Thanks for the question Allen about aviation strategy: The short answer about MSP is right now we have the worst of both worlds....bad for the economy and bad for the environment.
Bad for the Economy: The airport will be out of capacity in 10-20 years and that's if we continue to truck 90% of our cargo to Chicago. It takes at least 10-20 years to site new airports or effectively expand current ones. The lack of gates at MSP also means that Northwest continues to dominate our market, meaning citizens and businesses pay a huge cost for the lack of competition. Bad for the Environment: The massive impact airplane noise has on Minneapolis is well documented. We are also exploring impacts from fuel and related pollutants. As we look to the future it's true technology will make some planes slightly quieter but that will be more than off-sent by technology that will also make it possible to have planes flying in much faster sequence... so if nothing is done we are looking at a future of one plane after the other after the other after the other after the other.....only slightly quieter but far more constant. There are no easy fixes for any of these issues but the call for a statewide aviation strategy is one step. The goal is this: Use the entire aviation network in the state to INCREASE air capacity (esp. cargo) but lessen the impact over deeply impacted neighborhoods in Minneapolis. We need more cargo flights but instead of flying over our houses in the middle of the night they could go into a cargo hub in Rochester or St. Cloud...or a place on the road to one of them. That military plane, the loud ones that look like Charles Lindberg could fly them, can either roar over intensely populated neighborhoods in Minneapolis or over remote areas near Willmar or Mankato. Night flights could really be effected by this because under some circumstances they could be diverted away from densely populated areas. In my mind we will not, at least in the near future, have what Denver has: a single state of the art airport with large expansion potential....Denver's forward looking decision to do that means that area will also be more competitive in the air than us. But I do think we can use the Chicago area as a model, where several airports...including a new one under consideration...to accommodate today's and future needs. MSP is a good airport...it's just not going to be enough for our region to compete...and I sure don't want a future where we are jamming EVEN MORE airplanes over our heads. Right now we have no single authority that can ask these questions. The Metropolitan Airports Commission(MAC) is, of course, metropolitan. The state transportation department does a study for Greater Minnesota but does not weave in the needs of the metropolitan area. This coalition of Mayors that I have been working with has been making real progress in addressing this idea of a statewide aviation strategy...We have met with great groups of political and business leaders in both St. Cloud and Rochester. We also got a friendly hearing at the Capitol and think this is one of the very first win-wins I've seen on airports. R.T. Rybak -----Original Message----- REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
