Sorry folks but comparing Key West to Laconia Bike Week is apples and oranges.
No doubt that police chiefs are always looking to get more hours and details. In Greenland they even got a movie theater to have to pay for details.
However, in the case of Bike Week there is a lot of trouble just waiting to happen. It's a rough crowd. If they back off on the police presence then it's only a matter of time until people feel they can push boundaries and then the cycle continues as soon as problems flair up.
My respect has diminshed greatly for people on Winni.com after seeing some of these posts. Now we have people saying to allow near lawlessness on public streets for the sake of making a buck. May as well ignore people smoking dope and shooting up too
The bikers get gouged just like every other place in the country. Ever try renting a room in Manhattan on New Year's? I was in Singapore during the Grand Prix and my company had to fork over $1100US per night for my room. Two days later the rate was back down to the usual $240US/night.
It's always that way as hotels and vendors have the upper hand. Not sure why people can't grasp that.
I firmly believe NH can do better than Bike Week with different events. It's not that hard. Feature the friggin lake!!!!!!!!! The marketing of NH is terrible.
This guy likes to have fun as much as the next guy but I think Bike Week is a drag on the area. Is a large area of beer tents and drunk drivers the best thing NH can offer? I don't think that's the case. People need to get rid of their paradigms thinking Bike Week is the only thing that will work in that area.