Letters: What to do with Santa Monica’s airport

Re “City moves to close airport,” March 27

One wonders how long residents of Santa Monica will put up with a City Council that continues to waste time and money on fruitless attempts to close or cripple the city’s small airport. These costly efforts to mollify a tiny band of airport opponents who rue their decisions to purchase homes in the vicinity of the airport have gone on for decades and have resulted only in a reduction in revenues from operating the facility.

As a neighbor who has lived 1,000 feet from the runway for 29 years, I do hear intermittent airport traffic. But I also hear jets approaching LAX, lawn mowers, leaf blowers and vehicle noise.

The airport is a community asset, not a liability, and its closure would result in nuisances far outweighing those we endure now simply as city dwellers and airport neighbors.

Bart Everett

Los Angeles

The Federal Aviation Administration is obstructing the efforts of Santa Monica residents to close their airport.

Have we forgotten that the FAA is not a private entity that can do what-

ever it feels like? It is part of the federal government, which is there to do what the people want. If the people’s representatives go to the president and say, “We want to close the airport,” the president ought to tell the FAA, “Do it, and stop arguing.”

Rory Johnston

Los Angeles

The Santa Monica City Council wants to improve safety by making the airport runway shorter. I see. Santa Monica residents should know they have a higher chance of getting murdered in their city than of being killed by a plane.

The problem exists because of improper zoning that allowed homes to be built far too close to the airport — which, by the way, was there first.

Jack Keady

Playa del Rey

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