Banana Republic: A Year in the Heart of Myrtle Beach

Angry, I guess is how I felt after finishing this book. Will Moredock spent the year 1999 in Myrtle Beach. The result is a book that makes you take a second look around Myrtle Beach. He has written what I would expect from Carl Hiaasen, who is quoted in the book. A very good, inside look at Myrtle Beach, the government, the businesses, and the attitudes of the masses. This book is good for anyone who has vacationed there, lived there, or planning to move there. If I lived in Myrtle Beach, I would be upset with the mayor, the council, and the businesses. The lack of environmental controls is amazing, the petty games in City Council I don't even see from my kids, and the total lack of foresight or planning is astounding. I am sure that we will be back in Myrtle Beach again next year, but this time I come prepared with having read this book (which I am sure made the City Council, the Mayor, and the major developer squirm). Now I will know why the roads are terrible, that the school system was cut out of additional tax base with the opening of the Mall of South Carolina, and have a new appreciation for The Sun News, the local newspaper. It has its funny parts and serious ones. The one thing that struck me was that for a Baptist town, they love the golfers. And what do golfers want? Strip clubs and booze. I guess that they have their priorities straight. Serious? How about hurricane evacuation measures. If one is on the way, you may sit in traffic for HOURS getting out. How about how they determined where to put a couple of bypasses. These new roads haven't done anything to cure the traffic issues, but they certainly opened up more land for development. I would have thought that looking at Florida, you would have gotten the message. That message must have been lost in translation. Oh, and now I know why, when visiting Charleston or Georgetown, you see a lot of historical markers and there are none in Myrtle Beach. All of their historical places have been replaced by high rise condos, hotels, and glaring neon. Any way, it is a good book. A view of Myrtle Beach that you certainly don't get by just visiting for a week. And Will brings it all together in one great place.

This book is the Behind the Music of Myrtle Beach, historical, dishy-a real eye opener. Myrtle Beach, SC has undergone explosive growth and thanks to the deep pockets of business and a "hands-off" style of local goverance, it's a microcosm of the GOP ideal of allowing business to regulate itself, and the consequences, both human and environmental. It has a fine editorial tone-friendly-not gossipy, educational-not preachy, and it's loaded with facts, figures, statistics and an index. Thinking of moving to the Grand Strand? Interested in contemporary resort or Southern Culture? Ever wonder why Horry County is the way it is?