LA Sells Ontario Airport and Sparks Hope for a Regional Airport Traffic Plan

FRIENDLIER SKIES?--Having witnessed the courageous and well-meant effort by former councilmember Bill Rosendahl to unite the various counties and airports to establish a regional airport plan for Southern California, and having witnessed his sad rebuff by our neighbors, it's good to know that things are brighter than ever for a true regional airport traffic plan.  Ditto for a true regional rail plan, in which our airports can be connected to each other and to the rest of us. 

Critical to all this is the stunning news that the one regional airport which truly wants to expand and encourage more statewide, national and international flights--Ontario Airport--has now been allowed to create its own governing authority and be granted the ability to achieve fiscal and operational independence from LA World Airports. 

In other words, LAX and the City of LA has allowed Ontario Airport and its neighbors the ability to grant that airport and region its own air traffic independence. 

What changed?  A different mayor, a different working paradigm, and the understanding that transportation is as popular and non-partisan an endeavour as anything we can do.  Certainly, the bad blood and regional rivalries aren't as bad as they once were (although the need to keep things calm and civilized is never over), but across geographic and political lines the desire to create new mobility options and boost the economy is as popular as ever. 

We now have Mayor Eric Garcetti reaching out to Ontario and the San Gabriel Valley, and we now have an Orange County that wants Metrolink and regional rail links to our airports.  We also have Riverside and San Bernardino Counties willing to step up to the plate and pay more for its infrastructure.  

And we have the multiple mission statements by leaders at Metro, including the new CEO Phillip Washington, to establish this long-overdue rail/airport network, as well as to create a popular series of infrastructure projects that would encourage two-thirds of L.A. County voters to find the willingness to yet again (!) pay more taxes in next year's November elections. 

My own personal history of growing up in Long Beach and now living near LAX has granted me the opportunity to really "get" where the county's voters have always been:  the cities and counties to the south and east of Los Angeles do NOT want to go to LAX, and those living near LAX do NOT want them to go to LAX either. 

And since we don't have the legal ability to allow the I-405 to become a southbound-only freeway, we probably need to really create more options for air commuters (as well as the army of workers and business commuters who travel to airports every day for their livelihoods). 

Certainly, Orange County blew it, and became a model of how NOT to accommodate its own air travel needs.  John Wayne was capped with regards to flights and the impacts on its neighbors (reasonable), but when the sober, mature decision of creating a new airport at El Toro came up it was rejected in favor of a "park that will never be" (very unreasonable, and downright silly). 

Pity we can't legally charge Orange County residents more for the flights at LAX that they must now be forced to choose (and yes, it's been discussed and rejected more times than most readers probably think). 

But we can tell Orange County--just as we must tell Riverside and San Bernardino Counties--that these endeavors cost money.  Big money.  Yet when done right, the economic boons (to say nothing of the environment and quality of life) make it all worthwhile. 

El Toro was indeed an opportunity lost--ask any Orange County resident schlepping to LAX if they'd rather go to El Toro, and they might realize that either a John Wayne expansion or an airport at El Toro isn't at all pretty...but it's necessary. 

We now have a chance to do things over at Ontario Airport--many Orange County residents, and certainly all Riverside and San Bernardino County residents--because the suburban and rural portions of the Southland have the opportunity to fund and expand a second MAJOR airport that ideally should rival LAX in size and air capacity. 

Creating more Metrolink and freeway funding for Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino County residents to access Ontario Airport is one that most taxpayers will support if the process is transparent and done right.  

Similarly, LA County needs to do its part by funding the Foothill Gold Line to Claremont (and any adjacent freeway widenings and fixes), as well as expanding the Green Line to access both LAX and the Metrolink station at Norwalk to achieve that line's ultimate potential. 

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And everyone needs to think about funding Metrolink in a manner that achieves the service needs and cost-effectiveness that the Southern California economy needs so dearly. 

That includes not only the current east-west Metrolink lines but a new north-south Metrolink line (probably near or along the I-15 freeway corridor) to allow Orange County residents the ability to remotely access Ontario Airport by rail. 

Yes, we can do this--but it requires political will, money, and good, tough fiscal conservativism that doesn't take taxpayer money for granted. 

But if we do this right, the ability to access the airport won't be one filled with dread and fear, and our economy, environment and quality of life will finally reach levels we should have reached decades ago.

 

(Ken Alpern is a Westside Village Zone Director and Board member of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at  [email protected]   He also does regular commentary on the Mark Isler Radio Show on AM 870, and co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.)

-cw

 

 

 

CityWatch

Vol 13 Issue 64

Pub: Aug 7, 2015