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More
must be done to manage cruise ships
Last week, the
Key West City Commission took a small but significant step in its
management of the cruise ship industry. The commission raised the
disembarkation fee by $2, added a 63-cent-per-passenger security
surcharge and directed staff to come up with an ordinance requiring
ships calling at Key West to pump out their sewage here.
These are all
excellent steps on the part of the city -- but they are small parts of
an overall picture that it is not clear the city commission or staff has
fully perceived.
In the past five
years, Key West has become a big-time cruise ship destination -- nearly
a million passengers disembarked here in 2003. The rate of growth in
this statistic alone is extraordinary -- more than tripling in the past
decade.
This unimpeded
growth has had an impact in many arenas -- some businesses have profited
greatly from the increased cruise ship traffic and, indeed, some are
operating in town only because of it. Others, particularly the lodging
industry that is a keystone of the island's tourism economy, have
expressed serious reservations about how the massive daily influx is
affecting the island's character and ambiance.
Many residents,
too, have grave concerns about cruise ships and how they affect Key
West, concerns that were given voice one year ago at a packed Keys In
The Balance forum organized by Last Stand, followed by a city-sponsored
summit attended by more than 300 people.
The city's
follow-up has been minimal at best. While the city staff managed to
"negotiate" the $2.63 increase, the cruise industry continues to profit
mightily from its visitations to Key West. And the city staff continues
to exhibit a disturbingly servile attitude toward the cruise industry.
This was demonstrated most recently in a city memo on the disembarkation
increase, which reported that the increase "appears modest and is not
expected to have negative consequences on port calls or the industry.
Meetings with FCCA [Florida Caribbean Cruise Association]
representatives have accepted the increase , but are not happy with the
financial impact it will have on their profit and lost statements"
(sic).
Excuse us, but
the cruise industry's financial statements should not be the concern of
our city staff. They are the stewards of a valuable and irreplaceable
asset -- our community, with all its charm and unique character -- and
their job is to make sure this asset is not degraded and to make sure
they are not selling it cheap. As one attendee at last year's city
summit commented, our current attitude toward the cruise industry is
selling sirloin at hamburger prices. Given his background in the grocery
business, we count on Mayor Jimmy Weekley to guide the city toward
getting a fair price for its first-class product -- and ensuring that
the product does not decay in the selling.
The pump-out
requirement is an excellent example of how the city should approach the
cruise lines. The city must ensure that it is not just providing an
incentive to pump out as close as legally possible to our island, and
thus make the amount to be pumped out as small as possible. How is this
possible? DeeVon Quirolo of Reef Relief's answer is to require ships to
close their tanks when they leave the last port of call before heading
for Key West -- and have their environmental officers certify to the
city that this has been done. To her great credit, she has already
gotten the cruise lines to agree to this. While several have pointed out
that the city, through its ordinances, cannot govern the conduct of
cruise ships that are hundreds of miles away, the city must use its
power and influence to make cruise ships meet our standards. If cruise
lines want to exploit Key West as a port of call -- and a recent study
found Key West's presence on the itinerary has a strong allure for
passengers -- then they should meet our conditions and make the
exploitation worth our while, as well as theirs.
The city has
taken a few baby steps along the road toward getting a handle on the
cruise industry, but they still have a ways to go. |
