Local News in Brief : City Hopes to Keep Ship
Long Beach city officials fired an opening salvo Wednesday in their latest drive to keep the battleship Missouri from being moved to a new home port in San Francisco, Honolulu, San Diego or anyplace else.
Mayor Ernie Kell and chamber of commerce officials said they will lobby in Washington, launch a letter-writing drive and enlist support from local service clubs to keep the Missouri, its 1,604 crewmen and $28.6-million annual payroll in Long Beach.
“We, at the city level, will do everything we can to see that the Navy home-bases the Missouri here,” Kell said at a press conference aboard the Queen Mary.
Although the historic World War II-era battlewagon has been based in Long Beach since its recommissioning in 1986, the Navy has long planned to move it to San Francisco. But the Navy reportedly is reconsidering in the face of a continuing political outcry in that city and the election of Mayor Art Agnos, who opposes basing the ship there.
Long Beach officials said their city has cheaper housing than Honolulu and a longstanding supportive relationship with the Navy.
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