I already posted my opposition to continuing with further study of whether Savannah should build a cruise ship terminal. I think that the idea should be rejected purely on economic and political grounds, but there’s obviously a bigger argument that could be made about the incompatibility of cruise ships with the city’s broader vision of tourism and with Savannah’s relatively small scale.
It looks like the issue will die at Thursday’s City Council meeting, according to a detailed (and perhaps a bit dizzying to some) piece by Mary Landers in Thursday’s Savannah Morning News: Support for Savannah cruise terminal sinking
The last couple of paragraphs even suggest that alderman Tony Thomas, who largely is responsible for getting the city to consider the possibility of a cruise ship terminal, is backing away to some degree from the project:
Despite the likely “no†vote today, Thomas said the close to $250,000 the city paid for the studies (as well as another $80,000 from other state and local sources) was money well spent.
“One thing you can say about this task force is that it did its due diligence looking at Savannah as a possible home port,†Thomas said. “If anything the small amount of public money invested was wiser than going out and building a facility that wasn’t right, didn’t work or can’t be used. An example of that is the Hutchinson Island race track.â€