MOBILE, Ala. — The Alabama State Docks is on a mission: To stifle Mobile, Alabama’s, tourism potential. The Port Authority doesn’t want to admit that, but it’s true.
It’s always been this way. The ASD rules the roost. If you look at Mobile’s significant population loss, you can at least partially blame the Port Authority, the State of Alabama, and the railroads that partner with them.
Don’t get me wrong. All Mobilians should be proud that the Port City is one of the top seaports in the nation. But facts are facts. When it comes to tourism, which has been a boon for similar cities like Savannah and Charleston, a great Southern city like Mobile can never really grow in the midst of the ASD’s strong-armed, self-centered control.
Longtime Mobilians might remember how, in the 1970s, a company proposed restoring old warehouses and building a hotel along the Mobile River. That’s exactly what Savannah has done. The Docks would hear nothing of it. They convinced the City Commission, including Lambert C. Mims, to hand over much of the city’s waterfront to the ASD for a container shipping terminal. Now that part of the waterfront and some of the city’s history is gone forever.
When it comes to Amtrak, it doesn’t matter that a station operated in that exact downtown location (the foot of Government Street) for decades. The ASD never wanted it there. It was a nuisance. Tourism was not a priority. Nor was the passenger service people wanted and needed.
Today, the circumstances are just as pressing. Mobile faces going forward or backward. Tourism has become key to the growth of many historic cities, and the Port City stands to gain so much if it is connected to more successful tourist towns such as Biloxi and New Orleans. Mobile’s museums and other tourist attractions need a boost from a lack of visitors. The Dauphin Street Entertainment District would grow and thrive, too.
Every successful city’s downtown includes a train station, main library, stadium, and boardwalk. Downtown Mobile has none, although it does have a waterfront park, convention center, and cruise terminal.
For some reason, the ASD seems convinced that placing the train station at the future Mobile Downtown Airport would be sufficient. What a nice, picture-taking arrival destination for visitors coming from Biloxi and New Orleans. I guess they could catch an Uber to see the beauty and history of downtown.
But, of course, we know the Port Authority’s true goal. To prevent anything good that might be a nuisance to them. A true, caring Mobile company or operation would do all it could to help the city. They would bend over backward. That’s because they love the city. Not the ASD though. High fives all around if you’re one of them.
The ASD’s trend of stifling the city’s tourism has always been, and it will continue (unless the mayor, council and concerned citizens come to their senses and wrest away its unreasonable control).
Mobile deserves to finally become the city it’s always had the potential to be.
(Chuck Whiting was a longtime Mobilian who attended local schools and began his career at The Mobile Press Register.)
