Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Guv'ment With feds, it's all about face time
Posted by Scott Henry @ScottTheHenry on Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 12:20 PM
My colleague Thomas just left the ground-breaking ceremony for the Atlanta Streetcar project and will have a post up shortly.
But I wanted to note that the event brought U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to town again. As I type this, he's on his way to Mayor Reed's office to, presumably, exchange a few pleasantries, have a nice lunch brought in — and perhaps discuss the issue of deepening the Savannah harbor.
This is why I, for one, am optimistic about the Savannah port situation. When you're dealing with a White House Cabinet member who you're hoping will grant you a boon, it's all about face time. Folks like LaHood have people asking them for favors around the clock, so the advantage will go to the people who have the most opportunities to argue for their individual case.
So far, Mayor Reed has had upwards of 10 face-to-face discussions about Savannah with LaHood, as well as a couple with President Obama himself. Throw in the advocacy work by Gov. Deal and Georgia is arguably in a decent position to get the $600 million in federal funding it needs to become the premier cargo port on the eastern seaboard.
Comments (4)
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"Georgia is arguably in a decent position to get the $600 million in federal funding it needs to become the premier cargo port on the eastern seaboard"
Oooooh how glamorous! Hope they invest in the rail freight system so we can move more trailers on trains instead of trucks.
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Scott and Reed sitting in a tree! CLatl is now the Atlanta Business Chronical P 2!
There's nothing glamorous about commercial-scale agriculture or manufacturing, InAtl— this is more about putting paychecks in the hands of average, unglamorous people both at the port, and throughout the state.
zedsmith good point true it could lead to more manufacturing on the premise its easier to ship goods, though I guess part of me worries this is more about making it easier to export jobs and thus make the folks at the top richer.
True we can't not move forward with progress. But a until we address the problems with the way "free trade" is done its tough for me to get excited about making it easier to import things here.
going off topic but during my last two visits to Home Depot I couldn't find any of the things I wanted that were not made in China.
Check out this Ford F150 ripoff from a major Chinese Manufacturer. http://www.leftlanenews.com/photos/jac-4r3…
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