Recently, I attended the Association of Defense Communities Conference
in Albuquerque. The Association is a national organization serving
communities, state governments, the private sector and the military on
issues of base closure.

This gathering was a great opportunity to hear how other communities
worked with the military in the transfer of closed bases and to
interact with representatives of the Department of Defense, elected
officials, their staffs and other experts in the field of base re-use.

During the conference, there was much attention paid to the idea of
using closed military bases as locations for the testing and
development of clean fuel and other forms of climate-friendly energy
technologies. Department of Defense representatives in attendance
emphasized this new direction and I think Alameda Point could be an
excellent site for such research. Those same defense reps said that
new federal legislation to help communities such as Alameda better
cope with the economics and fallout of base closure may be in the
works.

I was also able to listen to presentations, stories and anecdotes from
folks from communities across our nation that are dealing with base
closure, toxic cleanup and reuse. I can tell you with certainty that
while I remain beyond frustrated with the pace of change (or the lack
thereof) at Alameda Point, we’re not alone in our troubles.

In the end, I was very glad to have attended this conference. I came
away armed with a whole legal pad of notes on new ideas and new
approaches we might be able to apply to Alameda Point in order to
expedite the quality redevelopment of the base.