I just got back from a week long vacation in Ocean City, Maryland. Here are some observations I have made along the way.Cars, Cars, Cars
The biggest problem facing tourists here, by far, is parking. Come to think of it, this problem is not limited to Ocean City. More on that later. Ocean City is a very long very narrow peninsula. Ten or twelve miles long, and only three streets wide at its widest. Upwards of 400,000 people come here each weekend. And parking is the worst problem. Of course, everyone drives here from wherever they live. There are no trains, no airports, and very limited public transportation. Don’t get me wrong, I am not faulting those modes of travel, nor am I faulting people for wanting to travel places by car. I prefer to travel by car myself. But it’s clear to me that parking is a major problem here.
Just about every available inch of space that is not beach or boardwalk or hotel or shop is set aside for parking. Two spots here, three spots there, one spot here. Signs everywhere saying when you can and cannot park, who can and cannot park here, where you will be towed, and so on. Oh, I don’t have a solution here, I am just noticing the problem.
Setting aside a large parking area and shuttling people in and out, that won’t work either. Because most of the time, people want the freedom of their own cars, myself included. To enjoy the boardwalk, the first thing one wants to do is not wait in a line to board buses. For those tourists who stay in condos or hotels on or near the boardwalk, they must be able to park nearby, and that simply is not possible in this town.Like I said, I have no solution. It’s a shame we’ve evolved into a society that relies on personal vehicles so much, and that doesn’t even begin to get into the problems of fuel, pollution, and traffic.GlasnostVery early in our stay here we realized that just about all of the low-paying service staff were foreigners, mostly Russian! Waiters, waitresses, take-out window help, fast food help, boardwalk shop employees, almost all of them were Russian! This got the better of my curiosity and I had to ask. It turns out that they are all foreign exchange students spending a summer in the US earning some extra cash and enjoying the ocean atmosphere while doing it. They all come over in a group, and apparently this is a very organized operation. There is even an international student “association” located in town, which appears to handle all of it.I find this a very interesting concept. For one, the kids get to travel where they normally would not have. The local people here are bound to rub elbows with them, and if they’re anything like me, they’ll come away with an appreciation for people they may not have had the chance to get to know otherwise.I do not think this situation is 100% good for all involved, though. I am sure the local merchants get cheap help. But I have known of summer tourist spots “recruiting” at colleges and such for summer help, room and board included. And the conditions are often deplorable. Six people to a room that would normally sleep two. Six day weeks with eleven hour days. And a severe penalty if you miss work OR do not finish your tour of duty through the summer. Leave a week early, and you miss a significant bonus. Without that bonus, your hourly wages average less than minimum wage.
I’d love to learn more about the whole thing, to see if they bring in students from other locales, for example. Do some kids come back more than one summer? Do any ever defect and choose to stay, I wonder? That must be a touchy topic. What are the requirements and legal restrictions, background checks? Do they regret the decision by the end of the summer?
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