Controversy roils the waters of the Charleston, S.C., harbor and others in the US. At issue: Is the ever-expanding cruise ship industry a cost or benefit to port cities? And how much should taxpayers chip in for port facilities versus what they can expect in return?

Since 2010 the 2,000-passenger Carnival Cruise ship Fantasy has been based in Charleston at a terminal, which, according to the Post & Courier, is now considered old and outdated. Under debate is whether a new, $35 million cruise ship terminal should be built.

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Not in My Port, Charleston’s Cruise Ship Opponents Say

CHARLESTON, S.C. — In this Southern coastal city that runs on history and hospitality, a raucous civic debate belies a genteel veneer.

Like several communities that hug the nation’s coastline, Charleston is struggling to balance the economic benefits of cruise ships against their cultural and environmental impact.

Last week’s debacle aboard Carnival Cruise Lines’ Triumph, in which an engine fire stranded 4,200 people in the Gulf of Mexico for five days, has done little to deter those civic leaders who believe that building a new $35 million cruise terminal will be a great boon for this port city.

But for people like Jay Williams, a homeowner in the historic district who writes a blog for Charleston Communities for Cruise Control, a preservationist group, the nightmare on the Triumph is one more piece of evidence in the case against a fast-growing form of travel. “Cruise ships are sardine cans packed with passengers and crew, susceptible to horrific accidents that instantly can put thousands at risk for their lives,” he wrote after the episode.

Cruising has never been more popular or affordable, with its mix of easy travel, exotic locales and onboard amenities that include cooking schools and simulated surfing. In 2012, cruise ships carried 20 million passengers, the majority of them from the United States. With 14 new cruise ships entering the water in 2014, the number of passengers is expected to increase by as much as 8 percent.

But on the shores of the nation’s most charming cities and towns, the relationship is complicated.

In Key West, Fla., voters will decide this fall whether to spend $3 million toward widening a channel that leads to the city’s ports, where 350 cruise ships arrive each year. A deeper channel would allow a new, larger class of cruise ships to dock. Business owners and residents worry that the dredging would hurt fragile coral reefs and overwhelm the town.

In Alaska, state lawmakers are expected to decide Wednesday whether to roll back tough wastewater standards mandated by voters in 2006. If the proposal, backed by Gov. Sean Parnell, is approved, the 36 cruise ships that travel Alaska’s waters each year will be able to discharge waste water with less treatment than it currently receives.

Michelle Ridgway, a marine ecologist who serves on the state science panel for cruise ships, watched as Alaska cruise ship traffic grew to about a million people a year and changed her hometown of Ketchikan.

“The pulp mill closed and the place turned into Disneyland,” she said.

Charleston’s cruise ship debate seems small by comparison, but it is deeply felt.

The Fantasy — at 23 years old, the oldest ship in the Carnival fleet — has been based in Charleston since 2010. It slides into port once or twice a week. Some 2,000 passengers, most of whom have driven in from nearby states, walk through an aging terminal, climb aboard and sail off to the Bahamas or the Caribbean for a few days or a week. Other cruise ships sometimes stop to visit the city, too.

The South Carolina Ports Authority wants to build a new ship terminal that port officials say will handle only one ship at a time, but the frequency of ships could increase.

Those dedicated to preserving a section of town whose buildings date to the 1700s worry that a new terminal will bring a damaging concentration of tourist traffic and larger cruise vessels.

“I can’t believe they are doing this to Charleston,” said Carolyn Dietrich, who lives just a few blocks from the terminal. “I can hear the announcements from my house,” she said. “And that black smoke. It just tumbles out of that smokestack. You should see the dust in my car.”

Port officials point out that cruise ships are a tiny slice of the city’s shipping traffic. More than 1,700 vessels use the port every year, and only 85 of those are cruise ships. And cruise traffic, they say, is worth $37 million a year to the region.

But this city takes its preservation seriously. The specter of more cruise ships has spawned three state and federal lawsuits and has placed the city’s historic district on the World Monument Fund’s list of most endangered cultural sites.

