In the pre-dawn darkness of March 31, 2003, former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley’s wrecking crews laid siege to Meigs Field, a single 3900-foot runway airport on the western shore of Lake Michigan near the city’s downtown. As the sun rose that morning, the damage became clear, large “Xs” had been carved into the runway by city backhoes. Meigs Field was no more.
An atmosphere of outrage quickly spread throughout the industry for the loss of the little airport, a place made famous around the world when it was chosen as the opening screen for Microsoft’s popular Flight Simulator software.
The AOPA’s president at the time, Phil Boyer said, “”We are absolutely shocked and dismayed. Mayor Daley has no honor and his word has no value. The sneaky way he did this shows that he knows it was wrong.” There was no advance warning of the city’s move, not even to the FAA.
A Typhoon Passes
Yesterday, Pia Bergqvist shared a post on Facebook that detailed the shutdown of Santa Monica airport’s icon restaurant, the Typhoon, a place that’s been a fixture at SMO for 25 years. The restaurant’s closure simply highlights the latest of the dirty tactics the Santa Monica’s City Council is using to destroy the airport located just north of LAX, a place many in local government have come to think of as an obstacle to urban progress, not to mention a safety hazard.
In order to drive businesses like this from Santa Monica airport, the city nearly tripled the Typhoon’s rent. Other long time tenants like Atlantic Aviation and American Flyers already received eviction notices, with American Flyers filing a Part 16 complaint with the FAA along the way.
What makes the mess at SMO different from what we experienced here in Chicago 13 years ago, is that this time the FAA knows perfectly well what’s happening. The question is whether they’ll take any real non-paperwork action before SMO’s runway’s also destroyed.
The folks at the restaurant explained the city’s squeeze job pretty accurately. “In some quarters, this sort of activity would be seen as a deplorable abuse of municipal power, but in Santa Monica, it is becoming business-as-usual. It’s just too exhausting and disheartening to continue to throw good money after bad into this never ending shell-game of political brinksmanship.”
In a final farewell, the folks that run the Typhoon plan to keep the place open until just after the presidential election November 8.
Enough Paperwork
It’s high time an FAA official stood front and center at a Santa Monica meeting, like the next one scheduled for October 24 at 7 p.m. Why not Michael Huerta? Just jump on board N3 after lunch and let the council hear the agency’s displeasure from you personally, rather than letting lawyers handle this battle with paperwork. These folks in Santa Monica are expecting paperwork, letters they can refute with more paperwork until the runways are chopped up.
Although I was feeling rather helpless writing this from 2,000 miles away, a scan of some of the SMO Council’s notes gave me an idea, one that anyone with an e-mail can take part in.
A Council advisory note says, “Any member of the public unable to attend a meeting, but wishing to comment on an item(s) listed on the agenda, may submit written comments prior to the meeting by mailing them to: Airport Commission 3223 Donald Douglas Loop South, Santa Monica California 90405 or via email at airport@smgov.net.”
Since the city government folks were kind enough to offer up an e-mail address, I think everyone should give the Santa Monica City Council a piece of their mind about the airport’s demise. We can’t leave all the heavy lifting to the Santa Monica Airport Association.
Of course I have no idea whether the airport’s strangulation is enough of an issue to make the agenda for the October 24 meeting. But I’m thinking … who the Hell cares … send them a letter anyway.
