Slow-go in San Pedro

The Port of Los Angeles announced plans to spruce up the Inner Harbor World Cruise Center (think "Love Boat") with improvements such as a new gangway system, a rooftop solar panel array and a new paint job. From the press release:

"These investments underscore our intent to improve the cruise operator and passenger experience at the World Cruise Center and maintain its operational efficiency well into the future," said Port Executive Director Dr. Geraldine Knatz, Ph.D. "Cruise operations at the Port provide more than 2,500 jobs and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in tourism and other business revenue. We want to keep and grow this sector of our business."

Price tag is $42 million, but none of these modest upgrades will address the biggest problem at the Cruise Center: Having to accommodate ever-larger ships in an awfully small space. (Some of the larger ships have had to arrive backwards because the turning radius is not wide enough.) The answer has been to develop an Outer Harbor cruise terminal on the other side of the port, where ships can slide in and out without resorting to back flips. Another plus would be having plenty of room for restaurants and shops, something noticeably missing in the dingy and depressing WCC. And access to an outer terminal would require passing through a portion of San Pedro, which means a chance to pump up the local economy. Unfortunately, the plan has been held up for several years now amid parochial bickering. From the Daily Breeze:

While the plan will ask commissioners to approve building two berths, only one will be initially constructed, [Knatz] said, noting that growth in the cruise industry has slowed. "The economic conditions dictate caution with respect to investment in the cruise industry," Knatz told commissioners. Opposition to the outer cruise ship harbor still runs strong among some parts of the community. "It's not what the citizens want," said June Burlingame Smith, the chairwoman of a citizens panel that has advised the port on the waterfront plan through the years.

[CUT]

The outer cruise ship harbor, Knatz said, is needed as the newer ships are now much bigger and cannot be accommodated easily in the existing cruise terminal at the north end of the Main Channel. Delaying construction of the second berth will also allow port officials to hold off, for now, on building parking structures in the north harbor. That, in turn, will put off the north harbor water cut to leave the existing surface parking in place along the promenade.