WHAT’S UP -- steve smith

A new voice has entered the airport debate, claiming to have the true

public sentiment on their side. The committee is called the No Airport

Group (NAG). Their goal? You won’t believe it. A couple of days ago, I

caught up with Ron Gryffinder, the head of NAG. Over coffee, I asked Ron

about the group.

Question: How long have you been around?

Answer: We formed our organization the day after reading a recent airport

monologue in the Daily Pilot and then receiving a postcard from the

Airport Working Group, the folks supporting the El Toro airport.

Q: Why then?

A: There was a quote on the postcard attributed to Assemblywoman Patricia

Bates that was taken so out of context, it may as well have been false. I

knew that, so I started this organization to bring everyone back to the

truth.

Q: So are the anti-airport people telling the truth?

A: The anti-airport supporters want voters to believe that the only

people advocating El Toro are rich, money-grubbing developers who want to

sell the county’s soul so they can live without more jets flying over

their homes. That, too, is false. Both sides have started down a dark

road so we’ve taken matters into our own hands.

Q: What’s your plan?

A: We believe that the El Toro airport question is not a straight up or

down issue. We believe there is a third choice which merits serious

consideration, namely, no El Toro airport and no John Wayne Airport,

either.

Q: Sorry, must be my head cold. It sounded like you said you wanted to

shut down John Wayne Airport.

A: You heard correctly. Look, it makes perfect sense if you take a moment

to think about it. The fact is that the folks under the John Wayne flight

path and the anti-El Toro people actually have a lot in common. Both

sides don’t want those noisy, smoky jets flying over their homes and we

don’t blame them. So, in order to satisfy both sides, we want to stop El

Toro and shut down John Wayne.

Q. But what about businesses? What company will want to relocate here if

there’s no major airport?

A. Plenty of them. We predict that the region will be flooded with

companies seeking to put down roots. Look at the trend all across the

country. Big companies aren’t flocking to crowded urban areas with packed

freeways and huge airports next door, they’re heading for the nice,

clean, quiet suburbs because they want to live where they work. Look at

Silicon Valley or Fort Collins, Colo. These are good examples of sensible

corporate relocations.

Q: So you think that no airport is good for business?

A: As I said, look at the trend.

Q: Well, that’s an interesting theory, but what about business travelers?

They’ll have to drive 45 minutes or an hour to LAX or Ontario to fly out.

A: Not if we follow our plan to put in a rail line from Orange County to

another airport. NAG wants to tear down everything except the parking

garages along MacArthur. Those would be used as a train station where

people could simply park their cars and hop on a train.

And besides, if flying is a hassle for these corporate types, maybe

they’ll do less of it and spend more time here with their families. So,

no airports may be good for family values, too.

Q: A rail line? Who is going to pay for that?

A: We’ve estimated that all of the costs can be paid for by selling El

Toro, selling John Wayne after it’s shut down, and by skipping that silly

light rail line from Costa Mesa to Irvine. Right there, that rail line

savings is $1 billion, which we can use to start our direct line to some

other international airport.

Q: Do you really think you have a chance to do all this?

A: My parents never thought they’d see a man walk on the moon. I never

thought I’d see Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin shake hands. Compared to

those moments in history, our plan is kid stuff.

Q. How do supporters contact you?

A. Tell them not to worry, that we’ll be in touch with them. A lot. Hey,

we’re not called NAG for nothing!

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and freelance writer. Replies can

be sent to the Daily Pilot at (949) 642-6086, by e-mail at

dailypilot@latimes.com, or to Steve at stsmth19@idt.net.