"Do-gooders"? You give them too much credit. I'd label them NIMBYs or Luddites at best. And I can definitely think up many more choice things to label them that I won't post. The whole aviation situation in the LA area is ludicrous. Three perfectly good airports--BUR, LGB, and SNA--that have a variety of artificial caps on activity and LAX which is supposedly going to cost multi-billions of dollars so it can increase its capacity. Seattle has a similar situation. There is a perfectly good airport in Everett (where Boeing's widebody plant is). Problem is, Snohomish County (the operator) has rolled over and pledged that there will never be commercial flights out of Paine Field. It has a great location relative to the existing airport--SEA is south of Seattle and PAE is north of Seattle. It would be perfect for some Alaska, Horizon, or Southwest flights down the coast and perhaps to Spokane or Boise. Instead, we're spending a few billion dollars to add a third runway that, because of the geography of the airport, still isn't far enough away from the existing runways to permit simultaneous all-weather operations. Perhaps one way to portray these folks that would be especially damning (given the current political climate) would be pro-tax. Since the existing infrastructure can't be efficiently utilized because of these people's bitching, lot's of money is going to have to be spent elsewhere, and chances are, that's going to mean taxes are going to have to be raised somewhere. So I say we brand these people with a scarlet T and talk that angle up. ----- Original Message ----- From: <damiross2@xxxxxxxxx> To: <AIRLINE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2003 11:56 AM Subject: Re: [Sky-1] Survey on airport questioned > As the survey indicated - and I agree with - it is a vocal minority of do- > gooders that want to closet he airport.