Cruise terminal grousing

The Port of Los Angeles has an aging cruise facility that is too small to handle the monster ships coming on line. The solution is to have an Outer Harbor Cruise Terminal, where these ships can come and go with relative ease. But when it comes to San Pedro and the port, there's no such thing as relative ease. Later this year, port officials hope to release six possible designs, which could include two new two-story terminals totaling 200,000 square feet at berths 45 through 47 and berths 49 and 50. Already, community groups are raising a stink, saying that it would increase traffic and noise in San Pedro. From the Daily Breeze:

"Visually, it's going to be a monstrosity," said June Burlingame Smith, president of the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council. "Can you imagine something so tall just sitting there?" she asked. "It's going to be an enormous eyesore." Parking options at the new terminal range from 2,900 to 4,200 spaces in a new three-level structure that would be built on the inner harbor. One alternative, however, suggests a two-level parking garage with 1,500 spaces. Although the project also calls for a 6-acre waterfront park and a possible extension of the Red Car line, the plans do not go far enough in mitigating an anticipated increase in traffic, according to Burlingame Smith.

In fairness, I'd probably be grousing too. Thing is, the lines don't have to use L.A. – they have left before – which is why port officials have been pushing for the outer harbor. (There’s also the depressing and outmoded cruise terminal, which makes LAX look like Disneyland.) Here's what I wrote in a Los Angeles magazine piece last August (no link available):

The squabbling still goes on, but now there’s an improbable twist that could change things. It centers on two seemingly innocuous numbers on the spec sheet of the 5,400-plus passenger cruise ship Royal Caribbean plans to christen in two years. Length: 1,020 feet. Height above water: 210 feet. The ship happens to be 70 feet longer than what the Cruise Center’s Berth 93 can accommodate and 30 feet higher than will safely fit under the Vincent Thomas Bridge, which is where the current generation of ships make their turns in order to dock. The only way a too-long and too-high ship can be brought into the main channel is backward, which is what the Queen Mary 2 was forced to do on its first trip to the West Coast. It was an embarrassing but revealing moment. Big ships are the future of the cruise business, and big ships are not about to arrive in reverse.