usmc4669
04-01-04, 09:53 AM
Washington Times (SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico APR. 01)
After 60 years, the U.S. Navy yesterday officially closed its sprawling Roosevelt Roads Naval Air Station in eastern Puerto Rico, already dropping property values and flooding the surplus housing market. In the short term, Puerto Rico expected to suffer with closure of the base, which pumped an estimated $300 million a year into the U.S. commonwealth's economy. Long term, nearly 4 percent of the island's land area will be available for tourism, housing and industrial development. Rosy Roads, as the military installation has long been nicknamed, was shut because the Navy could no longer use the nearby island of Vieques for bombing practice after May 2003. At one time, as many as 10,000 soldiers, civilian employees, outside contractors and their dependents lived on the base, though that number has shrunk throughout the years.
Isn't this what the people of Puerto Rico wanted? They are the ones that protested the Navy and Marine Corps for using the island of Vieques. What did they think we would do, keep Rosy Roads open and turn it into a R&R center for our top Brass?
After 60 years, the U.S. Navy yesterday officially closed its sprawling Roosevelt Roads Naval Air Station in eastern Puerto Rico, already dropping property values and flooding the surplus housing market. In the short term, Puerto Rico expected to suffer with closure of the base, which pumped an estimated $300 million a year into the U.S. commonwealth's economy. Long term, nearly 4 percent of the island's land area will be available for tourism, housing and industrial development. Rosy Roads, as the military installation has long been nicknamed, was shut because the Navy could no longer use the nearby island of Vieques for bombing practice after May 2003. At one time, as many as 10,000 soldiers, civilian employees, outside contractors and their dependents lived on the base, though that number has shrunk throughout the years.
Isn't this what the people of Puerto Rico wanted? They are the ones that protested the Navy and Marine Corps for using the island of Vieques. What did they think we would do, keep Rosy Roads open and turn it into a R&R center for our top Brass?