I have no first hand familiarity with Puerto Rico or RR.
And while I am equally uncertain of the strategic necessity of RR, I am suspicious of developers interests in acquiring naval property.OTOH, I do believe that there is more that the government could do to facilitate development of the Puerto Rican economy.
This primarily involves less flamboyant development of sound infrastructure: water supply/sewage treatment, electric power supply, transportation, etc. As a small island economy, any of these issues that may be inadequate should be readily addressable, desalination for fresh water for instance. Similarly, Puerto Rico would be an ideal location to wean from dependency on fossil fuels, perhaps a combination of nuclear solar and windmill power sources. And a modern electricly powered mass-transportation system such as light-rail would be beneficial for residents and tourists alike. The island is somewhat small to utilize major highway development such as we have on the mainland.
And to promote tourism: Dubya and Congress should use the influence they have over Major League Baseball to locate a major league franchise and new stadium in San Juan.
Having grown up in Pittsburgh, watching Roberto Clemente as one of my childhood idols/role models, I am especially fond of my suggestion of a major league club for San Juan.
Part of the problem is there are an enormous number of U.S.Taxpayers that have no idea how much we already have spent in Puerto Rico and continue to spend there, every year.
Here are some examples:
The U.S. Taxpayers have shelled out $2 BILLION DOLLAR$ for an 18-mile-long electric urban train for the San Juan Metropolitan Area that will begin operation in 10/2003. They'll call it the 'Tren Urbano'.
The U.S. Taxpayers have paved over 14,000 miles of roads, super highways and tollroads in Puerto Rico.
I guarantee that they're everything the U.S. Department of Highways and Transportation builds everywhere else in the United States.
The EPA has funded BILLION$ of dollars of water and sewer projects around the island.
We maintain 16 National Parks on the islands.
We have 17 military facilities there and a VA Hospital.
The U.S. Post Office loses mllions in Puerto Rico delivering their mail, because they charge the same rate as if the packages were being delivered in the continental United States.
We've built them 12 airports. I'm not sure how many dams and bridges, but it's alot.
FEMA gave them $2 BILLION after hurricane George and $1 BILLION after Hortense.
We give them $13.5 to $16 BILLION for Medicare, Social Security, Student Loans and Foodstamps.
The DEA, FBI, Federal Courts, U.S. Marshalls, IRS, HUD, FEMA, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture and every other alphabet soup of Federal government organizations you can name spend millions and millions more and employ thousands and thousands on the island.
I believe that nuclear power in Puerto Rico would be more of a danger to the USA than North Korea, Iran and Irag having it.
We have actual States, that don't threaten to throw our military out every day, that need this money. And you know what? Those States deserve it more, because their citizens pay income, sales and property tax.
There are still children that go to bed hungry every night in the USA.
That begs the questions, just what in the hell are we doing in Puerto Rico and why???