From AP:
Traffic at Connecticut’s three deep-water ports has been declining due to the weak economy and harbor-clogging sediment that the maritime industry says is driving away the largest ships.
William Gash, executive director of the Connecticut Maritime Coalition Inc., a trade group, says Providence and other nearby ports are luring business from shippers who see New Haven, Bridgeport and New London as less hospitable to ships requiring significant depth to maneuver.
“The ports of New London and Bridgeport are woefully underused,” Gash said. “New London has been pretty idle. That is just terrible.”
Read more: www.timesunion.com/news/article/Conn-maritime-industry-seeks-harbor-dredging-1350415.php
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We’re a part of New England, a region noted for its maritime prosperity, so this makes no sense. The city of Bridgeport has the financing to dredge the harbor but not enough to pay for disposal. Maybe, just maybe if a little less were spent on extraneous payroll liabilities there would be more money to see this sort of project to fruition.
*** “Code Blue,” all hands on deck, CT STATE overboard & sinking fast on shipping ports! *** OIB ***
When the banana ship left for Philadelphia it was the cover on Bridgeport’s coffin. When Bill Finch (as state senator) championed a bill that brought $1.5Million to Bridgeport to create a terminal that would accept 80 containers barged from Port Newark (NJ), thus getting 80 tractor-trailers off I-95, reducing pollution, wear and tear on the highway and creating about 200 jobs in Bridgeport, it looked like a resurgence of the local economy. But when he became mayor and ignored the money because the people who got him elected wanted the Bridgeport waterfront for residential housing (negative tax dollars), the money went back to Hartford. And that was the nail in the coffin lid.
“If you dredge it they will come.”
Steel Point continues to fester with weeds, vermin, trash and inertia while the harbor awaits a good dredging.
Bridgeport is an industrial city. Not as great as it once was, perhaps, but an industrial city nonetheless. The waterfront should be used for industrial purposes, not residential property. That sort of real estate is sold on a pipe dream. The only parties to reap an immediate financial benefit are the architects, real estate agents and contractors who develop the property. Residential and retail development only creates short-term well-paying jobs. After that it’s minimum wage all the way, baby.
MJF, John Gomes and Charlie Coviello have been saying JOBS are or ought to be the priority for any mayor. (Bill Finch’s voice has been noticeably absent from this particular madrigal.) Like the sign in Bill Clinton’s Oval Office said, “It’s the economy, stupid …”