These tree-huggers should have thought of the noice before they moved next to the airport. They better prepare themselves, because Southwest is moving in whether they like it or not!
😛 Thursday, July 14, 2005
By JENNIFER LANGSTON
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
During the Sunday sermon at Georgetown Gospel Chapel, the Rev. Leroy Hedman stops in midsentence when planes from Boeing Field rattle the rafters of his church.
His lavish gardens -- offering tomatoes, squash, corn, peas and pumpkins to residents lacking food -- were first planted to memorialize a church member murdered under the freeway. In a residential area sandwiched between Superfund cleanup sites, raised garden beds keep vegetable roots away from soil polluted by heavy metals.
Those urban and industrial stressors have kept Georgetown affordable -- attracting artists, anarchists, entrepreneurs, musicians, immigrants and young families who have infused the neighborhood with new energy.
But a proposal that could bring Southwest Airlines to Boeing Field, whose runway dead-ends into the neighborhood, could kill the fragile quality of life that residents have worked so hard to restore, Hedman said.
King County recently announced it had entered into negotiations with the low-fare airline, which has been unhappy over rising costs at Sea-Tac Airport.
The potential move has also angered homeowners in Magnolia, Beacon Hill and other communities who've spent a decade pushing to reduce noise from planes at Boeing Field, formally known as King County International Airport. Some West Seattleites are leery of a proposed flight path that could bring air traffic closer to their shores.
In Georgetown -- where residents have fought crack houses, prostitution, sex offender housing, truck traffic and a proposed city of Seattle dump -- adding at least 80 daily jet flights to Boeing Field feels like a personal insult.
"We've had a lot of issues here but the quality of our air and our sound is something we can't do anything about. For Southwest Airlines to dump on us is unconscionable," said Hedman, 57, who has led his congregation for two decades.
"This is Georgetown -- you have to fight for survival down here one way or another."
King County Executive Ron Sims, whose office is obligated to consider whether Southwest can be accommodated and sees possible financial benefits, said the county has gone to great lengths to address noise issues under Boeing Field flight paths.
The airport has worked with pilots to minimize noise on takeoffs and landings, implemented quiet hours and developed alternative approaches that shift flights away from residential areas to Elliott Bay.
The Federal Aviation Administration just approved plans to install double-pane windows, insulation and other soundproofing improvements in up to 1,800 eligible homes close to Boeing Field. Because of federal funding limits, it could take at least a decade to reach everyone entitled to the assistance.
Southwest, which now serves 2.2 million passengers a year out of Sea-Tac, could bring additional revenue to the county-owned airport, which lost money two years ago and has struggled to pay for maintenance and repairs.
Sims said the goal is to keep the airport self-supporting, so taxpayers don't have to bail it out.
Southwest, expected to submit a formal proposal this summer to move to Boeing Field, would have to fund a larger passenger terminal, parking garage and most other improvements, King County officials say.
The airline has also agreed that in favorable weather it would fly a new over-water approach that aims to keep noise away from Magnolia and West Seattle. The new route is available only to planes with Global Positioning Systems, but so far has generated few complaints, officials say.
Critics point out that it's the FAA, not pilots, that controls which approach is used. That promise also wouldn't offer relief to close-in neighborhoods such as Georgetown, South Park and Beacon Hill.
Sims said that despite the positive transformation in Georgetown -- with fixed-up bungalows that have baby pools, kayaks or art projects on the front porch -- it's impossible to sugarcoat the fact that it's been next to Boeing Field for 77 years.
"It's a very unique neighborhood and a special neighborhood, but it's still a neighborhood in the middle of an industrial area at the foot of an airport," he said. "We've done everything we can to deal with the noise issues as aggressively as we can."
Gentrifying Georgetown
Mark Cooper, who bought his turn-of-the-century Georgetown home last year, relishes noise. The 38-year-old software instructor collects sound, recording skipping needles or dripping faucets that he weaves into compositions.
Sitting on his front porch, he hears the dribbly whine of a single-engine plane and can't complain. Pulsating helicopter rotors roll around pleasantly in his brain.
But when a hulking UPS cargo jet descends several hundred feet above the neighborhood, even he can't find anything to like about the noise.
"That sounds like a hole being punched in the sky and all the air's being sucked out," he said.
Georgetown is hardly the place for people requiring peace and quiet. Many relish it precisely because you can hammer on metal or hold band practice at odd hours. Only 2 percent of the largely industrial neighborhood is zoned for single-family homes.
