By Mike Pilling
I hope we will always have cruise ships, and I will also be signing the petition.
There have been some thoughtful comments on why to not sign it even from Mr Botelho and Mayor Beth Weldon. But the one thing their arguments have in common is that they don’t ever give me a number of what they think is enough. Maybe they believe it’s unlimited, or that we can just leave it up to the cruise ship companies to pick a number. 1.3 million was the last number of cruise passengers we had. So is 2 million OK? Is 4 million OK? I wish they could give me that very simple answer.
If we get to 3 million, how many helicopters per day are added? With my parents, we have been on three cruises, on the very same ships we see each week here. Before every port, on our stateroom TV, they told us what businesses and stores to go to, as the other independent excursions or stores might just lead us astray. At the same time, my wife owned the kayak and boat rental business for years in both Douglas and Auke Bay; an independent small local business, but we were one of the frowned-upon businesses not to go to. In 11 years of operation, we never had an accident or injury and of the few independent-thinking passengers, no one missed their ship departure. We paid a price for our local independence but did OK.
No businesses are guaranteed growth every year. Most businesses that were successful pre-pandemic can do just fine next year if everything stays the same. I’ve commercial fished for over 40 years. I went into a sizable debt early in life, Each year, I had the exact same size net, there is a limit size on my boat even. I would have loved it if each season I got a 5% increase in my net length, or I could get a longer boat that could hold more. But we made a very comfortable living through both good and bad years. I don’t understand why a T-shirt shop, whale watch boat, or a jewelry store can’t survive unless they have 5 or 6% annual growth year after year. If any cruise ship-related business, big or small, was successful the last few years, then they will do just fine by not increasing the number of tourists. The KINY survey showed that the minority of listeners want slow growth of cruise passengers. So I wonder what the percentage of disgruntled residents there will be once we reach 1.8 million or 2 million? What’s the tipping point before we have 51% and then it might be too late? Our leaders should lead and project the future, not leave it up to a few corporations to tell us what the number is. I wish they would be proactive, because now we are seeing the results of city leadership doing nothing over the years to control numbers in any way. I promise if the passenger numbers increase, the number of disgruntled residents will grow even faster.
Juneau is not unique in capping ship passenger numbers, Glacier Bay did it years ago, so did Barcelona, Venice and now Key West, Florida. Not to mention the Grand Canyon, Zion and Yellowstone with limiting daily numbers. We need to plan ahead and pick a number. The reason this petition started is because many residents believe we have reached or exceeded that number. I tend to agree. So please, just give me a number, and if it isn’t any greater than the 1.3 million passengers we saw last time, I might vote no in October. Otherwise, I’m signing the petition, and I want the state to let me use a longer net.
• Mike Pilling resides in Juneau. He has been a commercial fisherman for over 40 years.Columns, My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire. Have something to say? Here’s how to submit a My Turn or letter.
