Don’t let the title fool you. I’m not going to talk about what everyone else is talking about. Instead, I’m going to talk about one of the more important pieces of election news yesterday.
San Diego’s Proposition A
Sounds sexy and exciting, no? Well, it was actually a bill to “provide for San Diego’s long-term air transportation needs.” (Source) In short, the airport authority (and anyone else who has ever flown into San Diego) realized there was a need for a new airport site since the current site, Lindbergh Field, has little to no room for long term growth.
After studying 32 different sites around Southern California, the authority settled on a joint use plan with the Marine Corp Air Station Miramar. The idea was to take 3,000 acres from the marines and turn it into a passenger terminal that would use the same runways as the military.
There were a few problems with this idea, the largest of which being that the military said it wouldn’t work for them at all. Well, you’d think it would be a dead issue, but no, they had a vote on it. Sure enough, it was shot down 63% to 37%.
So where does that leave San Diego now? In trouble, that’s where.
Lindbergh is hemmed in on all sides, and it’s the busiest one runway airport in the US right now. There will be a need for a new airport as the area continues to grow, and planning has to start very early for that to happen. Taking 20 years to get an airport built is not out of the realm of reality, so they really need to get moving. This whole Miramar plan has proven to be a time-wasting diversion. The authority should have been able to see this outcome in their crystal balls, and they should have moved on long ago, but now it’s time to back up again and find another solution. Hopefully they can get it done in time.