Prior research and the experience of residents have clearly revealed the negative impact that the cruise industry has had on the city of Charleston.
So detrimental has the damage been to Charleston that last year the National Trust for Historic Preservation put that city on its watch list due to the harm that the cruise ships have caused to the historic city.
Now a new study adds emphasis to this assessment. While the city confronts the trash and congestion of thousands of additional people and traffic in a confined area, it receives little financial benefit in return.
The report commissioned by the Historic Charleston Foundation states that “the city gets only a fraction of the surrounding region’s economic benefit from South Carolina’s year-round cruise industry.”
Further, damage done by the cruise ships has been such that the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League together with the Preservation Society of Charleston have brought suit before the South Carolina Supreme Court alleging that the ships are a public nuisance.
In essence, then, cruise ships destroy the very attraction that they tout to their passengers, while saddling the residents of the community with noise, congestion, traffic and other troubles that they will have to live with on a daily basis, while the cruise ship sails off and leaves those problems behind.
It is imperative that elected officials are fully aware of the damage that cruise ships will do to the unique and fragile heritage that is Savannah so that they are not seduced by the purported benefits touted by industry lobbyists.
EUGENE J. FRIEDMAN
Tall trees, dead animals
Regarding the March 3 commentary by Mike Matz, “Talking with trees without tongues,” while it sounds very sympathetic for the animals in the wild, it does more harm than good for reasons that are not obvious to many people.
The National Wilderness Preservation system is key to the total blocking of old growth forest cutting or thinning. This creates a thick “over story” that blocks out the sun, thereby denying the understory plants at ground level the needed sun to grow.
With no understory for the deer, rabbits and ground birds such as quail, partridge and pheasants, the food they need to survive in this environment will be gone and the animals no longer exist in numbers large enough for the person who wishes to observe this wildlife to enjoy.
This type of protection is very typical and means well, but in the end it destroys the populations of every animal in the forest.
As the kindhearted Lorax expounded in this article, the trees will be protected from the axes. But when the Lorax and his friends return, they had better be satisfied with looking at the tallest trees, because that is all that will be left to look at in the forest.
The animals will be dead from starvation.
Although the final Environmental Impact Statement for deepening the Savannah harbor isn’t even available yet, and there were plenty of justifiable challenges to the draft EIS issued in November 2010.
Sen. Johnny Isakson has introduced an official request for more than $375 million in federal funds toward this massive project. His action was part of a transportation bill recently introduced in the Senate.
We believe this request is both premature and fiscally irresponsible. Until more is known about the comparative merits of deepening other harbors, there is no assurance that deepening the Savannah channel and harbor will provide the maximum benefit for this large expenditure.
According to the latest estimate, the project will cost a minimum of $629 million, including more than $250 million in state funds to be added to the federal funds if they are awarded. Actual costs are likely to be higher.
To be most judicious in using contested federal funds, all such projects must be held to a high standard. At the very least, they shouldn’t be funded until the environmental analysis is completed and the public knows which projects will produce the maximum benefit.
Unless we demand more accountable methods for deciding how federal funds are spent, the U.S. cannot hope to be competitive in the global economy of the 21st century. Use of our tax dollars must no longer be dictated by states competing with one another in successive rounds of wasteful pork-barrel spending.
Center for a Sustainable Coast
St. Simons Island
S.C.’s loss. our gain
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has possibly done Savannah a favor by vetoing the casino in Hardeeville, S.C.
There is plenty of land near I-95 and I-16 which would accommodate a casino and hotel close to the city and airport. It could increase the tourist business immeasurably. Chatham County could reap tax advantages without any investment.
Although my wife and I are not gamblers, we have visited numerous casinos while traveling. We each allocate $10 for the sport and quit when it is gone, whether it be an hour or a day. We have had good, reasonably priced meals and entertainment. We have never seen negative happenings.
Give us more hoops
With all the state high basketball playoffs going on Saturday, Mar. 3, especially at Savannah State University, there was no coverage in your paper except for the Savannah team that travelled all the way to Albany to play.
You want to sell your papers in our community, but you don’t want to give us any coverage.
Focus on the present
I write in response to Peter Ove’s March 6 letter, ”Creationists vote, and that’s frightening.”
To him and others who are frightened of those who do not share their every view, I would say this: We all agree that the world is here now, no matter how it was made or by whom. Let’s concentrate instead on electing a leader who can solve the problems of the present and future.
Whether the world was created in six days or 600 million years does nothing to address unemployment, poverty or high crime rates. Instead of worry over which neighbors should be eligible to vote, find areas of agreement so that we may all go forward together to sustain and improve the world in which we live.