Finally Some Good News! - Santa Monica Airport: Local Residents get
Active…
By Theresa
Hulme
The bad news first: The Santa
Monica Airport and the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) have taken over our
skies. As a result, our pursuit for a peaceful life at the beach has become
more like over-priced apartments on a military base. Unfortunately, both of
these U.S. taxpayer funded entities live inside the pockets of the corporations
that control their decision-making and pull their strings.
As the Venice community is painfully aware,
the Santa Monica Airport exists under the jurisdiction of the city of Santa
Monica. Bringing plenty of corporate dollars to the city and lots of fancy tax
breaks for business jet owners, it is a sweetheart deal for the city and its
corporate clients.
The airport vomits
jet fuel all over Venice and West L.A., leaving residents toxified and
infuriated. In addition, noise pollution is a huge grievance. Corporate jets
take off and land at the airport sometimes every few minutes, 7 days a week,
robbing residents of peace and quiet. The fines imposed on pilots violating
noise levels are kept inside the Santa Monica Airports treasury.
The good news: Most often in major
media, stories of great importance are published but never followed up on as
circumstances evolve. With the Santa Monica Airport abuses being a very
personal and upsetting issue to Venetians, the Beachhead receives requests for
on-going updates on airport issues.
So, after several determined months of
community outreach, WE, the unified peopledom, are working together and forging
new paths to prove Margaret Mead’s timeless and sweetly famous words of
wisdom: “Never doubt that a group of committed citizens can change the
world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Here’s how we’ve
progressed:
Outcries about the airport
from Venetians has spurned The Grass Roots Venice Neighborhood Council (GRVNC)
to adopt an official position on the airport. Elected Treasurer of GRVNC Jim
Smith says: “Venice does not reap any financial benefits from the airport
yet residents are subject to noise and pollution that is hazardous to their
health. I am hopeful that the Neighborhood Council will take some action on
this issue.”
Local Activists started a
website <jetairpollution.com> which is chock full of relevant articles,
studies, and links that answer questions, encourage involvement, and shed light
on truths about the realities of living near an airport. Affected citizens
should join Concerned Residents About Airport Pollution. (yes, that’s
CRAAP!) and receive updates on relevant meetings, a who’s who, an
invaluable contact list and much more. Sign up for CRAAP on the jetairpollution
website and tell your friends and neighbors!
The Santa Monica Airport Commission,
comprised of 5 appointed individuals who advise the City Council, and hold sway
and vote on topics of importance at the airport, have responded to community
concerns.
They have voted to
“agendize” air pollution and environmental impact issues. In the
past, these vital issues have been strangely ignored. In addition, with
pressure from the community, the Commission has also voted to make public and
easily accessible the tail #’S, models and/or ID’s of all aircraft,
which will someday answer questions in regards to violations, air quality
issues, etc.
The Commission has also
decided to investigate the legal guidelines concerning ‘commercial’
versus ‘general’ aviation. In other words, ‘general
aviation’ seems to imply that the airport exists as a function of and
service to the community.
‘Commercial’ aviation is
business aviation and diametrically opposes the essence of ‘service to the
community’ to say the least. The SM airport is supposed to be a public
municipal airport: the average person can walk into the airport, sign up for
flight lessons, buy a plane, park and fly it at will. However, the airport has
somehow turned into a virtual recreation center for corporate/commercial
interests, contradicting its actual purpose and becoming a nuisance and
liability to the very community that pays for its operation. Results of this
research will be reported on in coming months.
The GRVNC Conservation Committee,
which addresses environmental concerns impacting Venice, has started a
sub-committee of community volunteers to deal with airport issues. The panel
includes residents of Venice, Santa Monica, and West LA, anyone affected by the
airports intrusion is welcome to join. The committee is organizing and
outreaching to individuals who are confused about where to channel frustrations
proactively. To become involved, sign up on the jetairpollution website.
Meetings are usually the last Thursday of every month at the Venice
Library.
Enough of that good stuff!
There is still a real long way to go. Most of us are not used to hearing good
news these days but its only fair that community members read about the
successes of their labors.
In the
bigger picture, the exploitation of OUR skies are a translation of how our very
own government is using us, with our money, as easily disposable pawns in their
game of global domination and corporate empire. The U.S. government isn’t
just limiting its unchallenged military prowess to starving and defenseless
Third World nations such as Afghanistan and Iraq. We, here in the U.S., are
experiencing a looting of our U.S. Treasury by our un-elected White House to
fund illegal/immoral wars, a shredding of our Constitution and a literal
massacre of our precious environment.
Some Americans are becoming like
disgruntled ex-employees of Bush Incorporated and, ironically, the very victims
of its domestic terrorism.
Our
‘public’ airport is a glimpse into the smokescreens of corporate
seizures of civic ownership under the façade of ‘free
commerce’, ‘democracy’, and BushCo’s favorite word:
privatization.
Posted: Sat
- November 1, 2003 at 04:41 PM