Airport: Issue for Entire Region

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan created his own Desert Storm in Orange County this week by speaking in favor of a controversial plan to build a commercial airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, scheduled for closure next year. However awkward his foray may have been, the discussion of regional transportation requirements for the 21st century is needed and welcome. Airport planning isn’t something that should stop at a county line.

Riordan appeared at a fund-raiser Monday in Irvine for a group called Citizens for Jobs and the Economy, which has promoted an international commercial airport for the base. When news that the Los Angeles mayor would speak in Orange County spread last week, opponents complained that this neighbor from the north should mind his own business. But regionally speaking, it is his business. One of the most visible public figures in the state was speaking out, as he should, on how to meet common needs. If Riordan missed some of the nuances of the local debate, so be it. Two counties and the rest of Southern California are better off for having heard what he has to say.

There is no easy way through the raw politics of resolving complex regional transportation issues. Though he addressed a pro-airport audience, Riordan no doubt was prepared to inflame local passions. His own campaign to increase passenger traffic at Los Angeles International Airport has been opposed by locals who argue that they’ve already assumed their fair share of sacrifice for the common good.

Looking at the big picture is important. As Southern California has grown, its very prosperity has generated demand. Projections beyond 2000 summon forward-looking responses. This must happen even with a recognition that growth has generated its own quality-of-life consid-erations. Many homeowners who live on the perimeter of airports have understandable concerns about safety, noise and cost to the taxpayers.

While Los Angeles debates the future of LAX and other airports, planning for the El Toro airport moves forward, with the combatants entrenched in their positions. Still to be answered are questions about whether a proposed two-airport system for Orange County--El Toro and John Wayne Airport--would be economically viable or cleared for flight by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Still, the business of planning new airports and increasing capacity at existing ones has to be done regionally. Cooperation is the only way Southern California can hope to have better than a jerry-built system of airports.