A love letter to people new to the issues who want to make a real difference
Dear Budding Airport Activist,
We bet you’ve already called the Port of Seattle a bunch of times. The airlines. The FAA. Maybe your Congressman. Joined social media groups. You click that Noise App button a hundred times a day. You even track flights and report ‘go-arounds’ like a boss. We love the enthusiasm!
Unfortunately, you’re one of hundreds of people over the past 40 years who periodically ask exactly the same questions, perform the same research, get the same answers, and then decide that resistance is futile. Before that happens to you we politely ask you to read the following and see if you’d like to join us.
The full explanation: Don’t like it? Move!
At bottom, the lack of progress was never about the Port of Seattle or the FAA or any other ‘Evil Empire’. It’s actually a very practical combination of NIMBYism and something called ‘The Greater Good Argument’. Or made even simpler, it comes down to “Don’t like it? Move!”
OK, NIMBY
The overwhelming number of residents under the flight path rightfully, want immediate relief. You just want the planes to go somewhere else. Now. Perfectly reasonable. But as infuriating as this will sound, this argument will not work because it sounds like just what it is: Not. In. My. Back. Yard. So instead one has to argue in abstractions like ‘justice’ or ‘retaining neighborhood character’. And those sound hollow to decision makers because they know darned well that that is not what most people care about. Again: you just want the planes to go somewhere else. Even your neighbors will tell you, “Don’t like it? Move!” And there’s a truth to that because, sadly, there are plenty of people willing to tolerate this very unhealthy status quo when you decide you’ve had enough.
When it comes to aviation impacts, if one cannot provide immediate relief, almost everyone gives up, or moves, or hangs out on various web sites we call ‘Whine Cellars’, places which are supposedly about ‘information sharing’ but which are mostly places to complain about the Evil Empire or pray for some miracle that requires no effort beyond a few emails. Whine Cellars actually make the problem worse.
The Greater Good
Neither the Port of Seattle or the FAA are the Evil Empire any more than Exxon or Dupont or any weed dealer. Most people (especially politicians and labor) want what those people are selling. Two ideas:
A few hundred thousand people (like you) suffer so that a hundred million more can travel less expensively, get their package tomorrow, or have a few thousand living wage jobs.
When you complain about the flight paths or NextGen, understand that your pain means ‘quieter skies’, less pollution and greater prosperity for many millions more.
That’s the Greater Good argument. You’re taking it on the chin for ‘the greater good’. It’s sounds so blatantly unfair that many people refuse to believe it, let alone deal with it constructively. The fact is this: concentrating the flight paths really does make life a lot more pleasant for a lot more people. Just not you.
Some decision makers want to substitute. Some want to distract. Some do care about aviation impacts, but not enough to do anything they perceive might mess with all those benefits. And since the Greater Good Argument really does have merit, that is what they will continue to do in the absence of a useful strategy to change public perception, and make these practices illegal and unprofitable.
The Dark Ages
There is one other, insidious aspect to this, we call ‘the Dark Ages’. The story goes that after the fall of the Roman Empire the world was plunged into ‘a thousand years of darkness’, followed by a great Renaissance. People had to re-learn all kinds of things that had previously been common knowledge. Uncovering what had happened before was the key to making progress into the modern world.
When so many people move or get frustrated, it causes a brain drain that requires the next generation to re-learn almost everything from 5-10-20 years before; especially politicians. That learning curve becomes more steep as people move and forget. And because the new people don’t know that someone else already worked on the same things, it creates a ton of wasted effort, misinformation, and an even greater sense that resistance is futile. That ignorance also enables decision makers–people who should have your back–to appear sympathetic, but continue to fight any any change as some threat. Because if things could be better, it would have happened already, right? Wrong.
The Sea-Tac Communities Plan
In fact, there was one moment in airport community history where meaningful change happened. It was called the Sea-Tac Communities Plan. It was a blueprint for a realistic ongoing relationship with both the airport and the Port of Seattle. But 1976 was so long ago now as to be just some legend from the Dark Ages. People either think it’s a myth or so long ago it doesn’t matter. But everything people talk about now on airport community issues, they considered and planned for in 1976. Everything. That’s why we talk about it all the time.
The Solution
There are answers. But they depend on two factors: Sustained Effort and History.
Sustained effort
So long as people are unwilling to put in sustained effort? The only solution will be “Don’t like it? Move!” People have to be willing to accept that this struggle will take several years and fight for their neighborhood. And that means local.
History
We also know that many people are doing things that do not work, are trying to distract you, or provide substitutions. We focus on history because, after decades of failure we know that just yelling “Make the airplanes go somewhere else!” or “Don’t like it? Move!” is a recipe for more failure.
At one time we had the best working solution in the entire nation and we can get there again. Almost everything we propose is doable now because it is under our control–at the local level.
Trust
These are the guiding principles of Sea-TacNoise.Info: to create a sustainable framework for everyone living under the flight path. Not perfect. But many times better than what we have now. And do it now.
You may have heard that the Port of Seattle has a (cough) Sustainable Airport Master Plan‘. So do we. Like theirs, ours requires effort and cooperation and there are no quick fixes. But we know that our Sustainable Master Plan is just as doable as theirs. Because we did it before.
We understand that what we do is not for everybody. We’re counting on the fact that you’ve already tried enough things on your own to be willing to consider that our motto might be true.
“Everything you think you know about the airport is wrong.”
However, things have been so dark for so long, that, in the beginning, a lot of what we talk about you might require a leap of faith on your part. After all, our motto is
We’re asking you to try something different–instead of banging your head against the wall, move, or heading down to the whine cellar.
We hope you’ll decide that everything we propose is actually the only truly effective strategy for moving towards improving life for everyone under the flight path. We can get there, but only with sustained effort from people like you working cooperatively here across the entire flight path.
If this sounds like a porject you’d like to be a part of?