Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
Originally Posted By: Kestas
I can appreciate New Orleans handles a lot of commerce and it is 4th on the list of importance in terms of volume. But this also indicates that there are three other ports that handle even more traffic. New Orleans is as important to shipping commerce as Detroit is to the automotive industry. I believe our country can do just fine with regard to automobiles with Detroit out of the picture. After all, we've been sending manufacturing and engineering out of Detroit for the past 20 years, leaving Detroit with less of a major role in the automobile industry.
The same can be done with New Orleans if it gets too expensive to maintain. Other existing ports can take up the slack, and nearby ports that aren't below sea level and easier to maintain - such as Galveston and Pensacola - can ramp up development.
I think shipbuilding, shipping, logistics, freight forwarding, and commodity brokerage firms can be moved as well. I don't see why everything needs to be continued in New Orleans. It has had a rich and important history in America's development. Now it's time to rethink things.
The port of Louisiana southeast of New Orleans (it's twice as big as the second largest port in the US) is the largest in the US precisely because it's the outlet of the Mississippi river. Where do you think the vast majority of stuff that's either built or grown in the midwest ends up to be exported via container ship?
You want to pick up the logistics infrastructure at the mouth of the largest river in North America and move it to Texas?
You gonna dig a canal so the barges can travel over there? New huge train system to move everything over there? Maybe a super highway so trucks can move it? Where it all will be put on ships just like it is now?
Why not? Maybe this will fuel a push to modernize and properly repair and maintain our country's infrastructure that has been underfunded and under maintained.