Exit133

July 24, 2008 · Daniel Blue

DB: Micro Economies of Malaysia

Did you know: Fort Lewis proper contains 86,000 acres of grey-area GoogleMap land?

In between huffing spray paint out of garbage bags and igniting my j’s with flames jetting from the tailpipe of my street legal dirt-bike, I like to play the occasional safe-on-your-couch video game. This weekend I was innocently poking around on craiglist and discovered a ridiculously cheap “next-gen” video game system from our friends at Microsoft called the XBOX 360. The price this poor sap was asking was nearly a third of the going rate and I called immediately, hoping that I could get to them on my scooter before some lucky schmuck beat me to the punch. Having purchased many used bits of tech off of C.L., I am versed enough in the second-hand market to know that the faster you get there with your money, the better chance you have of spending it (and not wasting your time). The woman I spoke with on the phone was more than happy to give me her address and I Google mapped it to discover it lay in this strange grey area south of Lakewood. I explained to her that I would be coming the back way because my machine was not highway legal, she told me to take my time, and I rushed to the bank to get some cash. I was unable to find any way to tell Google Maps that I did not want to drive on I-5 (anyone know an option for 50mph and below streets only?). Finally, I figured out that if I asked for directions from the Steilacoom Ferry, which I already knew how to get to from scooter trips to Anderson Island, it would give me directions that did not involve blocking traffic and being mushed by semi-trucks on the interstate.

The ride was beautiful. U.P. had no bus people, Chambers Creek was full of teenagers, Steilacoom was full of old codgers, and I turned south(east) at the Ferry and plunged into an unknown forest, pushing my little beast to its maximum cruising speed of 52.6mph. My iPhone told me to turn left on a strangely unmarked street and then right at 32nd Division Dr.

However, when I arrived at my right hand turn, I was unable to proceed because there was a 12’ high barb wire fence drawn across the road. It dawned on me quite suddenly that this person selling their video game system was a member of the U.S. Army, and that the large grey area on my map was none other than Fort Lewis. I called and she promptly explained (with a garbled conversation with her deep-voiced husband) that civilian passes were only available at the front gate and the front gate could only be accessed from the highway. She quickly sent her husband to fetch me, and I parked my moto on the tank tread munched side of the road.

The gentleman who came to get me was very friendly and a few minutes later we were pulling into a fairly normal looking track-home neighborhood nestled into the evergreens that didn’t make me think of the military at all. I had no idea real live people lived on base and, come to think of it, I don’t really think of the military being present here much at all. The gentleman had just gotten back to his family from an 18 month tour in Iraq. He was on a 12 month tour just previous to that. The couple had two adorable girls who can’t have been alive much longer than 5 years between the two of them. He answered many of my questions on our way to and from, my moto parked outside his enormous gated community. I guess there are even mansions on base for the generals, and some people live a majority of their lives (30-40 years) on the base. The XBOX worked fine, and I wrapped it in a jeans jacket in my scooter basket and stopped shamefully at Trader Joe’s on the way home.

According to Wikipedia: as of the 2000 census, Fort Lewis had a total residential population of 19,089 and more than 25,000 soldiers and civilian workers. The post supports 120,000(+) retirees and more than 29,000 family members living both on and off post. Just to be fair, McChord Air Force base had as of the census of 2000, 4,096 people, 1,004 households, and 978 families residing on the base.

And we were worried about Russel moving out of town. Because of our decision to give the grey area south of Lakewood to the Federal Government in 1917, there are a lot of people who live on the base that wouldn’t otherwise. Regionally, this has to do good things for the economy. What are some ways that downtown can support the troops so that the troops will feel drawn to support downtown? Like it or not, these men and women get paid to protect our fancy way of life, and they have to spend all that tax-free money somewhere.

Filed under: DB

9 comments

  • rick July 24, 2008

    What a fun read, DB! Well done. Great title, too. Google maps has an option for “avoid highways”. Nice tip of your hat to our military community. Please replicate whatever creative combo of prescription drugs, vodka, and I’m guessing a bit of peyote that led to this creative spell. This and Yamahopper may be moving me from critic (aka: critical jerk) to president of the “DB Rocks Comma Sometimes” fanclub.

  • luneray July 24, 2008

    Welcome to Xbox 360 world! I highly recommend the games Mass Effect and Assassin’s Creed. Bioshock is also highly reviewed, but I haven’t played it yet, so I can’t give it the Luneray stamp of approval yet. ;)

    Regarding the military population…based on my own experience of being a military brat, there’s not much incentive for people living on base to spend their money off the base. The staples (household goods, groceries, clothing) are all available on base at prices below retail (no need to mark up prices for profit) and goods are tax-free to boot. Even people who don’t live on base (including dependents and retired personnel) have shopping privileges.

    I don’t know if any of the downtown businesses offer military discounts, but I think that would be a good way to entice people off the base.

    (I have a sudden craving for a cupcake now. Dammit Hello Cupcake! You tease me with delicious little cakes but close up shop before I even arrive back in downtown from my evening commute! Ah well, there’s still Saturday mornings and at least TwoKoi and Harmon’s are open past 7 pm.)

  • Sassy McButterpants July 24, 2008

    Regarding the military population…based on my own experience of being a military brat, there’s not much incentive for people living on base to spend their money off the base.

    While this is probably true for many families, this is probably not true for the single gentlemen. Were it not for soldiers leaving the base to look for ladies in the city Mum & Dad McButterpants would never have had me.

  • Alex Thomson July 25, 2008

    you can’t buy cars on base.
    Nor furniture, or xbox or fashion.

