Let’s Close MORE
Airports
Everything in this article pertains to an
airport in California. Los Angeles actually, and in
particular to a small suburb called Santa Monica.
Everything could be attached to almost any city in the U.S.
or in Canada, that has an airport. Because where there’s an
airport, there are people who are trying to shut it down.
Their tactics are to attack it from any
direction they can, whether legitimate or otherwise. If
their noise complaints get nowhere, out comes the pressure
on politicians. They generally misrepresent the facts,
don’t have the facts, or make up their own lies. The
politicians are caught somewhere in the middle of doing
what’s right, and doing what they need to do in order to
stay in power.
Santa Monica is a city where many wealthy
and influential people make their homes. It’s on the coast
and surrounded by L.A. Its small airport handles corporate
jet traffic, small commuters and several flying schools.
Much of the commuter and jet traffic there relieves pressure
on LAX. The city grew up around the airport. In some
cases, construction of private homes and commercial
buildings was allowed within just a couple of hundred feet
of the runway. So there is no buffer zone between them.
It doesn’t take much imagination to
predict that someday there would be a problem like the one
they now have. The city has a lease on the airport land
which expires in 2015. Many residents want to shut the
entire facility down at that point. At the very least,
they’re fighting for a drastic reduction in operations. The
council recently turned down a proposal that would have seen
Santa Monica taxpayers on the hook for paying flight schools
to have their students fly to other neighboring airports to
conduct their touch & go exercises!
I did some checking on the internet, and
have come up with some rather entertaining comments from
local landowners who have a stake in this mess. Most bought
homes close to the airport, now want it moved out! It
sounds crazy, but to those homeowners, they see nothing
wrong with their efforts. Read on, and enjoy the irony of
some writers in favor of keeping the airport and some who
aren’t.
(SMO refers to the Santa Monica Airport
identifier code).
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Fine, buy up the land adjacent to SMO and turn it into
commercial property. Who is going to come up with the
billions of dollars to do that? The federal government? Are
you aware of the land value and the costs of the houses and
schools? On the other hand Santa Monica could just
bulldoze the airport pay the FAA fine of less than $100,000
and there we have the most cost effective viable solution.
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On
March 31, 2003, Mayor Daley (Meigs Field Airport in Chicago)
ordered private crews to destroy the runway in the middle of
the night, bulldozing large X-shaped gouges into the runway
surface. The required notice was not given to the Federal
Aviation Administration or the owners of airplanes tied down
at the field. Interest groups, led by the Friends of Meigs
Field, attempted to use the courts to reopen it, but because
the airport was owned by the City of Chicago and had paid
back its federal aviation grants, the courts ruled that
Chicago was allowed to close the field. The FAA fined the
city $33,000 for closing an airport with a charted
instrument approach, without giving the required 30-day
notice.
Now
that was $33,000 well spent.
When the lease agreement between Santa Monica and the FAA
regarding SMO ends in the next few years let's use our money
wisely and have someone in office as both bold and caring as
Mayor Daley.
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SMO is Killing us.
The
enforcement of noise and pollution at SMO is a joke, about
as funny as the cancer it is giving its neighbors. The
pilots purposely fly around the noise sensors to avoid
detection. I have reports from the airport staff that
document a plane at 94Db, but the flight path was North of
the noise sensors. Had the plane flown the runway heading, a
different result would have been recorded. No fines, no
reprimand, no laws to enforce. The airport operates like
outlaws in the old West, the city commissioners say “trust
us” since their 1980’s resolution to close the airport still
remains unaddressed, while Santa Monica residents continue
to have our tax dollars used to supplement the deficit of
embarrassing “anti-green” black hole in the middle of our
city.
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I
used to have jets, news, fire, police and media helicopters
flying over my home of 37 years in the Hollywood Hills. It
is no longer a problem...I MOVED TO A QUIET NEIGHBORHOOD NOT
UNDER A FLIGHT PATH! Problem solved. Now I live near active
railroad tracks... VERY NOISEY. I'm going to start a
coalition in the area to shut down the damn noisy train
track. Anyone have any suggestions on how to go about that?
