Our View: With the death of the rally still grabbing headlines,
our neighbors better be prepared for an onslaught of rally
seekers
Though news of the demise of the Hollister Independence Day Rally is nothing new for local readers, it’s still making headlines across the country.
On Wednesday, USA TODAY published a full-page article on our southern neighbor’s little shindig. That’s 2.3 million issues on the street. More bikers are bound to notice and become enthralled with making the pilgrimage to the birthplace of rebel riders that spawned the film “The Wild One” starring Marlon Brando.
What’s amazing is that Hollister is, in addition to the noise, muffling all that economic potential.
“It’s Christmas season for restaurants, hotels, bars, supermarkets,” Ignacio Velasquez, owner of The Vault restaurant, told USA TODAY. “How do you not make money when 120,000 people come to your town?”
Good point. Maybe Gilroy’s Economic Development Director Larry Cope can mix up an incentive concoction to lure Johnny’s Bar, famous biker movie hangout, from downtown Hollister to downtown Gilroy.
It is ironic that the death of the popular motorcycle enthusiast’s event has garnered almost as much attention as its rebirth a decade ago, and all this attention has Hollister city leaders sitting on pins and needles as opposed to a long haul Harley saddle seat.
Maybe more bikers will show up than ever before and, when there’s no music and no bikini contest, their wild sides will take over.
Requiem for a rally initially hit a sour note with the leather-clad easy riders across the country, but thousands could turn that into a cause celebre and rumble into Hollister for the Fourth of July weekend with a chip on their softtail.
Those who celebrate the mythology of the outlaw biker and those who follow it as a way of life won’t likely let the rally go gently into the night.
Hollister officials better make sure the city’s “unofficial” rally plans can handle a bunch of bikers tired of sitting outside Johnny’s Bar.
It just all seems so silly … if the bikers are bound to come anyway, which everyone agrees will be the case, why not plan events and take full economic advantage of the situation?
As July approaches, the Hollister City Council’s 3-2 vote to kill the rally seems more and more foolhardy.
Why San Benito County would look a gift iron horse in the mouth is anybody’s guess.
Our neighbors have found a way to re-define the term “rally killer,” and there’s nothing to do but hope the post-Independence Day headlines don’t turn ugly.
