Be careful what you ask for...

My opinion on the subject of St. Croix. I have always stated in the past 20 or so years that St Croix needs to capitalize on it's laidbackness, if that's a word. It's so quiet there. I would try and get the retirees to move there. There has been successful towns built around retirement communities. Case in point, any of the Sun City towns. I know of one in Florida and another in Arizona and after Googling it I see they are spread over many states. Build it and thy will come. Right now, as evidenced on this board, early retirees are moving there in droves. This is my case on point. Get about 7 golf courses total. Make it interesting.
In regard to the cruise ships. What an issue. I don't think any cruise passengers want to go into Frederiksted. I don't know why they insisted on building the dock there other than trying to revitalize F'sted.All politricks. If those ships were to come to Christiansted, they will be there tomorrow. Even if they have to tender in, they will be there. I also sense, like I have stated above, that some folk who live in St Croix, want it to remain that way, no ships, see the responses above that say that. Wonder how many of you live on the East End. I hear this is where that sentiment of staying the way it is begins. I was once a fly on the wall, at dinner one night, over at Villa Madeline, where an old time East Ender was explaining the East End way of life to a newcomer. She spoke loud enough for me to overhear! Guess she thought I was a tourist 'til she saw me at the Whim Auction the next day.
I guess what I want to say is, if everyone in St. Croix want cruise ships to come, they will be there. Maybe they should vote on the issue the same way they voted on the casinos.

RL

Ronnie,

I agree, the sentiment on STX is mixed. I think the divide might be not East vs West, but "living pretty well" vs struggling. Cruise ships would mean a quick infusion of $$$ and more jobs in the tourism industry. They would also mean more hassles for people not directly involved. Another practical problem is the distance between C'sted and F'sted. The cruisers land on one end of the island, but most of the infrastructure is at the other end. So right now we're looking at a chicken/egg situation. No cruise ships means limited private investment in F'sted. And the limited attractions in F'sted means no cruise ships.

STX can't be STT, so maybe we should go another way. More hotels, golf courses, a hotel/convention center, even another casino might be a better idea. We've certainly got the land. Also, and we've talked about this before, STX attracts a lot of 50-60 year old retirees. People with some resources who want to live in a warm climate that is in the US but not Florida. Why isn't STX marketing to this group, both as permanent and part-time residents?

Each of the islands is unique and maybe we should be selling to those individual strengths.

Ronnie
I like the retirement village idea. Right now the only new building is million dollar condos. That is not in my price range. I bet that a development of $300k stand alone cottages would be bought so fast you couldn't keep up. Non ocean view land can be found for much less. Smart building could keep the cost down. Come on over and lets get to work.

The merchants on STT aren't paying off the cruise ship lines or government officials to keep ships from going to STX. Other than the usual paying to advertise on the ship which a number of them do & is S.O.P. but no bribery is involved. Carnival owns most of the cruise ships & they do what they damned well want to & dictate their own terms. STX would benefit much more from being upscale & developing good resorts & possibly the retirement crowd. Get the ones who have the money to come there.

STX just has never been that popular with the cruise passengers for the most part. STT is short on the number of good resorts & loses a lot of hotel guests because of the number of ships & the traffic & crowds that produces.

And let me say this. The whole mentality of competition between the islands (Daddy Government loves STT best)is dumb. They're all different & all need to find their own niche. That means not relying that much on the Government to start with. STX has a lot to offer but don't try to be another STT & count the "wins" by the number of cruise ships that arrive. That's only shooting yourself in the foot.

You have excellent diving, full gambling, lots of land, interesting history & little traffic. USE IT. DEVELOP IT.

Ronnie - The cruise pier was originally built in Frederiksted due to the underwater topography around St. Croix. The Christiansted area has extremely shallow water and multiple rings of barrier reefs. There wouldn't be a way to build a pier close-in to Christiansted. If ships were to anchor outside the outermost barrier reef so the passengers could be brought to shore in tenders, there would still have to be channels cut and marked for the tenders to pass through (and CZM would have a fit at the thought).

There is very limited access through the reefs now for pleasure boats and sometimes the bouys disappear for a while and you have to guess where the next turn is to get you through the channel. The current channels are used by private boats and fishing boats and day excursion boats, etc. Seaborne Airlines also has a couple of marked channels they use for take-offs and landings and taxiing through Christiansted Harbor. There wouldn't be enough capacity in the current channels to also handle a blitz of cruise ship tenders.

I'm serous - why not some kind of interurban trolley line? I don't know about STX but other islands have constructed rail lines to transport cut cane from field to mill, so...

