Size Matters for LAX Expansion Foes

Inglewood’s first town meeting on Los Angeles International Airport’s expansion got off to a late start Saturday. People complained that they were delayed by the traffic on the San Diego Freeway.

Probably because there were too many people going to LAX, cracked the first speaker.

It was an appropriate beginning to a meeting dedicated to easing the airport’s impact on surrounding communities. The several hundred at the session were mostly residents, eager to learn what they could do to prevent the airport and its accompanying traffic, noise and pollution from growing even bigger.

“Planes roar over my house every two minutes or so as is,” said Manhattan Beach resident Lorenzo Diez. “I can’t even comprehend how they would think about making it bigger.”

But plans to do that are underway. The LAX expansion plan, embraced by Mayor Richard Riordan, airlines and most city business interests, calls for doubling the facility’s passenger capacity by 2020 while tripling its cargo-handling abilities.

Proponents of the expansion plan argue that the Los Angeles airport needs to grow for the region’s economic good. Los Angeles is in competition with other West Coast cities for trade and travelers, they say, and a big airport is needed to keep up.

No one, not even the die-hard LAX expansion opponents on hand Saturday, disputed the need for more passenger and cargo facilities.

But opponents insist that the expansion take place at other places, such as Palmdale, in the far northern reaches of Los Angeles County.

“I hardly think this is a NIMBY [not in my back yard] sort of reaction,” said El Segundo resident Joan Hardy. “Look at all the noise and pollution we already put up with. I’d say we’ve been pretty game. We just don’t want it to get any worse.”

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Saturday’s town meeting was not the sort of gathering concerned with an evenhanded debate.

Rather, it was a workshop in teaching residents how to apply political pressure.

“The vote to approve the expansion will be taken first by the Airport Commission, which is appointed by the mayor,” Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, a leading foe of expansion, explained to the crowd.

But then, the decision moves to the City Council. And all those members “read the papers, watch TV and read letters,” Galanter said.

She urged the crowd to crank up the heat on her counterparts.