The Port of Pensacola today celebrated Maritime Commerce Day with a luncheon and media tour. Five years ago, I wrote about the declining revenue at the Port. The FY 2018 proposed budget estimated port revenues would drop 21.4 percent, down $803,000 since FY 2012.
Today, Mayor Grover Robinson proclaimed, “We’ve gone from being in the red a few years ago to being in the black…I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to do here at the Port. We are very proud of what the future indicates because we can grow this even more, but it doesn’t have to be traditional port stuff. Our goal is not to be the same port that everybody else has. Our goal is to be the Port of Pensacola, do what we do here.”
He also pointed out that downtown’s growth and the Port’s rebirth have happened concurrently. “The best thing about it is, all the records we’ve been able to set, the things that we’re able to do right now, we’re able to do them at the same time as downtown has never had more vibrancy, greater value, more people living and coming and wanting to be a part of it.”
The mayor continued, “So these two things are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they actually synergistically feed off each other.”