Volume 1, Issue 10

www.sdchamber.org

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Port Economy More Than Just Numbers

A recently completed economic impact report tells a compelling story about the important role the Port of San Diego plays in our region’s economy. Beyond the numbers, however, lies an even more important story.

That story involves the fruit you enjoyed for breakfast, the paper used for the newspaper you are reading right now, and the car you will use next time you run errands.

 

The story is also about how the Port leverages its economic strength to protect San Diego Bay and the Imperial Beach oceanfront, important natural resources entrusted to the Port by the state of California.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

One in every eight cars in the U.S. comes through Pasha Automotive Services at the Port's National City Marine Terminal.

 

Maritime Muscle

One of the headlines coming out of the report, “Economic and Fiscal Impact of Port Tidelands,” is the significant contributions of the Port’s maritime business.  Over the past 10 years, the Port has seen double digit growth in its maritime operations. 

Today, one in every eight cars on the road in the U.S. comes through the Port’s National City Marine Terminal. If you laid the lumber imported annually through the National City Marine Terminal end to end, it would stretch across the continental United States 10 times. 

At the Port’s Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal, traditional commodities like sand, newsprint, fruit and steel feed our local economy, while new imports, such as massive wind generation equipment, come to San Diego en route to the southwestern United States.

The Port’s two marine cargo terminals are part of a larger “working waterfront.” This working waterfront includes ship building and repair companies and other water dependent industrial businesses that together contribute more than 42,000 jobs and $7.6 billion to the region.

 

 

In addition to cargo, the Port’s maritime operations include a thriving cruise business. Including both direct and indirect contributions to the San Diego economy, the cruise industry in 2004 added over $270 million in expenditures, $84 million in wages and almost 2,250 jobs to the region. 

Of course, the Port’s maritime business is just part of the Port’s economic picture. More than 600 businesses on Port tidelands contribute more than 77,000 jobs and sales revenue of $10.6 billion to the region.

Investing in San Diego Bay

These numbers are significant because, as a public benefit corporation and a regional government agency created under the Public Trust Doctrine, the Port of San Diego is unlike city and county governments. The Port receives no direct tax dollars from residents and businesses. Instead, the Port relies on cargo operations, the cruise-ship industry and leasing of waterfront land to generate revenues, which are then reinvested in Port operations. Under the Public Trust Doctrine, these operations must support water-dependent or water-related uses, such as commerce, fisheries, navigation, environmental preservation and recreation.

Says Port Chairwoman Sylvia Rios, “Having our value to the region quantified in this report is great, but the proof is in the work we do every day to promote and protect these important natural resources.  That we can do that in a way that provides well-paying jobs and money for the region’s economy is the icing on the cake.”