HERE’S THE most important thing that we learned from last week’s meeting of tour guides versus downtown residents complaining about the loud, obnoxious nighttime tours in the Historic District, especially pub crawls and ghost tours:
The number of offending tour guides is very low, perhaps four or five (out of hundreds). This is documented by an earnest downtown resident who is having problems and started taking pictures.
And the number of downtown residents filing the bulk of complaints is similarly low, although I’m less certain of this number.
So here’s the second most important thing that we learned from that meeting: This isn’t tour guides versus downtown residents at all.
The night’s biggest applause came when a pissed off Greg Proffit, a veteran Savannah tour guide, said “Let’s get the bastards who are doing it!”
Unsurprisingly, the loud, obnoxious bad apples didn’t attend the meeting.
Why is this important? The City of Savannah is considering new rules that would further restrict where and when tour guides can operate.
And this is where I tell you that I’m a tour guide myself, although I don’t operate at night, when it really riles people.
Based on what residents said at the meeting, I’d be riled, too: Tourists peering into your window at 12:30 a.m., boozed up and laughing. Tour guides talking so loudly you’ve memorized their lines. Maxine Pinson has lived at the corner of State and Lincoln Streets for four decades.
“It’s like an invasion,” she says. “We have the right to peace, quiet and quality of life.”
No one deserves to have that outside. Tour guides applauded her, as well. But here’s where I think things start going wrong: battle lines get drawn, people get defensive and talk gets hot.
And there’s a lot of hot talk with this issue. Patrick McDonald, another veteran tour guide, threatened a lawsuit if the city goes forward with its plan to restrict, even more than already is restricted, what he calls his First Amendment rights.
“I’ve watched as our operational area has gotten smaller and smaller,” he says.
He’s right that Savannah already has nightly restricted tour times and areas. The new proposal increases those areas to include desirable locations on President Street and Calhoun and Monterrey Squares and desirable times starting at 10 p.m.
But he’s wrong that commercial activities are like religion and press. In fact, the City could limit tours even more severely than they’re proposing.
That’s the nightmare scenario for tour guides, as expressed in a hot WTOC story that rattled many, when David McDonald of the Downtown Neighborhood Association was quoted as saying that the new proposal is a pilot and that “We would like to see it throughout the entire downtown residential area.”
That means shutting down the nighttime tour business, since visitors don’t want commercial area tours.
That’s people’s jobs. That’s the cleanest, easiest damn cha-ching we got. I mean, you talk and walk for 90 minutes and people give you money. And it enhances our destination experience for visitors.
Does anyone else find this frustrating? Again, we’re talking about less than five offending tour guides. Why not just find a way to shut them down? Tonya Harding, a good lawyer, old fashioned shame.
Perhaps from the desk of a jaded City Hall bureaucrat the situation looks like “There’ll always be bad apples and complainers. My job is to have a rule for them.”
And so here’s the last important thing about the meeting: It looks like City officials are slowing their rule-making to get the two sides together.
Hopefully, cool heads will prevail in this.
This article appears in Nov 21-27, 2018.
I very much appreciate Orlando Montoya’s “Connect Savannah’s” coverage* (the only local written coverage I’ve seen-to-date) about last week’s meeting at The Civic Center. However, as I never appreciate being misquoted, I would like to correct two things Mr. Montoya reported, as being said by me, that are NOT accurate.
1. I said, loudly and clearly enough for all present to hear, that there are only 3 “problematic,” offending tour guides that I could actually identify by recognition. I certainly did not mean that those are the ONLY tour guides/groups I am ever disturbed by; that would be far from reality. Gratefully, I have not seen the “problematic 3” in several weeks now. Yet I have been disturbed many times, by other tour groups, during that same period of time late at night–especially after 10 pm, which was the proposed “cut-off time” for the pilot program previously publiciized as launching in January 2019.
2. Also, instead of saying what I was quoted as saying on the article’s photo caption, what I actually said–loudly and clearly enough for all present to hear–was that there are some (but NOT most) night time tour groups that I would not even know were there if not for seeing them on my surveillance camera. In fact, I can confidently say I am disturbed by far more tour groups than I am not disturbed by–especially ones heading to/from the 1790 bar late at night.
