Airport Seen as Boon, Burden

How did we ever win the war? What kind of thinking would ever consider conversion of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station to a commercial airport?

It is neither practical or beneficial for Orange County. It’s incomprehensible that a very small rich powerful and greedy group can dictate that a community will have to accept and endure a devastatingly deteriorated lifestyle in order to enhance their political and financial objectives.

It simply does not make good sense when viewed for the long term. One needs only to look at neighboring cities, i.e. Los Angeles, North Hollywood, Burbank, to see that as the areas deteriorated because of nearby airports, the property and economic values of the areas were adversely affected accordingly.

This resulted in the better and the good economic producing people of the affected areas to look for and move to places like Orange County so they could enjoy a better quality of life than they could in the airport-affected areas.

It’s a dreadful shame and absolute waste that the entire Southern California transportation problems are not being addressed in a cooperative regional forum. LAX is in the throes of expansion. Long Beach airport is underutilized. San Diego desperately needs a new airport before they suffer a major and catastrophic disaster.

Let’s start using the intelligence we were blessed with and consider practical alternatives for the El Toro conversion. If our only control over the quality of life we will be allowed to enjoy is to be dictated by self-serving business interests, than God help us all.

SAMUEL KRAUSE

Laguna Hills

* To justify his anti-El Toro airport position, one letter writer informs us of some study in Munich that claims children living near a commercial airport have reading, memory and motivational problems attributable to aircraft noise (Letters, June 22).

I find it interesting that he would think an unknown Munich study would impress Orange County citizens, because we have a far more credible source much closer to home.

Currently there are many children living right under the flight path of John Wayne Airport, and because that airport has little or no noise buffer zone, they get the full effect of aircraft noise. Investigating those children should produce more accurate results because they have similar lifestyles in every other way to those who will be affected by the proposed airport.

Maybe the reason the writer chose not to mention them is because a quick check will indicate their test scores are among the highest in our county.

That just doesn’t fit his purpose, nor others from South County. These letters to the editor are just more examples of anti-airport propaganda, similar to the biased and misleading information one can receive from the El Toro airport site on the Internet.

JOHN NEIL

Newport Beach

* In two separate countywide general elections, a majority of voters in Orange County voted to convert El Toro Marine Corps Air Station to a commercial airport. It is apparent that some cities in south Orange County do not accept the concept that majority rules and continue to fight against the conversion.

The need to convert El Toro to a commercial airport reflects the ongoing economic and population growth of the south Orange County area. In contrast to this tremendous growth pattern, cities in central and northern Orange County have experienced little growth in the past 25 years.

El Toro is located in south Orange County. If it were not to become a commercial airport, existing John Wayne Airport runways and facilities, surrounded on all four sides by thousands of homes and two freeways, would have to be expanded. In stark contrast to this, existing El Toro runways are surrounded by vacant land, specifically designed to insulate the adjacent communities from the scream of military fighter jets, which often practiced landings and takeoffs during all hours of the day and night.

Millions of dollars have been committed by some south Orange County cities to fight the El Toro conversion. The concerns of these cities should be considered. Rather than fight the conversion, it would make more sense and be more constructive if these cities were to actively participate in all stages of El Toro facility planning and construction as well as airport operational procedures.

MELVIN MANN

Newport Beach