Long Beach Airport

Your editorial “Urban Treasure” (Jan. 10) supporting increased flights out of Long Beach Airport rests on a very shaky premise--namely that 30 or 40 additional flights per day will somehow solve the airport congestion problem in the metropolitan region. Expanding these small, regional airports is a short-sighted approach at best. The problem is much bigger than that. What the region needs is another major airport, either built off-shore or in Palmdale.

Instead of realistically looking for the financial and political steps towards a real solution, you propose to sacrifice another rare commodity in our great metropolitan area--stable, affordable neighborhoods full of families who have sought a reasonable balance between limited commercial use of the airport and their quality of life.

The residents of Long Beach are no more obligated to give up their homes or their community to “solve” the regional problem of airport congestion than are the residents of other communities obligated to accept freeways, prisons, etc. It is very easy for people who don’t live near the proposed facilities to write lofty editorials about “the need for regional solutions.” But this airport was never designed or intended to be a large commercial facility, and no obligation exists on the part of Long Beach residents to suffer the noise and danger of increased flights so that the rest of you don’t have to drive to LAX--or pay for a new airport away from populated areas!

REBECCA HARPER

Long Beach