COMMUNITY COMMENTARY

John Noyes and Gary Monahan

How would you like to wake up one morning and see a headline in the Daily

Pilot that reads “County Approves John Wayne Airport Expansion -- Flights

to Triple?”

What about “Sheriff Must Release Criminals -- Crime Rates Soar in Costa

Mesa and Newport Beach.”

If you do not want to see these headlines, you must vote no on Measure F.

How do we know that a no vote on Measure F is so important to protect you

and your family? Well, according to the sheriff of Orange County, if

Measure F is approved, “the county’s ability to provide adequate numbers

of jail beds to house arrested and convicted criminals will be made much

more difficult and public safety and quality of life in Orange County

will be diminished.”

If that is not enough, the sheriff said that Measure F would force him to

find “multiple new jail sites” and could “result in a potential loss of

tens of millions of much-needed dollars” to fund jail improvements.

For these reasons the sheriff and the Orange County Deputy Sheriff’s

Assn. are among the many respected organizations opposed to Measure F.

How do we know that a no vote on Measure F will help us prevent an

expansion of John Wayne? First and foremost, Measure F was written by the

El Toro Reuse Planning Authority -- a group of cities opposed to the

conversion of El Toro Marine Corps Air Station to a commercial airport

and opposed to the expansion of the Musick Jail in Lake Forest.

Many of the elected officials who helped write Measure F have publicly

supported removal of the restrictions on operations at John Wayne Airport

or the expansion of operations at John Wayne as soon as the agreement

between Newport Beach and the county expires. In fact, the L.A. Times has

quoted the mayor of Irvine as saying, “What we ought to be doing is

expand John Wayne Airport because it would have the least impact on the

fewest residents at the lowest cost.”

Measure F would require two-thirds of those voting to approve the

conversion of El Toro. The cities that wrote Measure F have spent almost

$10 million dollars this year waging a countywide campaign against El

Toro and they can be expected to do that every time they don’t like

something in their backyard. The wealth of these cities and their

willingness to spend it virtually ensures their ability to block

improvements they don’t like.

If these cities can prevent El Toro from becoming part of a two-airport

system, this county will have only one alternative -- an expansion of

John Wayne from Redhill to Birch, the construction of a second runway and

three times as many flights.

This expansion will be necessary to serve the demand created by

development in and around the same cities that are trying to prevent a

commercial airport at El Toro.

There are many other reasons to vote no on Measure F. The cost of

elections, the waste of tax dollars and the power of a small, but vocal

minority to veto public projects that benefit the county as a whole are

just a few of those reasons.

The non-aviation plan proposed for El Toro by the anti-airport cities

will generate more traffic, more air pollution and more demand for the

expansion of John Wayne while sucking up millions and maybe billions in

tax dollars to clean up the base and subsidize nonrevenue producing land

uses.

These are important reasons to oppose Measure F, but the most important

reason is to protect your family from crime and airport noise.

If you would like more information on why opposition to Measure F is

important, on how to fight the expansion of John Wayne Airport, and how

to get involved, please attend one of three upcoming meetings, which

start at 7 p.m.: Feb. 23 at Ensign Intermediate School, Feb. 24 at

TeWinkle Middle School, and Feb. 28 at Davis Education Center.

But most of all, on March 7, please vote no on Measure F.

* JOHN NOYES is the mayor of Newport Beach. GARY MONAHAN is the mayor of

Costa Mesa.