    And the food isnt exactly farmers market grade.

    Sometimes civilians can be kind of demoralizing,
    if the first thing a soldier sees when exploring the
    farmers market is some geezer with a sign that says
    “impeach bush, War is the devil!”

    We might not be making our military feel welcome.

  • jamie from thriceallamerican July 25, 2008

    Sometimes civilians can be kind of demoralizing, if the first thing a soldier sees when exploring the farmers market is some geezer with a sign that says “impeach bush, War is the devil!”

    If our soldiers are really in it to “fight for our freedom”, shouldn’t they be proud defenders of said geezer’s right to free speech and free expression? To suggest otherwise would imply that they’re in it because they like to kill people in wars, which I would prefer to think is not the case. In fact, I would like to think it possible, even likely, that many members of our military would like to see Bush impeached and the Iraq war ended. Am I being naive?

  • rick July 25, 2008

    If our soldiers are really in it to “fight for our freedom”, shouldn’t they be proud defenders of said geezer’s right to free speech and free expression? To suggest otherwise would imply that they’re in it because they like to kill people in wars… Am I being naive?

    Yikes! Where to begin? Our soldiers are absolutely in it to fight for our freedom and defend our country and literally risk losing their lives doing so. And, they are and should be proud defenders of the geezer’s right to free speech, and the rest of the rights and freedoms we all enjoy. That doesn’t mean they have to like the message the geezer has opted to display while taking advantage of his right to free speech. So, to Alex’s point, anti-war messages aren’t exactly a welcome mat if your address is Fort Lewis or McChord. That said, one geezer with a single sign isn’t going to bother most of the soldiers that I know.

    Moving on… to make the leap that if a soldier isn’t a proud defender of the geezer’s right to free speech… then it WOULD imply they simply wish to kill people? [This is where the YIKES comes in] I’ll wager the WOULD was merely a poor choice of words, which instead should have been COULD. WOULD suggests there aren’t any other plausible alternative. Not so, me thinks. To me, the argument is intellectually, well, retarded.

    Let’s personify a soldier or two… say, a 19 year old kid from Wichita or Atlanta, or your little brother… and they signed up for four years for the GI bill, or as a family tradition, or to get the hell out of town. Next thing you (they) know, they’re rockin’ the inadequately armored Humvee down a dirt highway just outside of Bagdad wearing forty pounds of gear in 120 degree heat. Then, their buddy from basic in the vehicle in front of them gets blown up, and our kid from Wichita took some shrapnel to the side of his head. He’ll be OK, but has lost 60% of his hearing in his left ear, and can’t seem to get the ringing to stop—or the memory of his pal off of his mind. It should be noted, by the way, that while our armed forces certainly defend our democracy, the armed forces AREN’T a democracy. So, back in August of ’01 when our boy signed up, he wasn’t given a choice to be deployed a few months later. Rather, he was following orders. Anyway, our kid comes back to Tacoma and is stationed at Ft Lewis. He gets the itch for some zucchini, and decides to hit the farmer’s market in Proctor one Saturday. Now, he sees our geezer with the sign and the soldier: A) holds his head high and walks over to thank the geezer for utilizing the free speech that the kid has sworn to defend, B) ignores the old guy and picks up his zucchini and one of those really great (and expensive) scones that seem to weigh eight pounds apiece, or C) Tells the guy to go fuck himself while offering some assistance by shoving the sign up his ass. I’m going to go with B or C, depending on the kid’s mood. Either way, C is certainly plausible as I think we can appreciate that while the protestor’s sign didn’t specifically call out the soldier as being at fault, there’s a bit of an associating that exists to that end. Our kid isn’t particularly interested in the geezer’s free speech today. However, that does not imply that he likes to kill people.

    Thus, I will conclude that, yes, jamie from thriceallamerican, you are being naïve.

    Thankfully, we collectively (generally) learned a lesson (at least ONE lesson was learned) from Vietnam, in that we can oppose the war AND support our soldiers – even though some on the “R” side of the aisle suggest otherwise. In the interest of full disclosure, I am not and have never been in the armed forces. And I’m opposed to the Iraq war. And I’m an eternally grateful citizen for the past and present sacrifices made by those who serve, and their families and friends who in turn support them.

    Sorry for the long post.

  • Kristin July 26, 2008

    I agree with Jamie Thrice All American:

    1. Folks enlist with the foremost thought that they will go to war to fight for freedom (of speech and other liberties as outlined in our constitution and bill of rights).

    2. If you go to war, you know you will get hurt.

    3. It is not fair to call foul after you go to war and get hurt.

    4. War has always been political: Isolationism, Communism . . i.e. there are always debates.

    5. Afghanistan and Iraq have proven to be world leaders in the most prosperous resource nations for the globe, i.e. Oil.

    6. They used to be democracies.

    7. We sent soldiers to secure this area, establish voting rights and put an end to abuse of civil rights.

    8. The alternative: leave: and continue familial dictatorships of Iraq and Afghanistan and leave our neighbors who want democracy to continue to be tortured by these families: who bury the peasants/dissidents bodies five feet under in large soccer stadiums, filled with the locals, and who proceed to kick their heads off for sport.

    9. Women’s rights need to be addressed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

    10. Oil needs to be negiotiated as a world need. I might be mistaken, but I think America shares it crops with others. We might even, pay money to help other nations grow crops. We might even, help establish DEMOCRACY

    I am proud of our soldiers.

  • Ed July 26, 2008

    @7

    Huh?

  • Mofo from the Hood July 26, 2008

    Thanks Kristin @7. By any chance are you an intern at the Pentagon?