New Orleans      No one should ever forget that the most stable and sustainable driver of the New Orleans economy is neither tourism nor conventions, but rests in no small measure on the Mississippi River as a port city.  Barges of grain and other goods coming down, ships filled with coffee and everything else under the sun coming in from the Gulf of Mexico up the river, all continue to be a huge pillar of the economy, as it has been for centuries since the founding of the city.  Much of port work is now mechanized, the container ships are huge and towering, but a lot of the money is old and class-bound until on display in Mardi Gras parades, huge houses uptown along the avenues, and in the local and state conservative politics of the white, male minority.

Both the history and the contemporary politics were all front and center, as I stood towards the rear in a crowd of more than 400 people packed into the sports and recreation center in St. Bernard’s city of Chalmette, just to the east and downriver from New Orleans.  The US Army Corps of Engineers was holding a public hearing necessary to determine a permit on a proposal by the Port of New Orleans for a Louisiana International Terminal.  The Port may have New Orleans in its name, but is a state agency with commissioners appointed by the governor.  The port has a problem.  The river is 200 feet deep through the New Orleans crescent and more than 50 feet at the docks in the city, but the giant Mississippi River bridge, called the Crescent City Connection, is only 170 feet above the water line.  Some modern container ships run between 230 and 270 feet, and that translates into money that many won’t make when these ships can’t get to the warehouses or farther up the river under the bridge.  The South Louisiana port is nearer to the delta of the Mississippi, as it meets the Gulf, but it requires breaking down, loads onto smaller ships to move along the way. The Port of New Orleans bought 1400 acres downriver from the city to address this issue where they now want to undertake a huge project to build an additional facility on their land along the river in Violet, which is part of St. Bernard Parish.

The Port is making the usual case about jobs and financial growth for workers and the community, while promising some amelioration of environmental and community issues.  They have to get a permit from the Corps because the 400 acres they want to develop is on wetlands.  The Clean Water Act has been diluted in recent years, but not so much that the Port can ignore it.  The Port might be something of an unknown quantity in St. Bernard, but the Corps and its record throughout this area is controversial whether the conversation is about the Industrial Canal or the MR-GO ship channel built by the Corps, both of which have contributed to flooding throughout both Orleans and St. Bernard during hurricanes.

There’s was no love in the room for them or trust in this proposal, judging from the vast majority of people who crowded in and their reaction to various speakers.  ACORN’s affiliate, A Community Voice, has centered its opposition around the estimate increase of 1700 to 2000 trucks that the port would stream into the area, clogging traffic through the community to the interstate, and releasing huge levels of pollution.  The port spoke of mitigation in other areas, but that would do little for local residents and businesses.  Other speakers spoke of the destruction the port would cause to wildlife and to the fishing and oyster harvesting in the parish, which is world-renowned and a significant employer.  The Port’s plan would require moving a school, which presented another set of legal obstacles, likely to be litigated, despite their claims to replace and rebuild.  The comment period will likely reveal numerous other issues.

If New Orleans is a blue island in this red state, St. Bernard bleeds scarlet.  It’s a mistake to not understand that climate and the environment are issues for working families and their communities that don’t disappear in political rhetoric and claims of sugar plum jobs and income some fine day.  The Port may win and build something someday, but this will be a long fight, and they will have to make many more concessions and compromises along the way, because many people and organizations are dug in to oppose this project, as deeply as the Mississippi River flowing past them across the levee.