It seemed to me there were slightly fewer people on River Street than the last time I was down there for the 4th, although I can’t even remember precisely when that was.

The area near Rousakis Plaza — between Bull and Abercorn streets — was pretty raucous. Lots of drinking, talking, even singing along to the overly loud sound system that kept blaring pop and country songs right through the show.

Then we walked west to the other side of the Hyatt. The crowd was completely different — older, quiet, almost reverential.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten less awed by fireworks — and by a lot of other things. But the pyrotechnics do make for some great photos, as well as a great advertisement for the Westin on Hutchinson Island.

A few photos (click for larger versions):

From today’s Savannah Morning News piece about the just-released study of potential terminal sites:

The Savannah River Landing site near Presidentâ€s Street has emerged as the best option for a cruise ship terminal and berthing facility should the city decide to develop as a port for the cruise ship industry, consultants told the Savannah City Council on Tuesday.

The Savannah River Landing site, the only one of three proposed sites on the Savannah side of the river, edged out upriver sites at the Atlantic Cement tract near the Eugene Talmadge Memorial Bridge and the Powell Duffryn site near the Savannah International Trade & Convention Center.

“All three sites have challenges,” said Bruno-Elias Ramos, principal-in-charge of BEA Architects, which prepared the study for the city at a cost of about $190,000. “But we did not find any fatal flaws at any of the sites.”

First, keep in mind that BEA itself would benefit by the continuation of studies, and BEA would likely bid to build any cruise ship terminal here. Those are big red flags that, while not necessarily disqualifying, raise automatic concerns about the integrity of this entire process.

Click here to watch yesterday’s entire Council workshop session, or you can read in the SMN the list of complex — and no doubt very expensive — obstacles that the three considered sites present.

For the remainder of this post, I’m going to set aside the entire issue of whether a cruise ship terminal represents the best use of prime riverfront space or whether that model of tourism is one that will truly benefit the city. (Consider that we’re right now seeing huge investments in new hotels at both ends of River Street — and that’s without gambling millions on a cruise ship terminal.)

Instead, I’m going to focus here on the cost and the politics.

The Savannah River Landing site — deemed the best site considered — would require significant public expenditures for land acquisition ($10 million? $20? just guessing), for major upgrades to the sewer system, for considerable “enhancement” of the current bulkhead and riverwalk, for upgrades to the water system, etc.

And all of that would presumably come on top of construction of an actual terminal. There’s no cost cited in today’s SMN piece, but an article from March of this year noted BEA’s 2011 estimate that the terminal would cost $88 million.

Now, it seems like there are two ways to pay for this: bonds or SPLOST.

As I’ve said many times, I think many of the criticisms alleging over-the-top spending by the City of Savannah are unfounded, but the political reality is that many, many citizens — voters — do not trust that their tax dollars are being spent wisely and frugally.

Given the uncertainties of the cruise ship business, the simple fact is that there is no guarantee that a cruise ship terminal would be used. So we’re talking about a massive public investment with a reasonable likelihood of producing jobs and economic activity — but a reasonable likelihood is far, far, far from a certainty. (The publicly financed cruise ship terminal in Mobile is now sitting empty.)

At this point in the ongoing economic recovery, it simply seems foolhardy for the city to take on $88 million-plus in bond debt to pay for this.

And if the City of Savannah decides to commit a large percentage of revenues from the next SPLOST, which will be considered by voters in the fall, then there’s an increased risk of losing that vote. The current SPLOST was approved 60-40 in 2006, but since then we’ve seen a dramatic change in voter attitudes and we witnessed last year’s thumping of T-SPLOST, which had more built-in controls in terms of funding and project management than SPLOST does.

Given what we know right now, I’d vote against a SPLOST that includes tens of millions for a cruise ship terminal, and I suspect many others would do the same.

The city is going to have enough trouble selling the public on a SPLOST that includes big ticket items like the arena and the new police headquarters that voters thought they would be getting after the 2006 vote.

Maybe in a decade, after the City of Savannah catches up with major projects that were first planned years ago and after we get a better sense if the current woes in the cruise ship industry are the new norm, we could look again at the possibility of a terminal.

As I’ve noted, this entire question has been approached without any apparent input from the Georgia Ports Authority, which I’m guessing would have major concerns about the strict schedules of cruise ships.

And the entire process so far has been handled without adequate chances for substantive public discussion.

So it’s time to pull the plug on all of this. One could argue that we should continue the studies since that would only require another $90,000 — less then $1 per city resident. But continuation of the studies and the public debate would then drag the controversy right into the campaigns for and against the upcoming SPLOST vote.

If city officials move ahead with this project now, they will be imperiling some projects that Savannah truly needs.

I love that Savannah appears on such lists — and love that Charleston is nowhere to be found on this one. Curiously, Greenville, South Carolina made the list.

