Everybody look shocked. The Port can't substantiate any of their claims.
Port lacks specifics in arena traffic worries
What's missing, though, is hard data to back up those concerns.
Instead, the Port has relied on anecdotes and outdated traffic studies, and doesn't have detailed information on which routes freight trucks travel to and from the waterfront. The five limited traffic studies the Port has done since 2007 shed little light on the issues raised by the arena proposal.
Port officials may be overstating their warning that the arena would get in the way of their 25-year plan to create 100,000 new jobs. The number of jobs cited is more aspiration than plan, and most of those jobs would not be on the waterfront.
Port officials concede they don't have much data yet. They have hired a consultant to report back at the end of this month on which traffic studies are missing.
. . .
Port Commissioner Gael Tarleton said the use of old and incomplete studies is "a fair criticism."In the meantime, Port officials are having to rely on data prepared by the state for the Highway 99 viaduct replacement, which they acknowledge isn't the best tool for assessing the impact of the arena. But Poor added that the Port didn't further study problem intersections because daily traffic congestion is already self-evident.
When Port officials raise concerns about the arena, they mention their Century Agenda, which calls for the creation of 100,000 jobs and a two-thirds increase in container traffic by 2037, to 3.5 million 20-foot containers.
A new arena would jeopardize that growth, they say.
Port commissioners selected the 100,000-jobs goal after nine "working groups," where they studied population forecasts and past growth, but not market share or international competition.
The number, Tarleton said, is not technical, but "aspirational."
"Why shouldn't we reach?" she said.
Try reaching for some facts and speak the truth.
We all have "aspirations", some of us are just not willing to exaggerate to the point of misleading the public to attain them.