Sitting outside his small business which sells the popular Puerto Rican turnovers known as empanadillas, Osvaldo Medina Flores recalled how “everyone in Ceiba used to work at the base.”
“It was a tremendous economic boost,” said Medina Flores, who has lived in the city for 32 years.
Despite several efforts to repurpose and redevelop Roosevelt Roads, the 8,000-acre base remained mostly abandoned for the past 20 years. Still, peeking through the overgrown vegetation that has consumed many of the dilapidated buildings are remnants of what once was a bustling military hub that housed one of the largest naval facilities in the world.
Fishing at one of the base’s abandoned docks Wednesday afternoon, Navy veteran Orlando Rocafort reminisced about his time stationed in Roosevelt Roads. He recalled his 24-year-old son’s birth as he pointed across the water to the base’s neglected hospital building.
“He was born right there,” Rocafort said in Spanish. “It was beautiful — there were times when I would spend months without leaving the base, because they had everything.”
“It’s sad to see how the buildings look now — you can’t even see what used to be the commissary from the road anymore because of all the overgrown vegetation covering it,” he said.
Across the serene waterfront where he was fishing, Rocafort said he spotted several F-35 fighter jets taking off from the base Wednesday. It made him wonder whether the growing military presence in Puerto Rico will be “a temporary thing” and whether it will remain “relatively small,” compared with Roosevelt Roads back in the day.
Higinio Diaz was near an abandoned gas station inside the base Wednesday afternoon, racing his Speedrun cars, a hobby he has taken on for the past month. Diaz, 49, has been traveling from Guaynabo, a town 50 miles away, to race his battery-operated car there for the past month.
“Today is one of the most active days I’ve seen since I started coming here,” he said.
A sign advertising the Puerto Rican government’s latest effort to redevelop Roosevelt Roads stands on the sparsely trafficked road where Diaz races his Speedrun cars. The initiative promises to focus on “the economic, social and tourism redevelopment of Roosevelt Roads, with civil projects underway such as infrastructure reconstruction,” according to a news release.
Asked about the ongoing revitalization program, Medina Flores said he’s skeptical, since he has seen how many of those initiatives don’t have the continuity to make lasting changes.
“More needs to be done,” Flores said, though there may be a glimpse of hope with the partial reactivation of the base.