A Mobile councilman is comparing the Port of Mobile and its impact on the city with Huntsville and its long relationship in growing Redstone Arsenal.

The comments from Councilman Joel Daves came at the end of the weekly council meeting on Tuesday, and were in response to a Forbes Magazine article that listed Mobile as the second-fasting growing port in the U.S. trailing only the Port of Corpus Christie in Texas.

“The Port of Mobile is our Redstone Arsenal,” Daves said.

Praise for Huntsville

The councilman, a former Huntsville resident, praised the leadership in the North Alabama city and region for embracing Redstone Arsenal, and fostering its growth. Redstone Arsenal is a U.S. Army base that is home to several government agencies including NASA’s largest field center, the Marshall Space Flight Center.

“They have had exceptional leadership at the city and county and regional levels,” Daves said. “It’s worked and they have kept one thing focused like a laser, and that’s Redstone Arsenal. They knew what was good for Redstone was good for the city, county and region, and what was bad for Redstone was bad for all of those entities. They got behind it and worked on it for decades. Now that has paid off for them.”

He noted that Huntsville, once a small city with a population of around 16,000 in 1950, has ballooned into becoming Alabama’s largest city with a population over 235,000 residents. Mobile, after the approval of an annexation plan by voters last summer, is the state’s second-largest city with population close to 205,000 residents.

Daves said the Port of Mobile, responsible for $85 billion in economic impact to the state, is the equivalent to the city as Redstone Arsenal has been to Huntsville.

“What is bad for the Port of Mobile is bad for Mobile,” Daves said, adding that in the past, the city “has not enjoyed exceptional political leadership.” But he added that the current city council, county commission and state legislative delegation are understanding of the importance of the Port of Mobile “to continue moving forward.”

Said Daves, “I hope we continue along the path that we’ve adopted over the last recent years and continue to challenge Huntsville for being the best place to live in the state.”

Amtrak influence

Daves, afterward to AL.com, said his remarks were not aimed at Amtrak or council members who might support a future train stop along Water Street in downtown Mobile.

The Mobile City Council could vote soon on a lease agreement to allow Amtrak to utilize city-owned property at the foot of Government Street at Water Street for a train stop to service the Mobile-to-New Orleans passenger rail route.

Daves has long been a vocal opponent of the project and has expressed concerns over adding extra trains to a crowded freight line. The Amtrak service is proposed to be a twice-daily service along the Gulf Coast.

The Alabama State Port Authority, which operates the port, was one of the intervening parties opposing the Amtrak service in a case that is currently before the U.S. Surface Transportation Board. Daves, himself, spoke in opposition to the project during a public hearing before the STB.

A settlement in that case was announced in November 2022, and getting a lease agreement approved by Mobile city officials is viewed as among the final pieces needed before the passenger train service resumes. Project proponents have targeted a fall start date.

There is no timetable for a council vote on a lease agreement, which would need a supermajority of five votes for approval. At least two council members – Daves and Councilman Ben Reynolds – have publicly expressed doubt about the project.

Candace Cooksey, a spokeswoman for Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s office, said that “all parties are working together closely on everything needed for critical path timelines including the land use agreement.”

“I wouldn’t read anything to my comments with respect to Amtrak,” Daves said. “The impetus of what I said is (the report from Forbes) about Mobile having the second fastest growing port in the country. There is a tendency on the part of everyone to take the port for granted, and to not really understand it’s impact on the economy, ourselves, and businesses.”

Fast-growing port

The Forbes article, published on Dec. 30, lists the Port of Mobile’s growth at 121.84%. That is good enough for No. 2 on the list, slightly ahead of two airport behemoths: Atlanta’s Hartfield-Jackson International Airport (103.49%) and Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (99.65%).

The Top 10 list included a balanced mix of transportation modes with four seaports (Mobile, Corpus Christi, Savannah, and Beaumont in Texas), three airports (Atlanta, Chicago O’Hare and Cleveland), and three border crossings (Laredo and Eagle Pass in Texas and Otay Mesa in California).

Mobile ranks No. 42 in overall valuation of its port.

The Forbes list Mobile’s leading imports as oil (17%), motor vehicle parts (8.5%), and miscellaneous aircraft parts (6.5%).

Daves noted that thousands of jobs depend on the port’s business. Activity at the port’s public and private terminals directly and indirectly generates nearly 313,000 jobs each year, according to the Port’s website.

“From Mobile to Huntsville, Alabama’s economy is booming, and the Port is proud to be a key player in this growth,” Port Authority CEO John Driscoll said in a Jan. 4 statement, following the release of the Forbes article. “With over $1 billion in capital investments planned over the next 10 years, and the benefits of major projects such as the deepening and widening of the ship channel yet to be realized, the sky is the limit for what the Port and the State of Alabama will accomplish in the coming years.”

Daves said it will be important to keep the Port and its activities known within the community. He said that before Brookley Air Base was closed in 1969, “a lot of people probably thought we wouldn’t lose Brookley.” The air base was once Mobile’s largest employer during World War II and has only recently experienced a renaissance with the arrival in 2015 of Airbus’ largest North American assembly plant for commercial aircraft.

“I think it’s up to all of us, the leadership in this community and state that has a stake in this economy that we need to be consistently reminding our constituencies of the importance of the port,” Daves said.