Airport in late April for an Earth Day rally against large jet-fueled aircraft, holding signs illustrating their fears of toxicity from emissions and noise pollution.
“This airport has gotten so bad, it’s as if our home is built on an aircraft,” Stacy Peralta, a filmmaker who lives in Sunset Park, said at the rally. “The airport is the most abusive corporate citizen in every single aspect, from sound to pollution.”
Residents in the Sunset Park and Mar Vista neighborhoods have long complained about living in the shadow of the airport, claiming their lives are disrupted by the blaring sounds of jets taking off from the runway, stricken by fear that a plane will overrun the runway and land on the houses west of 23rd Street, afraid that they will one day get cancer.
At least part of their problems seemed on the way to getting solved when the City Council approved the first reading of an ordinance in late November to ban the largest and fastest jets from Santa Monica Airport, a move that some experts believe would make the city vulnerable to litigation. The Federal Aviation Administration had suggested that City Hall purchase homes adjacent to both ends of the runway, a suggestion criticized by city officials.
If a second reading of the ordinance is approved next month, jets whose aircraft approach speeds exceeding 121 knots — about 7 percent of the total jet operations — would be banned.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 29, 2007. Read the original PDF.