From:            Ilene Friedman
To:                Commission-Public-Records
Subject:           [EXTERNAL] Public Comment
Date:              Tuesday, May 25, 2021 10:31:41 AM

WARNING: External email. Links or attachments may be unsafe.
Hello Commission,
As an elected body, meant to represent the people of Seattle for the Port, I would anticipate
that our voices would be heard in our concern with the Seattle cruise industry coming back
July 24th.
Environmentally, we have made so much progress during the COVID lockdown, seeing our
whale populations increase, our biodiversity coming back, and our waters becoming clearer.
As you know, cruise ships create all kinds of harmful pollution--noise pollution 
impacting our orca and whale populations, toxic emissions of carcinogens and 
particulate matter that impact human health or even cause early death, and large 
quantities of greenhouse gas emissions worsening the climate crisis. Even with port 
power, most cruise ships arent advanced enough to utilize this environmentally 
friendly measure and lack any incentive to upgrade their infrastructure to 
accommodate the environmental goals of the port of seattle. 
The economic impact to communities from cruise ships have been found to be highly 
inflated by numerous studies. With shopping malls and discounted meals on the 
ships, very little is spent in local stores and restaurants. The money brought in by 
traditional tourists who stay in hotels and do all their activities in town is much 
higher.Workers on board cruise ships often make very low wages, work long hours, 
and lack labor law protections. Last year when outbreaks of COVID-19 happened, 
10's of thousands of workers were stranded on the ships for months after guests were 
evacuated, often while not receiving any pay, some even taking their own lives. While 
workers were not being paid, cruise company CEO's made millions, more even in 
2020 than in 2019.
The Port of Seattle claims it wants to be "the greenest port in North America'', yet it 
still wants to build an additional cruise ship terminal (and expand the airport, and 
expand/deepen our harbor to accommodate the world's biggest cargo ships). The port 
always brings up shore power in response to the argument that we shouldnt be 
expanding fossil fuel intensive industry while the climate crisis continues and 
scientists give us less than 10 years to kick our fossil fuel addiction shore power 
only reduces the total greenhouse gas impact from a roundtrip voyage by less than 
1%! In addition, most ships are not able to utilize shore power because they were 
built in the 80's/90's with no incentive to upgrade their infrastructure. 
We should be implementing fines, new tax incentives, and build standards for ships 
entering our port. Why not find other ways to monetize a massive industry with seattle 
being the gateway to Alaska (while Alaska is still a destination people want to go...you 
know..it won't always be..with all that ice melting and pollution happening anyway)

Ilenellene