In 1996, the PSRC required the Port of Seattle to provide sound insulation systems, known as Port Packages for all homes and apartments in a geographic area known as the DNL65. This requirement was in exchange for providing the Federal funding necessary to construct the Third Runway. The estimate was perhaps 15,000 new units–in addition to
Symbolic Gestures
For those of you who hate reading and just want to get to the point, click here. 😀 As we’ve written here many times, we’d like you to consider thinking differently about airport issues. We’d like you to consider that the real challenges are not ‘noise’ or ‘pollution’ or ‘FAA law’ or ‘the environment’. What
A Letter to Councilmember Earnest Thompson
Mr. Thompson is a member of the Normandy Park City Council and is well-known for his advocacy of HyperLoop technology. This letter was written in response to a conversation we had regarding Towards A New Normal. Hi Earnest, Just following up on our conversation. First, I look forward to seeing your information on HyperLoop. Second,
Towards A New Normal
When I first spoke publicly on the problems of Sea-Tac Airport four years ago, I was not coy. I said, “Roll it back.” And by that I meant, reducing the number of daily operations back to 2012 levels. I was told that only an act of God could make such a thing possible. Who knew,
What do Port Packages have to do with me?
Perhaps the most common question we get these days is “Why do you keep going on about ‘Port Packages’? I don’t care about Port Packages. I care about all the damned planes! That is what we should be focused on!” This is a great question. It’s the only question, really because it gets to the
The problem with cities
As one attempts to survey the landscape concerning the various negative impacts that the Sea-Tac Airport has foisted upon the surrounding communities, one quickly becomes aware of a black hole which I call ‘The Dark Time’–probably because I watched too many comic book movies with my kids. The Dark Time is the roughly decade-long period
Quit Whining (StART Meeting 4/24/19)
Last time I checked, the Port Of Seattle ran Sea-Tac Airport and the Port Of Seattle Commission was elected by the voters of King County. There are currently about 2.1 million residents of King County. And there are maybe 150,000 people living in ‘the airport communities’ so the airport communities are at best a mere
…Except For The City Of SeaTac (Mea Culpa)
In my last post I made an error of fact so egregious that it demands not just a quick ‘We regret the error’ but an actual post of its own. Well… sort of. I wrote “Except for Burien, no electeds sit on any of those Airport Committees.” Well of course, that was just plain wrong–as
Sibling Rivalry
Last night the Burien City Council passed the four resolutions created by their Airport Committee. We’ve discussed them a bit before and likely will do so again as they are well-crafted and cover most of the main issues that all the sister-cities will need to address if the region is to successfully confront the Port
Make A Difference In 2019
People who read our posts tend to be more wonky than most. But this is the first in a series of posts for the silent majority; which is to say the overwhelming number of people who are ostensibly following one of the Quiet Skies groups but are thoroughly confused as to what they can do