Putting NGA next to Scott Air Force Base is only logical
If Mr. Spock took on Boss Hogg in a WWE grudge match, then we’d be close to the difference between putting the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency next to Scott Air Force Base vs. in North St. Louis. It sure seems to be a matter of “logic” vs. “more simoleons.”
The minutes from a meeting of top Pentagon leaders a decade ago during the base closing deliberations made the logical call: When all the politics were stripped from the conversation and defense needs were what mattered most to the participants, Scott Air Force Base was the only site to consider. Cost savings, security, efficiency, performance, housing and the cost of living all made moving the spy mapping agency next to the base that uses so much of its product a no-brainer.
Yet a decade later we are facing a battle of political influence and not just reason. The response from St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay’s spokeswoman when asked about the old Pentagon conversation made that more evident.
“A proposal that was raised, considered, and then rejected 10 years ago — by a different set of individuals, under different considerations — is even less relevant now than it was then,” Slay spokeswoman Maggie Crane responded.
Well, that is hardly logical. If anything, the old conversation is even more relevant.
Those leaders a decade ago were only considering the merits. Since then, the land issues have arisen.
The Scott site offers 400 acres for free — let’s repeat that, for free — with more open land surrounding it. The metro-east offers the 3,100 NGA-West workers solid housing stock with room for more, quality schools and military-minded communities.
The North St. Louis site may have 100 acres that they must put together like a jigsaw at a cost to the government of at least $130 million. Employees would go to work in a crime- and poverty-riddled area in which they would never choose to live much less send their children to school, and with neighbors who are petitioning to stop the facility from displacing them.
The best argument the Missouri politicians have for their site is that they stand to lose tax dollars, and that NGA-West plus a new football stadium could be a multi-billion-dollar government experiment in social engineering. Not a peep about what’s best for NGA’s mission.
Scott was the logical spot for NGA-West a decade ago. It remains so today.
This story was originally published November 30, 2015 at 1:00 PM with the headline "Putting NGA next to Scott Air Force Base is only logical."