Baltimore has a lot of museums. Some are world-class. But many would not survive without government support. On top of that, fewer tourists came last year to our city, and summer was down, too.
So the business environment does not scream, “We need a new museum!”
But that is what activists opposing a liquid natural gas plant at Sparrows Point in Baltimore County offer as an alternative to it.
Don?t want an LNG terminal? How about the USS Forrestal, a retired aircraft carrier?
They want to turn the ship into a museum and party space and develop the industrial area into an extension of the Inner Harbor with hotels and casinos.
Huh?
“It could bring the life back to the community,” Sharon Beasley, a leader in the LNG Opposition team, told The Examiner. “We don?t want to be stereotyped as this toxic, industrial environment anymore.”
The group claims the ship will create 5,300 jobs and generate millions in tourist dollars.
They base their estimates on other aircraft museum markets, including New York and Charleston. They also say that the project will break even if 3.75 of every 100 visitors to the city visit the ship.
But Sparrows Point is not the Inner Harbor. Visitors would have to go out of their way to see it rather than stumble across it.
And it?s not as if all the attractions in the Inner Harbor are booming. The National Aquarium, for example, recently laid off 13 employees because the Australia exhibit did not generate as many visitors as anticipated.
Even if proponents? economic estimates are right, who will pay for the millions to develop the land into an adequate public facility?
And will museum tickets pay for the millions in upkeep required for the 1,039-foot-long, 252-foot-wide ship which has three full length enclosed decks and a four-acre flight deck?
“Any operation of that ship would have to be subsidized by the government or the private sector,” said John Kellet, the director of the Baltimore Maritime Museum.
He should know ? he maintains retired ships ? including the USCGC Taney and the USS Torsk.
Kellet says tickets sales pay for almost everything at the Maritime Museum.
Itsparent, Living Classrooms Foundation, could not support itself without major grants from the state, city, city public school system, foundations, businesses and individual donors.
If proponents of the plan can finance a ship museum privately, we wish them luck.
But taxpayers must not underwrite a risky plan with huge fixed costs.
