Originally published at: Whiteman Airport Safety Motion Revives Closure Debate
The Pacoima airport’s future remains under review as county officials seek a federal safety review.
The closure of both SMO and WHP will devastate the utility of light GA for reaching the west side of LA. VNY is practically consumed by bizjets and BUR is for commercial flights. The next nearest airports will be HHR and EMT, which are a considerable distance from the LA-Santa Monica commercial corridor. They’re not far as the crow flies, but the traffic from those places to the west side makes it a 1-2 hour drive from either of them. Frankly, even WHP isn’t great when there’s any amount of traffic: SMO will be irreplaceable.
Yep. Don’t bury the power lines. Close the airport. That will fix everything.
The bottom line is how to reconcile a historical airport with urban encroachment. Though I’m not sure, I ll guess those power lines weren’t there when the airport was opened or the years after. I’ll also go out on a limb that someone waived something to approve those power lines on the approach path to an airport.
What this supervisor should be questioning is why those power lines were ever approved in the first place and how quickly can they be buried. In reality, as in the case of SMO, BDUand BKL, the politicians and the populace see airports as playthings of the ‘rich.’ They don’t look at the economic engine an airport can be. They forget they tomorrow’s airline pilots and future military aviators are still the kids at the fence. Keep taking away the opportunity to learn and sooner or later the pipeline will run dry.
But, hey, let’s just level all the airports, and turn them into affordable housing and parks. (Not)
They hate airplanes because of the noise and supposedly lead poisoning, but can’t get enough of drone deliveries from Amazon and others. Go figure.
The ‘safety’ initiative is just another ploy to close the airport. Watch it, any of you that are tenants, remember the fate of Meigs. Beware of corrupt government officials seeking land.
The real problem, probably! Politicians or their key constituents seeking valuable land for housing, or commercial!
‘Me’ has become the operative word.