Those who bought here say they were willing to deal with known problems, such as drug dealing and an apartment building catering to sex offenders. They listened to the existing airport noise and decided that was OK -- even the occasional ear-shattering military jet. With a population hovering under 1,500, Georgetown residents have built a neighborhood with a feisty and intensely creative sense of place, where people gather in the park to watch home movies or Fat Albert cartoons projected on the side of a house.
Metal sculptures line planting strips, and homes are as likely to be decorated with pirate flags or gas masks as rosebushes. In defiance of the concrete surroundings that have spewed pollution, lush flower gardens with pesticide-free ladybug signs abound.
Many say turning Boeing Field into a secondary passenger airport -- with Southwest looking to expand and competitors such as Alaska Airlines now threatening to move flights as well -- wasn't something anybody imagined when they decided to invest here.
Introducing more disruption or becoming a mini Sea-Tac could drive away the kind of people who've worked hard to make Georgetown a better place, anxious residents say.
"We're like little plants trying to grow in sidewalk cracks," said Megan Davis, 32, who works for a non-profit gardening program for homeless youth and moved to Georgetown five years ago. "Now there's going to be more stress fighting this."
Southwest spokeswoman Marilee McInnis said the airline is sensitive to neighborhood noise concerns and because of that uses quieter Boeing 737 jets.
McInnis lives under the flight path at Love Field, the airline's home base in Dallas. The planes that rattle her windows or stop phone conversations in their tracks don't belong to Southwest, she said.
The company famous for offering low fares has said that rising fees at Sea-Tac -- which will fund major terminal improvements and a third runway -- have forced Southwest to consider a cheaper home.
But Cooper questions why residents should be subjected to more noise and a homegrown airline like Alaska should suffer, just so an aggressive, out-of-state company that already reaps substantial profits can improve its bottom line.
"This is an effort to build a genuine community here and what you have is the losers and drug dealers being replaced by people who care about their homes and their kids and each other," he said. "That's what makes a town great -- not that you can get a $90 air fare to Portland."
'Better neighbors'
Larry Phillips, chairman of the King County Council that would ultimately have to approve a lease with Southwest, shares a high degree of skepticism about the proposed move.
He wants to know how many millions of dollars it would take to upgrade roads, freeways and facilities at Boeing Field. Phillips also questions whether that's necessary, given the billions the region is investing to renovate and extend light rail to Sea-Tac.
The Magnolia resident has also spent a frustrating decade trying to get Boeing Field officials and the FAA to develop another flight path over unpopulated Elliott Bay. It could be used by a wider variety of planes than the current GPS route, and would provide relief to sleep-deprived residents in Magnolia.
"Ten years ago, we said, 'You need to be better neighbors to the communities you serve.' I don't think they're capable of it," he said. "We keep giving them alternatives and they keep sitting on their hands."
King County airport officials say that alternative flight path will be tested later this year to determine if frequencies interfere with the commonly used approach over Magnolia. That's been in existence for more than 50 years and, according to officials, offers more precise guidance, particularly important when visibility is poor.
The proposed flight path has caused controversy in Alki and Pigeon Point, where some residents object to planes flying closer to their homes and the Duwamish greenbelt.
Pete Spalding, chairman of the Pigeon Point Neighborhood Council, said West Seattle's battle is somewhat unrelated to a potential move by Southwest, since that's years away and the airline could potentially use a different Elliott Bay approach.
"One issue is Southwest looking for a cheaper place to land and the other is Magnolia trying to push noise onto somebody else," he said. "But they obviously forgot to do their homework because we're going to fight this tooth and nail."
Phillips and other proponents of the alternative Elliott Bay route say they're not interested in making the problem worse for other neighborhoods.
They believe noise data collected during test flights will show no effect on West Seattle.
Dan Labriola, a naturopath and pilot who's also been working on Boeing Field noise issues for a decade, said the announcement that the county was talking to Southwest felt like a huge betrayal to him.
He wishes he could take credit for lighting up his bedroom at night, but sadly, it's the cargo jets taking off from Boeing Field in the wee morning.
Even if Southwest and every other major passenger carrier agrees to use an Elliott Bay route, they'd still have to fly over Magnolia in the worst weather, he said.
"If you add several hundred flights a day even for those few days, it would be like parking under the approach to LaGuardia," he said. "It would just be non-stop noise."
