OK, I know that newspapers sensationalize stuff just to get people going but let me see if I got this right?
City Marina - commercial business, gets 1.5M grant from taxpayer account (supposed to go towards access for recreational boating) to add 150+ slips and dockage. All so the city can earn more money by charging people what, $50/k a year for a slip? Boy, I’d like to get some grant to build a house and a fleet of vehicles for my business to help me make more money too!
Why isn’t that money going toward dredging Bushy park or maybe adding a new boat launch somewhere?
They will probably defend it by saying how much money they will make funding such a deal thus adding money to the tax base, etc… I am generally opposed to govt. providing money for such things but, I am from Columbia where our local government has made numerous bad “investments”. Someone, somewhere probably got a little backscratch out of this deal.
“Apathy is the Glove in Which Evil Slips It’s Hand”.
City marina is still owned by the City. Is it conceptually much different than a county park that charges money? More expensive, sure, but the concept isn’t much different. I just wonder if they will have to zig zag around all of the sunken sailboats in the harbor.
I didn’t know that city marina was publicly owned. Is it really? Either way there are surely 10 better uses for that money. But hey. Old boy network
I thought Joe Riley owned everything downtown (and James Island)?
I love how they’re just going to expand out instead of dredging out and fixing the area where the old slips were. I’m thinking more slips on the shore-side will become unusable over time. I guess they’ll just keep going until they get to the other side.
I also think part of the reason they got the grant is that’s where the lawyers and politicians park their boats yachts. You got the “good-old-boy network” part exactly right.
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yea, the whole “build out farther instead of dredging” didn’t seem logical…I understand the environmental issues, but that site is no worse than where the aquarium now sits, or 100 other sites along either river…
The City marina may be owned by the City, but is under a VERY long term lease to private interests!! profit goes to a private company!!
Marsha
35 Contender
Total guess, but I would hope that expansion = higher lease income.
Let’s be honest here. Is it better off being run by a private company who can be motivated by profit or run by the city? It’s not exactly being used by the 99%'ers, so how could the city even justify to the taxpayers that we need a marina when it’s only really available to a small percentage of would-be constituents?
On the flip side, you might argue, “Hey, the city can run it and keep the profit!” I would argue a couple things. That’s what’s called communism in some parts of the world. And secondly, would the city do as good of a job?
I don’t think it’s morally problematic for the city to lease out property to a private agency as long as we are getting a fair market value for that lease and as long as that lease is up for grabs (highest bidder) to anyone who wants it. Now, I don’t know that is the arrangement though…
Would you guys be upset if the city spruced up the Yorktown and Morris Island lighthouse and then leased it to a private company who wanted to maintain it in exchange for the opportunity to commercialize it and make some sort of profit?
When I was a kid, we used to put our boat in at the City Marina boat ramps. Maybe if it was properly maintained to begin with, it wouldn’t need such a huge dredging project.
The City marina may be owned by the City, but is under a VERY long term lease to private interests!! profit goes to a private company!!
Marsha
35 Contender
Total guess, but I would hope that expansion = higher lease income.
Let’s be honest here. Is it better off being run by a private company who can be motivated by profit or run by the city? It’s not exactly being used by the 99%'ers, so how could the city even justify to the taxpayers that we need a marina when it’s only really available to a small percentage of would-be constituents?
On the flip side, you might argue, “Hey, the city can run it and keep the profit!” I would argue a couple things. That’s what’s called communism in some parts of the world. And secondly, would the city do as good of a job?
I don’t think it’s morally problematic for the city to lease out property to a private agency as long as we are getting a fair market value for that lease and as long as that lease is up for grabs (highest bidder) to anyone who wants it. Now, I don’t know that is the arrangement though…
Would you guys be upset if the city spruced up the Yorktown and Morris Island lighthouse and then leased it to a private company who wanted to maintain it in exchange for the opportunity to commercialize it and make some sort of profit?
When I was a kid, we used to put our boat in at the City Marina boat ramps. Maybe if it was properly maintained to begin with, it wouldn’t need such a huge dredging project.
Yes, if a large chunk of the funding came from an account inte
OK, I know that newspapers sensationalize stuff just to get people going but let me see if I got this right?
City Marina - commercial business, gets 1.5M grant from taxpayer account (supposed to go towards access for recreational boating) to add 150+ slips and dockage. All so the city can earn more money by charging people what, $50/k a year for a slip? Boy, I’d like to get some grant to build a house and a fleet of vehicles for my business to help me make more money too!
Why isn’t that money going toward dredging Bushy park or maybe adding a new boat launch somewhere?
THis bothers me as well. Taxes collected from marine fuel are supposed to be used to benefit public recreational boating, not private marinas. The City Marina property is owned by the city but leased to a private enterprise that charges to use it’s facility. It’s not open to the public as are the county ramps and does not benefit the public. In fact, the marina expansion adversely effects public waterways and public boating. A letter to our US senators is being sent to indicate my displeasure with what I consider to be misuse of public funds.
The Charleston Maritime Center is owned and operated by the City of Charleston. If you don’t like the City Marina, go around the corner and use the Maritime Center. It’s a lot closer to everything and you don’t have to walk a half mile to get to land.