There were rail lines on STX used to transport cane to the sugar mills. During the 1930s the Japanese bought up all the iron scrap including the rails and rolling stock to use in their war effort.

Jim

Was the line part of the Bethlehem works? Do you know where I could find out more about this?

Thanks

The upheval that would be caused by such a project is unfathomable. Not to mention the cost. And for what? The promise that MAYBE STX would get a cruise ship every one in a while.

It was a piece of historical trivia I picked up on a ruins ramble. Try checking with the historical society and see if they can provide you with some resources.

Jim

A light rail system could also be used as cheap transportation for locals, and probably would be much more reliable than the bus service. It's not an easy thing to construct, though, and it doesn't happen overnight. It would give the senators one more pool of funds to misappropriate into their family connections' bank accounts, though, so I suspect they would love the chance to at least hire a few dozen people to "research" the possibility.

In reguards to the Fountain Valley incident that happened many years ago. When we visited for the first time, the tour we took around the island made that one of the points of interest when we were driving by the golf course. He did say that it was an small group that was mostly caught. Why he wpuld even tell us about is a mystery to me. Bad for tourism. IHMO.

In reguards to Fsted, they are in a catch 22. The cruize ships seem to say there is not enough there to be of interest to their passengers, but without the cruize ship passengers comming it is hard for a business to start up and surviive. Which coms first, the chicken or the egg?

Ronnie, you are somewhat right but you will never get all of the people to agree on anything. I'm like the people that move to the desert, build a house then get p***ed off when someone else builds by me, spoiling the view. LOL. One of the reasons we bought here and plan to retire here is because we like the laid back feeling. I hated the cruise ship area with all the tourists in STT. But then some probably love that.
I would rather be like this than like the people who move somewhere and want to have everything like where they came from.

Alexandra, I do believe, as I said before, if ships were to be able to go to Christiansted, they will come. A pier is not needed and I know it can't be built due to the reefs. The channel is open. Boats come and go every day into Gallows Bay. It's a much closer taxi ride from Gallows than F'sted. They can even walk into C'sted from there. I have been to Belize where the reefs are substantially more than C'sted and boats anchor 5 miles out and it's a 25 minutes water taxi ride in and passengers do it. C'sted would be no more than 10 minutes.

RL

As long as we are all offering opinions on economic development and tourism here is my opinion.

First ten to twenty years ago Frederiksted was the town on STX and the place to go. This is before my time on STX but apparently Frederiksted put all their economic eggs in servicing cruise ships while Christiansted developed other options.

For Frederiksted to get the ships to come back, they need to develop tourism product for tourists. Do tourists really want to shop at more jewelry stores and liquor stores? Probably not. STX has many other attractions to offer including the rain forest, Buck Island and a lot of historical sites. To make this happen all the tourist related on businesses on STX would have to cooperate. I don't think this is going to happen because all Frederiksted residents can see is having thousands of passengers wandering around there downtown. In the long run having cruise passengers isn't going to save make the tourism industry that much better,

What STX really needs is to reach the threshold of 1,000 hotel rooms. Then the airlines will be willing to add more direct flights to STX. This will bring in more vacationers and snow birds.

There are three casino/ hotel/ resort/ condo projects on the drawing board. Two of the projects have serious owner developers with real money behind them. One of these projects is just north of Frederiksted. If this project goes ahead then Frederiksted will return to its past economic glory. The Indian tribe backing this project plans to buy two cruise ships and bring gamblers from the US to their casino on STX. They also have charter jets.

What the government needs to do is be sure that everyone in the government bureaucracy pulls together to get these projects planned and permitted and nobody has their hand out financial consideration or to have their brother and law do all the masonry work, etc.

The future looks bright for STX if the government does its part. Some cruise ships once STX becomes an exciting destination but they will be the icing on the cake not the driving economic force in Frederiksted. The mega yachts will come to the new facility at Gallows Bay so their passengers can golf at one of the five courses or gamble at the casino and at the same time fuel with the cheaper diesel on STX.

Thats my take on what needs to happen or will happen in spite of the government.

Jim

JimD-
Thanks for the lead - I'll try the Hist. Soc. as you suggest.

Paul Golden continues to have innumerable financial problems and it'll be interesting to see if the PFA follows through on its latest demand that he basically either put up or get out...

My ex husband had lunch with him when he first came to StX and I remember him coming home and dismissing Golden as a flim flam man. I hate to say it, but I think he might have been right.

Fortunately for STX, at least if you are pro development ,there are at least two developers that have the cash to do their projects.

Jim