Memo to the folks at Philadelphia International Airport and the Federal Aviation Administration.
Dave McCann is not going away.
McCann lives in Tinicum Township, where folks have been dealing with fallout from the airport for years.
But lifestyle problems are one thing. Residents deal with noise and traffic from the constant drone of flights taking off and landing at their next-door neighbor all the time.
Now the airport wants something else from Tinicum residents.
Their homes.
McCann heads a group called RAAED. That stands for Residents Against Airport Expansion in Delco. They’ve mobilized to fight a plan approved by the FAA that would allow the airport to expand, including a new runway that would mean taking 72 homes and 80 businesses in Tinicum.
McCann has a message for the feds and airport officials: Take a long flight off a short runway.
They have no intention of giving up their homes. This week they filed a petition with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood asking him, as well as President Obama, to live up to the president's words when he laid out his infrastructure plans for the nation.
McCann was our guest last night on our latest “Live From the Newsroom” Internet broadcast. He chatted with me and Gil Spencer and laid out the case against this plan.
He made a fairly compelling argument against Philadelphia officials who are pushing hard for the expansion plan.
The more you read about this plan, the more you get the idea that this is all about increasing capacity at the airport, and revenue for the city of Philadelphia.
I warned McCann that he faced an uphill fight. Usually the FAA gets what it wants. Just ask the county, which spent a ton of money fighting that airspace redesign plan that would put a lot more flights over the county at lower altitudes. They lost. Most people who fight the FAA do.
The argument then was that the changes were needed to make the airport get closer to running on time and cut down on delays. I’m not so sure that’s what’s at stake now.
What is at stake, according to McCann and the folks at RAAED, is life in Tinicum as they know it.
And they want officials to know that the buck stops here.
Dave McCann is not going away.
McCann lives in Tinicum Township, where folks have been dealing with fallout from the airport for years.
But lifestyle problems are one thing. Residents deal with noise and traffic from the constant drone of flights taking off and landing at their next-door neighbor all the time.
Now the airport wants something else from Tinicum residents.
Their homes.
McCann heads a group called RAAED. That stands for Residents Against Airport Expansion in Delco. They’ve mobilized to fight a plan approved by the FAA that would allow the airport to expand, including a new runway that would mean taking 72 homes and 80 businesses in Tinicum.
McCann has a message for the feds and airport officials: Take a long flight off a short runway.
They have no intention of giving up their homes. This week they filed a petition with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood asking him, as well as President Obama, to live up to the president's words when he laid out his infrastructure plans for the nation.
McCann was our guest last night on our latest “Live From the Newsroom” Internet broadcast. He chatted with me and Gil Spencer and laid out the case against this plan.
He made a fairly compelling argument against Philadelphia officials who are pushing hard for the expansion plan.
The more you read about this plan, the more you get the idea that this is all about increasing capacity at the airport, and revenue for the city of Philadelphia.
I warned McCann that he faced an uphill fight. Usually the FAA gets what it wants. Just ask the county, which spent a ton of money fighting that airspace redesign plan that would put a lot more flights over the county at lower altitudes. They lost. Most people who fight the FAA do.
The argument then was that the changes were needed to make the airport get closer to running on time and cut down on delays. I’m not so sure that’s what’s at stake now.
What is at stake, according to McCann and the folks at RAAED, is life in Tinicum as they know it.
And they want officials to know that the buck stops here.
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