Roar of the Crowd : Residents Mad About Lifting Airport Curfew for Super Bowl

In a decision that triggered catcalls and boos, the Board of Port Commissioners on Tuesday voted 4-2 to lift the nighttime curfew for planes taking off from Lindbergh Field after the Super Bowl game Sunday, Jan. 31.

In a session lasting more than two hours before a tense, standing-room-only audience, commissioners heard from an angry parade of residents from Point Loma and Mission Hills.

All complained that noise at the airport is, in the words of one, “as bad as it’s ever been” and that “granting an exception to visitors, who aren’t even taxpayers” is neither fair nor politically wise.

Tipping the balance in favor of waiving the curfew--which now extends from 11:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m.--were spokesmen from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Airline Managers Council. Both argued that maintaining the curfew, at least between the hours of midnight to 6 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 1, would cause air-traffic delays and potential safety concerns.

Their arguments convinced commissioners Ray Burk, Mel Portwood, Phil Creaser and Delton Reopelle. Voting to retain the curfew were Bill Rick and Dan Larsen.

Later, many of the more than two dozen airport neighbors were furious.

“Well, now the camel has his nose in the tent,” said Waskah Whelan, a Point Loma resident. “They say this is only one night. It isn’t one night. With all these conventions coming here, and the America’s Cup, this will happen again and again and again. This city is hungry for money. This is the first of many exceptions. Obviously, the loyalty is not to taxpayers--to residents--it’s to the hordes who will bring their money. What does that say about our values?”

Task Force “Erred”

Robert Payne, spokesman for the San Diego Super Bowl Task Force, said task force had asked the commissioners last week to lift the curfew, which also prohibits any plane that isn’t among the quieter Stage III aircraft from taking off between 10 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.

The task force had wanted the curfew to be lifted the night of Super Bowl as well as the next night, Monday. Commissioners vetoed that suggestion. The ban will resume at 11:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 1.

Payne said the task force had “erred” in “not having the foresight” to “judge the massive air-traffic problems” that the Super Bowl might

impose, even though representatives of Tampa and New Orleans had complained of the game causing delays of as much as three hours at their airports.

Payne said the task force, made up entirely of local volunteers, wished to “publicly apologize” for its “oversight” and “lack of proper preparation.”

Speaking before the commissioners, Payne stated the position of the task force as one that would “all but insure” future Super Bowls coming to San Diego. The game is expected to bring as much as $150 million to the local economy.

“Our objective is to become one of the sites in the permanent rotation (of host sites) for the Super Bowl,” he said. “We must use everything at our disposal to insure that. This is one of America’s premier athletic and social events. We need to do what we can to keep getting it.”

Payne said “many problems” had come up that the task force “just hadn’t foreseen.” (Other than the air-traffic imbroglio, he didn’t elaborate.) He said the Super Bowl was “the biggest convention in the history of San Diego,” noting that the “previous biggest” was a national Kiwanis convention that drew 16,000 visitors to the city in the late 1970s. The Super Bowl is expected to bring as many as 75,000 visitors.

The meeting’s first speaker, Max Schetter, representing the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce, said, “San Diego needs to roll out the red carpet for corporate America to come to Super Bowl XXII.”

As Schetter spoke, he was silhouetted by a covey of banners lining the walls of the room like angry warnings: “Just Say No to Fat Cats,” “Touchdown at Brown Field,” “No Curfew Equals Illegal Procedure,” “Visitors 24, Residents 0.”

Action Called ‘Suspicious’

“To accommodate a small number of corporate fat cats by lifting the curfew at the very last minute seems to me very suspicious,” said Sid McSwain, representing a group of Mission Hills home owners.

More than 300 corporate, chartered and commercial jets--in addition to regular air traffic--are expected to descend on the city for the Super Bowl. Some discussion was given to having a least a portion of that armada land at Brown Field. But with the commissioners’ vote, critics argued that such an alternative is now a “moot” point, that most of the sizeable fleet will land and take off at Lindbergh.

Brian Bilbray, who represents a portion of Point Loma as a member of the County Board of Supervisors, argued that removing the curfew would incite not only anger but “tend to create a built-in constituency among residents who in the future will oppose such events, because of the hardship it causes.”

Even the military got involved.

Lt. Col. Jesse W. Rigby of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, headquartered next to the airport, drew thunderous applause for a highly emotional presentation in which he argued that removing the ban would affect the sleep and thus the performance of future fighting men.

“Our men have reveille every day at 5:30,” he said, “except Sunday, when they get to sleep in until 6. I don’t care to have them disturbed.”

As Payne, the task force volunteer said outside, in a voice made weary by the attacks, “Sometimes, I wish I’d never gotten involved in this thing.”

San Diego’s taxi drivers are told to look spiffy for the Super Bowl. Page 2.