Ask Congress about airport site

By: JIM TRAGESER - Staff Writer | Wednesday, November 30, 2005 8:24 PM PST ∞

It's difficult to imagine a more direct way of simply wasting the public's money (and time) than the ongoing campaign by the San Diego Regional Airport Authority to "explore" moving Lindbergh Field to Miramar or North Island.

Not that military bases ought to be off-limits as potential sites for a new civilian airport (assuming legitimate studies show such an airport to be needed), but if one is going to discuss taking over someone else's property, shouldn't you talk to that property's owner?

Instead of talking to the owner of Miramar Marine Corps Air Station and Naval Air Station North Island about its desire for a "joint-use" facility, the Airport Authority has been meeting with the tenants ---- who have absolutely no say in what happens to those bases.

The Airport Authority and others who insist that Lindbergh Field should be moved to Miramar seem quite fond of self-righteously pointing out that military bases do not belong to the military but to the people.

And that's true.

But they don't belong to the people of this county only ---- they belong to the American people. And if you want to talk to the American people about making the Marines share Miramar or the Navy share North Island so we can put a giant airport there, then you need to talk to the people's representatives.

Which would be Congress.

The generals and admirals who run the Marines and Navy respectively don't decide which service gets which base, nor which bases are closed and which kept. Congress and the president do that. The military brass simply go where they are ordered to go and do what they are ordered to do ---- and that's how it should be.

And yet, Paul Nieto, a member of the Authority board, told this newspaper that "what I am hoping is that we are able to establish a decent dialogue with the Department of Defense."

Why?

The Defense Department has no more say over whether Miramar or North Island is opened to shared civilian use than I do on whether my landlord sells my triplex to put in luxury condos.

Like the generals and admirals, I have strong feelings on whether my building is sold. On whether its current usage should be continued. But that's all I have ---- feelings.

When Congress recently approved the final Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommendations, both Miramar and North Island were kept open as primary, active-duty military bases ---- presumably necessary to the national defense.

That's a statement from the owners that the Airport Authority seems unwilling to hear.

Rather than having useless meetings with local military officers (all of whom, quite predictably and understandably, oppose a joint-use air facility) that do nothing but waste everyone's time, the Airport Authority needs to be sitting down with the local congressional delegation ---- folks like Bob Filner, Susan Davis, Duncan Hunter and Darrell Issa.

The Airport Authority may not like the answers it gets in that meeting any more than the repeated nos it is hearing now, but at least then the answer might get through to the Authority ---- and we could stop wasting everyone's time.

Contact staff writer Jim Trageser at (760) 740-5424 or jtrageser@nctimes.com.

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