Launching Opinions on El Toro

I was not surprised that the Orange County Board of Supervisors would react with some ire to my comments in The Times to the effect that they had already made up their minds on the El Toro reuse issue.

Although I hold out slim hope that some of the excellent technical testimony they heard from former Marine pilots and aviation experts regarding the operational and logistic problems that make a commercial airport at El Toro infeasible, if not extremely dangerous, had any impact, the fact remains that this information has been available to them for over four years, yet they have forged ahead in their efforts to force a commercial airport there.

We all understand how divisive the El Toro reuse issue has been to the great county of Orange. Of course we in South County have strong feelings that will only grow stronger as the Board of Supervisors seems intent on forcing an unneeded and dangerous commercial airport upon us. The supervisors have a great opportunity to help heal the divisiveness and restore some faith in our system of government.

MARK J. GOODMAN

Councilman, Laguna Niguel

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* Re: “International Airport? Let’s Shoot for Digital Port Instead,” (Orange County Voices, Oct. 6): I feel it would be very beneficial to have an airport at El Toro. John Lautsch uses the industries of Silicon Valley as an example in his article, but neglects to add that we already have a large, thriving, similar industry in this area. He advises us that we should follow San Diego’s example of fiber optics, ignoring the fact that the cities of Orange County have been involved in this project for the past few years.

We now have the potential of placing a major international airport in the south Orange County area. An airport would allow vast quantities of business to reach our industrial areas for the enhancements he has in mind, in a much easier travel pattern than is now available. Lautsch ignores the fact that the Silicon Valley has traditionally sent its trainers out, due to the lack of transportation available for incoming visitors.

I believe that if we carefully and proportionally combine an airport with growing high-tech industry, it will allow for the growth being enjoyed by presently successful cities, such as Phoenix and Palo Alto.

South Orange County needs a regional airport if we are to take our proper place in the industrial communications systems of the world.

SPENCER T. EBERLE

Laguna Niguel

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* The emerging importance of information technology to all sectors of Orange County’s economy cannot be overemphasized.

UCI’s Graduate School of Management’s 1996 Orange County Executive Survey revealed that seven out of 10 executives at large firms consider information technology to be a significant source of competitive advantage. A significant and increasing percentage of locally based businesses, regardless of size, are successfully using information technology to pursue operational excellence, enhance customer relations and achieve product leadership.

Indeed, a new survey we completed in September shows that graduates with MBAs who have mastered information technology as a tool to make business decisions and chart strategy are more likely to be hired and command top wages than those with “generalist” MBAs. The hiring of “techno” MBAs by the “Big Six” consulting firms is projected to grow by an astonishing 142% between 1995 and 1997, while their hiring of generalist MBAs is expected to decline by 14%.

As Lautsch points out, there is a growing body of evidence directly linking the quality of an area’s electronic infrastructure (telephones, cable TV, Internet availability, etc.) and its economic health. GSM is taking an active leadership role in what appears to be a paradigm shift in the conduct of business worldwide. For this and other reasons, Orange County is ideally positioned to become a global information technology hub which can lead directly to long-term prosperity.

Whether that has any implications for the reuse of El Toro is another question.

DENNIS J. AIGNER

Dean

Graduate School of Management

UC Irvine

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* Re your editorial, “As El Toro Deadlines Loom . . .” (Oct. 6):

One perspective seems to have been lost in the debate over the future of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. This facility represents a significant investment of taxpayers’ money over a great number of years. This taxpayer investment has produced an airport of tremendous potential value for Orange County, in a location that would not be available if the airport did not already exist.

It is fitting in these times that a military facility no longer needed by the federal government should be turned over to local government to be put to its highest and best use. By turning the air station over to Orange County, the federal government is in effect presenting a gift from the taxpayers of the United States to the taxpayers of Orange County. Unlike most “gifts” from the federal government these days, it will bolster rather than drain the local economy.

The opponents to the development of El Toro as a commercial airport facility seem to consist primarily of area homeowners hoping for an increase in their property values, and investors eager to get their hands on prime real estate at bargain basement prices.

The vast majority of El Toro area homeowners purchased property near the base despite the fact that the skies overhead were regularly used by military aircraft not subject to the noise abatement requirements imposed on private planes or commercial air carriers. Presumably, the purchase price of their property reflected the inconvenience.

To allow investors to dismantle the base and develop it for some other use would amount to nothing more than just another blatant taxpayer rip-off.

KOZAK AUGUSTINE

Orange

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* Have I missed something in the translation? The Airport Working Group from Newport Beach is telling South County residents that because they have bought homes in the south that they are responsible for the demand for an airport and they are being hypocritical by not wanting an airport over their houses. Yikes! Couldn’t it also be said that Newport Beach with its museum, pier, beautiful beaches, harbor, restaurants, hotels, shopping and golf courses has created its own nuisance tourist attraction with an increased demand for air traffic?

MARY SCHWARTZ

Santa Ana