Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Vasallo Dreams Up a Canal

Good news—the city has a terrific museum. And why not, since the founder, Luis A. Ferré, was, in addition to being governor, a seriously rich guy. How rich? Well, he owned the factory that produced all the island’s cement at the time. (Critics suggest that his intrusion into politics was to further the law that required all cement to be locally produced—is there anyone left with faith in the basic goodness of man?).
So Ferré went running around collecting Pre-Raphaelites, which at the time were both around and cheap, relatively. Consequently, the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico, has one or two of the best collections of Pre-Raphaelites in the world. Want to see this picture?

Head to Ponce!
What doesn’t Ponce have? Well, despite two seriously large cranes, and despite ten years of dithering, it doesn’t have the super port that the late mayor proposed for it. And why not? It wasn’t lack of money—we’ve already spent a quarter of a billion on it. Nor was it lack of potential: we had the infrastructure, the ties to the US mainland, the engineers to do the job. In fact, ten years ago we were in a good position to capture a developing market. Now? Here’s Caribbean Business on the subject last year:
"At that time, all the horses were at the starting gate. Now, all the other horses have finished the race. Our neighboring islands expanded their facilities, signed agreements with global operators and are fully functional while we never got out of the gate," Lewis said.
What happened?
Well, I could look it up and tell you all the various issues and controversies that cropped up, but why bother? In a nutshell, it was business as usual, which in Puerto Rico means politics. And so when the governor was of one party, the mayor of Ponce was of the other party. And on those rare occasions when the mayor and the governor were of the same party? Well, then they only had four years—insufficient time to reverse all of the progress that had been made—if any,—revoke the contracts to the former governor’s friends, fight the legal challenges that ensued, and re-award the contracts to the preferred companies / cronies / friends. All of this takes time, you see.
Time which the Dominican Republic used well, since they now have a super port and cheap labor, whereas Puerto Rico? No super port, expensive labor.
Happily, while Ponce may have blown—or had it blown—their shot at a super port, they are not without resources. As proof, Inquiring Reader, I bring you this….


OK—here’s what you need to know about Ponce: it’s fiercely hot and just as dry. In fact, there is a certain point in crossing over the central mountain range when I will unconsciously start to sing Copland’s Rodeo—because at any moment you think that Agnes de Mille is going to send her dancers out. Oh, and the mountains spontaneously burn during dry season, which lasts nine months.
It’s perhaps the fact that he has never seen a river that accounts for the desire of a legislator from Ponce, Víctor Vassallo, to convert this “body” of water into the Panama Canal. Because where you and I might see a ditch, what does Vassallo see? Let The New Day tell the story:
Vassallo está convencido que su proyecto es viable y sueña con la idea de que Ponce tenga una obra que opere con un sistema de compuertas o esclusas con ingeniería de la utilizada en el Canal de Panamá. Otro que confía en la viabilidad del proyecto es el presidente de la Comisión de Desarrollo de la Industria Turística, Ángel Matos García, quien desconocía el costo total del proyecto. Indicó que “en su primera etapa no veo (que la inversión sea) mayor a $2 millones”.
Loosely, “Vassallo is convinced that his project is viable and dreams of the idea that Ponce have a work that operates on a system of compartments and locks with engineering like that used in the Panama Canal. Another who believes in the viability of the project is the president of the Commission for the Development of the Tourism Industry, Ángel Matos-García, who was unaware of the total cost of the project. He indicated that, “in the first stage, I don’t see that the investment would be greater than two million.”
Vassallo sees the canal as having twin benefits. First, it would be an excellent form of transit, and who hasn’t suffered through a Ponce traffic jam? Second, it would be a terrific tourist attraction—who wouldn’t want to come and see the canal, the locks, the boats floating gently through the arid landscape?
The predictable scoffers are sniffing, of course. There’s the fact that not one of Puerto Rico’s rivers is navigable. There’ also the fact that the US government has stuck in 375 million bucks to build a dam on the river four miles north of the city. Why? Because when the weather isn’t being fiercely hot and dry, it’s being torrential. So what happens? The ditch that you saw above overflows, carrying off cars, cows and the occasional child.
Despite all these obstacles, what’s happened to Vassallo’s proposal? Well, even despite all the objections and difficulties, guess what? Our legislators have agreed to study the matter.
Oh, and the water level in the Río Portugués yesterday?
Two inches!

No comments:

Post a Comment