An open letter to port authority

Nancy Rubin
Public Relations for Jaxport
2301 Talleyrand Avenue, 32206.
 
Dear Nancy:
As to your response below:
 
 "Also, I would like to clear up an apparent misunderstanding...while JAXPORT employs only 150 people directly, the private businesses which lease property from us generate tens of thousands of positions either directly or indirectly. The private sector is where you will find the 65 thousand regional jobs which are port-related."
 
Just how is that going to happen? Will the Fishermen and the Seafood industry buy six times as many Chinese sneakers? The only way to increase container movements would be to steal business from other ports--Hampton Roads,Charleston and Savannah.But these ports are near large population centers and have railroads,interstate highways and deepwater harbors. You are not going to capture any business from those ports, Carnival Cruise lines can shift its market to Cape Canerval or shuttle it to Jacksonville to create an illusion of being over booked.
This looks like a maritime version of irrational exuberance and Jaxport wants to make this mistake with our tax dollars.  Jaxport is also seeking federal funding for a study on deepening the St. Johns River to accommodate the new gereration of massive ships. Not even thinking of the Manatees,whales,or the harm to the environment what is the total price tag,including the land,dredging,permits,construction and railroad and highway improvements will it be closer to 4 billion Jaxport doesn't propose to stick the taxpayers with all of that. not to mention 60 million dollar cruise terminal.
The economic analysis predicting thousand of new local jobs and hundreds of thousands of related positions from the panned cruise terminal is shallow and basically flawed superficially
throwed together and an irrational attempt to boost a political decision .  Even so,workers generally represent one third of the population,So one of every three new jobs will be because of the Port? Who are you kidding Nancy? This is so preposterous I sympathize with the need for jobs but I got no tolerance,however,for simplistic statements that represent incompetent or misleading analysis .Jaxport study leaned on a computer model fed with unreliable or assumed data. Proper analysis is long, hard, time-consuming, costly and uncertain,Some find it hard....so sometimes they don't do it at all. Jaxport figures for which you Nancy relied upon are simplistic, very,very puffed-up numbers on the job creation.There is no greater source of self-satisfaction than ignorance.
diverdan363
P.S. On the other hand it doesn't address the jobs affected in the seafood industry nor the business jaxport shut down in mayport many mayport workers depended on the Icehouses and packing plants for work and alot of the shrimpers need dock space to work on their cables and nets and jaxport took that away! Then closed most of the waterfront to the fisherman with a twelve foot high fence Will Jaxport remove the No fishing signs?
diverdan363