Anyway, here’s a snippet:

The riverfront is a first stop for many visitors working their way through a Savannah city tour. Street performers play for tips and a stroll past the city’s historic architecture will surprise and delight. Climb aboard any of the classic Savannah Belles ferries until midnight, and ride to any (or all) stops for free. Savannah also offers visitors an authentic 1930s streetcar for free rides from noon until 9 p.m. Friday-Sunday.

Ha ha. The ferries are perfectly fine, but they just go back and forth from River Street to Hutchinson Island. Hardly a great free attraction. And while I love the old warehouse architecture of River Street and the bridges of Factors Walk, they certainly don’t “surprise and delight” like much of the Historic District does.

The blurb does point potential visitors to the squares, Forsyth Park, and Bonaventure Cemetery, as well as to the Cathedral, Bluff Drive, and Tybee — all of which seem like pretty good choices.

UPDATE: The photo accompanying the USA Today article is another great show by Geoff L. Johnson, whose work is always worth a look.

Here’s one of my shots of Forsyth:

Later today, I’ll do a post about some of the live music I caught that day, including Velvet Caravan at B. Matthew’s Eatery, The Train Wrecks at Molly McPherson’s, and the Hairy Chest Fest at Taco Abajo.

So in this post, just a few pics of some of the other goings-on. It was a hot afternoon, but Ellis Square was bustling and the interactive fountain was filled with ecstatic children.

I’ve got a few shots here of the World War II memorial on River Street. It’s a shame that it’s so close to the ugliness of the Hyatt, but it’s a pretty great spot for it (some will recall the controversy over the location). The sheer scale of the memorial works well on River Street, and the names of the deceased are easy to read and to find.

It may not look obvious in the photos here, but I was in the monument with a handful of young Latino adults. They spotted one name that just might be the only Latino one: Pedro Abenoja Estacapio, a member of the Coast Guard. According to public records, his wife lived at 142 Montgomery Street, right downtown. [UPDATE 1/25/15: A relative of Estacapio tells me that he was born in the Philippines and was not Latino.]

From the city of Savannah website:

The Atlantic claimed Chatham Countyâ€s only battle-related Coast Guard fatality,
Officerâ€s Steward 2c Pedro Abenoja Estocapio. Estocapio went down with the
USCG Cutter Escanaba (WPG-77) on June 13, 1943. The Escanaba was
originally designed for ice breaking, law enforcement and rescue work. With the
outbreak of war in Europe, the Escanaba, like many Coast Guard vessels, was
reassigned to perform wartime duty and fitted with additional armament and
crew. The Escanaba was first sent to Greenland on patrol and then assigned to
convoy merchant ships in the North Atlantic Ocean. The crew of the Escanaba
was the first to utilize rescue swimmers dressed in rubber survival suits to pull
victims from cold waters. On a convoy sailing from Narsarssuak, Greenland to
St. Johnâ€s, Newfoundland, the Escanaba apparently struck a drifting mine. The
other ships in her convoy did not hear an explosion, and only three minutes after
noticing smoke coming from the Escanaba, the ship had sunk underwater,
without even signaling for help. Of the 105-man crew, only two survivors and
one body were recovered. “It is likely that the sole reason that these two lived is
that their clothing froze to the strongback [floating debris], keeping them from
slipping into the water and sure death.” Estocapioâ€s body was never recovered
and his name joins thousands lost to the Atlantic in World War II on the East
Coast Memorial in New York City.

Three uncles of mine — Jack, Bob, and Tom — fought in World War II. They all made it home, but are all now deceased.

Maybe I’m just getting too old to appreciate fireworks, but the River Street show — which I watched with a couple of friends from Factors Walk — was a little disappointing. Or maybe I’d just had too good of a day to that point. The crowds seemed thinner than I remember — maybe the heat, maybe the midweek holiday, maybe folks just tired of downtown parking hassles.

One of the highlights of my holiday was the 6 p.m. flash mob by the Savannah Dance Festival at Rousakis Plaza on River Street.

I’ve written about the SDF, scheduled for October 12-13, several times on this blog and in my columns, including this post with photos from the non-profit’s first major fundraiser — a Casablanca-themed party at the Jepson hosted by Stratton and Mary Leopold.

The performance on River Street yesterday was simply electric. It was hard to say who seemed most excited about the 15 minutes or so of frenetic dancing — the dancers, the spectators who knew what was coming, the spectators who just happened to be on hand, the folks who joined in the dancing at the end, or that one little boy who was mesmerized.

I don’t know who any of these dancers are with the exception of SDF president Pat Alley. She’s the one dancing with the two little girls at the bottom of the pics here.

More soon on the SDF’s ongoing fund- and consciousness-raising.

I just kept shooting right through it all. I’ve cropped a few of these but for the most part they’re unedited.

If you’re pictured in one of these, I’d be more than happy to send you a higher-res version. Just email me at billdawers@comcast.net. If you pull one off the blog to use on Facebook or somewhere else, please include a link back to this post (copy the URL in the address bar).

I’ll post these and maybe even more to Facebook eventually.

Click for larger versions. Enjoy.