OK, imagine you're engaged in some international shipping, bringing, say, Volkwagens from Germany.
WASSERMAN: The first port in North America you hit would be Nova Scotia.
That's Port Director Adam Wasserman. And that's why Halifax--right at the mouth of the St. Lawrence Seaway--is so important.
WASSERMAN: They want to intercept as much cargo as possible and distribute it into North America. And we represent a fair part of their market.
So all those Volkswagens, destined for Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Cincinatti? In this vision, they wind up on Great Lakes ships and the Port of Cleveland becomes a distribution hub. That's good for Cleveland because, right now, international shipping routes used by major manufacturers pretty much ignore the Port of Cleveland.
Wasserman admits that establishing a new logistics route is a challenge, but he's sanguine about the port's prospects.
WASSERMAN: The world is not static. It's changing all the time. And the Great Lakes region is the last places to develop and there are folks who say it hasn't so it won't, and we believe they're just, in fact, wrong.
DM, 90.3.