The good people of Tinicum have no intention of going quietly into the night.
There isn’t much of anything that’s quiet in Tinicum, which sits right next door to Philadelphia International Airport. While the terminal lies in the city of Philadelphia, much of the facility’s runways sit in Delaware County, specifically in Tinicum.
And they’d like to intrude even farther. That’s why a group of Tinicum residents, backed up by their township officials, county council members and heavyweight Delco pols took their case to Philadelphia City Council yesterday to complain about the latest runway expansion plan at the airport.
They made their cases pretty plain. They said the proposal would “destroy” Tinicum.
You can read Alex Rose’s report here.
If approved, the plan would mean leveling as many as 80 homes in one Tinicum neighborhood, along with a slew of businesses. The sprawling United Parcel Service plant would have to be relocated in the township.
But the Delco delegation was not alone in their opposition. And I was surprised by some of the parties there to cast a dissenting vote.
It turns out both US Airways and Southwest Airlines – two heavyweights when it comes to flying out of Philly International - are not all that thrilled by the plan either.
They have concerns about how much of the cost of the $5.3 billion expansion might fall on their shoulders.
For Tinicum residents, it’s a little more personal. It means chasing people out of homes and a neighborhood where they have lived their entire life.
The FAA is expected to rule on the plan later this month.
The guess here is that it gets approved. The FAA usually gets what it wants. Witness the airspace redesign plan that was put into effect, despite the millions Delaware County spent to fight the plan in court.
But Tinicum residents are not going down without a fight.
Turbulence? They plan to make plenty of it. They've lived with this noisy neighbor for decades. Now they could be chased out of their homes, all in the name of “progress” and the need to make the airport run more effeciently and cut flight delays.
No one is arguing that the airport is a crucial economic cog in the region. It’s just that every time something is “aired” in the name of progress, it falls on the backs of Tinicum residents.
To “air” is human, at least for the folks at the FAA; to forgive might not be so easy these days in Tinicum.
Comments