Palmdale Airport gaining new publicity

Editorial Focus: L.A. Mayor Riordan's grandiose PR plan to "sell" his campaign to expand LAX from 60 million to 100 million passengers a year gets grounded by his own city council.

This month marks the 30th year since the Palmdale (Intercontinental, International, Regional) Airport was first publicly announced.

The Los Angeles Department of Airport had conducted an exhaustive survey of the entire Southland and determined that Palmdale was the hands-down best location for the next major airport. The announcement came in late June, 1968.

But, except for the acquisition of the 17,700 acres of land adjacent to the east of Air Force Plant 42 and the on-again, off-again operation of the terminal on land leased from the USAF, the Department of Airports has done little to make this three-decade-old dream come true.

Instead L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan and the Department of Airports commission have been promoting an outrageous plan to expand LAX by spending $12 billion and increasing its capacity from 60 million to 100 million passengers a year.

Now, in the latest news development, the Los Angeles City Council has waved off a proposal by the L.A. mayor to hire a third public marketing firm to promote the LAX Master Plan, which has not yet been released.

Ruth Galanter, who has been the lone council member promoting Palmdale Regional Airport as a viable alternative to expanding already nightmarishly overcrowded LAX, moved to kill the mayor's request for a new PR firm and her motion was approved with only four of the 15 council members opposed.

Earlier Riordan removed the airport commission chairman and one of its members because he was dissatisfied with progress on promoting the Master Plan.

In our Sunday, May 31, edition, we published a well-researched story by aerospace reporter Jay Levine who contacted each of the 15 L.A. council members or their representatives to get their views on expansion of regional airports such as Palmdale.

A majority of the council members said they favor looking into expansion of regional airports before debating the Los Angeles International Airport expansion Master Plan next year.

In the meantime, municipal leaders whose cities will suffer from more noise and more congestion if LAX is expanded are growing more and more vocal in opposition to the Master Plan, which focuses almost entirely on the $12 billion LAX proposal.

At the least, the noisy controversy in downtown L.A. has generated much more publicity for Palmdale Airport, which has too long been ignored by the powers that be in the Los Angeles Basin, an area which suffers from dangerous round-the-clock ground and airborne traffic overload.

That $12 billion - or less - would be put to far better use to build a high-speed rail line to serve the millions of people in the basin so that they could enjoy the uncrowded comfort of Palmdale Regional Airport.