The intensity of opposition has the usually unflappable mayor, Joseph P. Riley Jr., baffled and angry. “This thing is hard to understand because it’s not logical,” he said. “This is not a theme park. One of the authentic parts of Charleston is that we are an international port.”

He points out that the city will get a new waterfront park, and that it has a voluntary agreement with the port that caps the number of ships a year at 104.

People wary of cruise ship traffic want the limit to be legally binding. They also want the ships to plug into electrical power on shore, a newer technology only some ships have. (Shore power exists at some Alaska and California ports and is in the process of being adapted at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook.)

But mostly, they want the port to consider two other spots along the waterfront, which the mayor and port officials say are unworkable.

Not that cruise ship passengers worry too much about the impact their vacations have on local communities. Battles over local or federal legislation, like the Clean Cruise Ship Act, which died in Congress in 2010, are not as interesting as which name-brand chef is going to open a restaurant on board.

“Our audience doesn’t really respond to the municipal-level battles or the environmental stuff,” said Dan Askin, senior editor at cruisecritic.com, a consumer Web site dedicated to cruise ships.

The cruise ship industry has less comprehensive oversight than the airline industry, which is regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration. Ships fly under foreign flags and their parent companies are incorporated overseas, leaving regulation to a patchwork of federal, state and, rarely, local laws.

That puts more responsibility on local communities that host cruise ships, said Marcie Keever, oceans and vessels program director at Friends of the Earth, an environmental group. “They need to not just listen to the cruise ship industry or assume regulations are in place,” she said. “They need to talk to other cities that have gone through this.”

A cautionary tale might be found in Mobile, Ala., where Carnival Cruise Lines hauled the lifeless Triumph last week. Mobile would gladly take any cruise ship traffic at all. The port and the city romanced Carnival Cruise Lines for years. In 2004, after the city borrowed $20 million to build a terminal, Carnival finally agreed to the relationship and based a ship there.

In 2007, Carnival named Mobile its port of the year. Things were going so well that in 2009, Mobile spent $2.6 million on a new gangway. Two years later, Carnival left.

The location just wasn’t popular enough, it said, and rising fuel costs made Mobile a less efficient port than New Orleans.

“It’s a mobile fleet so they can move to a place that is giving them the best deal,” said Mr. Askin. “That’s good for the companies, but bad things start to happen to cities when ships bail out.”

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Charleston hosts international conference on impact of cruise ships in historic cities

The Lowcountry capped a cruise symposium Friday, calling for all sides to open a better dialogue and begin conversations about the impact of the cruise industry on Charleston.

The World Monuments Fund, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Preservation Society of Charleston, the International Council of Monuments and Sites, the Center for Responsible Travel and the Coastal Conservation League hosted Harboring Tourism: A Symposium on Cruise Ships in Historic Port Communities, which lasted from Wednesday through Friday.

 

Preservation and conservation groups hosted a symposium in the Lowcountry last week and addressed the cruise industry. (Photo/Leslie Burden)

Panelists discussed the economic and environmental impacts of the cruise industry, policy tools that can be used to regulate the cruise industry and other topics.

On Friday, the group heard recommendations and a recap of the conference.

Jamie Sweeting, principal of Sweeting Sustainability Solutions and a consultant for Royal Caribbean Cruises, asked the audience to empathize with different points of view.

“I think there’s been some excellent advice,” Sweeting said. “I urge you to recognize there is a different point of view.”

Sweeting asked attendees to define success for the Lowcountry’s quality of life.

“That’s not just for you in this room, but for all of the citizens in this place,” Sweeting said, adding they should represent the many and not the few.

Another attendee followed Sweeting and agreed with him, saying dialogue goes both ways and the cruise industry needs to empathize with their perspective as well and make an effort to hear their point of view.

A former New Yorker staff writer gave the symposium’s final speech. Tony Hiss has also written 13 books, most recently In Motion: The Experience of Travel.

Hiss said the time may have come for new tactics.

