Base closings to affect business?

Leo

It is sad people will be out of work but I have a hard time with people looking to the GOVERNMENT for jobs at the expense of other tax payers. We lost Fort Devens in Mass a few years ago but that area is coming back. What bothers me more is all the communities in the North East who have lost their industry. You see in almost every town an empty factory, fallen down building, ripped down building, or now over 55 housing. I would prefer to see private sector jobs come back.
JMO,
Leo

John R. Hall

Loss of jobs

Now that the U.S. military has announced which bases they have targeted to close, it has the local businesses in each community wondering if they can survive the loss of jobs and customer base. In some communities there has been a revival with new homes and businesses. Does this concern any Wallies who might be affected by the planned closings?

Constantin

I think it depends...

From my reading, it appears that the success (or lack thereof) is dependent on a number of factors.

One prime example, is an island in San Fransisco bay that is currently being transformed into a residential community. Yep, you can't beat the location, and I imagine that all those residences will require more HVAC work than the Navy base (?) they replaced.

A former SAC base in Kansas was bought by Airborne and turned into a giant Warehouse for distributing the goods of a number of clients, such as many computer warehouses, which is what allows you to call them until 2AM to place an order. I don't know if that increased or decreased the number of civilian jobs, but at least the place didn't get turned into a landfill.

I imagine that areas like New London, CT are going to be hard hit. There are a lot of jobs there (8,000) on the chopping block, and the local community doesn't have much else in terms of manufacturing, welding, etc. to fall back on. From what I could tell, the CG academy and the CT state college were the biggest employers in town besides the shipyard. Portsmouth, NH is another town that is struggling ever since the internet boom ended (which slowed its revival).

Time will tell. Trouble is, good data is hard to come by because the consultants who get hired to "sell" these locations can't paint anything but a rosy picture, or they'd get fired.

Sweet_2

I think it depends on the size of the community

the one base here that is targeted to be closed makesup aprox. 80% of the economy. I cant see how it won't negativly impact that community. We have another base that was closede in the 60's and that community has stuggled to get back to were it was 35 yrs ago, I think it's a neccessary evil, ofcourse thats easy to say when it's not negatively affecting me personally, I hope these communities can find other means by which to counter the closures, it's got to be tough.

Firedragon_4

For poor Portsmouth and

the surrounding area it's a big blow. Pease closed a few years ago and many buildings put up for Internet and others are already empty.

The Northeast is an expensive area and with labor costs up there, it's very tough on start up companies.

Constantin, although it's only a bridge over the Thames between them, big difference between Groton (USN) and New London (USCG). This will hit the East side bad.

Maine Ken

26% of losses in Maine, 25% in CT, the remainder for the rest of the Country. Yeah its going to hurt. Portsmouth annual payroll about $300,000,000 gone from the community....ouch

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Unknown

We thought it was over when

Newport and Quonset Point closed down partially many years ago. Newport has rebounded with tourism. Quonset is still trying to find a perspective and direction.

I think Portsmouth will be very hard hit here in NE. As for Groton maybe another gambling casino would help!!!

My son is the civilian therapist for the Coast Guard at Otis and just took on a second position as the therapist for what is left of the Navy in Newport (Naval War College). I hope he made a good decision to leave civilian practice.

