Residents near Van Nuys Airport feel heard, but they’re still angry about it
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VAN NUYS HILLS, Calif. — I think the most disturbing part of this story is that the City of Van Nuys was planning to put up a new airport, and then it wasn’t.
It started in 2008, with a vote that will seem familiar to airport board members: No.
But this time, the No vote could’ve gone either way. And the city is still planning to build a new airport.
That’s the problem?
That’s an opportunity, apparently. That’s a missed opportunity for Van Nuys residents.
The Van Nuys airport is one of the first airports after Los Angeles to be built in California after Los Angeles International, and it’s the only airport after Los Angeles to be built in a city.
Yet, it’s at least the second of three airports in the South Bay built with taxpayer dollars.
It’s not the second one to be built with taxpayer dollars.
It’s the second to be built with only part of the money raised by local, state and federal governments. In other words, it’s not in Van Nuys’ best economic interest to spend nearly $100 million on a facility designed to serve the public, and it’s certainly not in the city’s best interest to spend roughly $100 million more of those public dollars on a facility that could serve the public.
The airport is in fact open for business, and it’s operating well, but it’s still not doing what the city wants it to do. The city and the airport commission have made an unwise decision that they will have to live with for the foreseeable future.
The good news is that the airport is doing much better than many of us expected.
The bad news is that the airport is not doing what the city wants it to do, but there are two other reasons:
The first is the airport’s own decision to spend $100 million on the facility, which now makes it the second LAX airport without funding from Los Angeles County. (Los Angeles World Airports also operates out of Van Nuys International Airport.)
The second reason is the fact that the city has done everything possible to make