“It’s time to reach out to the rest of the city,” he said, adding that it is disquieting that the only black person at the symposium was from Aruba. “What are their problems? What are the smokestacks in their lives that they cannot abide?”

Hiss said cruise ships bring many contradictions to the surface. Diesel trucks aren’t allowed to idle, but a docked cruise ship can. Cruise ships snarl traffic downtown, but traffic is also stopped every time it rains hard.

“Nobody seems to be up in arms about that,” Hiss said.

Hiss also advised working collaboratively and reaching out locally and regionally.

“Communities that argue tend to solve their problems,” Hiss said. “Silent communities don’t, so you’re well on your way to solving your problems.”

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Those in Charleston who want the city to regulate the cruise industry here say they have been trying to get a constructive dialogue going for three years. But Carnival Cruise Lines doesn’t answer their letters. And neither the city nor the S.C. State Ports Authority appears interested in talking.

Still, the key message that emerged during an international conference here on “Harboring Tourism” was: Get a dialogue going. If all the “stakeholders” work together to determine what this community wants to be, and therefore what role it wants cruise tourism to play, the impasse can be overcome.

 

 

Horror stories about how unregulated cruise operations have damaged historic ports around the world were convincing evidence to attendees at the three-day conference concluding Friday that it is essential for Charleston and other historic ports to avoid falling victim to similar problems.

Evan Thompson, director of the Preservation Society of Charleston, which planned the conference in conjunction with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the World Monuments Fund, said he hopes the conference will be the beginning of a new, constructive conversation about how to manage cruises in this, and other, historic ports.

The speakers, who came from as far as Norway, Canada, Alaska and Mexico, shared their experiences. Among them: The once pristine fjords of Norway are crowded with cruise ships and sometimes cloaked in the smog they cause; the ancient city of Venice is dealing with erosion, crowding and visual blight as a result of mammoth cruise ships calling there; and coral reefs near Cozumel, Mexico, are still healthy, but local people fear what might happen since the cruise business has tripled.

Several people shared encouraging stories of how a healthy conversation led to mutually agreeable solutions. Sadly, the question of how to strike a “delicate balance” between tourism — cruises in particular — and the quality of life in Charleston turned adversarial almost from the start.

Soon after a forum put on by the Historic Charleston Foundation three years ago, in which the city and the port both participated, the question was misrepresented as “jobs versus snobs.” Instead of acknowledging their efforts to find solutions to congestion, traffic, emissions, visual pollution and a possible erosion of property values, citizens were painted as anti-cruise ships (they aren’t) who don’t care about port jobs (they do).

While neither the city nor the State Ports Authority accepted the Preservation Society’s invitation to attend the conference, the hosts will make information available.

The “opposing” sides are not really so far apart on some concerns. The Ports Authority has said it will limit the number of cruise ship visits to 104 a year, and will limit the size of those ships that call here.

Those conditions are acceptable to the other side. They just want an ordinance making the limits binding the way restrictions on other tourist businesses are binding.

More divergent are their opinions about where the cruise terminal should be located and whether cruise ships should be required to use shoreside power instead of deisel fuel while docked to reduce harmful emissions. But there is no reason those topics can’t be on the table.

The SPA benefits financially from the cruise business, but international port studies have found that the financial benefit to communities is negligible at best, and that the strains that unfettered cruise ships put on ports in some cases negate any benefits altogether. One fear is that cruise passengers in too great numbers will drive away overnight tourists who are likely to spend four times as much while here. And it isn’t just peninsula Charleston that would suffer if tourism suffers. It is a prime economic driver throughout the Lowcountry.

If the community is unable to bring other stakeholders to the table, the conversation is likely to go largely to the courts.

Already, several lawsuits have been filed in relation to the SPA’s plans to build a new passenger terminal. The Historic Charleston Foundation, frustrated after attempts to work out solutions have fallen on deaf ears, this week threw up its hands and decided to join one of the suits.

Fortunately, people in Charleston are trying to address the issue of cruises before there is a crisis situation, and after learning about just how much damage they can bring, when not regulated.

It’s a good time for all involved to try to cooperate and come to some reasonable solutions.

