I wonder what was really going on there?
Long running battle here, a Meags type scenario, where the City wants to close the airport. City using all manner of devious tricks, and the FAA, are digging in. Good news, because the airport was, and may still be, doomed.
A lot of people are convinced Santa Monica isn’t actually part of the US 
and this is one of several supportive examples.
I think the claustrophobic environment makes people crazy. To get out of there on the road you might drive through 60 miles of stop and go traffic. I was nearby the area (at UCLA) yesterday for an event and couldn’t wait to leave… I can well imagine the lefty Santa Monica locals might be agitated by somebody with the skill and initiative to just fly away!
Meanwhile I think the more influential in the area don’t care so much about the airport because they fly their jets out of Van Nuys.
Reference the thread title, this is far from being a UK only problem. Three airports that I frequent are in similar situations: Santa Monica, Wellesbourne and Malmi.
The tactics at all three are disturbingly similar – airfield businesses being given notice to quit so that the owners can gain vacant possession. In the case of Wellesbourne, nothing (I mean nothing) has been said to private owners based there – only the businesses. The Santa Monica story seems similar, the businesses being told to quit right now. And at Malmi, the operator (Finnair) has been given notice to quit by end 2016. It’s almost as though these landowners, spread out across half the world, are operating in concert!
Now I’d be the first to uphold the rights of private landowners to dispose of their property as they see fit. And this is where the similarity ends, because Santa Monica and Malmi are publicly owned. The opposition tactics are similar, the FAA seeking to force Santa Monica’s owners to keep operating the airport, and the Wellesbourne pressure group seeking to do something similar in the UK, effectively forcing a private landowner (or collective, or whatever they are) to keep operating an airfield business that they no longer want. At Santa Monica and Malmi, remainers are up against vast state bureaucracies. At Wellesbourne, they are up against a family of private owners, who reputedly have not taken kndly to the efforts of individuals seeking to frustrate their inheritance.
All these landowners will know about that particularly desolate and obstacle strewn piece of still-existing concrete that used to be Meigs Field. At Wellesbourne, riven as it is with rumours of demolition contractors being shown around, a single parked combine harvester would mean game over. At Malmi, even that resort seems to be unnecessary. And at Santa Monica, without the welcoming arms of American Flyers (an hospitable FBO who trusts me to fly away to Catalina Island and then come back without even paying for the fuel I’ve already uplifted!), the future seems equally bleak.
There’s nothing that any of us can do about Santa Monica or Malmi. But at Wellesbourne, with less than 90 days to go, the enemy is as much complacency as it is the landowner. The reality, right now, is the epitome of ‘shuffling the deckchairs’ as the businesses seem to sail on blithely as if nothing is amiss, squandering their fragile resources on pitiless lawyers while trying to play the bureaucrats at their own game instead of seeking an accommodation with the owners to keep operating until development actually commences. And commence it will, sometime.
Just my opinion!
Just a snippet. But gives the picture. The whole film BTW is tremendous stuff.
Well, KSMO being my home base, I obviously have an opinion! What’s going on there is, in one word, corruption. More precisely the usual real estate developer vultures circling. Santa Monica is one of the priciest parts of L.A. and the land the airport occupies is worth gazillions. What’s even more, the protected area of the extended centerline of rwy 21 encompasses the ocean front and therefore prevents tall buildings (read: hotels) from being erected there. Santa Monica being an independent city (there are several of those within Los Angeles), it is run by a very small cabal of people. Just follow the money, put 2 and 2 together and there you have it…..
Silvaire wrote:Meanwhile I think the more influential in the area don’t care so much about the airport because they fly their jets out of Van Nuys.
KSMO has a fair amount of jet traffic and that’s actually what the city uses to agitate against the airport. The wealthy don’t live in the parts of Santa Monica that are in the vicinity of the airport but rather to the north near Montana Ave.
Btw, @silvaire, just flew from KSMO on a great little lunch trip up to the wine country (Santa Ynez) yesterday, next time you are in the area let me know!
The difference here of course, is that the national aviation authority is trying to support the airport users! It would be nice to see that replicated in Europe.
In this case it’s pretty simple. The airport took the taxpayers money and made commitments in return. Now they want to renege on those commitments. Fair play to the FAA for standing up to them!
