Point of View By Ron Chapman
Port Will Destroy Our Way of Life (Sponsored Content)
St. Bernard faces a decision that will seriously impact the quality of life in our Parish. The new planned container yard. Why did the St. Bernard Port sell the Violet facility to the Port of New Orleans? That should be made clear to the residents of St. Bernard. The St. Bernard Port only has jurisdiction over land that it owns along the river. The rest is controlled by the Port of New Orleans. Now we learn that they sold the Violet facility to the Port of New Orleans. Why? The Port of New Orleans has never had St. Bernard’s interests in mind. MRGO was the brainchild of the Port of New Orleans. Didn’t that work out grand for our parish!?! If there are any real positives for the parish in this venture, it is important that the port make these known. Because this new facility may prove to be just another disaster. The facility will occupy a significant parcel of land and extend along the riverfront. They plan to cut St. Bernard Highway. The port mentions that the container yard will occupy 350 acres with 3,500 linear feet of riverfront “within more than 1,000 acres of developable green-field property.” They likely plan to use the entire piece of property which means the facility will eventually become 3X larger. Try to imagine that. The facility is designed to service vessels holding over 23,000 containers in each ship averaging about 2,000,000 containers per year. That means 5,479 containers per DAY or 228 containers per hour 365 days per year! (If they expand, it could increase to 15,000 containers per day.) How will this impact life in the parish? There is only one highway and one railroad servicing St. Bernard. Moving 5,700 containers per day will paralyze all
30 Fall Issue 2021
transportation. Waits for long trains will increase dramatically, and roads will be congested. The ability to get to work or just travel to local businesses will be severely impacted. They promise an Interstate connection to serve this business, but when will that be constructed? Can it be constructed? The highway would have to cross damaged wetlands. Environmental litigation on that would go on for years. What will St. Bernard get out of this monstrosity? NOTHING! The parish will receive no taxes and the only jobs of significance will be non-resident truck drivers. The vital culture that is St. Bernard Parish will be destroyed, property values will plummet, businesses hampered, and our roads destroyed. All this so a few people who do not live here can make a buck. The residents of St. Bernard must make a strong and loud stand. We cannot allow this to happen. The future of our parish and our children hangs in the balance. St. Bernard is not a colony of New Orleans. We have the right to determine our own destiny. St. Bernard needs businesses and clean industries that will build the parish and improve the quality of life for residents. We do not need a facility that will destroy us.
Ron Chapman, a history professor at Nunez Community College, is a columnist with the St. Bernard
Voice newspaper and local business owner.