Putting airport debate to sleep

In his recent letter to the editor titled, “Good night, El Toro

airport fight, sleep tight,” writer Martin A. Brower would have us

join him on his trip to Fantasyland as he postulates that “ the issue

of an airport at El Toro should never have come up.”

The fact that the South County whiners were successful in

frightening their fellow residents into believing the myth that a

commercial airport would somehow endanger them doesn’t change the

reality that the location was, and still is, the best location for a

major commercial airport in this region. The loss of this opportunity

has been an economic blunder of almost biblical proportions -- maybe

we should have Mel Gibson make a movie about it.

When addressing John Wayne Airport and the probability of its

expansion, Brower writes, “Some of my best friends live directly

under the flight path, and I sympathize with them.” I found myself

wondering how many of them will remain his “best friends” after

reading his drivel.

In an attempt to throw up a smoke screen, Brower equates a

commercial airport at El Toro with oil wells off the coast and an

atomic plant at Mile Square Park and speculates that “Orange County’s

economy will prosper quite well without an airport, oil wells or an

atomic plant.” I’m sure he hoped readers would conjure up images of

oil-covered beaches, nuclear meltdown and catastrophic plane crashes

by this tactic. Nice try, Mr. Brower.

Through all the rhetoric over the last several years regarding the

proposed airport at El Toro, even the most staunch opponents did not

deny that a commercial airport at that location would be an economic

engine that would anchor prosperity in Orange County for decades to

come. Brower would have us believe that everything’s going to be OK

-- we didn’t need that old airport, anyhow. I’m sure he’s focusing

his energy on the success of that boondoggle that surfaced last fall

-- the Tri-Tunnel Express -- which proposes that three tunnels be

drilled underneath Saddleback Peak to the Inland Empire to meet

Orange County’s airport needs.

The airport at El Toro may be dead now but that doesn’t mean it

wasn’t the right use of that land. It does mean that, with enough

money behind you, it’s still possible in this country to frighten

enough people into making the wrong decision. I’m sure we all will

keep Brower, Irvine Mayor Larry Agran and the rest of the mob that

quashed the airport at El Toro in mind as we enjoy our leisurely

drive to LAX or Ontario, through bumper-to-bumper traffic in our

attempt to wing off to some exotic place.

I’m sure his “best friends” living under the flight path of John

Wayne Airport will think kind thoughts about him as the pressure to

expand the airport results in more, lower and louder aircraft flying

over their homes. I wouldn’t be surprised if he is a frequent guest

at patio cocktail parties, so he can share in the result of his

efforts.

Only time will tell us who was right in this battle. For the sake

of all Orange Countians, I hope Brower and his cronies were correct.

Logic and my gut tell me they were not.

In an ironic twist, recently the newspapers carried the story of

presidential candidate John Kerry’s plan to use El Toro as a site for

affordable housing for service men and women in Orange County. If

successful, this would put a real monkey-wrench into the plans for

development of Emperor Agran’s Great Park and surrounding home

developments. One cannot help but smile at the poetic justice in this

situation.

GEOFF WEST

Costa Mesa

It is obvious that Martin A. Brower never looked at an aerial map

of Orange County. If he had, he would have seen that land had been

dedicated to overflights, such that flights heading south, out of El

Toro, would not pass over homes or schools before coming to the

ocean.

The former Marine base at El Toro would have made a great airport

had it not been turned into a political football.

Now the pressure is on John Wayne Airport. The last agreed-upon

limit of passengers and flights is the end of the line. Any further

increase in activity nurtures disaster in terms of excessive

pollution, decreased safety, untenable noise and overall unbearable

traffic -- both air and surface.

Planes arrive and depart every 90 seconds, seven days a week --

who needs more? Don’t let the airlines have another inch.

BOB WOLFF

Newport Beach

Martin Brower’s letter “Good night, El Toro airport fight, sleep

tight,” makes a travesty of logic. It should be labeled as

propaganda.

Brower weeps crocodile tears about the fate of Newport Beach

residents under the flight path of John Wayne Airport, which he

describes as a “rather large commercial airport.” The effect of air

traffic over heavily populated Newport Beach he dismisses as a

problem to be dealt with later. He assures the reader that Orange

County will prosper economically with only one airport.

Brower goes on to write that no one would ever use the 4,000 acres

at El Toro for an airport when Orange County already has John Wayne

Airport. Never mind that John Wayne has fewer than 500 acres with one

short runway (5,700 feet) while El Toro is 10 times as large (4,700

acres, not 4,000) with four long, intact runways. No one is in the

noise zone at El Toro, while several thousand residents in Newport

Beach and Costa Mesa are impacted by the 1,000 flights per day in and

out of John Wayne Airport.

This is a bargain-basement sale of land that taxpayers have

already paid billions for. Orange County residents and taxpayers are

the losers.

SHIRLEY A. CONGER

Corona del Mar