved the event to a new venue, the city relented and said the event could happen as scheduled without the “event insurance” stipulation. After learning of the cancellation at 1 p.m., MyrtleBeachSC.com asked City Manger, John Pedersen, as to how many similar events at the Mary C. Canty Recreation Center had also required “event insurance”. We immediately sent a team member over to pull those records. Based on our findings, the event cancellation by the city was over-reach and unnecessary drama. You can hear Mr. McBride in his own words above about his experience.
The event was held at the Hampton Inn Broadway at the Beach and went off with only minor hiccups. The room was packed to capacity. Mr. McBride apologized to all city residents for the confusion caused by the last minute city of Myrtle Beach political theater.
Ernest Andrade is the founder and Executive Director of the Charleston Digital Corridor, a successful public-private business development partnership launched in February 2001 focused on the tech economy in Charleston, South Carolina.
Andrade’s accomplishments include positioning Charleston as a premier destination for tech companies by growing the Digital Corridor from 18 to 400+ companies since 2001, launching a year-round CODEcamp initiative, developing two business incubators in Charleston and a third in Beaufort, and developing software products for use by other communities and business development agencies including the State of South Carolina.
Mayor John Rhodes’ donors paid for a full page ad in Grand Strand Magazine that went on the shelves today. While the mayor disdains the voices of locals on social media, the ad went viral immediately on Facebook, and not how the mayor intended.
THE MAYOR SAYS:
THIS IS OUR CITY?
IS THIS OUR CITY?IS THIS THE CITY THAT MAYOR RHODES SPEAKS OF?8 Shot Father’s Day 2017 in downtown Myrtle Beach. ORIS THIS IT?MORE CHINESE NONSENSE! IS THIS OUR CITY?PERHAPS – THE MAYOR IS SAYING?: THIS IS “OUR” CITY! Meaning Matthew Brittain, Brad Dean, The Chapman Family and a hand full of key donors only. Are all other city residents outsiders?
MYRTLEBEACHSC.COM STANDS WITH THE MAYOR AGAINST FAKE NEWS:
MyrtleBeachSC.com asks all residents to work alongside Mayor Rhodes to help end this ongoing nightmare of Fake News once and for all. As residents, we can start by asking that the city take down the tax payer funded “fake news” site, Myrtle Beach Point Of View. Mr. Dean can also take down his fake community site, Keeping Myrtle Beach Safe.
COMMON EXAMPLES OF “FAKE NEWS” REGARDING MAYOR RHODES:
WPDE FAKE NEWSMORE FAKE NEWS FROM MAYOR RHODES’ BEST FRIEND WPDE STATION MANAGER BILLY HUGGINS, MBACC BOARD MEMBERReally?
______________________________________
WE STAND WITH THE MAYOR AGAINST DIVISIVENESS
As the mayor insists: It is time the town join together as one! On November 7th, let’s hope we can show the same unity we did previously as below.
In 2017, we came together here:
AND HERE:
Residents, Merchants, Unite Against City
AND HERE:
City and County Residents Unite Against DRC Paid Parking
AND HERE:
AND HERE:
Brenda Bethune Announces Mayoral Candidacy
AND HERE:
CITY RESIDENTS SAY WE’VE HAD ENOUGH
AND HERE:
WE CERTAINLY CAME TOGETHER HERE:
AND HERE:
From all appearances, Myrtle Beach city residents are coming to realize “This is OUR city!“
Our world is a trashy society, and that is causing big problems to oceans and the marine life that call it home.
“I hope we would be more enlightened about throwing trash in the oceans,” said Dr. Dan Abel, a marine biologist at Coastal Carolina University. “This was something that was done in the 40s, 50s, and 60s; then the environmental movement was supposed to educate people.”
Roland Geyer tallied how much plastic people have manufactured since its invention and he came up with more than eight-point-three billion metric tons. Geyer says that can cover the size of Argentina, which is the eighth-largest country in the world.
Abel says that plastic trash is causing big problems for the sharks and sea turtles that swim off the coast of Myrtle Beach.
“Plastics don’t usually break down entirely, but they break down into small components which organisms ingest. There are chemicals in there, and plastics themselves can block digestive tracts,” said Abel.
Caroline Collatos, a graduate student at Coastal Carolina University, says she has seen first-hand the damage plastics can cause.
“Both of my field seasons so far I have seen direct evidence of plastic physically harming and cutting into sharks,” said Collatos.
Last year Collatos and her team caught two sharks that were suffering from plastic wounds. One shark, a female black tip, had the plastic cord wrapped around her neck. Collatos says it cut her so deep the muscle was showing.
Collatos believes this shark was already halfway through her healing period when she was caught.
“Sharks can be very resilient when it comes to wounds, and they have a very fast and effective healing process,” said Collatos. “This shark was halfway through her original healing period, so her original wounds must have been much worse than what we saw.”
A few weeks later a female Juvenile Sandbar shark was caught. That shark was also suffering from plastic injuries. This time it was plastic cord used to wrap around a box that cut into this shark’s fifth gill.
