"John A. Weeks III" wrote in
:

In article et,
"D" wrote:

I just read in Defense News that the carrier USS America is going to
be sunk in tests off the East Coast of the US. They will detonate
various explosives aboard her to determine how much damage she takes.

This is a travesty. They should tie up this ship next to some
major city, and use it for housing homeless people. An aircraft
carrier can hold 5000 or more people when sailing, so it should
be no big deal to house 1000 homeless people, plus have deck
space for another 500 tents. After all, the ship has all the
living facilities like bunks, state rooms, plumbing, bathing,
kitchens, cafeterias, etc. It is a shame to let such a valuable
resource be destroyed like this.

Who pays for the conversions to meet basic fire codes? Who pays for the
required environmental cleanup? Who pays to staff it? Who pays for the
continued maintenance?

The USS Midway is currently docked at Navy Pier here in San Diego. It
required the expenditure of well over a million dollars to get it to its
present condition, and would require a lot more to get to a condition
where what you are proposing would be feasible.

I fear that such a project would quickly turn into a floating Cabrini
Green, for similar reasons, the foremost of which is lack of "pride of
ownership", somebody else's property, someone else's problems.

Dave in San Diego