Wrightsville Beach COVID response disaster (how limited access makes the siuation MORE DANGEROUS) (King: credit card, attorneys)

[Boer]

Originally Posted by trixie11

Is parking opened up / back to normal yet? If not, why not? Having more parking areas open would spread people out more. I was hoping the restricted parking was just for the holiday weekend, and can't find anything about it at all on the town's website. It just looks like it always does, like a regular summer. I am reluctant to go to WB until the parking is normal. I try to stay away from everyone else even under normal circumstances, but it is especially important now - which is why not having all parking open does not make any sense. Any current updates appreciated.

It is a bit of a disaster

A lot of people crammed into a small space required to utilize the same communal parking robot to get their ticket and walk back and forth in the parking lot to place their ticket in their car

If they had made parking free and Universal throughout the entire area it would be a much lower risk of infection to try to get out of the house and enjoy some much-needed sunshine and Recreation

Now I understand the city needs to make that money so considering the circumstances issue a parking permit for people who want to visit the beach regularly but don't want to have to stand in line and play with the infection spreading parking robot every time they go to the beach?!?!?!

You can pay 35 bucks online and get a parking pass mail to your door then you don't have to spread the virus by going back and forth in the parking lot waiting in line and playing with the parking robot

Get some class wrightsville beach and offer a permit for anyone that wants to buy it

You can even maintain your snobbery by charging people from out of town more money than those that own property down the road like me

[Boer]

Originally Posted by Serenity2019

LOL! I just visited Wilmington and Wrigtsville Beach and we really like it! I laugh hard when I read it called a Hillbilly Swamp!

LOL

I called the region A hillbilly swamp not Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach

That's the small Enclave trying to keep the hillbilly swamp rats out of their pure white sand

I know that because I bought a few acres in Pender County and have a beautiful little farmhouse and a small working agribusiness but every time I want to go to the beach I have to stand in line put my credit card into a machine get the ticket walk back to my car put the ticket on the dashboard and then I can go get some damn exercise

For someone who grew up in places like Hawaii Boca Raton and Naples it's sure is a step-down in class and Public Access... wait till one of those hillbilly Pender County cops pulls you over!!!

(banjo music faintly plays in the background)

[Boer]

Originally Posted by LM117

This thread gave me corona.

You probably caught it standing in line and touching the filthy communal parking robot at Wrightsville Beach

Last time I went only one was working and the line was about a 35 minute wait and the Machine was filthy plus very difficult to read so you had to put your face real close to the screen and cover the display with your hands trying to create enough shade to read the confusing and complicated screen

What a low-class way to manage the beach parking situation

Reminds me of some of the third world countries I visited

[Boer]

oh man I've got to throw down a Wrightsville Beach update

went surfing yesterday and those jackasses didn't even have the bathhouse or showers working at the mercer pier

will Wrightsville Beach have the bathrooms and showers available to the plebians come the 4th of July??

On the bright side the new high-end residences look amazing

although they resemble Cracker Shacks compared to the area I worked in Boca Raton it is definitely a Major step up for beachfront development

Hopefully all the light doesn't interfere with sea turtle nesting season

for those of us with decades vested into Oceanfront management in south florida and hawaii it looks more like a Tijuana donkey show but I'm impressed with the effort

(Cue banjo)

[getatag]

We have all come to the agreement that the beach is public, but the land adjoining the area designated beach is not.
Put yourself in the position of someone who owns undeveloped property adjoining or near a beach that was open but the public parking meters were closed for whatever reason.

Would you see this as an opportunity to:

A. Allow people to park on your land free.
B. Allow people to park on your land for one dollar a day.
C. Follow the American business model and charge whatever will fill your lot and your pocket.

[Boer]

Originally Posted by getatag

We have all come to the agreement that the beach is public, but the land adjoining the area designated beach is not.
Put yourself in the position of someone who owns undeveloped property adjoining or near a beach that was open but the public parking meters were closed for whatever reason.

Would you see this as an opportunity to:

A. Allow people to park on your land free.
B. Allow people to park on your land for one dollar a day.
C. Follow the American business model and charge whatever will fill your lot and your pocket.

They can follow the American business model and charge whatever they want to fill their pockets as long as they don't get to use my tax dollars to rebuild after hurricanes and maintain Beach infrastructure

Just like South Florida and Hawaii there are costs for visiting the natural resource that we all share

In craphole third world countries beachfront developers have total god-like control over the entire area and can kick people off their beach just because they don't like the way they walk

The next logical step is to build a fence and stop people from walking on the beach in front of your private residence

After all you're a rich person who bought that land so why can't you control the beach in front of your home?