Both plastics were removed from each shark; they were tagged and released.
Abel says the sharks are incredibly lucky they were caught.
“We were able to save both sharks, but they would have certainly died within weeks if we had not caught it on a long line and removed the strap,” said Abel.
According to the State of the Oceans Summit, it is estimated that 90 percent of the world shark population has disappeared in the last 50 years. The reason is that of the trash accumulation in the waters.
Winyah Bay is a prime location to go shark tagging because it has a huge watershed. It drains 18-thousand square miles, with four different rivers dumping into the Bay. It is also the primary pathway to the Atlantic Ocean.
Many fishing vessels, sharks, and sea turtles all share this open water. The increase in congestion means more pollution, and sharks are not the only animals at risk.
Sea turtles also suffer dangerous consequences from ocean debris.
“Sea turtles have a really small brain, and they eat a lot of things that look like trash. They will eat a lot of jellies and fish and so they will mistake trash for their prey,” said Ann Wilson, park ranger. “Their brains are so little they won’t learn from their mistakes.”
Wilson works at Myrtle Beach State Park and says a lot of the trash that ends up in the ocean begins at the beach.
“It is because of our picnics, or what we take to a fishing pier. Even out on the roadway with wind and then it blows out towards the ocean,” said Wilson.
But Wilson feels fishermen pose the biggest threat to our sea turtles.
“To me, fishing line is a really slow death. As an animal keeps growing it’s going to keep strangling and strangling. It’s not going to be a quick easy death,” said Wilson.
When a sea turtle gets caught in fishing line, that is where the biologists at the South Carolina Aquarium come into play. They nurse these injured animals back to health.
“We see plastic ingestion, many of our turtles will eat the plastic out in the wild or pass it in their tank or pass it while they are here in rehab,” said Katelyn McGlothlin, a sea turtle biologist at the South Carolina Aquarium. “We had two patients we had to do surgery on to remove that plastic, which was fishing line that the animal had ingested. It was wrapped around her neck and front left flipper.”
McGlothin says that many of their patients who have ingested plastic will pass it on their own, and will spend seven to nine months in their aquarium recovering.
While some work daily to save the lives of these marine animals, there are others who are not aware of the dangers plastics pose to sharks or turtles.
“It’s very disturbing I honestly did not realize that was happening and that was going on with the animals,” said Loes Muller, beachgoer.
Muller says she is better educated now since seeing pictures of sharks with plastic wrapped around their necks. She says she will help educate others enjoying the beach to make sure everyone does their part to save marine life.
“I feel a lot of people don’t realize what they are doing and how it is affecting the animals out in the ocean,” said Muller.
The Wallace family of Myrtle Beach were thrilled in 2001 as they moved into their new home on 1208 Ragin Street in Myrtle Beach. However, less than 3 months after moving in, family members began getting sick with unexplained illnesses.
The neighborhood has also witnessed crime issues ongoing. The house is located in downtown Myrtle Beach. Just this week, this very neighborhood was the scene of a violent crime, when Jadasia Myers, 22, died as a result of a gunshot wound. Her then-unborn child was delivered, but did not survive. The shooting happened just down the street from the former Wallace home.
Nightmares like these have been compounded by mold issues discovered right after the Wallace family moved into the house. The family says they could have been spared years of suffering had the city of Myrtle Beach simply provided an official C.O. on the home. The city never issued the Wallace family a certificate of occupancy. The Wallace family moved in 16 years ago assuming that the certificate of occupancy had been issued. At that time, no city official advised differently.
That one key missed event is central in a spiral of other events that have haunted the Wallace family for now almost 17 years.
TAKING RESPONSIBILITY
The Wallace family claims the city has been unwilling to take responsibility for not issuing a certificate of occupancy. Rather, City Manager John Pedersen is now seeking leverage by asking the family to sign a release. For a small financial consideration, that the family says does not meet the standard of fair, the city is asking the family to sign a document releasing the city from all harm. While the family remains homeless, they refuse to sign.
ANSWERING QUESTIONS
City Manager, John Pedersen
We reached out to City Manager John Pedersen asking him to provide the city’s viewpoint on this matter. The city declined to respond.
“No comment” has been a constant response from the city manager when we have reached out to the city for responses on a host of issues that include: The new library (Eminent Domain), Ocean Bacteria, Crime, Policing, Barricades, issues with downtown merchants and more.
The city has taken a different approach, however, creating the city’s own “news site?” called Myrtle Beach Point Of View. In a quote to WMBFnews, Myrtle Beach City Councilwoman Mary Jeffcoat stated, “It’s a way for people to dig deeper into a topic perhaps that they’ve seen in traditional media, or a way to, if they see some things on social media or on non-conventional news outlets, say, ‘That really seems strange.’ Well you can go to Myrtle Beach Point of View and at least see the facts that the city is pointing out.”
The Wallace family has a litany of unanswered questions and facts. You can see those in a timeline of what happened here:
