As noticed by FITSNews, another sad sign for the Port of Charleston. I'm sure many of those from off could care less what happens to the Port; little do they realize how much it affects Charleston's economy.ANOTHER YEAR, ANOTHER DROPOFF
. . . according to this morning’s edition of the Charleston Post and Courier, the once-proud Port of Charleston is slipping even further behind its competitors … again. From the P&C story:
The Port of Charleston reported a double-digit drop in container volume in 2007, but it will likely hang on to its position as the fourth-busiest East Coast port.
The port handled the equivalent of 1.75 million 20-foot-long containers in the last calendar year, down 11 percent from 2006, according to the State Ports Authority.
Four years ago the Port of Charleston was the fourth-largest in the nation, not the East Coast, but South Carolina’s insistence on maintaining a communist “total state control” model for port expansion and its failure to aggressively pursue public-private partnerships (like our competitors in Virginia, Florida, Alabama and several other states) has caused our state to squander its most valuable competitive asset.
Ports Authority board members Campbell, Bill Stern and Harry Butler bear the lion’s share of the blame for this disaster (they cast the deciding votes back in 2005 against free market expansion), but Gov. Mark Sanford deserves his fair share of criticism as well for failing to get rid of these three nimrods years ago.
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6 comments:
If the port needs better management or legislative help to improve facilities or expand, then so be it. But privatization of our ports would lead to the profit stream of the ports flowing right out of the state.
Keep South Carolina Ports for South Carolina.
I agree that the SPA is a public asset that should be protected. It's a critical part of the state's economic infrastructure...it's not just a mess of pottage that can be sold off in a pinch. Along with healthcare/medical research and higher education, international trade are the pillars of the Charleston economy. Unlike tourism, these three "industries" have supported Charleston for hundreds of years. Tourism is fine as an after dinner mint, but it's the other 3 (medicine, education and trade) that really put meat on our dinner table. It would be a mistake to consider privatizing our ports...just as it is a mistake to not recognize the benefits we all receive from keeping them competative and working for the entire state.
Clelia, you really are unbelievable. You know nothing about the port and how it operates.
You are full of so much hot air it's off the charts.
The port is losing trade to its competitors, sure, but you aren't even remotely qualified to assess why.
Why, welcome back, anonymous-who-calls-me-Clelia! So happy to see you are still addicted to my blog. BTW, maybe I have my sources who ARE qualified.
I call you Clelia because that's your name. And when you say "sources," I take it you mean you can copy/paste from someone else's work.
Loser.
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