Don’t ruin paradise with cruise ships
The notion that additional revenue from a cruise ship will lift this city out of its fiscal shortfall is a fallacy. Cruise ships have been calling on Avalon for over 30 years, yet our infrastructure has steadily fallen into neglect and decay. WiFi and cell service become problematic if not nonexistent on cruise ship days. Can you imagine three days instead of just two, without phone service? Any decision to add additional ships only sets a precedent to move tourists further toward an “amusement park” experience, as evidenced by the proposed roller coaster.
Any such continued precedent not only does not shore up or maintain our city’s strained sewage and water difficulties, but also inevitably creates greater labor and housing shortages. Fire, paramedics and other safety services will need expansion. The ticking time bomb of city pensions will further stress and push the city towards bankruptcy.
The City will hire more personnel for an already overworked and understaffed maintenance crew.
Many landlords are requiring businesses to stay open year round when it’s obvious our marine year round weather will never be conducive for a year round business model. Such unrealistic demands further push commerce into the impacted summer months. Also, the Council Communication, put out by the Chamber, outlining the downturn in visitor count last year is misleading. The visitor count was down due to the 25 inches of rain and severe weather this past season, compounded by a cold summer. Visitor count has also declined in part owing to the sheer expense of getting here, and then enjoying the visit. Weather and cost limits visitors!
Cruise ships detract from the experience that was once Avalon. Dr. Katherine Canfield’s dissertation, “Tourism and Justice on Catalina Island: Burden, Power and Decision Making” concluded: The uneven distribution of the benefits and burdens of tourism is creating an experience of social injustice for residents today.” Her survey determined that a handful of influential people and businesses make decisions impacting the entire town. Townspeople are afraid to voice an opinion for fear of retribution, even refusing to take an “anonymous survey.”
It appears that a handful of businesses focused on turning Avalon into a cruise ship port, aided by a complicit City Council who see this as a panacea to solve financial problems. The Council is abdicating their responsibility by allowing the Chamber and the Harbor Department to make this decision for the community. Once the collective decision is made to move down the path of adding more and more ships, a precedent is established to legitimize never-ending growth without examining current finances closely, and without maintenance and expansion of the infrastructure, without solving the housing shortage. To quote Joni Mitchell, “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.” Let’s repair infrastructure and not pave paradise with cruise ships.
Jani Hall
Avalon
About Island’s air pollution
I just enjoyed my second visit to Catalina Island in 52 years. When I was 19 I camped on a beach with friends after sailing from Los Angeles. My trip on this 20th of August was to celebrate my 71st birthday. Our destination was Avalon. I had never been there before and I am not likely to ever want to go back.
My wife loved the zipline tour and we explored the bay together with rented kayaks. The Catalina Island Museum, Casino, Botanical Gardens, views, history and people were a joy. People are very friendly on Catalina and made us feel welcome. What prompts me to write this letter is the island’s air pollution. I was astounded at the excess of vehicles powered by internal combustion engines requiring a mixture of oil and gasoline. On a per unit basis these devices produce more pollutants than automobiles.
Why, I wondered, would residents of the island stand for such an assault on their nostrils, lungs and ears? Everywhere we went was the foul stench of vehicle exhausts. Everywhere we went was the noise of these engines. There was no escape. A simple regulation requiring the common “golf cart” type vehicle to be equipped with electric motors would go a long way to cleaning up the air and giving everyone a little more peace and quiet.
Yes, there would be a greater load on the electric grid. Perhaps that is the bottleneck stopping such a change. But couldn’t it be done gradually? Wouldn’t it be a great business opportunity to introduce more solar energy on the island (something which from most appearances seemed to be woefully lacking given the abundance of sunshine there as a true natural resource)?
Please don’t get me wrong. We loved Catalina. Truly. We just didn’t love all the noise and foul air. Made me wonder how many other tourists like us left there not wanting to return. I wish Catalina well. When you start marketing your tourist venues as greener and cleaner some of us may want to visit again.
Jim Quigley
Laguna Woods
