Dear Diary:
I know what you're saying. Where have I been?
Hey, it's not easy being the mayor of Myrtle Beach. I'm a busy
guy, and I don't have time to write down every little thing I
do.
But it's good to be back. You've missed a lot over the past year,
Diary.
Bet you don't even know about the fun I had last winter with the
Downtown Redevelopment Corp.
You know what I think of those people, don't you, Diary? All they
want to do is change things. I hate change.
So I went after them full-bore, Diary. You'd have been proud.
First, I started telling everyone DRC had defrauded taxpayers to
the tune of $1 million.
Then I said I had a document that could prove it.
Then I waved the document in the air, just like old Joe
McCarthy.
Oh, boy, did I have those fancy-pants DRC people sputtering.
"Where do you get off, Mayor?" one of them said. "Where do you
get off?"
Where do I get off? At the front door of the mayor's office,
Bub.
And yes, Diary, I did have a "document." It was a grocery list.
Hey, mayors gotta eat, too.
I had a good time with that one.
My current battle is pretty fun, too.
Remember how that weasely Myrtle Beach City Council voted - 6-1,
of course - to ask the state to study the possibility of building an
international trade center on the old Myrtle Square Mall
property.
Well, it didn't matter none to me that the whole dang council
voted for it.
I picked up my hat and headed to Columbia.
I told the governor and all those budget-writing people that
puttin' a trade center in Myrtle Beach was just about the dumbest
idea I'd ever heard of.
I reminded them I'm the mayor of Myrtle Beach and that I speak
for Myrtle Beach and that Myrtle Beach definitely does not want and
certainly cannot afford a trade center.
Never mind, I told them, that Myrtle Beach might be the best
place in South Carolina for an international trade center.
Never mind that we've got thousands of hotel rooms, hundreds of
restaurants, dozens of golf courses, a great beach, theaters, shops,
an international airport ...
Put the dang thing in Greenville, I said. They ain't got nothing
up there 'cept a couple of mountains. They'd love a trade
center.
Don't you agree, Diary?
Diary?
