Daytona Beach's crowd season begins

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- The smell of high-octane gas and the buzz of cars whizzing around a racetrack are in the air. The traffic is thickening on International Speedway Boulevard, this city's main thoroughfare.

All signs are here that Daytona Beach's annual season of special events is about to begin. From February to early April, hundreds of thousands of visitors attending Speed Weeks, Bike Week, Spring Break and Black College Reunion invade this beachside town of 65,000.

Some officials and residents are wondering if the rapid succession of special events is taxing the city too much. A recent report put the cost to the city at $2 million annually to provide police, fire, emergency, garbage collection, overtime pay for city workers and pay for part-time special events workers.

"I would call it a crisis," said City Commissioner Mike Shallow, who calls the $2 million a subsidy. "If no remedial action is taken, then the city will be without a budget reserve in a matter of three years."

City commissioners are looking for ways to cover the costs of the events. Starting with Bike Week in March, each vendor selling goods will have to pay a $300 administration fee, and officials plan to raise the permit fee each vendor pays from $250 to $300. Other measures are being considered.

"I'm of the mind that special events must pay their own way," said Shallow, who supports further controls on special events.

Mayor Bud Asher bristles at any suggestions that the special events should be curbed. The four special events, along with the Pepsi 400 in July and Biketoberfest in October, generate $1.3 billion in economic output in metro Daytona Beach, he said.

"I don't think there's a city in America that wouldn't give their right arm to be able to have ... Super Bowl-size events in the area each year like we do," Asher said.

Each special event has its own distinct personality.

Several hundred thousand race fans come to Daytona Beach from early-to-mid-February for Speed Weeks, a series of motor car races that culminates with the Daytona 500, the country's best-known NASCAR race. The racing fans are older and more affluent than other special-events visitors, and residents view them with the least annoyance, according to a recent study prepared for the Daytona Beach Halifax Chambererce.

In March, Bike Week attracts 500,000 motorcycle aficionados who cruise up and down Main Street for 10 days. Traveling vendors who set up during Bike Week take an estimated $209 million out of the economy, according to the Chamber report.

The event has survived motorcycle gangs and violent incidents, and now attracts a rather affluent crowd. Bike Week and its sister event, Biketoberfest in October, in fact, generate the most economic output of all Daytona Beach's special events, according to the Chamber report.

Spring Break and Black College Reunion attract beer-chugging students whose primary goals are cruising and partying. The events, which produce only a fraction of the economic output of the other special events, are most vilified by residents.

In the late 1980s, after Fort Lauderdale cracked down on spring break partying, Daytona Beach became the nation's de facto spring break capital, attracting MTV and rowdy crowds. After several balcony accidents and violent incidents, the city revoked MTV's welcome and the spring break buzz moved west to Panama City Beach and Cancun, Mexico. However, attendance for spring break, which lasts most of March, has been rising during the past three years, with as many as 200,000 expected this year.

Black College Reunion has morphed into a weekendlong beach party where the city's beachside road, A1A, is at a virtual standstill as students cruise, flirt and take pictures. In recent years, the event has been marred by violence, traffic problems, racial tensions and charges of discrimination against the city and Daytona Beach's most prominent hotel, the Adam's Mark.

Some residents dread the traffic blockades, the trash left on streets and the crowds of the special events.

Others say they enjoy the diversity of people and the national attention.

"You get different backgrounds, different people, people from all over the country," said Stephen King Sr., a longtime Daytona Beach resident. "It makes our city bigger and better."