Rally Against the Airport

JOBS AND THE ECONOMY 1999-STYLE

The airport issue has been mischaracterized in the press and elsewhere as a conflict between those in favor of jobs and the economy (pro-airport) and those in favor of a clean, environment void of loud noise (anti-airport). In fact, the issue is how to increase jobs and the economy, and what kind of jobs we want to produce.

If this were the '50's an airport might benefit the economy. But this is 1997. Orange County's future is propelled by high-tech and bio-tech research and development -- as is the world's future. People will need fewer and fewer airline flights as evermore business and research conferencing is done by telephone, video, and computer simulating a face-to-face conference in your own office with a fraction of the expense and time loss. But they will need more and more people highly trained in every aspect of technology and biotechnology.

With an airport, our kids will have more jobs as ticket-takers and runway sweepers. Will they be able to afford a house? No! Training in hi-tech will add $10,000 to their starting salary -- and ensure them a job and the wherewithal to buy a home in our neighborhoods.

What the Supervisors should have been looking at in Alternative C is building a Silicon Park or a copy of North Carolina's Triangle Research Park -- with proven results for the economy.

Here is a community reuse plan that will benefit the local economy from the top to the bottom (which no airport would do), help to reverse the current trend of youth out of parental control, and raise rather than lower property tax income to the county. (The estimated 15.7% drop in property values with an airport would alone cause a loss of $35,000,000 in property tax revenue, not to mention Chris Cox's point that an airport removes a large and valuable property, from the tax roll.)

As you probably know, UCI has been training top-notch bio-tech theoreticians and researchers (using, as a state university, state tax funds) only to have them leave the state because there are not enough jobs for them here. UCI is opening a "bio-tech park," having invited companies from around the world to participate, to help remedy this situation. UCI is working its way to the top group of universities in the biotechnology field and is a major Orange County asset.

Many people in Newport Beach and elsewhere in Orange County have strong ties to USC. Here is the opportunity to interest USC in a campus in South Orange County -- without the physical size limits of the L.A. campus, and in a nice, clean neighborhood.

We need a campus preparing our youth for high-paying jobs in all aspects of high-technology and biotechnology, including the business end -- as opposed to the sparse and menial, low-paying jobs an airport provides. We will give our sons and daughters the keys to the future, as well as the keys to the relatively expensive housing we have here. We read again and again that our youth can look forward to a bleak employment scene, especially if not well trained in the latest technology skills; that we have burdened them with government debts into the next generation. The Los Angeles Times has recently done a lengthy article showing the marked difference in employability and starting salary for graduates skilled in technology.

Adjoining the campus, on the same site and working cooperatively with it, woud be a high-tech and bio-tech research, development, and business park. With the university on the same site feeding them highly-trained employees and hot ideas generated by the two universities, the site should be a magnet for established companies and a generator for new companies. Here, too, is the place to re-employ one of our great assets: all the engineers who were victims of downsizing and the demise of the aerospace industry.

And as the final component there should be a day-care center and elementary school. In today's typical family, either both parents are working or there is only a single parent present. People race to get their kids dropped off at school or day care before racing to work, then trying to get the shopping done, the food on the table, the bills paid, the chores done, and hopefully find a few minutes to spend with the kids before falling exhausted into bed and wondering what happened to their life. (When we were growing up, nobody needed to create the conscience-appeasing term "quality time with the kids.")

We need to provide a clean, healthy, reliable place adjacent to work or study where parents can leave their kids, where they can spend lunchtime with the child or check on them if they are having a problem. This is the basis not only for easing the time pressure and worry families have, but also to give parents more interaction with their children so parents and children can get to know one another better and parents can engender the morals, values, culture, and self-confidence that only get transmitted by families spending time together.

There should also be room, I hope, for a sports complex for youth as well as adults. We know the benefits of sports, and a complex adjacent to the school would allow kids to walk or be brought to soccer practice, softball, etc.

Here is a legacy for the future of Orange County and the future of our children -- a win-win situation for a future that we can be proud of, increasing the economy, producing high-paying jobs, re-employing our highly skilled underemployed, preserving the clean air, safety, controlled environment, and serene beauty that brought us all to Orange County in the first place. That's what Orange County is all about.

RALLY AGAINST THE AIRPORT

By BLANCHE THOMA

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