Mabee you want to have a party and run a bunch of Lights All Night Long....who cares about the stupid turtles!

These people don't like regulations that allow the public access we all enjoy to the natural resource and don't give a damn about the environment either

I lived in Hawaii and Brazil... Hawaii was a beautiful place that restricted beachfront development so that nature and Public Access was Paramount

The 3rd world is the kind of place that will allow a rich guy to put an armed guard in front of his palatial mansion with orders to crack the skull of any no-good plebeian that dares stepped foot in front of his investment as they literally owned the beach and the water in front of their mansion

Wrightsville Beach reminds me more of Brazil than it does of Hawaii with private for-profit parking enforcement rolling around looking to write tickets and heavily restricted access through poorly handled infrastructure scenarios like not having a public toilet open on the 4th of July

I wonder how many bums live under the pier these days?

[getatag]

Some of what you say is the next LOGICAL step is not, the beach front to a certain point is public.

If I own a vacant lot across from the beach and I decided to charge 40 dollars a day to park, that's my right with my own property. If you choose to pay me 40 dollars that's your right. If enough people don't pay my 40 dollar a day rate, I either come down in my rate, or sell the property to a condo developer.

[Boer]

Originally Posted by getatag

Some of what you say is the next LOGICAL step is not, the beach front to a certain point is public.

If I own a vacant lot across from the beach and I decided to charge 40 dollars a day to park, that's my right with my own property. If you choose to pay me 40 dollars that's your right. If enough people don't pay my 40 dollar a day rate, I either come down in my rate, or sell the property to a condo developer.

And so you make a lot of money and bribe the local parking authority to get rid of low-cost Public Access so you can rake in even more money and then you build a parking structure and charge $20 an hour like South Beach Miami

Fair is fair

Trouble is....
a hurricane comes in and destroys the beach and you would lose everything except all our tax money comes in as corporate welfare and rebuilds the entire area so your profit potential is saved thanks to all the tax dollars that magically rain from the sky

Also our tax dollars go to fund and build all the sewer water and bathroom infrastructure plus all the employees that maintain the facilities and pick up all the trash

The tax dollars even pay for the toilet paper and garbage bags used to keep the facility clean

What a hustle!!!

That's how you privatize the profits but socialize the costs

All of a sudden that filthy gouging price of $40 a day doesn't seem so profitable unless you have rich guy welfare system waiting to jump in and rebuild all the public infrastructure that allows you to gouge the public who unfortunately is stupid enough to pay that ridiculous rate

You will spend your money to bribe the local authorities to disallow the church to offer parking and to raise the price for municipal parking so you're gouging becomes more and more competitive

This is what happens in the third world and that's why their Beach fronts look the way they do

This reminds me of a South Florida Walmart in one of America's most dangerous cities

If you go to this Walmart on Saturday night you will see 5+ Municipality funded patrol car sitting in their parking lot while tax paid officers walk the interior of the store and maintain public order in the parking lot

How come the taxpayer has to fund Walmart's security service and all the infrastructure around your $40 a day dirt patch?

Corporate welfare 101

[getatag]

Your almost logical steps have now become sublime fantasy.

[ITB_OG]

Originally Posted by Boer

Now I understand the city needs to make that money so considering the circumstances issue a parking permit for people who want to visit the beach regularly but don't want to have to stand in line and play with the infection spreading parking robot every time they go to the beach?!?!?!

You can pay 35 bucks online and get a parking pass mail to your door then you don't have to spread the virus by going back and forth in the parking lot waiting in line and playing with the parking robot

Get some class wrightsville beach and offer a permit for anyone that wants to buy it

You can even maintain your snobbery by charging people from out of town more money than those that own property down the road like me

Maybe I'm just a dumb hillbilly but this plan doesn't make sense to me. It definitely doesn't seem like one that would increase access to us plebes. It seems like a way to shut out local area folks and daytrippers like myself that don't always plan ahead or aren't able to buy ahead online.

Persoanlly, I'd much rather wait six feet apart outdoors for the kiosk and wash or sanitize my hands after touching the kiosk than see it go to a permit system. That just seems like one more barrier and one more way to exclude certain folks and increase access for those in the know.