Dear Editor,
Hollister holds a unique spot in motorcycle culture. Our town is
revered as a Mecca; a
”
high, holy land
”
in motorcycle lore and history. We are known world wide as: The
Birthplace of the American Biker.
Reader offers ideas to improve biker rally
Dear Editor,
Hollister holds a unique spot in motorcycle culture. Our town is revered as a Mecca; a “high, holy land” in motorcycle lore and history. We are known world wide as: The Birthplace of the American Biker.
Honda Corporation recognized our unique place in motorcycle culture and built their Powerhouse store here in Hollister.
Mike Corbin, the genius designer of motorcycle seats and accessories, built his manufacturing plant here in Hollister.
Sony pictures also respected and honored our Hollister heritage. In March of 2007, Sony sent film crews here and they spent 3 days interviewing local bikers, our oldest residents, and some of the people who lived here in 1947 when the famous “none-incident” occurred. These interviews are in the boxed DVD set released in February 2008 and titled the “Stanley Kramer Film Collection.” The set of five DVDs includes the Brando film, “The Wild One,” on which the interviews are located.
Hollister will always be a premiere destination for thousands of motorcyclists. The months of June and July will always present a strong tourism and marketing opportunity for us year after year. Motorcycles are cheaper to buy, operate and insure than cars and trucks. This means visiting bikers have more tourist dollars to spend.
Do we embrace this yearly cash windfall with a welcome mat or with fear loathing? It is with fear and loathing that all motorcyclists who visit us are perceived exactly the same as the so-called 1 percent Outlaw Clubs … as if merely owning a motorcycle makes one criminal gang member. Perhaps this prejudicial mindset helps dictate the high costs we pay for law-enforcement. These costs are “guesstimated” with a mindset that All of our visitors are probably gangsters. This idea is ludicrous and expensive.
There are so many ways that we can turn this Rally into a huge success. Our local city government and businesses need to reach out and form partnerships with out neighboring city governments and businesses. These visiting bikers travel all over the Central Coast with our Hollister Rally being the main attraction. Why can’t the city councils of Hollister, San Juan, Gilroy, Salinas, Monterey and Santa Cruz work together on a comprehensive tourism campaign built around the rally? The downtown business associations of these same cities could and should work together on a Shopper’s Guide filled with menus, discounts, coupons and offers of free shipping.
Reach out collectively to Harley Davidson, Indian and other motorcycle corporations for sponsorship. Even I was able to connect with the corporate event director for Harley-Davidson. If local governments collectively approached Harley, I am sure you would be listened to wit great interest. Our rally is the largest motorcycle event on the West Coast.
Give the people what they want. Return the bikes to San Benito Street. Charge enough for VIP parking to offset the higher costs of liability and traffic safety. If gating the event is still determined to be impossible, advanced sales of VIP parking has worked for the past two years.
Volunteer groups such as HIRC and HMRC have done amazing jobs at planning and presenting our rally. HorsePower Promotions and Seth Doulton has given blood, sweat and tears to make this rally work. We managed to host a major tourist event in Central California on our own with no involvement from our neighbors who also benefit from the Rally. Our county now has a new executive director of Economic Development Corp., Nancy Martin. Might I suggest that she and her staff investigate a plan to partner with our neighbors to present the 2009 Rally.
The Birthplace of the American Biker is also an attractive and logical place to locate more motorcycle industry businesses. Custom Bike builders and motorcycle accessory plants would create more jobs and economic stimulus. Why aren’t we using our heritage to attract more industry?
Isn’t it high time for the city and county to utilize our legacy and honored place in motorcycle culture and history? Our neighbors have all benefited as well from our rally. Why can’t we figure out ways to partner with them and collectively present the rally as the major tourist attraction that it is? Can we really afford to ignore the cash injection that boosts our local economies every summer? Do we want to be known as gracious hosts and treat our visiting guests with respect and gratitude? Or do we make sure that motorcyclists cease to feel welcome and send them and their tourist dollars as far away as possible? If only history and legends could be gift boxed and sold. Thousands of small towns across America would jump at the chance to buy and utilize a gift such as ours. I ask you, please …
Honor our heritage – keep the rally.
Christy Howe, Hollister
