MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – Tuesday night six of the seven candidates for Myrtle Beach City Council debated at a forum sponsored by the NAACP.

The event took place at the Mary C. Canty Recreation Center. here is some of what the candidates had to say about the development of downtown.

Ed Carey:
“We(the city) are still in the development business, we are picking and choosing who gets to go down there. We need to get out of the way of small business we need to accommodate them. Give them the tax credits. The city shouldn’t be the one that’s investing all the money down there because it’s coming out of your pockets.”

Michael Chesnut:
“We look at what other cities are doing, what Greenville, what Charleston, and we’ve been matching some of those cities. We can make our downtown just as nice or better than some of those cities. 

Wayne Gray:
“For us to be the great city, that we all deserve, and we all want to live, work and raise our families and for people to come and visit. The center of our city, our historic business district and amusement district have to experience the same development and redevelopment that we are finding on the bookends of our city.”

Mary Jeffcoat:
“And we need to have, the residents and the property owners to help build that plan, and that’s what they did. And you know what’s happened? In the past 5 or 6 months we have 5 different either non-profits or businesses have said they are going to open in the super block.”

John Krajc:
“We have sidewalks that are four inches out of place because of live oaks that have pushed up the sidewalks four inches. I know because I have been the one to help report these incidents to the city because of lack of maintenance on the projects we invested in. This is my promise to you. I promise that anything I get my time involved in and invested in this city, I promise will be taken care of.”

Phil Render:
“What we need to do as a city council though, is to seize more direct governance of the process. As DRC goes away, this council, in the next year or two, needs to assume a more active roll in the direction of what’s going on downtown.”

Charles Gasque, who did not appear at the event posted on social media that he was not invited. We have reached out to the event’s sponsor for comment.

You can read more about these candidates and other local elections here.

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