APB Archives

SAN DIEGO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (Nov 3 03)

EXPLANATORY REMARKS

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You know I write a lot; to politicians, to academics, to newspapers, to
magazines, to anyone who has an interesting idea to discuss. Some of you know I have been an afficianado and defender of Lindbergh Field forever. I wrote this letter September 15. The magazine printed most of it in the November issue on page 26. The parts in [brackets] were edited out before printing.

[Dear Editor Blair,]

For kicks, we reread part of the September, 2001 edition of San Diego
Magazine, the one with the coverboy quarterback and an airport on page 82: the San Diego International Airport-Miramar to be exact. Then for kicks, we drove to the Marine Corps Air Station-Miramar to see how the airport-on-the-ground compares to the airport-in-the-article. What a difference two years and two wars make.
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We found General Gallineti and the Corps firmly entrenched at Miramar, with no inclination to leave[, no orders to move, no moving money, and no place to go]. The only part of the airport-in-the-article that we could find was the Marine's Quick Launch capability[. There is a Quick Launch capability, of course;] and a slow launch and a middling launch too. Mitchell got that much of the story right.
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We chuckled about the story two years ago when the magazine aired it, before
the awful events in New York and Afghanistan and Iraq. No one could have
predicted our terrible tragedy two years ago, but we certainly predicted that Mitchell's story was wrong. We know Mitchell, know his work, and know that bad transportation policy is almost a genetic malady in San Diego. We once thought there was a connection between bad transportation policy and bad airport predictions, that they emanate from the same sources. We are
convinced now. May one who isn't a 30 year veteran of transportation planning
in San Diego but is a 30 year sufferor of San Diego's transportation, offer
two predictions?
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Not in your lifetime or mine, or our children's or grand-children's lifetimes
will Lindbergh Field close. San Diegans won't tolerate that, and every
expensive downtown condominium we build is another vote to keep Lindbergh
Field open. We love the luxury of a downtown airport.[ That's a political
prediction from a pretty good political predictor.] Second, while Lindbergh
Field is open, a full-blown separate airport is infeasible. That is an
economic prediction from legions of very good airport economists, that
Mitchell himself acknowledged in his article.
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[There you have them; two predictions. My youngest grandbaby is thirty months
old, so you and I won't be here when his time comes. The prediction stands
nevertheless. Maybe I should etch it in stone and leave it in a time capsule
until 2081 or so.]
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[Whence come the increments of air cargo capacity we'll need later, to
supplement Lindbergh Field and keep it open? Abelardo G. Rodr guez
International Airport, of course. Where else?]
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