The worst part is: Once an airport gets torn down, it's lost forever. It never gets re-built. And we basically don't build new airports in the USA anymore. Can anyone remember the last time a new airport was built (outside of people building private dirt airstrips on their 20 acre ranch in Idaho)? As population centers shift and housing gets built, people move in next to noisy airports and then say to themselves "Holy shit, I moved next to an airport and it's loud. How could I have known? Surely this is the airport's fault!" and they go complain to their city.
A little public airport with a nice asphalt runway in my hometown recently went up for sale, and the price was within striking distance of what I could afford as an investment, but I chickened out and failed to pull the trigger. It would have meant moving across the country to manage it and convincing my company to let me work remotely (this was just before COVID when WFH suddenly became normalized). Sadly some shitty developer bought the plot and promptly closed the runway and facilities so he could build whatever shit he's going to build. Big regret.
>As population centers shift and housing gets built, people move in next to noisy airports and then say to themselves "Holy shit, I moved next to an airport and it's loud. How could I have known? Surely this is the airport's fault!" and they go complain to their city.
Harrison Ford makes a similar case about KSMO and why it's important to continue investing in general aviation.
>“Of course then they do a survey among Santa Monica voters. ‘What are the ten things that most need to be done?’ Number ten on their list is to get rid of the airport. But number one on their list is traffic congestion. [Lowers chin, raises eyebrows, points at me.] I rest my case.”
The airport is number one on the city COUNCIL's list. I think Harrison is mistaken here: The airport didn't even MAKE the list in a survey of Santa Monica citizens. Many of them don't even know the airport exists.
When asked directly about the airport, the majority of SM citizens SUPPORT it. The city has repeatedly commissioned studies (at taxpayer expense of course), and those have repeatedly indicated that the best course of action is keeping the airport open.
Needless to say, the city council never mentions these studies. They're currently blowing loads of money on consulting firms to perpetuate this absurd lie that the airport land will be turned into a giant park. They admitted years ago that there is, and will be, no money to build any such thing. And that was BEFORE their current "budget crisis." The sham is simply a rallying cry for land speculators, developers, and the city council that they own.
> "Holy shit, I moved next to an airport and it's loud. How could I have known? Surely this is the airport's fault!"
I think it's slightly worse than that. People buy a property for cheap[er than elsewhere] because it's close to an airport and then complain that their house is impacted by the noise from the airport and want to close the airport.
Yep. These assholes aren't even legitimate NIMBYs; they're land-speculating trash masquerading as NIMBYs.
I went to an anti-SMO protest just to keep apprised of their arguments. Talk about a disgusting spectacle: a bunch of rich white people pretending to be outraged about an airport they claim is only used by rich white people. All so they can steal an irreplaceable resource from their neighbors, the region, the nation, and their own children.
The thing is, nothing was done with Meigs for years. Even today there's only a half-assed performance venue of some sort at one end.
And now Chicago has illegally given public parkland on the lakefront to the Obama Foundation to build the "Obama Center," cutting down trees and taking land away from the lakefront park. While the lawsuit over that was in process, I wrote to the Obamas and suggested making a deal with the city to acquire all of Northerly Island to build the Obama Center there, on the condition that the runway be restored and reopened. It would have been perfect. The building planned for the center is even a tower; it could have had been the control tower at the top.
The Obama center is supposed to inspire wonder and hope and ambition, according to their PR, which heavily features children. What's more inspirational than the magic of aviation? Kids love to watch planes. The Obama Airport.
This suggestion was, of course, ignored. Obama lost a huge amount of respect in my book for stealing from the people of Chicago and failing to act on this idea (if anyone even forwarded it). What a lost opportunity for all.
Oh yeah, when Rahm Emmanuel was asked about re-opening Meigs, Mr. Hard-Ass folded and simpered that he didn't want to offend the Daley (crime) family.
Next up on the list of crimes against aviation and The People will be the seizure and destruction of Santa Monica Airport. This one is an even bigger betrayal, since it was federal land deeded to SM after WWII with the condition that it always be an airport. Coincidentally, Obama's lame-duck outgoing FAA administrator, Michael Huerta, struck a secret, illegal, back-room deal with someone in the Santa Monica city council to turn this public airport over to local hack politicians to sell off to developers. The circumstances of this deal have never been revealed, and airport supporters have run out of legal options on contesting it.
This disgusting betrayal of the FAA's duty represents just one more way the USA is going backward and giving up on the ambitions and dreams that made it great. Everything, it seems, is up for a one-time sale for permanent destruction and loss.
A little public airport with a nice asphalt runway in my hometown recently went up for sale, and the price was within striking distance of what I could afford as an investment, but I chickened out and failed to pull the trigger. It would have meant moving across the country to manage it and convincing my company to let me work remotely (this was just before COVID when WFH suddenly became normalized). Sadly some shitty developer bought the plot and promptly closed the runway and facilities so he could build whatever shit he's going to build. Big regret.