Club members showed up early on Tuesday, March 16 and by the time President Mike Boland rang the bell it was just two minutes past noon and everyone was ready to go! After the Pledge and Invocation, Mr. Boland welcomed guests which included Lieutenant Jeremy Alexander from the Salvation Army as well as Holt Mebane from the Scripps Ranch Kiwanis Club. Congrats to Holt as well as our own Club member Gordon Boerner for recently forming the Scripps Ranch Club. We think this count as your first Interclub!
San Diego residents are hugely interested in the Port of San Diego and any waterfront plans so everyone was eager to hear from guest speaker Michael Brown. Some facts on him:
Michael Brown joined the Port of San Diego as the Vice President of Marketing & Communications in July 2019 and oversees the Marketing & Communications and Parks & Recreation Departments. Brown’s career is divided between the private and public sectors. His private sector experience includes FleishmanHillard with Starbucks, Nike, Savannah College of Art & Design, Georgia Natural Gas, and Oregon State University’s College of Engineering as clients. In the public sector, Brown served as a political appointee in the Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush administrations. Most recently, he was the chief marketing officer for the City of Norfolk, Virginia.
The Port of San Diego manages San Diego Bay and 34 miles of its natural waterfront for the people of California. The Port was established in 1962 under the Port Act and is charged with implementing the Tidelands Trust Doctrine. For over fifty years, the Port's five member cities - Chula Vista, Coronado, Imperial Beach, National City and San Diego - have worked together to develop and promote commerce, navigation, recreation and fisheries on and around San Diego Bay. Self-funded, the Port contributes billions annually to San Diego’s economy, benefiting the community, local businesses and employees.
Michael’s 33 slide power point presentation highlighted the local assets as well as current plans to expand and preserve key areas of the waterfront. Many listening to the presentation were surprised to find that the roughly one out of every 10 imported vehicles in the US comes in through our National City terminal. And, that the largest portion of the port’s commerce is bananas!
We appreciated the information as well as Michael sticking around to take questions from the members on an updated waterfront master plan, the new pier leases, when big ship cruising would resume and what is happening to our dear Maritime Museum.
Check the website for our upcoming events but don’t miss our IN PERSON SOCIAL on Wednesday, March 31st at Kaiserhof in Ocean Beach.
Be sure to subscribe to our Kiwanis YouTube Channel as well as following us on Facebook. See you next on Tuesday April 6, 2021 with our special guest Just in Time for Foster Youth.
