El Segundo Mayor Fights LAX Expansion

* Thank you for writing about El Segundo Mayor Mike Gordon and his fight to stop the LAX expansion (Feb. 6). As a citizen of Westchester, I am against the expansion. Today’s airport is busy enough. Adding to it would just add chaos to our established community. We deal with the noise and pollution from the airport on a daily basis, and we still can’t get support on the noise and soundproofing issues.

I can’t imagine what expanding the airport would do to our schools. I went to high school in Playa del Rey, and often the teachers had to stop talking while plane noise consumed the classrooms. They estimated in the 1970s that we lost two weeks annually due to airport noise. This was 30 years ago!

We like being a part of the Westchester community. If the expansion goes through, we may as well turn into an industrial city. No one will want to continue living and bringing up children in the LAX area. Despite what the plans might say, ultimately this would affect hundreds of thousands of people in the neighboring communities.

YOLANDA A. GARCIA

Los Angeles

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When L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan said that Gordon should work with Los Angeles to mitigate the effects LAX expansion will have on the city of El Segundo, Gordon replied, “It can’t be mitigated.” This is the sentiment of the people of Orange County. The same devastation will happen here if an international airport is allowed to be built at El Toro.

It’s too bad that Gordon has worked so hard to destroy our county by lobbying for an airport at El Toro as part of the regional airport solution. Look at a map. Orange County is tiny, and people expect us to have the second-largest international airport in all of Southern California.

Can you beat someone over the head, give them a helmet and call it mitigation? In the words of Gordon, “It can’t be mitigated.”

GAIL BRUNELL

Laguna Niguel

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Bravo to Gordon. His coalition-building against LAX expansion is a welcome antidote to the usual attempt by insiders, bureaucrats and officials to dictate public policy. The public should always have a substantial role in such decision-making.

DANA GABBARD

Executive Secretary

Southern California Transit

Advocates, Los Angeles