ABSTRACT
The slings of cargo and the old transit sheds have been replaced by aluminum boxes and blacktopped storage yards. The expectation that a Port will inevitably handle all the cargo to and from its "naturally tributary hinterland" has been shattered by the load center port—the single destination to or from which containers can easily be transported overland, trucked, or carried by rail to an entire region. Many Ports are now bypassed by cargoes that they once would have handled as a kind of geographical right. In recent years, increased public scrutiny has forced Ports to look more critically at their return on investment and to confront a Port's built-in conflict between its own bottom line and its responsibility to provide public benefits that may not appear in that bottom line. Strategic planning is supposed to prevent situations like that of the Port of Providence.
