Port NOLA moves forward with land acquisition for St. Bernard Parish cargo terminal

I see they already had a hurricane there and had to get blue roofs.

That will be good for St Bernard and in particular, Violet. They will probably need to make improvements to St Bernard Hwy but that’s been the case for 40 years

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They will probably need to make improvements to St Bernard Hwy but that’s been the case for 40 years

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Eh it’s fine the way it is…

Just don’t think our narrow sliver by the river can handle all the truck and train traffic. I heard it will be like a million containers a year or something

Thousands have signed the SOS petition and the parish council is against this

I don’t know exactly how taxes work for a port but I would guess that it would be a huge revenue generator for the area. What else you going to do with that that doesn’t involve an industrial site?

Going to ruin our culture!

I'm sure they will improve the infrastructure to support the port before building it. This state never builds anything without thinking through that first.

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Well for one we never have had a public vote on it…

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Yes you did. You voted for the people who made the decision.

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why some ppl in St Bernard were against this?

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I unfortunately had to go there this weekend to help my great uncle and couldn’t believe the amount of people protesting against it.

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don’t know exactly how taxes work for a port but I would guess that it would be a huge revenue generator for the area.

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The port itself, as a state agency, is exempt from property tax. So assets PORT NOLA builds / owns will not pay property taxes.

However, if private companies come in and bring equipment, build warehouses, etc, those assets would pay property tax (unless they get an exemption, which I'm sure they will ask for).

Part of the pull of this project is that the northern part of the site would become a manufacturing / transport hub which could bring in taxable property (again, if they don't et an industrial exemption).

If this thing brings in 600 - 700 jobs there could be sales tax revenue, maybe employees move into the parish and buy homes, etc.

The direct tax revenue to the parish is not super high... but it could provide a lot of good jobs which keep people here. Most intelligent people realize that Valero and Chalmette Refining won't be around here forever. CR especially isn't in the greatest financial shape right now and it would not surprise me at all if they shut down in next 5 years.

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I can’t tell if people are against this because of personal issues like losing land or value of their property or if they think it will actually be bad for the parish.

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I think you have a few things going on here.

1) The people who live right up against this are probably going to get screwed. There ae some neighborhoods right up against it. The port has been real cagey when discussing the concept of buyouts.

2) Some of the people funding the SOS group live right on the river not far from this project. they don't want the additional rail / river traffic right by their houses.

3) There is a natural distrust / hatred for all things NOLA. A number of locals believe Port NOLA is not a state agency but rather an arm of Latoya's city hall. These residents are still angry about MRGO and the levees being blow up 100 years ago. They just don't trust anything hving to do with "New Olreans" and they don't trust the Port NOLA since they blame the port for MRGo

4) A few elites are funding this effort and they are using the fears - irrational in many cases - and hatred inherent in many parish residents, to try to blow this project up.

People are irrationally scared of this, scared of the traffic, scared of potential hazardous cargo, and don't trust the people planning this.