GRAND STRAND GETTING NATIONAL LOVE …
We’ve never heard of Alan Solomon. Apparently he’s a freelance travel writer based in Chicago.
Anyway, Solomon has a story in this week’s editions of The Chicago Tribune that may as well have been written by the “Myrtle Beach Mafia,” a.k.a. the heavily government-subsidized leaders of South Carolina’s “Redneck Riviera.”
“What you think you know about Myrtle Beach is wrong,” Solomon noted, before seeking to dispel the perception that the Grand Strand’s focal point is “tacky,” “lowbrow” and “not a luxury destination.”
Solomon quotes local luminaries bragging on the city’s “high-end resorts and accommodations” as well as its “great restaurants and great shopping.”
“It would be easy to scrunch your nose at such a place,” he concludes, except that this “pleasant, busy beach” is close to a nature preserve, a bunch of golf courses and an open-air “youth oriented” shopping center (a.k.a. Broadway at the Beach).
Hmmm …
Solomon’s story makes no mention of the dirty water. Or the crime. Or the rampant local corruption. Or the shady Chinese investment propping everything up.
It’s basically a commercial for the place …
Don’t get us wrong: There are some gorgeous spots along the Grand Strand (assuming you can pay to reach them). In fact our founding editor will be visiting several of these spots this coming month when he travels to Pawleys Island, S.C. – meaning readers should stay tuned for some favorable tourism dispatches.
But to gloss over the serious issues affecting Myrtle Beach, S.C. is to do a disservice to would-be tourists – who probably should have been given a fuller picture of the place. Anyway, look for our dispatches from the coast beginning on or about June 6.