All this talk about improving the Weirs..is there an alternative?

[jbolty]

"back in the day" it was just Motorcycle Weekend. The original draw was the races at Loudon and the Weirs was just the place to gather and hang out. I don't recall more than maybe one bar back then so drinking would have been byob. It was mostly parking and chatting and driving up and down and of course a few times there were brawls, riots and some cars turned over.

The Weirs back then was all about kids since the arcades were the only thing to do there. That one weekend all the families were pretty much afraid to go there.

Even now the bikers gather there but there is really nothing for them to do except hang out and patronize the vendors that pop up for the event and maybe buy a tee shirt.

[TiltonBB]

For many years, after the riot in 1965, Bike Week went back to being a weekend event. In the early 90's it once again expanded to 9 days as it is now.

The changes in Motorcycle Week and the laws regulating it have curtailed a lot of activities that drew the massive crowds. Over policing has also made Laconia a place that many motorcyclists avoid and instead they head to other parts of the state.

The crowds and traffic today are about 25% of what they were 15 to 20 years ago. In the past couple of years there has been almost no traffic back up in the area of the Weirs rotary during the entire 9 days of Bike Week.

It seems to be a dying event and without some changes it would be surprising to see it still exist in 5 years. Maybe the new concert schedule will breathe some life into it but that remains to be seen.

There are people with opinions on both sides of the issue so depending upon your perspective and your feelings about Bike Week this could be viewed as good or bad.

[brk-lnt]

The core problem is that Laconia, like any city, is a business. The city is in the business of generating tax revenue, providing places for people to live, maintaining infrastructure, providing an attractive business environment, etc.

Anyone who has any amount of business knowledge will tell you that it's a very bad strategy to overly rely on a single "mega" customer.

Bike Week is Laconia's giant customer. The entire city is overly reliant on that one customer. It's a bad spot to be in for multiple reasons.

Bike Week doesn't need to go away or be majorly changed, but people need to recognize that until the city has a viable plan to not be solely reliant on Bike Week it will never evolve.

Every year that Laconia doesn't develop a strategy to break its Bike Week addiction makes it that much harder to stabilize itself for the future.

[TiltonBB]

Originally Posted by brk-lnt

Bike Week is Laconia's giant customer. The entire city is overly reliant on that one customer. It's a bad spot to be in for multiple reasons.

Bike Week doesn't need to go away or be majorly changed, but people need to recognize that until the city has a viable plan to not be solely reliant on Bike Week it will never evolve.

Every year that Laconia doesn't develop a strategy to break its Bike Week addiction makes it that much harder to stabilize itself for the future.

I could not disagree more.

Laconia is "solely reliant on Bike Week"? For what? It is a basically revenue neutral event that takes 9 days before the busy part of the summer starts. Laconia does not rely on it for anything. It happens every year and then it goes away until next year. In the total scope of things happening in the City of Laconia it is almost insignificant. And as each year passes and attendance and traffic decline, it becomes less significant.

"Every year that Laconia doesn't develop a strategy to break its Bike Week addiction makes it that much harder to stabilize itself for the future."

Stabilize itself for what? "Bike Week addiction"?

The city is in good shape financially and continues to make infrastructure improvements. A recent example would be the new Laconia fire station that was just completed. The city does not rely on Bike Week for anything.

Bike Week, although a significant revenue boost to Weirs area businesses, has very little impact on the city as a whole.