Weezbo

Military bases are somewhat like a homesteader or miner

claim. instead of taking the people of a community at thier word on certain subjects the government Homesteads a base then lays out the Law to the share croppers ,then tells everyone this is reasonable and you will vote this way and then you will have what we say its going to be...it is sorta a way to social engineer the masses ...All you independents S.O.B.'s will not mine for platnium ,and you wont mine for gold,in these areas.what you will do is supply gravel for new roads ,schools and parking lots.You have the equipment so we will deny access to your property then tell you what you cannot do.this in turn will make everything great for every one ...then once the government thinks the voting base out numbers the local inhabitants bang ...they are out ,..and now with the new infrastructure that is unable to be sustained everyone must once again struggle like heck to make a go of it..
in a way ,it is as though your neighbour is a dissagreeable sort and is resentful that you work every day and seem happy with whatever the blessings you see in a day yet cant figure out what makes you so thankful and happy day to day and unable to urinate you off decides to import ten new neighbours to frick with you during the course of your day,each and every day. as rentors of the property they are kinda obliged to go along with why YOU are the evile spawn of Satan and to carry on work every day ever mindful of the different sob he dont like...
There are surely other lenses to look through,however ,it has to be more than meanderings of my mind to have seen this in my life on more than one occasion .and from the eyes of other countries that do the same, it always seems like, "nah that isnt what we are doing...thats what so and so country is all about".
will i change my thoughts on the subject? nah i dont think so.will it help you. nope. .....will closing of a base bring a down turn in the economy ?well,sure...it is designed to.isnt it ?

John R. Hall

Opposite works in some places

In Oscoda, Michigan (northeast Lower Peninsula) the army base shut down several years ago. But since the area is a great tourist spot right on the shores of Lake Huron, a lot of single-family homes went up for empty nesters and as vacation homes where the base used to be. Turned out to be a good replacement for what was once a major employer in the area. A lot of places can probably make up for the lost jobs with jobs in tourism, although the pay is lower and not all former bases are tourist spots.

Keith_8

How about closing some overseas bases?

If the military feels a need to tighten it's belt why not close some overseas bases?

Let the troops be stationed over here and feed the local economies.

Sounds like a win-win to me.

Keith

lchmb

Not gone yet

This is actually the third time Portsmouth has been on the list. This is just a recommended list and not final. Many more commission's to go through and everyone is ready to fight!! They just recently recieved a sub for overhaul so that mean's at minimum the base is open till 2011. I won't see an impact from it, but I have no doubt it will hurt the seacost to some degree. The estimated unemployment rate will rise .5% from this alone..

Don \"Grumpy\" Walsh

Keith, that would be far too intelligent a thing to do. It seems we prefer to bleed ourselves to death with small leaks, sort of like hari-kari with a butter knife. Might take longer, but we still end up dead.
If they closed a few of the overseas bases, it might "offend" the host nation! Crickey, we can't be having that! How many more years will it be before there are NO manufacturing jobs left in this country?

Constantin

Hey Grumpy...

... the Americans closed a number of bases in Germany since the end of the cold war (as did the Russians...). Trouble is, the US seems to be opening more bases in other theatres of operation than it is closing elsewhere. Until a couple of years ago, there was no US base in Baghram, or Baghdad, for example....

On the other hand, the bases in Saudi Arabia are pretty much mothballed, with much of the command having moved to nations that are less sensitive to the presence of foreign troops on their soil.

Overall, I have nothing against base closures per se, assuming that a objective review has been undertaken to assess the needs of the current military, its future needs, and the current capabilities. Many bases are left over from WWII and before, some had/have little reason to continue to exist. The more efficient the military is spending its tax dollars to protect the country, the more the citizens benefit, after all.

Where I draw the line though is the politics that permeates the process of allocating ship building and the like, not to the yards/suppliers that are the most efficient (like Bath Iron Works), but to the ones that have the representatives in DC with the most clout (Ingall). I continue to hope that someday the political meddling in large projects can be excised, so that the most efficient solutions can be found, not the ones that please the bill's sponsors.

What may still come down the pike is the wholesale outsourcing of many maintenance duties to happen in developing countries. For example, there is a trend now towards overhauling planes in places like El-Salvador, where the shop rate for a fully FAA-licensed aircraft mechanic is less than 1/2 of a US one. Considering that planes' MRO costs are something like 80% labor related, you can see why US airlines (and perhaps the military in the future) are flocking over there...

Similar trends can be found in the medical business, with Indian radiologists looking over the scans sent to them via the internet from US ER's in the middle of the US night, and the middle of the Indian day. The US radiologist gets to sleep, the Indian radiologist gets to work...

Bill Nye_2

I think

It will hit us very hard. But we have the casinos and maybe Utopia , if it ever goes through.

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