Paid Public Parking Hours Changed

City of Myrtle Beach Parking Regulations

This is the beginning of my 4th Summer here in Myrtle Beach and I was sorely disappointed to find that this year the times for paid parking have been extended from 7 pm to midnight each day.


Most nights during the week I can be found at the beach power walking.   It has been my habit to wait until 7 pm so that I could zoom into one of the Public Parking lots right at the beach (usually tucked between the Hotels)where I walk and then leave without much fuss or muss.  I guess I felt like it was a perk of living at the beach that I could park for free after 7 pm.   It's the simple things in life which bring me the greatest pleasure and free parking at the Beach does it for me.


It was 8 o'clock when I arrived at the beach last night.  I saw a little family going to put their money in the pay station in the Public Parking lot next to the Anderson Ocean Club.  I walked over to let them know that they didn't have to do that since it was after 7.   An elderly gentleman pointed to the sign which now read "midnight" instead of  "7 p.m.".  I stood there just staring for a moment and then snapped out of it.  I made a snide remark about the City of Myrtle Beach and the asinine ways they go about procuring funds... and he, being my elder (I'm 48, so he was REALLY old), very gently told me that the city needs to bring in revenue and this was one way.   I told him I could find no argument with that.  He might have gotten a different answer from me four years ago... but since living and working in Myrtle Beach, I've found that they do everything possible to legislate or "ordinance" (verb) businesses out of existence.   I would find myself being sympathetic to their plight if I thought there was an ounce of competence at work behind Council doors. (a little hyperbole never hurt anyone).


I, like this little family, plunked in my buck twenty-five for one hour and proceeded to walk.   Obviously I won't be up at the beach every night as I am wont to do because $1.25 x 7 days a week x four weeks in a month x several months in the Summer adds up to a mountain of greenback real quick.


I know I can go somewhere else such as Surfside Beach or Garden City and see what they're doing about Public Parking this year, but I'm a social person and love walking along stretches of beach where the hotels are and the Sky Wheel and people and all that jazz.  


  I guess I have to be glad that I wasn't fined in the past two months when I parked up there and didn't bother visiting the Pay Station, as I didn't have a clue that the time limit had changed.  Whew!