Cruise conference to address concerns in Charleston and abroad

VENICE, Italy — More than two dozen residents gathered in a bar on the east side of this city earlier this month to plot the course of their year-old effort to fight the ever larger cruise ships arriving here.

In a corner, a slide projector flashed images of many of them sailing small boats, waving “No Grandi Navi (No Big Ships)” flags.

The talk centered on strategies to push back at cruise ships when the mega-ships return in bulk in a few months.

Some specific concerns include the ships clogging the city’s canals, polluting the lagoon’s delicate marine environment and harming the foundations of the city’s historic architecture.

The debate over these ships, which can dwarf this medieval city’s skyline, heated up further after the Costa Concordia cruise liner ran aground off the Italian island of Giglio last year.

Clearly, concern over cruise ships isn’t limited to Charleston.

But Charleston soon will take center stage in the international debate over how best to balance cruise tourism and preservation concerns in the historic port cities where the ships often call.
‘Harboring Tourism’

On Feb. 6-8, the Francis Marion Hotel will be the scene of an international conference hosted by the World Monuments Fund, the Preservation Society of Charleston and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The event isn’t designed simply to bash the cruise ship industry, said Erica Avrami, research and education director with the World Monuments Fund.

In fact, Craig Milan, a Miami-based consultant to the cruise travel industry, will give the keynote address the first night.

“We recognize that tourism is a major generator of revenue in the world,” she said. “It’s an important partner to heritage preservation — the two really do go hand in hand.”

But she said the tourism must be sustainable, too.

“We just realized there hadn’t been enough focus on cruise tourism in historic places,” she said, explaining the purpose of the “Harboring Tourism” conference. “What I’m hearing is that there are places all around the world that are grappling with similar issues.”
Finding a balance

Charleston isn’t necessarily the city with the greatest cruise ship problem.

Evan Thompson, director of the Preservation Society of Charleston, said Venice is a better example of the potential harm from cruise ships, and Venetian architect Paolo Motta is set to deliver the event’s main lecture on Feb. 7.

Other cities have had their own issues, such as Mobile, Ala., which invested more than $20 million in the Alabama Cruise Terminal only to see its main cruise line pull out, posing a financial headache in covering the debt.

Alaska, Mexico and Costa Rica have their own challenges and are scheduled to send speakers to the event.

“Venice is indeed a sort of poster child for the heritage community because Venice is so iconic from a heritage perspective,” Avrami said, “but this is something that historic ports around the world have been grappling with.”

“We suddenly realized there really hasn’t been a lot of concentrated dialogue on best practices when it comes to historic ports,” she said.
Waking up

Anthony C. Wood, a New York-based preservation educator, historian and activist, has visited Charleston regularly for more than a decade.

He recalled waking up one morning in his room at the Francis Marion Hotel.

“I remember the next morning going to the window, and had this sudden shock,” he said. “I thought, ‘Who let them build that high rise since I last came to Charleston?’ Then I realized, that wasn’t a high rise. It was a cruise ship. The impact was something you couldn’t ignore. It’s a very serious issue.”

Charleston might not have the world’s greatest problems with cruise ships — the number calling here in a year is still well below what even opponents concede is a reasonable limit — but it is the first historic city to be added to the World Monuments Fund “Watch List” specifically because of the threat of cruise ships.
Ahead of the game

The cruise debate has raged here for a few years and has triggered multiple lawsuits, two of which are still pending. Dozens of homeowners in the historic district fly banners with a slash mark over a cruise ship’s smokestack.

A coalition of residents and environmental and preservation groups are pushing the city and port to enact a legally enforceable cap to ensure that no more than an average of two cruise ships call here in a week and that no ships arrive with more than 3,500 passengers.

They also want cruise ships to plug into the city’s electrical grid at port instead of burning their own fuel to limit air pollution, and they want the city to collect a fee to offset its cost of managing cruise visits, among other things.

Avrami said the conference will capture the discussions and publish them online, but it has another goal.

