What does Fort Bliss bring to the table?

[malamute]

Originally Posted by mistabinks

Malamute would have loved that part!

Most definitely! Imagine walking outdoors and seeing a million stars in the night sky instead of the constant glare of city lights, and a spectacular mountain not being destroyed. And imagine laying at night listening to the yipping of coyotes and the owls flying by instead of car horns, the constant hum of traffic and the sirens. And the fields of cotton and pecan orchards instead of concrete filling up everywhere.

[alov0303]

Great thread guys - My concern is that removing fort bliss is not a one to one subtraction. Basically, i dont think we can subtract the total number of troops/retirees - remove their incomes and assume we would have a smaller quieter el paso. In my opinion (i have little hard data) removing fort bliss removes alot of the infrastructure the city relies on. A few examples:
(1) what type of jobs would leave - yes el paso has a call center and Juarez expats are opening restaurants but what type of real income from outside the city can the city generate?

(2) great we have utep and the medical research institute - well the college of engineering has defense research(link below) which counts toward our goal of tier one status? Also, what type of defense/border studies funding would never make it to el paso if the base was not here? Case in point - every other border town.
Center For Defense Systems Research**(Organized Research Center Profile)
(3) enrollment to utep - how many troops?
(4) housing was mentioned in terms of rent but what about construction jobs?
(5). Would we still need funding to build the outer loop - what about the spaghetti bowl when it was constructed?

I'm not sure we can ever sort this out - we all have our own visions of what el paso is or should be. But, it's a great thought experiment.

[elamigo]

Originally Posted by malamute

Probably the call centers which combined provide a good portion of the jobs here, then the schools and hospitals. There would be no more William Beaumont or VA center.

There would be far less need of middle class housing without the military, it would be government housing projects and big mansions with high security fences as Juarez relocates to this side of the border.

Fort Bliss has been here from the start - but imagine El Paso if there had never been the military here, far fewer retired military families and all many ethnicities brought here by Fort Bliss - including people from the Philipines, Germany, Korea - not that there are very many but they are what provides that special kind of mix of people the military makes.

If Fort Bliss had never been here, we'd be just like any other little border town, Columbus, NM for example.

Good points. You are probably right, take care.

[lipbalm]

Originally Posted by smguy101

I wouldn't say Columbus, NM, but if Ft Bliss never existed, El Paso probably wouldn't have 800,000 people in it.

Really? why? How can you be so sure?

[smguy101]

Originally Posted by lipbalm

Really? why? How can you be so sure?

Well for one, Columbus doesn't have three railroad lines going through it.