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# Airport a menace
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/airport-a-menace-editor/
- Published: 2004-08-24T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T04:55:27.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica Airport, #archive-import

*By Geraldine Kennedy Santa Monica*

The argument that the airport was there first is about the most irrelevant and stupid claim that can be made for it (SMDP, Aug. 22-23, page 4). The airport may have been surrounded by bean fields when it was created, but that is not the case now. It is surrounded by people. We live in the present and, if we act wisely, may make it to the future. To allow this dangerous, deafening, polluting nuisance in our midst is irresponsible.

Toxic dumps, rivers used as industrial sewers, smoking, and gas stations with leaking underground tanks all predated somebody living nearby. But when society woke up to the danger to human life and the environment, it required clean up. And oh the cries of the end of the world from the polluters. The same self-serving, destructive arguments accompanied every effort to bring about change: It will cost too much and drive business away. Guess what? It’s time to call the airport what it is, a vestige of the past, out of sync with its surroundings and definitely not the highest and best use of a community resource. It’s time to clean up this festering, out of control mess and honor the people of the neighborhood by letting them breathe clean air and get a good night’s sleep.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 24, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/082404.pdf?ref=smdp.com)