So far everyone tells me the tracks were there long before
the house I just bought and if I don't like the noise I
shouldn't have moved here. I should have the right live in
peace in my home, right?
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No
one needs this airport!
It
serves no purpose other than easy availability for
recreational pilots and jet landings, so as to not
inconvenience the wealthy, who would never live near the
airport.
No
assessment of airport revenue takes into account secondary
health assessments. The airport would generate more revenue
for the city and its people if it was closed down.
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Charles: When you sell your home, be sure to put these
comments on the California Residential Disclosure Report,
Paragraph C, item 11: neighborhood noise problems or other
nuisances. Or will it suddenly become a non-issue?
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Good point - here are some thoughts.
1. Noise - only one mile of pavement needed for the runway.
How many miles of roads in the city? So how many
jackhammers, heavy machinery, etc is needed for maintenance.
What about the rest of the infrastructure? Trucks,
deliveries to stores? Garbage pick up, etc, etc.
2. Emissions - compare the number of planes vs. cars,
trucks, buses, home electrical usage (yes, 99% energy as we
know it is not "green", including electrical supply since
only a miniscule fracture comes from solar or wind - the
rest is highly polluting or environmentally unfriendly)
3. Safety - hands down, more loss of life on the roads.
Plus, pilots must meet rigorous health exams and are much
safer than your average driver.
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There are too many greedy Developers and Politicians
involved in this battle - They have been salivating for
years on how much money they could make by forcing the
airport to shutdown and use the land for commercial or
residential development. General Aviation in America has
suffered enough already. I hope that someday the general
population that depends so much on commercial aviation will
realize that commercial aviation only gets to where it is
because of years of general aviation pursuits. Keeping
general aviation alive and well is in everyone's long term
interest.
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Like many I purchased my home before 1995. Why is this an
issue?
In
1995 the 85 decibel limit for airplanes was overturned and
jet owners hired extensive legal representation to raise
this limit to 95 decibels. When this happened the number of
jets increased exponentially.
SMO
does not have an FAA office on the premise so there is no
way to successfully penalize the jets or planes that fly in
or out over the 95 decibel limit or too low of a trajectory
over the neighborhoods.
But
truly the noise and low flying jets/planes are nuisance and
possibly health hazards. The indisputable issue is that
these jets are spewing a large amount of ultrafine particles
and lead fumes into homes and neighborhoods which harbor a
large number of preschools, elementary, and middle schools.
There is a profound level of irresponsibility here and the
fun and convenience of this small airport for the entitled
does not out weigh the vast number of residents and citizens
who live in close approximation to SMO.
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If
you are really serious about the money that the airport
supposedly "cost the taxpayers" Look at what the library
costs or the park dept or any of the other services you
"Don't use".
You will be amazed at how much money the library can waste.
What about the fire dept and the police dept. When was the
last time you "used" them?
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I
was running about 4 blocks from the airport one time and the
stench and fumes almost made me keel over. I had to run
through the fumes for 3 blocks until it dissipated.
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Charles, you sound on the surface as a pretty bright health
conscious person what with the running and all.
Why
the hell would you run right by the airport, by the end of
the runway where the jets are where they sit and idle and
according to some, actually make a tremendous amount of
NOISE?
And
then continue to run right through it?
Good thing there wasn't a jet fuel tanker truck overturned
and on fire.
You could have been seriously burned running right through
the flames!!
Did
you not hear the noisy jets?
You
people are so laughable.
Are you just making up stories or are you really dumb enough
to do that?
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I
realize all these pilots and aviation members have been told
to pummel these comments with their perspective and have
little to no idea what is going on here.
With everything there are risk benefit ratios and the health
risks associated with the airport's pollution and its lack
of safety, due to short runways vastly, far outweigh any
purported benefit by pilot's and aviation owner's claims.
Like the situation I discussed previously that took place in
Chicago -- SMO doesn't have to be turned into a shopping
mall. In Chicago their airport was turned into a public
park.
(Writers note: The city of Chicago has no funding to create
and maintain a park on the site. Consequently it sits
vacant and deserted for the most part, unkept and
abandoned).
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