Gulfport Making No Small Plans Either

"A new expansion plan being rolled out today details a strategy to turn the Port of Gulfport into the largest container port in the United States, capable of handling more container cargo than currently runs through the Port of Los Angeles.

This plan is nothing like the previous one, reviled by casino executives and residents of Gulfport's West Side community because it threatened to swallow the beachfront nearly to Broad Avenue.

Indeed, this plan is much, much bigger. The billion-dollar concept would put an entirely new port directly south of the present-day location.

'This would be the single largest economic-development project in the state's history,' said Lee Youngblood, a spokesman for the Mississippi Development Authority. 'It's a statewide project with implications from the Coast going all the way up the state to the Tennessee line.'"