The Airport Debate

Councilman Gary Thompson of Rancho Santa Margarita seems to be

campaigning to the wrong constituents when he writes in the Daily Pilot

letters (Feb. 4) that his city of 43,000 would be subjected to 300

departures a day from the proposed El Toro International Airport, eight

miles away.

Then he concludes, without evidence, that there will be no airport at

El Toro. I guess he concludes, also, that 600 or 1,200 flights a day over

Costa Mesa and Newport Beach, only two miles away from John Wayne

Airport, under alternatives G and beyond, would be just fine.

Wake up and smell the coffee, councilman.

We all must do our share. We need the two airports in Orange County.

Maybe even more. The first airline at El Toro can be Aloha with nonstop

flights to Hawaii. Take a vacation. You’ll feel better.

DON NYRE

Newport Beach

Reader agrees with sentiments in letter

I really wanted to give Frank Alvarez of Newport Coast a hallelujah on

his article that appeared in the paper [Feb. 8] and thank him for being

sensible and sensitive. It would be nice if you could frame this and send

it to our supervisors.

I really appreciated his article.

LOIS RAFFEL

Costa Mesa

Letter writer’s ideas on airport battle welcomed

It was a pleasure to read the letter submitted by Frank Alvarez of

Newport Coast on the subject of the El Toro debate. His insight is a

breath of freshness to this heated, emotional battle.

We must stop the “us against them” mentality in this county and move

forward with planning for the increase in air traffic.

By looking at the assortment of real, worthwhile alternatives, we

preserve the Orange County standard of living for all of our neighbors

and utilize existing or potential facilities that need the business.

BILL JORTH

Costa Mesa

Councilmen have right idea, resident has been misinformed

I enthusiastically applaud the three Newport Beach councilmen, John

Heffernan, Steve Bromberg and Gary Proctor, who are willing to counter

the propaganda contained in brochures put out by the city of Irvine with

a mailer of their own.

All one needs in order to be convinced of its necessity is to turn to

the Daily Pilot’s Community Forum Page and see the letter from Frank

Alvarez of Newport Coast.

Apparently Alvarez bought the misinformation from the anti-El Toro

Airport group. He suggested instead of building El Toro we should solve

our future air travel needs by using Camp Pendleton for a major regional

airport.

I could give him 25 reasons why that is impossible, but maybe the only

one necessary is the explanation of Edward Hanlon, Major General, Marine

Corps, Commanding General at Camp Pendleton, who stated in the Jan. 21

edition of the L.A. Times, “When considering the presence of an existing

large military airfield facility on Camp Pendleton, coupled with over 240

square miles of FAA designated special use airspace (which overlies the

base to protect adjacent civil aviation operations against the hazards of

live-fire military training activities, it’s easy to understand why

building an international civilian airport at Camp Pendleton is

illogical.”

ESTER FINE

Newport Beach

Newport-Mesa needs to come to bargaining table

Costa Mesa and Newport Beach were the only cities to vote against

Measure F last March. They lost.

Measure F would have offered them significant protection from John

Wayne expansion. We, in South County, then offered to unite with them in

opposition to both John Wayne expansion and El Toro construction.

Newport-Mesa would have none of it. They gambled that their arrogant,

single-minded stance to close John Wayne Airport would somehow succeed

without the rest of the county.

They guessed wrong and are now paying the price. The move by ETRPA to

simply encourage Newport-Mesa to live up to the 1985 agreement with the

FAA, letting the caps expire in 2005, might just do the trick. That is:

bring them to the table so all of us in Orange County can continue to

protect our health and safety by stopping airport growth in Orange

County.

DOUGLAS BROWN

Aliso Viejo

El Toro International would be a welcome sight

We need the new airport to be built.

This county has too many people to continue sending to LAX. The drive

is long, and the crowds are horrendous at Los Angeles.

Long Beach doesn’t have flights that go anywhere far away, and John

Wayne is overpriced with limited flight choices.

Ontario is too far away, and San Diego is even worse.

What are we to do when we retire (along with the other 2 million or so

baby boomers in Orange County) in a few years and start traveling much

more? Flap our wings?

The new tax base of expanding businesses and factories would also be

nice. That’s a lot of money and long-term growth being shortsighted by a

few Luddites in South County.

Please build El Toro International Airport!

JUSTIN WILLIS

Huntington Beach