33 bases to close and a number of other ' altered '.. Let the fun begin.. Can see that changes in the ' Cold War ' and other priorities might require getting rid of facilities that don't fit the new scheme of things along with ' freeing up' considerable manpower that could be ' deployed' to other duties [ especially in the light of declining recruiting.. a bunch of paper pushers and bolt counters could be turned into pointy-end soldiers real easy ]..

down side is always the spin off economics to the surrounding communties of the bases...Already up my way we're hearing of the fight in Buffalo to stop the closure of its Air Base...

guess we'll see which Congressmen/ Senators have clout and the ' ear ' of Dubya and how much partisanship will play.. [ close all those in Democrap areas and keep the ones in Republican camps... or is that too easy and someone will have to take a hit to make it look - impartial ]...

politics, ain't it fun??

I don't know about the economy around many other bases, but every Navy base I've been to or have heard about (not too many, admittedly) has a ghetto surrounding it (doesn't make sense- the base supplies jobs and whatnot for citizens in the surrounding area). Heck, here in San Diego, alot of the anti-military citizens (which there seems to many of) use that as fodder for their drivel on the whole "Sailors suck" rants.

One of the reasons there is anti-military sentiment in San Dawg, is that the San Diego bases all sit on PRIME, and I mean PRIME locations. Look at North Island, Point Loma Sub Base, Miramar, MCRD locations.

Your point about the ghetto's surrounding Navy Bases is well made....at least the sailors don't have to far to go to get laid.....

The neighborhoods around the bases are often run down for the same reason that no one wants to live by the industrial district, even though they may work there.

So many bases were built up during the spend, spend, spend Cold War, most often as part of the various pork barrel spending where everyone got their piece, that we've been cycling down for many years now.

The truth of the matter is that we do have too many bases, but who wants their base to go? No one, except for those like San Diego where they do indeed occupy some of the most prime real estate in the country. Problem there is, for the real estate developers anyway, is that those bases are some of the most important.

So true... not only would seeing 32nd Street and North Island bases go be a sad event, they're pretty neccessary for West Coast and Pacific operations.
Never thought of the prime real estate bit- guess it didn't cross my mind. But where else do you expect a Naval base to be at except by the water (if it moors any ships, anyhow)?
I heard they might close Balboa Park or convert it to a civilian hospital. You know how rumors are, though.

i heard of the bases in virgina being surrounded by a ghetto, but what other bases would be surrounded?

All Fleet Navy Bases, with the exception of Pearl Harbor.