Reactions to “Noise vs. Jobs”
Tucson Weekly Mailbag July 22, 2011
Forget the Military; Tucsonans Need to Preserve Tourism (Headline by Tucson Weekly)
Things I wish had been in “Noise vs. Jobs” (Currents, June 30):
• Noise “attenuation” may help those who live right next to the airport, but how about the tens of thousands of us who live in the basin and who are exposed to the sound of a “large truck at 50 feet” many times a day? This flight frequency will go up considerably if the F-35s come here.
• Operation Snowbird is the Air Force renting our city to foreigners so they don’t need to have the pollution and noise of these jets over their cities. Jets of this type burn about 2,000 pounds of fuel per hour. We breathe that exhaust so the Dutch, etc., don’t have to. The Air Force gets the money; we get the noise, risk (they are practicing, after all) and dirt.
• Where do you get the “thousands of jobs” data? I have never seen an unbiased, objective study on the economic impact of Davis-Monthan Air Fore Base.
More interesting is the risk of “thousands of jobs” in the tourism industry, including the real estate and other business generated by snowbirds who are a huge but un-commented-on part of the economy. The flight paths of all northbound aircraft already take them near most of the high-end resorts and snowbird condos in the foothills. Who will want to pay $500-plus a day to bask under 130 decibels of noise every few minutes? There are already rumors that jet noise has been a problem for some of the high-end hotels in the central area.
• In theory, a twin-engine A-10 can get home on one engine. An F-35 only has one engine; when it fails, the plane crashes. The risk of accidents goes up greatly with these planes, and they fly over the university, many schools and hospitals, as well as our homes. What parent would not obsess over the possibility of one of these jets plunging into the dorms at UA?
The Tucson basin is one of the most beautiful areas of desert in the Southwest. The tourism industry here, both present and future, is worth billions. Politicians and businessmen are willing to throw that away so they can stroke their pro-military constituents.
Shame on us if we let them get away with it.
James Collins
Tucson Weekly Mailbag July 15, 2011
Robin Gomez Has Questions About D-M and Tucson’s Future (Headline by Tucson Weekly)
Dave Devine asks the key question in “Noise vs. Jobs” (Currents, June 30):
In order to retain jobs at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, is an eventual transition to the F-35 in the community’s best interest? The answer is simple, although the biases are strong: In the short term, it depends on the cost to the community. In the longer term, it depends if there are better alternatives.
The F-35 is at least four times louder than the A-10. The Julia Keen Neighborhood had to shut down its neighborhood school in 2004 for safety and noise reasons. The principal planes flying over were A-10s and from the expanded Operation Snowbird. This, of course, affects neighborhood property values.
It can reasonably be expected that with the louder F-35, Barrio Centro, Arroyo Chico and Broadmoor will follow Julia Keen, with increasing annoyance levels in Sam Hughes and Blenman-Elm. The residents of these neighborhoods will pay the cost. Those living off the flight paths or in the foothills will obviously not have to pay. Moreover, if people are fortunate enough to sell goods and services required by the expanded air activity, they will make out quite well.
Apart from the neighborhood impact, will the increased noise harm Tucson’s overall attractiveness? Will having several older neighborhoods in midtown, with residents reluctant to invest in improvements, add to the worn cityscape? Will the city’s main job creator, eco-tourism, be enhanced? Will its second-most-important job creator, the UA, be enhanced by over-flights?
Over the longer term, can Davis-Monthan attract missions that do not rely on expanding over-flights of the fastest and noisiest planes? Does Tucson have other assets that might attract jobs at lesser cost or damage to the city environment? For example: high tech bioscience businesses related to UA research, medical services to Mexican and foreign clientele, and retirement communities linked to the university.
How Tucsonans answer these questions will shape Tucson’s future.
Robin Gomez
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