WE’RE DEEP INTO A THIRD POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OVER THE PROPOSED EL
Toro airport, and the level of discourse ain’t gettin’ better. In fact, it’s getting worse.
On the anti-airport side, there’s footage of the fatal crash of a transport plane at El Toro, in 1965. The ad is tasteless and ludicrous -the long-ago accident was blamed on pilot error, not the runway configuration. But hey, whatever might work.
The pro-airport side, meanwhile, is saturating North County with the message that a vote for Measure F, the initiative that would require two-thirds voter approval for an airport, landfill or jail, would turn prisoners loose on the streets.
This spin is more plausible, as there could indeed be consequences if Measure F passes, including worse jail overcrowding. But the ad has nothing to do with the merits of an El Toro airport, which is, after all, what all the fuss is about.
The pro-airport consultants insist that they know what they’re doing. Fear of crime resonates with voters, other themes don’t. It’s hard to get people to support an airport by discussing regional transportation needs or by arguing, at a time when jobs abound in Orange County, that an airport will add more of them.
So we get Willie Horton, Newport style.
As an El Toro airport supporter, I think it’s a shame. Especially since I think one of the strongest arguments for the airport,and one that would resonate with voters,hasn’t been seriously tried, not in three campaigns. And it’s this:
End ” the John Wayne Airport tax.” End the tax with an El Toro airport that would lower the costs and increase the convenience of flying for the residents of Orange County. Twenty minutes to ET or JWA instead of 90 minutes to LAX. LAX prices at both OC airports, instead of the current, higher JWA prices.
Face it, if you’re flying anywhere now, you figure in the higher cost of a John Wayne flight ticket, subtract out the added cost of getting to LAX and then decide if the dollars saved are worth the time lost.
That’s the tax, in time or money,that’s paid by OC residents each time they fly because OC’s demand for flights exceeds the supply.
It’s an argument that turns the quality-of-life concerns of airport opponents on their head. Parks are nice, quiet neighborhoods are nice, and we can have both with El Toro International. But cheap, convenient flights add to quality of life, too.
As Measure F is unlikely to be the last word in the El Toro debate no matter how it goes, airport supporters ought to think about the JWA-tax argument next time around. It just might fly.
