Mayport - First, Do No Harm

Below is the text of an email I sent to my City Council member and the five At-Large members voicing my opposition to the rezoning of 7 acres at Mayport to allow the Jacksonville Port Authority to build a terminal for cruise ships.

I could make many other arguments against bringing cruise ships to Jacksonville, starting with the lunacy of trying to compete with south Florida as a tourist destination. However, those arguments don't seem appropriate to a rezoning bill, so I stuck to the classic "how does this affect the community?"

If you agree the construction of a cruise ship terminal at Mayport is a bad idea, I suggest emailing or calling your City Council members. The rezoning is on the agenda for the February 10th meeting of the Council, near the end so most community members won't be able to voice their views. (It's difficult to stay at a meeting all evening when you have children at home.) You can find email addresses and telephone numbers at: http://www.coj.net/City+Council/City+Council+Members.htm

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In government as in medicine, it is important to remember a simple rule - First, do no harm.

While I understand that Mayport Village is in need of economic development, a cruise ship terminal is not the form such development should take.

A cruise ship terminal would bring people to Mayport, to be sure, but they would in all likelihood go directly to the cruise ship in the excitement to begin the trip. Furthermore, cruise lines offer "free" food and drink, so there would be little demand for the services of local restaurants or other shops.

Most of the jobs on cruise ships are filled by foreign nationals, because they are willing to work for low wages. Those jobs that are filled locally would, again, either be low-wage service jobs or jobs for which few people currently living in Mayport would be qualified. (How many aspiring entertainers live in Mayport?)

In exchange for a few low-wage jobs, the people of Mayport would get:

1) Increased traffic, and the pollution that goes along with that. Automobiles produce more pollution while idling than they do when being driven, and that pollution is concentrated. Living adjacent to a parking lot worth of idling cars as they line up to enter the terminal area would be akin to living near a major industrial polluter. Would you want to breathe carbon monoxide and other fumes? Would you want your children or grandchildren breathing them?
2) A large obstruction to their view whenever a ship is in port. I have seen a cruise ship from the beach at Huguenot Park - I wouldn't want one towering over my home.
3) Possible disruption of commercial fishing operations. Fishermen have been battered by high fuel prices, low-priced imports, environmental degradation, and a host of other problems for years. If anything, we ought to be finding a way to help them, not asking them to share the docks with cruise ships.
4) Possible elimination of eco-tourism opportunities. Tourists who want to fish, paddle or sail our waters, or walk our beaches, don't want to do so in the shadow of a cruise ship.

I haven't even begun to discuss the various environmental impacts of cruise ships in general - most of those occur miles from the docks. Do we really want to invite someone to town who will dump raw sewage just a few miles offshore? (They will, and it is legal for them to do so.)

So, who benefits?

In the short run, of course, local contractors and their employees would presumably benefit from construction of a terminal. However, the Port Authority is in the business of operating our port, not providing make-work jobs. If contractors want jobs, we should find something productive for them to do. Perhaps they could begin work on the storm water improvements that we're told we have to pay for?

The Port Authority would gain a source of revenue, assuming that the cruise lines actually operate from Jacksonville. In the current economic climate, that doesn't strike me as a safe bet. In any case, the Port Authority exists to manage our port for the benefit of the community, not to make the largest possible profit. If this project doesn't benefit the community, why are they pursuing it?

I ask that you deny the Port Authority's request and suggest that an honest effort be made to revitalize Mayport, rather than merely taking advantage of its location.

For what it's worth, I live in District 5, far from Mayport.

Dave Baldwin