Alternatives to Airport Expansion

In your Sunday edition of July 31, I read a letter under the headline “Soundproofing of Homes and Airport Growth” by Rick Dayton of Newport Beach, which led to great frustration. Dayton commented on the county’s offering residents a life style of being “shut up like a mole.”

My questions to Dayton are: Where were you when the airport started to grow? How many meetings did you attend? Fourteen years ago, Supervisor Thomas F. Riley tried to get us all to fight the growth of the airport for $25 each. He suggested we get an attorney but, as usual, we all dragged our feet (me included) waiting for the other guy. It is not easy to get a group of people to agree on one thing, especially change.

Dayton also suggests the possibility of a Cessna “nose down in the living room of a Santa Ana Heights/Newport Beach home.” How about an accident with a car on a crowded highway? How about a devastating earthquake? I think the county and the supervisors have worked hard to get us this far rather than simply choosing to condemn the entire area under the flight path, which was the original “unwelcomed” consideration.

So, Mr. Dayton, I plead that you get off Riley’s back and come up with some good ideas to help!

RITA JONES

Santa Ana Heights