Coexisting in Van Nuys

The argument goes that because the Van Nuys Airport creates jobs, we should leave it alone, let it continue to pollute the air with noise, especially that of helicopters and older jets. We should even allow it to expand, increasing the assault on our ears.

By this logic, let’s have a steel mill or two, perhaps a meat-packing plant with adjacent feedlots, or how about a paper mill? A nuclear waste dump? An open-pit mine? All these things create jobs, but would any one of them be given a permit to locate in the middle of our densely packed community? The argument simply doesn’t hold up.

Let’s see the airport voluntarily eliminate older, noisier jets, helicopter joy-riding, redundant news helicopters. Let’s see commercial operators self-impose a strict curfew on all flights and provide proof that “medical emergency” exceptions to the curfew are bona fide emergencies. When we’ve seen substantial evidence of the aviation community’s sincere desire to coexist with its neighbors, maybe then we can talk about jobs and about expanding the airport.

JIM HOUGHTON

Encino