"My impression is, correct me if I'm wrong, there isn't a lot of employment on Vieques, the Navy pulling out hurt the locals"
Not only that, but even the Puerto Rico government has all but abandoned Vieques. The little island's anti-everythings are now taking aim at tourism developers and foreigners (meaning anybody who's not a Viequense, main-islanders included) who are trying to do something positive there. Their main complaint is that locals are selling their properties like hotcakes to the outsiders.
And you may or may not be aware that the main instigator is one who calls himself Roberto Rabín, who's really a Bostonian with the real name is Robert Rabinovich. The sorry commie wants the island for himself.
And btw, Rosey is making a comeback as a Joint Armed Forces Installation. The feds will be turning over to the local government a small beach and some wetlands. The hospital might be privatized, the Ofstie Field might become a mixed civilian/military airport. But the rest of the base will be reactivated, I gather from good sources.
Listen to this. Like this is good news for the U.S. Taxpayers or something? LOL!
The ingrates in Puerto Rico forced the U.S. Taxpayers to spend HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS to close the base and relocate all of their operations, pay for local government, local businesses and former local civilian base employees to recover from the loss of income due to the base closure.
Are we going to get any of that money back?
No!
Now, the U.S. Taxpayers are going to have to pay hundreds of millions more to rent a small portion of the total 11,000 acres we used to own and I wouldn't doubt that it will be more per year than we ever paid before and for even less in return!
Plus, we're going to have less security for our servicemen and women! We're going to give Puerto Rican, fire-bomb-throwing, terrorists more access to the base!
I swear it's like Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton are still president.
On second thought, I don't know if they'd be crazy enough to screw the U.S. Taxpayers over this bad this close to an election.
The Bush legacy. This is unreal.
So, if they are now vehemently against any tourism-related development, what do they want to set up in the abandoned lands? Straw huts?