Eight Days of Gdansk, November 6: The Lenin Shipyards yield to Młode Miasto, or "Young City Gdansk."

Jeffersonville has something in common with Gdansk. Both cities have extensive tracts of waterside property once devoted to building boats.

The former Jeffboat, meet the former Lenin Shipyards.

There's an obvious difference in scale as well as historical experience. The shipyards in Gdansk occupied a huge expanse of ground, while Jeffboat's footprint is long and narrow.

Clark County has no alumni with quite the pedigree of Lech Wałęsa, although the latter never refereed NFL games, as former Jeffersonville mayor Dale Orem did.

In both instances, there is considerable redevelopment potential.

The word shipyard is synonymous with Gdansk, due in the main to the social and political phenomenon that was Solidarity, the trade union movement which exploded out of the shipyard amid the strikes of 1980. Since then, the name Gdansk for many has conjured up images of masses of striking workers led by a small man with a bushy moustache, while in the background hulked the giant cranes of the shipyard – the Lenin Shipyard. Well it appears that this shipyard is about to change forever and in doing so reflect changes, more than anywhere else in Gdansk, that it helped bring about over 30 years earlier.

In the spring of 2013 plans were presented to the public showing the future of a large swath of the Gdansk Shipyard. These plans, as we will see later, propose to revitalise this historic area and to re-connect it to the main city of Gdansk a short distance away along the Motlawa river. The new development is to be called Mlode Miasto (Young City) and while this name might look like the result of months of work by a high-powered PR agency’s image team, it in fact in recognition of the first organised settlement of the area over 600 years ago.

Although work connected to ship building and maintenance continues in many parts of the shipyard area today, the bulk of what was once the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk has slowly been rotting away since the fall of communism. The collapse of the system which Solidarity helped to bring about, saw demand for ships that were built here to collapse as well. The yard today stands largely empty and as work begins on the initial projects relating to the creation of Young City Gdansk, there is an opportunity to take a look at what is left of this historic area.

As for the high-powered PR agency, this might be the one. The quality of the mock-ups exceeds those typically produced by New Albany's redevelopment commission.

Młode Miasto or Young City Gdansk has always had a significant role in the development of the City. Since the first official mentioning in historical chronicles in 1380 it has been recognized as a new and attractive settlement area for future generations. More than 600 years of different purposes for this land will have a continuation now. With such a rich past the identity of the new neighbourhood should be built around it.

In closing, stay tuned for the inevitable photographs of this and other experiences in Gdansk.

Mike Moore has a Jeff Boat dream ... we have a JeffBot luxury dog park.

River Ridge, the Clark Maritime Center, potential redevelopment at the soon to be vacated Jeff Boat property, and the South Clarksville/Colgate project.

All of it stops at Silver Creek. And what are our Floyd County Democratic Party leaders doing?

That's right. They're attempting to slime a Republican councilman with bogus charges of lying.

Is this really all they have to do with their time on the clock? Isn't it true that if YOU wasted time in this fashion at work, you'd get fired?

Mayor envisions retail, residences for Jeffboat property in lieu of shipyard, by Danielle Grady (Tom May Gazette)

JEFFERSONVILLE — Jeffboat’s location along the Ohio River is ideal for a barge manufacturer, but good for more than that.

Now that the shipyard is closing after 80 years in business, Jeffersonville Mayor Mike Moore has ambitious dreams for the 65-acre riverfront property.

In a statement Monday, Jeffboat’s parent company, American Commercial Lines, said only that it is reviewing the best alternative for the shipyard, which is expected to close in May. But Moore says that Jeffboat Vice President Mike Poindexter called him to say that the company has already ruled out opening or selling to another shipyard.

Moore had originally hoped that another shipyard could take Jeffboat’s place. Now, he’s thinking of the next best thing: retailers and residences — boosted by the property’s proximity to the river and to Louisville. Moore said he’s already been contacted by business people interested in the idea ...

JeffBoat will close, riverside condos will proliferate, and we'll gather at the luxury dog park for a few bowls.

From NA Confidential on October 21, 2016:

Launching a barge is routine if you work at Jeff Boat (American Commercial Barge Line). After all, there's one each day, no champagne required. It's interesting to observe as a first-time viewer, as my Leadership Southern Indiana class did on Wednesday.

There are fascinating facts aplenty about ACBL/Jeff Boat, but this one does it for me: There's been a shipyard operating here continuously since 1834, as founded by the Howard family.

It flabbergasts me that as recently as the autumn of 2016, the narrative we were hearing during our segment at ACBL was one of unimpeded invincibility: 365 new barges per year, tugboats on the way, send us your trained welders ...and so on.

Now we're told the over-supply (and under-demand) of barges is such that it's cheaper to buy used than new, which seems to suggest that flooding the market with new barges might not have been such a good idea in the first place.

I don't know. As a skeptic, I can't help wondering whether there's an untold story here, like this closing always having been the design since ACBL acquired JeffBoat.

At the same time, the Ohio River shoreline currently occupied by the shipyard automatically becomes one of the hottest properties in the region for redevelopment, and perhaps greater than Colgate in Clarksville.

It boggles the mind. At least here in NA, we have an aquatic park. Like Rodney said on Caddyshack ...

 ... except for the welders, that is.

Jeffboat to shut down following rounds of layoffs, by David A. Mann (Louisville Business First)

Barge manufacturer Jeffboat LLC is set to close.

Louisville-based Teamsters Local 89, which represents workers there, was told about the closure last night after employees were informed, union president Fred Zuckerman said in an interview Saturday morning. According to Zuckerman, there are about 150 employees left at Jeffboat, but the operation will fully shutdown by the end of May. The union will start bargaining with management immediately to make determinations about issues such as severance, he said.

Management explained to the employees that a surplus of barges has meant that it's cheaper for Jeffboat customers to buy used rather than new, WDRB-TV reported last night.

Barge meets water at ACBL/Jeff Boat.

Launching a barge is routine if you work at Jeff Boat (American Commercial Barge Line). After all, there's one each day, no champagne required. It's interesting to observe as a first-time viewer, as my Leadership Southern Indiana class did on Wednesday.

There are fascinating facts aplenty about ACBL/Jeff Boat, but this one does it for me: There's been a shipyard operating here continuously since 1834, as founded by the Howard family.