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In Our View: On the Waterfront; Port of Vancouver: Successful Generator of Jobs With Responsibilities to the Public

Posted on: Friday, 27 January 2006, 18:00 CST

By Columbian editorial writers

America's ports need a new movie.

The gritty, violent and corrupt life on the docks, as depicted in 1954's "On the Waterfront" with Marlon Brando and 2005's "Cinderella Man" with Russell Crowe, make for great cinema. But they don't tell us much about the work environment, the economic role or the civic responsibilities of today's public ports. Those responsibilities include environmental stewardship and open, transparent governance.

Today, amid legitimate hand-wringing about the outsourcing of jobs and America's slide from a manufacturing to a service-based economy, ports are an oasis.

That certainly goes for the Port of Vancouver, a place where real work happens, where goods and commodities are loaded and unloaded, where products are made or assembled, where trucks and trains call. It is a generator of solid family-wage jobs.

Unlike the day of Terry Malloy (Brando) and Jim Braddock (Crowe), public ports today are monitored by state and federal agencies for their environmental stewardship. In return, some ports, such as Vancouver's, recognize their own tenants for environmental excellence.

At its annual State of the Port breakfast at the Red Lion Hotel at the Quay on Thursday, the Port named Fabricated Products Inc., maker of lead oxide for vehicle batteries, the winner of its environmental excellence award for 2005. Fabricated Products, which employs 11, is one of the port's 42 industrial tenants.

As Port Commission President Nancy Baker and Port Executive Director Larry Paulson reported Thursday, there were 526 ship calls to the port in 2005, an all-time high, and the port signed long- term contracts with eight major customers last year.

While patting itself on the back, and rightly so, the port has major challenges ahead, including its Columbia Gateway expansion that will double its industrial land, and siting a second rail spur and a new Northwest 26th Avenue access road along the eastern side of Vancouver Lake to get truck traffic to and from 39th or 78th streets.

The Port of Vancouver, like all public port districts, also must zealously practice open, inclusive governance, always seeking to inform and be informed by the public. Last year, the Port tried to get approval for a hurry-up, unpublicized property tax increase to create an industrial development district, but the idea, wisely, was put on hold by commissioners. Now, creation of the IDD, which seemed so important last spring, will probably wait until 2007, a port spokeswoman said.

The Port of Vancouver, creator of jobs and steward of much of the Vancouver Lake Lowlands, is thriving. It hasn't been the backdrop for a movie, but it does make a pretty picture.

Source: Columbian

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