2 Views on Burbank Airport Expansion Plan

* Reader Gerald T. Farrell (Letters, July 4) expressed the narrow view of a group of homeowners near the Burbank Airport.

They refuse to accept the economic reality that unless the airport’s moderate growth is encouraged, the entire San Fernando Valley will continue to lose jobs and property values.

Airports, like all other transportation facilities, generate jobs--not just the thousands of good-paying jobs directly connected with travel, but many thousands more with large and small firms which buy or sell goods and services around the country.

These are the jobs Los Angeles needs now.

Delays in allowing the Burbank Airport to meet our future needs put those jobs in jeopardy.

Farrell seems to feel that overcrowding at LAX is the sole reason for the Burbank Airport’s need for a better terminal. That’s only one small factor in most San Fernando Valley travelers’ preference for Burbank. There are dozens of other factors, not the least of which is the two hours it takes to get from most homes or offices in the Valley to an LAX departure gate. Even that’s no sure thing, as anyone who drives the 405 Freeway can testify.

JIM FOY

Van Nuys

* In response to the interview (June 8) of Robert Garcin, president of the Burbank Airport Authority, and the Valley Commentary (June 27) by Steve Volz, chairman of the Friends of the Burbank Airport:

Both Garcin and Volz seem to subscribe to the “big lie” theory--if you tell a big enough lie often enough, people will believe it.

The lie in this instance regarding the Burbank Airport appears to be as follows: There is no airplane noise problem in the East Valley and, even if there were, there is nothing that can be done about it.

In fact, the Burbank Airport does create a noise problem in the East Valley, which is why community homeowners associations and community activists in the East Valley seek to have present flight patterns changed and also oppose current airport expansion plans.

Once the airport authority recognizes the indisputable fact that there is a problem of airport noise in the East Valley, it can and should work toward a solution.

LEE ARIAN

Valley Village