“In the long term, we’re hoping that having this symposium in Charleston will help to foster better dialogue and help bring more knowledge to the table so negotiated solutions can be found to the existing situation in Charleston, which I know is rather tense,” she said.

Wood, who plans to participate in the conference, said Charleston has built an incredible tourism brand — it has earned the No. 1 spot in the world in Conde Nast’s most recent visitors’ poll — but there’s no guarantee it will remain on top.

“You don’t want people saying things bout Charleston that they’re now saying about Key West because of the impact of cruise ships. Or Venice,” he said. “You want to get ahead of the game on this.”

But the prospects for a breakthrough here are uncertain. While the conference has sought a range of perspectives, neither State Ports Authority officials nor Charleston Mayor Joe Riley — the ships’ greatest defenders — are set to participate. Many local opponents are.

“Everyone hopes Charleston will get it right,” Wood said. “Hopefully, this conference will ultimately provide information that will let Charleston get it right.”

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Speakers:

The list of those speaking at the cruise ship conference currently includes the following:

• Carrie Agnew, Charleston Communities for Cruise Control
• Gustavo Araoz, International Council of Monuments and Sites
• Michelle Baldwin, Mayport Community Development Corp., Florida
• Dana Beach, Coastal Conservation League, Charleston
• Amos Bien, Global Sustainable Tourism Council, Costa Rica
• William Cook, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Washington, D.C.
• Joseph Geldhof, Law Office of Joseph W. Geldhof, Alaska
• Tony Hiss, author of “The Experience of Place,” New York
• Blan Holman, Southern Environmental Law Center, Charleston
• Martha Honey, Center for Responsible Tourism, Washington, D.C.
• Mobile, Ala., Mayor Sam Jones
• Kristian Jørgensen, Fjord Norway
• Paulina Kaplan, municipality of Valparaiso, Chile
• Marcie Keever, Friends of the Earth, Berkeley, Calif.
• Ross Klein, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Canada
• Craig Milan, Cruise Tourism Specialist and Travel Industry Consultant, Florida
• Harry Miley Jr., Miley and Associates, Columbia
• Paolo Motta, architect, Italy
• Randy Pelzer, Charlestowne Neighborhood Association
• Brian Scarfe, University of Victoria, Canada
• Jamie Sweeting, advisor to Royal Caribbean
• Evan Thompson, Preservation Society of Charleston
• Jonathan Tourtellot, National Geographic
• Dora Uribe, lawyer, Cozumel, Mexico
• Anthony Wood, Ittleson Foundation and National Trust for Historic Preservation

If you go:

What: Harboring Tourism: A Symposium on Cruise Ships in Historic Port Communities.

When: Feb. 6-8.

Where: Francis Marion Hotel, King and Calhoun streets.

Hosts: Preservation Society of Charleston, World Monuments Fund and National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Cost: $300 for students and society or trust members; $350 for non-members for the full conference; $25/$30 for only Wednesday’s session; $75/$100 for only Friday’s.

more info: Visit PreservationSociety.org or call 722-4630.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1736961

Shore power arrives at the Port of Halifax

No. H003/13
For release – January 23, 2013

HALIFAX — The Port of Halifax will be the first port in Atlantic Canada to implement shore power for cruise ships, beginning with the 2014 cruise season.

Shore power is a highly effective way to reduce marine diesel air emissions by enabling ships to shut down their engines and connect to the electrical grid in order to provide necessary power while docked. This initiative represents the second shore power installation for cruise ships in Canada.

Today’s announcement, which was made at Canada’s largest East Coast port by the Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence, Graham Steele, MLA Halifax Fairview on behalf of Percy Paris, Minister of Economic and Rural Development and Tourism for Nova Scotia, and Karen Oldfield, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Halifax Port Authority, represents a $10-million cooperative initiative among the Government of Canada, the Province of Nova Scotia and the Port of Halifax.

