A challenge for Dept. of Airports

Editorial Focus: Faced with the need for growth, strong opposition from cities neighboring Los Angeles International Airport, and staggering costs for proposed LAX expansion, the Department of Airports stubbornly refuses to play its ace on the high desert.

Somebody down there in the offices at 1 World Way knew it nearly 30 years ago. That's why you own a golf course and a pistachio and onion and carrot farm and 17,000 acres up here in the high desert east of Palmdale. And that's why you hold a vastly under-exploited joint-use agreement for commercial operations on Air Force Plant 42.

You don't like to be reminded about your Palmdale connection, and you've steadfastly kept the Palmdale opportunity shielded from public and industry view.

But the news is getting out. And the biggest boosters for Los Angeles International's expansion to the Antelope Valley are going to be the people in the cities around LAX who don't believe you can successfully double the capacity of your already overtaxed, overworked, overcrowded airport without destroying those it is intended to serve, and at enormous cost.

Your chief executive says Palmdale won't work because it's too far out for international service - too far out from the 10 million people in L.A.

Well, let's examine that proposition and then pose a direct challenge to you.

First, travel today is not measured simply in distance from point A to B, but in time spent getting there. Been on the 405 Freeway lately? You're going to double the traffic into and out of LAX and spend almost $1 billion to what? De-congest the San Diego Freeway?

Do this. Instead of tearing up L.A.'s streets and freeways for a decade to handle the new LAX load, take the billion bucks and build a world-class high-speed rail line from Palmdale to anywhere you want in the L.A. Basin. Passengers will reach their destinations faster, in more comfort and at a far lower social cost.

But even without a high speed rail line, Palmdale is already more accessible to a significant part of the greater Los Angeles area. Don't believe it? Here's the challenge.

Starting at a point in the San Fernando Valley, we will race (within the speed limits and laws) to two airports. You drive your car to Los Angeles International, and we drive to Palmdale Regional Airport. The finish line, however, is the designated airline terminal gate - not the welcome-to-the-airport sign, which means you aren't really there yet.

(And no cheating by parking in the white loading and unloading zone. You have to actually park the car in one of the long term lots that most travelers used.)

We'll win that race - even though we will drive miles farther.

Then we'll talk further about why Palmdale's the place for the future of regional and international transportation in Southern California.

Every new major U.S. metropolitan airport built in the final third of this century has been located "out in the boondocks," from Dulles International to Dallas-Fort Worth to Denver. And somehow, those airports work well because the planners set them up to work for each region's markets.

Los Angeles could easily do the same thing, and at a fraction of the cost, but LAX already has immediately accessible runways and locations for facilities to handle up to 400 flight operations daily under the joint-use agreement with Plant 42.

Every minute you folks at 1 World Way and Los Angeles City Hall delay in developing the asset in Palmdale compounds problems at LAX and wastes money.

You could start by eliminating the lip service LAX has been paying up here for decades, and replacing it with that promised cargo ramp, terminal improvements and some aggressive marketing to airlines, which are already running out of gate availability at LAX and Hollywood-Burbank Airport.

But first, let's have that little contest on the freeways.