Uncertainty aside, State of the Port is nothing but good…according to the Port, at least

A complaint I’ve always had about Long Beach’s State of the City event is that, rather than provide an honest look of where we’re at, the mayor acts as head cheerleader, telling one and all that the city is “strong and getting stronger” (a quote we hear literally every year), with no ownership taken of what’s wrong.

But it turns out that compared to the State of the Port event, the State of the City is almost hard-bitten realism. To hear new Port of Long Beach CEO Noel Hacegaba tell it, the only takeaway from last September’s “once-in-a-lifetime mishap” at the Port was a silver lining, in that the response of all parties involved “showed that we don’t just train to be resilient, we are resilient.” 

Is there really nothing but good at the Port, both now and on the horizon? We caught a few things — both substantive and trivial — that makes us wonder.

Is it really all that?
Before Hacegaba even took the stage, the spin machine was in full effect. In his introductory remarks, Mayor Rex Richardson praised the Port’s recent “landmark agreement with the South Coast Air Quality Management District […] that puts a major step forward toward faster, cleaner, zero-emission[s] infrastructure while protecting our local jobs and the workers that power our economy.” Hacegaba himself went on to tout this “cooperative agreement,” saying it “contains time-bound and enforceable commitments to develop zero-emissions infrastructure […].”

But nonprofit, nonpartisan news org CalMatters urged the SCAQMD to vote against “the so-called cooperative agreement” on the grounds that “impacted community members were not meaningfully included” in the process of crafting the agreement, which “weakens the [D]istrict’s ability to reduce emissions and it creates a dangerous precedent.” CalMatters noted that the agreement “includes a five-year ban on rulemaking. That handcuffs South Coast Air Quality Management District, effectively blocking the agency’s authority to address port pollution when the South Coast Air Basin can least afford a delay.”

Don’t quit your day job
Immediately prior to Hacegaba’s taking the stage, we got a music video featuring of The TCUs — an ad hoc employee band featuring Hacegaba on lead guitar — performing a version of Modern English’s “I Melt with You” so lazily rewritten it made absolutely sense:  “Moving forward using all my breath / Making sure the Port is never second-best / I saw the world the world growing all around your face / Never really knowing it was always mesh and lace….”

Busy and getting busier
Hacegaba noted that 2025 was the busiest year in the Port’s 115-year history, moving nearly 9.9 million TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units, i.e., standard shipping containers), only the third time in the Port’s history they’ve moved over 9 million TEUs. But that’s nothing compared to what’s coming: by 2050, the Port expects to move over 20 million TEUs per year.

To handle this increase, the Port is slated to complete the “largest in-port railyard in the world” by 2032. “The development of modern, sustainable infrastructure is all part of our 10-year, $3.2 billion Capital Improvement Program, the largest of any seaport in North America,” Hacegaba said. “And the centerpiece of this is the $1.8 billion-dollar On-Dock Rail Support Facility at Pier B. We call it America’s Green Gateway. It will double the acreage of the existing rail yard and more than triple the volume of cargo moved by rail from 1.5 to 4.7 million TEUs. […] Speed to market is the key to our success and rail connectivity is the key to our future.”

For all this, Hacegaba harped on the Port’s goal of being “the first zero-emissions port in the world,” setting 2050 as the target date.

But he admitted that much is uncertain, at least in the near-term: “[… W]e continue to keep a close eye on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act case, which is expected to be announced any day. The Supreme Court’s opinion is poised to rule on the legality of the tariffs, but it will not remove the uncertainty already created by tariffs. The only certainty is…more uncertainty.”

Always check your work, kids
According to one graphic flashed up behind Hacegaba, between 2024 and 2025 soybean exports to Indonesia rose from 19,000 TEUs to 27,000 TEUs, which is “up 6,000 TEUs.” Let’s hope their accounting is better where it counts.

Semantics?
“With your help, we became the first green port,” Hacegaba declared. But despite being recognized as an industry leader, the Port of Long Beach was not even the first green port in California. That honor goes to the Port of Hueneme, which achieved “Green Marine” certification in 2017 — recognition that the Port of Long Beach has yet to receive, while the Ports of Stockton, Oakland, and San Diego have since joined the list. (Two terminal operators at the Port of Long Beach, Metro Ports and SSA Marine, have been certified Green Marine.)

But that’s nothing compared to this bizarre boner: “Last July, the railroad sector made major news with the proposed merger of Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern,” Hacegaba announced. “This would establish the first transcontinental railroad in U.S. history.” 

Considering that the first transcontinental railroad line was completed May 10, 1869, we’re not entirely sure what Hacegaba was talking about. But whatever it was, Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern will have to straighten some stuff out before it comes to pass, because the day after the State of the Port, their merger application was rejected.

Words, words, words
In addition to a litany of bumper-sticker slogans (e.g., “We lead with vision and inspire with action”; “Teamwork makes the dream work”; “We’re doing the right things for the right reasons in the right way”), Hacegaba occasionally extended himself into empty metaphors. “Any football fans here today?” he asked. “[…] This is what I told the team: we’re going to reset the goal line, we’re going to expand our playbook, we’re gonna update our gameplan, and we’re moving to a hurry-up offense, because here in Long Beach we play to win — and together we’re going to put a lot of points on the board.”

Whatever you say, coach.