WOULD YOU BUY A USED CRUISE SHIP FROM THIS MAN?

By Juan Montoya
Has Brownsville Navigation District commissioner Ralph Cowen bothered to glance at the Port of Brownsvlle's master plan?
Apparently not.
If he had, the former used-car salesman and self-appointed Goodwill Ambassador for the City of Brownsville would know that the high-priced consultants who put together the master plan stated in unequivocal terms that the Port of Brownsville and Brownsville area aren't suitable to host a cruise ship facility.
Instead, the consultants sad that the port should emphasize its strengths such as its geographical proximity to the Mexican and Latin American markets to drive its future development.
"The consultants told us in no uncertain terms that Brownsville isn't the right place to host a cruise ship," said a Port administrator. "The infrastructure to host a cruise ship industry - the docks, parking lots, utilities needed for that sort of enterprise - are not there.
Instead, consultants said back then, the port should continue to push for increased barge traffic through the Intercoastal Waterway and continue to curry trade from Central and South America. The upgrade f the Panama canal will increase the potential for commerce from that waterway as Asian trade seeks economically beneficial methods t reach the U.S. markets.
"The cheapest way to move goods is through barges and ferries," he said. "The most expensive is rail and trucks. We are perfectly poised to take advantage o f that increase trade coming from and America.
Currently, the majority of trade at the port comes from the Monterrey and Manclova areas since Mexican industry relies on the Port of Brownsville to move everything from steel to chemicals through here. With the designation of the Port of Brownsville and its sister port in Manatee, Fla., as a part of the national Marine Highway by the Ray LaHood, the Secretary of the U.S. Dept. of Transportation, that direction gained a huge impetus for future growth.
"Would you believe that we're selling orange juice to Florida?" laughed a port employee. "One of our biggest customers s Home Depot, which is moving Mexican tile to all its stores in the United States though here."
As part of its new application for the second round of federal funds under the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program, the port is teaming up with Manatee to submit a joint application. The last time the port went at it alone and got nothing. This time, the port will submit its application for around $31 million, about half what it asked for the last time. However, Manatee is asking for about the same amount, with the the joint application totaling about $60 million.
"What a lot of people don't realize is that by applying jointly with the Florida port, we automatically have two more senators and more congressman pushing the DOT for funding," said the administrator. "You cannot ignore the fact that politics are important in this process, too."
A part of the TIGER II application asks for an upgrade of Dock 16, a critical component of the container cargo capability the port so desperately needs to remain competitive along the Gulf coast.
"Do you know that more than 90 percent of the world's cargo now moves in containers?" asked a,longshoreman. "The port needs to hustle and catch up or it'll get left behind. The past boards were more concerned with their shrimping and personal interests and dropped the ball. As a result, we're getting left further and further behind."
That's why many port workers and administrators are looking at Cowen's campaign to bring a cruise line to the port with a wary eye.
"We have been saving $50,000 a month to upgrade our docks and build a new one and that money is sitting there waiting for us to get moving on it," said the administrator. "The last thing we need now is for someone to try to use those funds to go after the cruise ship facility. The Port of Corpus Christi is already way ahead of us in that area.We don't want for the cruise ship industry to get us in a bidding war and play us one against the other to see where they can get more subsidies and incentives. Besides, the population there has more disposable income than do the folks around here."
Nonetheless, Cowen has convinced the Cruise Ship Committee, an entity composed of representatives from Cameron County, the port,, Port Isabel, South Padre Island and Valley International Airport,to set up a five-member task force to execute the so-called Cruise Initiative.
The consultants , of course, have said that a market exists here and have given Cowen the impetus to push the plan forward.
“It would need some improvements, but it’s within the realm of possibility to get it started with what we have,” Cowen, who also delivers the Charro Days grito each Frebruary, crowed to the Brownsville Herald.
So far the five entities have chipped in for $25,000 for a first study and will be touched again for another $48,000 t determine the feasibility of bringing a cruise line here. Then again, if the conclusions are not positive, that will have been money spent chasing Cowen's pipe dream.
Manuel Ortiz, the port’s public information officer, and Donna Eymard, Brownsville deputy port director, say they are on board the Cowen bandwagon.
Eymard, formerly an executive secretary with IBC Bank, told the local daily that according to her wide-ranging maritime knowledge and experience, the idea is sound.
"We (?) believe that the (port) is well positioned geographically to attract cruise ship operations, and we are prepared to make it happen,” she said. “As the study progresses, we will keep the industry updated.”