No Cease-Fire in Airport Battle

In your Dec. 18 article “El Toro Foes’ Anger Feeding Talk of Boycott,” I expressed reluctance to penalize North County businesses and their employees for the actions of the Board of Supervisors. It seems unfair to punish employees who have no control. I do, however, have ambivalent feelings about this issue. Pro-airport cities and businesses have shown a complete lack of regard for the South County citizens who are also their customers.

If any kind of economic boycott occurs, it is most important that it is targeted carefully, so that we do not hurt ourselves. For example, massive demands for reassessments of property could easily result in lower revenues for the cities in which we live. However, there may be merit in South County boycotting Newport Beach’s Fashion Island, as well as Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, etc.

South County residents who spend money at these businesses subsidize pro-airport activities through sales taxes and profits. Similarly, Southern California Edison should be aware that hundreds of thousands of their customers strongly oppose General Manager Roger Embrey’s efforts to bring an airport to El Toro, and delaying payments may be an effective way of conveying that message.

Finally, I have to add that it was offensive to read the comments of some of the pro-airport business leaders and officials who object to absorbing any negative consequences whatsoever for their disdainful treatment of South County citizens.

MICHAEL WARD

Council member

Irvine

* Hip, hip, hooray!

Those of us in North County are so pleased to learn of the holiday shopping boycott of Fashion Island by South County residents.

Obviously, such a move will diminish noise, air pollution and traffic congestion, and result in inflated property values for citizens of Newport Beach and surrounding areas.

I mean, really. Is this the kind of mentality we are dealing with here?

JACK EVERSMEYER

Newport Beach

* The boycott of Newport Beach and North County business is a start in expressing our rage over an international and commercial airport being built in southern Orange County.

North County can call it “childish” and “misdirected,” but it all boils down to the bottom line: money. The bottom line will hurt our housing values, so what is not fair about playing the same game?

We plan to boycott every business in North County and Newport Beach to express our anger.

JIM and EVELYN GALLOWAY

Irvine

* It depends on whose ox is gored. Tim Cooley of the Orange County Business Council condemns the boycott of Newport Beach stores as “childish.”

Apparently, he thinks it more mature for one half of the county to reap financial benefits from the projected El Toro Airport, while the other half (where he does not live) is subjected to an unending roar of planes overhead.

[That is] something like the song “Kiss Me Kate,” where Kate complains of the inequity of the man-woman relationship. “He has the fun, and you, the baby.”

MORRIS STEIN

Laguna Hills

* The Dec. 15 news analysis “Will Airport Spur Economy?”, although fairly comprehensive regarding the reuse of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, was less than objective, in my opinion.

As soon as your reporter drew a definitive conclusion in the opening paragraphs, you were treading on shaky ground. You said, “The answer, unquestionably, is yes,” in response to [whether] a commercial and cargo airport at El Toro really would produce economic benefits. It wasn’t until near the end of the piece that you even made mention of other important factors, and you treated those as mere afterthoughts.

For example, on the economic front, you listed jobs generated by a new expansive airport [such as] baggage handlers and ticket checkers, neither of which is high paying and both of which are dead-end jobs. Any construction employment is obviously temporary, not long term. Benefits would accrue to select businesses by cutting their expenses.

Also, your research to prove your premise cited other areas of the country (Georgia, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver) where the local conditions and situations may be and probably are vastly different from Orange County.

Because the redevelopment at El Toro is such a hot-button, divisive issue, I feel Times readers have a right to expect more objective analyses and reporting, not an [analysis] that smells of bias and is a possible plant by those who will directly benefit from the cause being promoted.

ANITA C. SINGER

Laguna Hills

* If South County residents want to boycott businesses in Newport Beach in order to protest an airport at El Toro, I have just one request: Please add John Wayne Airport to your list! If enough El Toro opponents promise to drive to LAX, Ontario and San Diego for the rest of their lives maybe we won’t need another airport.

TERRY CABORN

Newport Beach

* Don Moery of San Clemente owes the citizens of La Habra an apology. In his Dec. 15 letter he was moaning and groaning about the airport issues and said: “People in La Habra who voted for the airport probably don’t even know where El Toro is.”

Well, I lived in La Habra when Irvine referred to the Irvine Ranch and not the city. I knew exactly where El Toro was. Even when I moved I still retained my knowledge of El Toro. Moery must think the people that live in north Orange County are stupid.

Well, not everyone wants to live in San Clemente. Like many other citizens of Orange County, I voted for the airport. I believed it was the right thing to do. If it comes up for a vote again and I believe it is still the right thing to do, I will vote for it again.

WALTER W. WILSON

Fullerton

* The consensus is that an international airport is needed to serve Orange County. San Diego has needed a new airport for years but can find no place to put it. The distance between Los Angeles and San Diego is about 124 miles. The midpoint between the two cities is approximately at the county line between southern Orange county and northern San Diego County. If there was ever a logical place for a new international airport, this county line area is it.

Camp Pendleton occupies the northern corner of San Diego County right up to the county line. The Marine base occupies a massive piece of land, but its utilization is massed in the southern part.

Interstate 5 goes past Camp Pendleton, as does rail service. Expanding the rail service for the airport would benefit Los Angeles and San Diego as well as all the beach cities in between.

There is no need to wipe out the major economic assets of thousands of families in Irvine, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Laguna Hills, Aliso Viejo, Foothill Ranch and the surrounding communities by destroying their property values by building an international airport at El Toro.

Could this logical plan ever happen? Could the Marines be persuaded to give up this unused part of their camp? It is all just a matter of politics and the determination of the people and their elected leaders.

TIMOTHY TRAVIS

Mission Viejo