While Rae has been on the right side of the airport issue, she was very wrong about her handling of the Halloween attack.<<<<<
A quick digression to the airport issue: I have mixed feelings; I'm in another district, but have lived under the flight pattern most all my life. People have been telling us that our property values would be declining with each new airline that has come to town since the early 50's. We were told that the east/west runways would be brought into our neighborhoods.
All I can say is that houses that sold for 10-11K next to the airport in '50 are going for between 600K and 700K, average now. And since every single person in this area knew there was an airport here that might someday expand, why would they complain now?
Of course I'm waiting to see what people will move in to the Douglas properties at the north edge of the airport; I certainly hope they will not complain afterward about the noise:)
Up until JetBlue came to LB, we had approx. 15 flights/day. For a short period of time in the 80's, we were at about 40 flights/day, which is where we are now. At this level, we are just about maxed out when it comes to both the legal noise limit and economic impact. Pro expansion forces would like to see at least a doubling of flights, which I firmly believe would start to take its toll on property values, at least in areas closest to the takeoff/landing footprints. This, I believe, would negate any marginally positive additional economic benefits generated by full-blown expansion. I support modernization of the terminal only if we do it without creating additional capacity for more flights. The only way to do this is to make sure that we do not build additional aircraft parking spaces and to disallow any 2-story structures that could accommodate jetways.