THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, August 20, 1995                TAG: 9508180004
SECTION: COMMENTARY               PAGE: J4   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Letter 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   36 lines

CALIFORNIA WAS MISTREATED

Hampton Roads is to be congratulated on the more than 5,000 military-related jobs coming to the area as a result of the soon-to-be-approved base-closing plan. It is unfortunate, however, that these jobs are coming at the expense of communities with troubled economies. It is even more troubling that the decisions by the base-closing commission were not rational in many cases.

California has perhaps been the hardest hit by the past recession. Indeed, it is still unclear whether the state has even started to improve economically. Except for the very richest areas, home prices are still down by as much as one-third from the beginning of the decade.

Granted, the state's economy would not be much of a reason to forestall base closures if the bases were superfluous or costing taxpayers more money than would be spent in other locales, but such was not always the case. The closing of the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, for example, is incomprehensible. Here is a facility that was profitable and efficient. Other shipyards that escaped the death knell are not. In cases such as this, the only answer is political.

When half of all jobs lost, under the commission's plan, are suffered by one state, I must join the president and call the plan ``an outrage.'' Unfortunately, Mr. Clinton has refused to act upon this outrage, deeming it more safe politically to accept the decisions of the commission.

STEVEN GERTSEN

Virginia Beach, July 27, 1995 by CNB