I feel accuracy is important when one is being quoted. Even one incorrect word can, totally, change the entire context of what was actually said by the individual quoted. There appeared to be two different video cameras taping the entire meeting last Thursday night, which would clearly verify my aforementioned corrections. The quotes attributed to me were taken from my addressing the group present as a whole, not during a private interview of me by Mr. Montoya.
For additional photos/videos (though some video clips are 3 years old and may have broken links) and information on the situation residents deal with with tour groups, see:
https://lifeinabusytouristarea.shutterfly.… (in particular, by clicking the “Oct. 2015” tab at top of homepage.
Maxine Pinson
I have to say that I am getting very frustrated by hearing from the same few complainers – about 4 or 5 of them – that are constantly trying to put industry in Savannah out of business. I am sick of hearing from Ms. Pinson over and over and over complaining about one issue after another for almost a decade. We all know about her cameras and her obsession with every fit and start outside her house. We hear regularly about how her quality of life is so bad because it is negatively impacted by everything that goes past her property. The other common offender is the DNA executives who seem to also feel they are running the City and that downtown should be run like a gated community. What about the other tens of thousands of residents who have NO PROBLEMS? You would never know that there are tens of thousands who LOVE living downtown, flaws and all. Most appreciate all the energies that come with urban life. It is only a select few who can’t cope with city life and stubbornly refuse to admit what is plain for everyone to see: they just aren’t suited to life in a busy downtown neighborhood. They want to sanitize and destroy the very culture of a flourishing city that others who live here adore. I wish these few complainers would just move away to find their Utopian suburb where everyone turns off the lights at 8 pm. Let the rest of us enjoy the Downtown Savannah we all love with all its benefits and flaws. I love seeing the tour groups, albeit they are rarely a bit louder, but nothing a few polite words doesn’t fix. Night time activities are a big part of life in a city, many cities never sleep. This is something that anyone who chooses to live downtown needs to accept. Deal with the few incidents instead of trying to change downtown for a few nagging complainers who will never be happy
Why doesn’t the City filter out these habitual complainers and simply deal with the small number of people who break the rules in the tourism industry? It’s as easy as that. This is a tempest in a teapot because it is a few individuals on each side of the issue, and neither of them represents the majority of tour operators or residents. Everyone I know enjoys downtown, understands that this can mean a little noise, a little verve and I have known a few people who worked out issues that cropped up without trying to shut things down. It is also true that Ms Pinson is a major habitual complainer using a lot of City resources, whether it is vacation rentals, tours, cars or music she is complaining about. Why does the City continue to entertain these habitual complainers. The rest of us are paying taxes and living happily. Why do we have to change the fabric of our city for a handful of people who seem to hate their life? Wake up City Council and City Manager. Your city is made up of a huge number of people who are not constantly complaining. Unless the City is hearing from hundreds or thousands of people, they need to suspect that the problem is more one that a few individuals need to deal with. I also agree with J that it’s time for some people to evaluate whether life in downtown is working for them and if not, there is likely a tidy profit to be made and a happier more peaceful home for you somewhere else.
Tanya, well summarized. On that level, go after the few bad apples and point out to 2nd District Alderman Durrence and whoever else will listen, that only a handful of residents complain…year after year after year..and a few bad apple tours. And boom…City will take care of it?
We already took care of the bad apples. We did. Not Downtown Neighbors. We did. Not the City who prefer controlled chaos downtown for now.
Thats not to say there wont be more ordinance streamlined, unenforced moving vehicular bars. Or ear damaging mufflers or ordinance violating drunks.
Or pandhandlers or thieves or over the city rooftop noise blasters.
Or decibal shattering back up beeps on more and more construction vehicles.
Or that there even wont be more oversaturated bad apple so called ghost tours for Maxine or anyone else to waste invaluable time stressing over.
I agree that its Ms Pinson who is the rotton apple. Look at her obnoxious history of complaints. Whats stopping her from selling her house and moving away? Can we all chip in some money and get her to move far, far away? Live your life, Ms Poison, err, Pinson, I mean.