Hey, What’s the Latest on That Airport?
You can’t blame a guy for being confused. And that’s exactly how I found the Man on the Street--in total confusion. This alarmed me, because he’s one of the savviest people around--even though I often find myself wondering, if he’s so smart, what’s he doing on the street?
But because the Man on the Street is the newspaper’s best friend, I gladly gave him a few minutes.
“Hey, what’s up with the El Toro airport?” he asks. “Did they ever build that thing?”
“Uh, not exactly,” I say. “They’re still debating it.”
“You don’t say. Boy, you’d think with a deal that big, they’d have figured it out by now. Don’t tell me they’re still split 3-2 on the thing?”
“Yes, they are,” I tell him, even as he winced. “But why would you expect it to be different?”
“Because,” he said, “if this is supposed to be such a great thing for the county, you’d expect a consensus on it.”
“I see your point. You’re saying that if something this transforming for the county is going to be approved, we should have something approaching countywide support?”
Passionate Feelings
“Exactly,” he said. “This isn’t like some school board voting on mandatory school uniforms. This isn’t some skating rink at the mini-mall. They’re talking about an international airport handling 30-some million passengers.”
“Granted,” I said, “but the majority thinks the minority is intransigent and won’t listen to reason. How can you budge people like that?”
“For starters, how about with some passion,” he said. “Why not bring in some neutral people who will tell the doubters how great the airport is and why it should be built there? How about the three-member majority eloquently detailing why the airport has to go there? If this is such a boon to future generations, they ought to be able to explain why.”
“Well,” I said, “I’m not sure passion and airport are two terms that go together. And if you want my personal opinion, I don’t think even the board majority has any passion about it. If any of the three lived in South County, they’d probably be arguing against it.”
“You can’t be sure about that,” he said. “They may be totally committed to putting an airport there.”
“Yeah, maybe,” I said. “But I don’t see this board majority in that light. Let me give you a for-instance. The majority recently said it wouldn’t care if the airport is built to handle less capacity than they’ve talked about. Does that sound like passion or commitment?”
Moments of Indecision
“Maybe they’re just trying to be accommodating,” he said. “You know, compromise.”
“One person’s compromise is another’s grasping at straws,” I said. “They know they’ve got a public works project on their hands that is going to antagonize tens of thousands of people, if not more. They’ve spent millions trying to change people’s minds, and they haven’t been able to do it.”
“Troubling,” he said. “Have you considered that you may be asking too much of this board? You want them to figure out whether to build an international airport at El Toro? Isn’t this the same group that anguished over whether to put its meetings on TV?”
“Trust me,” I told him, “the board has gotten lots of advice on airports. They’re not exactly flying blind on this one. Besides, they can say they’re merely executing the public’s will on two different votes.”
“I thought the polls showed the public is pretty evenly split,” he said.
“That’s what they’re showing these days,” I said. “Plus, both sides are now shooting for a third ballot issue next spring.”
“Good grief,” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me that in the first place?”
“To tell you the truth,” I said, “I was afraid it would just confuse you.”
Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers can reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by writing to him at the Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com.
