Community Development - Blatchford

[feepa]

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/...279/story.html

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/opini...289/story.html

[MrOilers]

Originally Posted by Policy Wonk

Their business is providing air service to Edmonton - not Leduc.

Yes, the Edmonton International Airport handles millions of passengers per year, all going to and from Leduc.

And without the City Center Airport or those rinky-dink mom-and-pop operated bush airlines flying in and out of it, Edmonton will have no air service.

Excellent argument.

[Airboy]

Just an observation from yesterday. While flying NORTH the real North YK.

I noticed that the north end of runway 02 is only a few km 2-3) from the first subdivisions. Since you can't see it from QE2 it makes the city feel further away. It should only be another year before we hear bitching about YEG from the people below the flight path.

[240glt]

^ That's why this whole "leduc airport" thing that some outsiders like to trot out is so stupid and incendiary... it's literally 8 minutes from the airport turnoff on the QE2 to the city limits and the city keeps growing to the south

[Airboy]

Do people complain about the distance the airport in Halifax is away from the city.

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by Airboy

Do people complain about the distance the airport in Halifax is away from the city.

Yeah - especially when at the time of privatization/localization, it was possible that CFB Shearwater could have been used instead (it was used for the G7/8 that Halifax hosted back in the day) which is much much closer.

[DAVEinEDMONTON]

Originally Posted by 240glt

^ That's why this whole "leduc airport" thing that some outsiders like to trot out is so stupid and incendiary... it's literally 8 minutes from the airport turnoff on the QE2 to the city limits and the city keeps growing to the south

I have been listening to the complaints about the distance for years. And now it seems, it is the right distance away from the majority of citizens that it serves given that no one really wants to live close to an airport if they can help it!

I wonder how many citizens living in North East Calgary by YYC would love to have YYC a few miles north by Airdrie versus where it is now.

[Airboy]

Since I'm sitting in Iqaluit right now, The Runway is just behind the office. You get to hear a lot of aircraft. Currently, since the sky is clearing there is a 767 freighter. a number of ATRs, 737-200s and 2 F18 raring to go.

I don't think I could deal with living close to an airport.

now I just wish Kenn Borek would call and tell me I heading up island.

[240glt]

Originally Posted by DAVEinEDMONTON

I wonder how many citizens living in North East Calgary by YYC would love to have YYC a few miles north by Airdrie versus where it is now.

It's a poorer area up in there (as areas around airports tend to be) so there are likely fewer complaints, unlike Ellerslie/ Windermere, which is pretty spendy. A friend rented a house just south of the airport there for a year about decade ago and it was terrible.

[Policy Wonk]

The only real complaints (to say there was organized protest) about noise in the immediate YYC area were about ~20 years ago when the Country Hills area was developed.

And yes, the remaining operators at YXD are in the business of providing direct service to downtown Edmonton. You may not patronize them, you might not care - but that is what they do and that is why they will not relocate to YEG.

[DAVEinEDMONTON]

Originally Posted by Policy Wonk

The only real complaints (to say there was organized protest) about noise in the immediate YYC area were about ~20 years ago when the Country Hills area was developed.

And yes, the remaining operators at YXD are in the business of providing direct service to downtown Edmonton. You may not patronize them, you might not care - but that is what they do and that is why they will not relocate to YEG.

Try checking out the Calgary Airport Authorty - Annual Noise Management Report on www.calgaryairport.com that tracks annual noise complaints from YYC and advises on the Calgary Airport Noise Management Program in place and all the hoops the airport has to go through to track the noise factor. I believe it is very much an issue in Calgary as complaints average over 250 a year to the noise hotline.

[Policy Wonk]

250 complaints a year for an airport the size of YYC is nothing, there are much smaller airports with a fraction of the activity that get three times as many.

When Country Hills was developed there were thousands of angry residents, organized protests and damn near a lynching when Transport Canada held an open house.

[MalcolmTucker]

From the Globe and Mail Editorial Board [Link]:

Edmonton should not lose an air link to its centre

A small downtown airport can be a blessing

Edmonton voters should seize on the opportunity afforded by a plebiscite over the proposed closure of the City Centre Airport to put an end to the plan and instead insist city leaders adopt a more forward-looking approach to priceless transportation infrastructure.


The city has been grappling for years with the complexities of having two airports. What many major centres would see as a blessing – a small but vital downtown airport complementing the major but more distant international airport – has posed endless problems for Edmonton. The case for closure of the downtown airport is predicated on two pieces of accepted wisdom:

• that the City Centre Airport, despite drastic past measures to constrict its use, continues to stand in the way of Edmonton International Airport becoming a major air hub, and
• that the City Centre Airport lands can be redeveloped into a residential Shangri-La, a green residential community that would spring up like so many mushrooms after a heavy rain next to the city’s under-populated downtown.

The first piece of wisdom should have been abandoned after scheduled passenger service was removed from the City Centre Airport, and the International still failed to become the kind of major hub many had hoped for.


The second is even more tenuous, with the claims for the regenerative potential of the airport lands eerily echoing those once made for the former rail lands in Edmonton’s downtown.


When a previous council voted to rid the city of its downtown rail “moose pasture,” along with any future commuter or high-speed rail service to the city centre, it did so in favour of a vision of a veritable jewel of downtown redevelopment. Instead it got a series of strip malls that essentially killed off long stretches of nearby Jasper Avenue, along with a low-rise condo, a casino and, on the bright side, a downtown campus for Grant MacEwan University (which could, of course, have just as easily occupied one of the extant parking lots elsewhere downtown).


Some 80,000 Edmontonians have signed a petition to force a plebiscite during the municipal elections. They should follow it up with a vote to preserve the City Centre Airport.

[rapid_business]

/\ the comments attached to the article are correct in mentioning the tone of the uninformed editorial.

[240glt]

The Globe & Mail has always been seriously out of touch with our city.

Between this and the arena article, the G & M have proven they are clearly incapable of reporting on anything in our city.

[vid]

The Globe and Mail is incapable of reporting on things in Toronto. What makes you think Edmonton would be an exception?

[Policy Wonk]

I had some private survey numbers shared with me today, the survey was done on behalf of a party with a vested interest in the outcome but has not taken a public position on the issue.

The question was asked of randomly selected Edmontonians who first identified themselves as having voted in the last election.

Question: "Would you vote in favor of the continued operation of the old Edmonton airport"

Approximately 55% said they would vote in favor, Approximately 35% would vote against it while the others were undecided or refused to answer.

[MrOilers]

"Continued operation" as opposed to what?



If that same surveyor asked them:

"Would you vote in favor of closing the City Center Airport in order to build new sustainable neighborhoods and businesses which would reduce your taxes and increase public services?"

The results would likely be different.

[MrOilers]

You would also get different results if those same people were asked:

"Are you in favor of the city spending $40 to $50 million for upgrades just to keep Edmonton's old airport operating?"

[Black Star]

Originally Posted by Policy Wonk

I had some private survey numbers shared with me today, the survey was done on behalf of a party with a vested interest in the outcome but has not taken a public position on the issue.

The question was asked of randomly selected Edmontonians who first identified themselves as having voted in the last election.

Question: "Would you vote in favor of the continued operation of the old Edmonton airport"

Approximately 55% said they would vote in favor, Approximately 35% would vote against it while the others were undecided or refused to answer.

I would say most dont know the real issues regarding pros and cons of keeping it open or closing it. Just asked out right by some arbitrary guy on the street or phone!!! You have to be able to intelligently articulate why pro or con! Most would vote or comment based on limited information... or he said she said.