Making Riverfront Park vendor-free is a good first step.
While the community awaits the recommendations from the Beachside Redevelopment Committee on how to invigorate State Road A1A, Main Street and other areas of Volusia County’s main tourism corridor, change already is happening on the other side of the Halifax River.
The 77th Bike Week, which concludes today, will be the last in which itinerant vendors can set up on Daytona Beach’s Riverfront Park to promote their wares. The City Commission in January voted to terminate a contract with the company that hosts the vendors at the park during Bike Week and Biketoberfest. City Manager Jim Chisholm informed the company that the city is “modifying elements of motorcycling events.”
That’s an ominously vague notification. It will be interesting to see just how far those “modifications” will go. But making Riverfront Park vendor-free is a good first step.
Naturally, the city’s move elicited howls of despair about it marking the end of Bike Week, that Daytona Beach is signaling it doesn’t want motorcycles around here anymore, that’s it’s throwing away millions of dollars, etc. Anything that upsets the status quo, especially something as entrenched as bike events, is going to be perceived by some as an apocalyptic rip in the space time continuum.
However, just because the riverfront has hosted motorcycle vendors for years doesn’t mean that’s always been or will be the best use of that prime property, or that it’s most beneficial for the surrounding commercial district. It may be lucrative for one segment of the business community for roughly two weeks out of the year. But what if it hampers the growth of several others?
The city in 2010 created a Riverfront Master Plan aimed at enhancing the 14-block park that stretches from Main Street to Orange Avenue. It envisions the northern end of the park, where the vendors traditionally have set up, as a “nature” area. In addition, the riverfront received an enormous catalyst when insurance giant Brown & Brown Inc. last year announced plans to build a 10-story headquarters on Beach Street across from Riverfront Park. That’s expected to bring hundreds of new jobs, creating a lot of foot traffic for Beach Street businesses, as well as opportunities for residential development.
That vision may not reach its potential if that area has motorcycles and vendors taking over for two or three weeks every year. It’s the same challenge Main Street faces. It’s the historic home of Bike Week and Biketoberfest, ground zero to many biker events. When the roar of the cycles is in town, Main Street is hopping with crowded bars and wall-to-wall vendors.
The other 340 or so days of the year, though, Main Street struggles to remain relevant. When the itinerant vendors depart, they leave behind vacant lots and storefronts that stand as stark reminders of what that corridor could be year-round. The community is split on whether bike festivals are an obstacle to redeveloping Main Street. Some business owners and residents believe the noise and crowds discourage year-round investment. Others believe the bikes are a vital part of that area’s culture, and several bars and retailers there depend heavily on the festival traffic to survive.
The riverfront, though, is not Main Street. Over the last decade, Beach Street has improved significantly from a facelift and the addition of several restaurants and shops. But it needs more fuel to thrive. If itinerant vendors and motorcycles are an obstacle to achieving that, then they should be moved to a more suitable location. That’s not a thumbs down to bikers, but a thumbs up to Beach Street.