Key to Airport Solution

The key ingredient to any ultimate solution regarding San Diego’s airport expansion needs, be it Lindbergh Field or another site, continues to elude us.

That necessary missing component is a commitment by all of our governmental representatives to get together behind a plan.

For over 25 years, one governmental entity, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors or the San Diego City Council, (usually driven by the elected officials representing Point Loma constituents living near Lindbergh Field), recycles the issue and institutes a study.

Meanwhile, the commissioners of the San Diego Unified Port District strive to maintain Lindbergh’s safety and functionality as much as possible, never knowing from study to study if the airport is interim or long-term. Like Sisyphus and the proverbial stone, they are caught between the politics of other governmental entities, unhappy residents living under the flight path, noise-abatement lawsuits and responsibility for operating the facility.

The San Diego Assn. of Governments (Sandag) studies the problem, but has no real political clout to negotiate a solution on a regional basis.

What is needed is a working commitment by the City Council, the Board of Supervisors and the county’s entire congressional and legislative delegations.

A solution will require the agreement, resources and all the political clout San Diego has, both locally and nationally. For example, a master plan encompassing the expertise and jurisdiction of every interested agency should be able to find a way to utilize Lindbergh Field and give it a real chance to succeed as a positive solution.

If our government officials cannot get together behind the problem and cannot collectively find the power to influence the Department of Defense in Washington (if that’s what’s needed) to develop short- and long-term solutions, then we as citizens have elected the wrong people.

Lindbergh Field is here to stay for at least 15 to 20 years. At the very minimum, consideration of public safety, growing air traffic demands and escalating costs of a new airport site require port, city/county and associated planners to merge their efforts to bring Lindbergh Field up to par on a short-term basis. In the process, they might also give it a chance to work as part of the solution to San Diego’s long-term air traffic and transportation needs.

An intergovernmental, nonpartisan, non-territorial effort is needed--one that can be measured not by lip service or by committee attendance, but by results.

If the idea caught on, who knows what other regional problems we could solve.

NED BAUMER

La Jolla