Open Letter to the EDITOR LONG BEACH POST re: Long Beach Airport – Defending the City

Dear Editor:

On June 27th the Long Beach Post published “Neighbors sue Long Beach, demanding tighter enforcement of airport noise ordinance” Read Here. The Southern California Aviation United Working Group feels the article may not have presented a complete perspective.

In defense of the City of Long Beach: Allegedly, many noise complaints are routed in hypocrisy and poor factual investigation. Homeowners who locate close to an airport, perhaps because of less expensive real estate, all sign escrow papers informing them that there is an airport nearby, and one would think that they might have observed the airport location prior to making their decision.  Unlike choosing to live on a flood plain or an earthquake fault line, whereas it is hard to regulate a potential natural danger, these new homeowners feel that they have every right to regulate those that have come before them and benefit from the airport, including the airport itself, so that their personal homeowner interests can be satisfied. Hypocrisy surfaces when these folks drive to LAX and depart on a jetliner at any time day or night generating much more noise than an aircraft taking off at Long Beach.  Plus, they do not mind doing so over someone else’s real estate!

Fact finding, would reveal that there is a difference between Torrance airport and Long Beach airport.  Torrance airport has no existing fiscal grant obligations to the FAA.  The City of Long Beach has FAA obligations, and as printed, the city has represented the possible loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding.  Not sympathetic, the airport neighborhood folks who have chosen to sue, selfishly feel justified because they willingly chose to live next to a busy airport and do not care that what they seek would be at the expense of every Long Beach resident.

 

Ron Berinstein
Southern California Aviation United Working Group (SCAUWG.ORG)
Director/Webmaster SCAUWG.ORG
contactus@scauwg.org

 

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