Dear Editor,
By virtually closing our historic Mallory Dock to small cruise ships the city is making a huge mistake. Currently there are 15 small ships scheduled to dock at Mallory this year. The revenue lost by excluding them is $121,000 in port disembarkation fees plus approximately $40,000 in attraction, retail and ticket sales revenue-percentage that’s paid to the city.
This loss will have to be made up dollar-for-dollar in increased taxes.
If the Safer Cleaner Ships group is correct, future dockage of these smaller ships will grow to 60 ships with ever-increasing revenue to the city. These are supposedly the higher-end customers, visitors we all want.
Your previous resolution virtually excluded these people and their subsequent revenue stream.
The merchants on Duval and Front streets are all negatively impacted and they pay the highest taxes to our city government.
Removing our historic Mallory Dock from full use will put pressure on you to increase our commercial taxes. You need to rescind that previous resolution and restore Mallory Dock to its full use.
Sincerely,
Edwin O. Swift III