“Our government continues to make significant investments in Nova Scotia’s future.  We know that a thriving tourism industry is a key part of ensuring Nova Scotia’s economic prosperity and we are happy to grow this sector of Nova Scotia’s economy while helping the environment,” said Minister MacKay. “Be it the $25 billion federal initiative to build ships in Nova Scotia, offshore oil exploration or tourism, our government is committed to growing Nova Scotia’s economy and creating more jobs.”

Transport Canada will contribute up to $5 million to the project. The Province of Nova Scotia and the Port of Halifax will each contribute an additional $2.5 million.

“We know Nova Scotians want good jobs and a thriving tourism industry, and this investment represents part of our jobsHere plan to move toward a more prosperous future,” said MLA Steele. “The province is supporting the businesses and workers that depend on the cruise ship industry, creating quieter and cleaner conditions for visitors and Nova Scotian families, and positioning Nova Scotia as a more attractive destination.”

“The support of this project from both the federal and provincial governments will both help the environment and ensure Halifax remains a marquee port-of-call on the Canada-New England itinerary,” said Ms. Oldfield. “The cruise industry is an important part of our local economy, generating an estimated $50 million per year in economic impact.”

Once installed, shore power at the Port of Halifax will have immediate benefits by decreasing cruise ship idling by seven per cent, and will contribute to improved air quality and human health. This percentage is expected to increase over time as more ships equipped for shore power use the facilities. The seven per cent reduction represents an annual decrease of approximately 123,000 litres of fuel and 370,000 kg of greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions.

Halifax is one of the largest natural harbours in the world and has the deepest berths on the Eastern Seaboard of North America. In 2012, the Port of Halifax generated approximately $1.5 billion in economic impact and over 11,000 port-related jobs. Annual cruise activity accounts for about eight per cent of all tourism traffic in Nova Scotia.

Funding for the Shore Power Technology for Ports Program was provided under the Clean Transportation Initiatives in Budget 2011 as part of the renewal of the Government of Canada’s Clean Air Agenda. These initiatives focus on aligning Canadian regulations with those in the United States and with international standards, improving the efficiency of the transportation system, and advancing green technologies through programs such as Shore Power Technology for Ports. These initiatives will help Canada achieve its economy-wide target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 17 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020.

 

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Click here: http://blog.preservationleadershipforum.org/2013/01/11/positive-charleston-lawsuit/

On-street smoking ban not consistent

As the son of a chain-smoking father, I’ve smoked two cigarettes in my life. The first, when I was 12, tasted bad. The other came much later, when driving with my three young children (now all parents of teenagers) and their mother from a weekend visit with friends at their Lake Marion cottage. We headed home to Columbia on paved back roads on a late summer, Sunday afternoon.

As we approached a rural railroad crossing, a small moving train suddenly appeared in the twilight, seconds away from what appeared a collision course. I slammed on brakes, swerved onto the right of way, and came to a bumpy halt, perhaps 15 feet from the track. Only then did I realize it was a twilight optical illusion. The train, as it turned out, was actually backing away in the opposite direction.

But shaken and stimulated by a flow of adrenaline, I reached out for my then wife’s lighted cigarette. I deeply inhaled and experienced an enveloping release of tension. I promised myself that if ever again in such a situation, I would light up another cigarette. So far I haven’t.

The story is relevant because of Charleston City Council’s recent action to ban on-street smoking in a roughly 10-block area extending beyond the boundaries of the Roper/St. Francis and MUSC hospitals. This is the same City Council that refuses to require on-shore power for downtown cruise ships, whose toxic pollutants pose a genuine threat to public health in a far larger business and residential area. At least that’s what a past president of the state medical association has told us.

Consider for a moment that, say, a construction worker just processed admittance of his wife, his children’s mother, into the emergency room with severe chest pains. He feels the train is heading right at him. But if he goes out on the street to seek calming relaxation by smoking cigarette, he becomes a criminal and has to pay a fine.

Shame on the Charleston City Council for its surrender to power. Shame on Carnival Cruise Lines, which from their nine cruise lines sends Charleston the oldest and ugliest goat in the barn. Shame on the board of directors of the State Ports Authority for dereliction of duty.

Jack Bass

Queen Street

Charleston

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