Happy to Trade Homes

Reader Janice K. Maslow’s letter Dec. 24--about having the Friends of the Burbank Airport, who presumably aren’t aware of airplane noise, trade houses with homeowners in North Hollywood--is a great idea.

I’ve long wished I owned a house in, say, Toluca Lake, right under the most frequently used takeoff runway. That’s North Hollywood, isn’t it?

And I’d be thrilled to trade my Burbank house for Bob Hope’s, for example. Or nearly any of the near-mansions around the lake. Or perhaps Maslow could work out a swap for mine in exchange for one of the great homes in the hills south of Ventura Boulevard, where most of the most vocal airport haters seem to live.

I was the founding president of what was formerly called the Friends of the Hollywood Burbank Airport. The current president lives directly under the most popular takeoff path. Either one of us should qualify for a swap.

So should the hundreds of people who live very close to the busy southern tip of the airport but who recognize the airport’s value to the area as an essential travel facility and as a magnet for jobs.

JAMES E. FOY, Burbank