Should there be a new San Diego Airport along the US-Mexico border, accessible from both countries? (Los Angeles: homes, neighborhoods)

[Vicman]

I'm not sure what I would do regarding the broken political system. I suppose its something that the people of the City of San Diego have to fix.

Regarding a small downtown airport, if enough people seriously like it, it doesn't have to be replaced. Lindbergh could be a close to the city airport restricted to smaller types of aircraft, restricted by number of slots, and/or restricted to destinations in the western continental United States.

Some cities have made having a smaller close airport and a larger far away airport work (i.e. the DFW area with Dallas Love and DFW Airport). On the other hand nobody wants a Mirabel situation. In the Montreal area, the area government built Montreal Mirabel, a large airport outside of Montreal. After Mirabel was used as an international airport for many years, through a series of developments the passenger airlines moved back to the closer Dorval Airport (Dorval had not been closed, and only international flights were moved to Mirabel). Mirabel Airport only exists as a cargo airport.

Originally Posted by Sassberto

San Diego has been effectively bankrupt for nearly ten years and is about to announce a 200 million dollar budget deficit.

San Diego is a big city with a small-city municipal government, and a long history of corrupt and incompetent municipal politics.

There have already been 20 years of ballot measures, studies, and attempts to expand or otherwise move the airport. All have failed. There is serious opposition to expanding or moving SAN. San Diego doesn't want to be a big city with a big city airport, they like their convenient little downtown airport.

[Sassberto]

Originally Posted by sav858

Do cities even fund airport expansions themselves since they benefit the region? Seems a bit unfair for just the city of SD to foot the bill. Either way we are not that broke b/c the Airport Authority is in the process of dropping $500 million as we speak with more to come.

It's not a new airport but it's progress and we're not that incapable of getting big projects like this off the ground like some always suggest.

Much airport funding comes from the federal government, what San Diego has been unable to do is get the plan in place that would allow us to get the federal money to build it. Our limit is not just our capacity to pay for construction but our capacity to pay for the planning.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by Sassberto

Much airport funding comes from the federal government, what San Diego has been unable to do is get the plan in place that would allow us to get the federal money to build it. Our limit is not just our capacity to pay for construction but our capacity to pay for the planning.

Note San Marcos TX, a bedroom community of San Antonio:
House bill includes San Marcos airport funding, Doggett says | San Marcos Mercury

I always thought the main issue was finding a suitable site for it, which there are virtually none in SD County. It's kind of hard to draw up a plan when there is no place to put a new airport. Miramar was really the only logical, suitable site but the military is having none of that which there is nothing SD can do about it.

If getting federal funds is so hard for SD then how did we get federal funds for this current expansion?

[iskray917]

Absolute insanity. The airport is just fine where it's at.

[Jimrob1]

I lived in SD in the late 70's and early 80's. It was a constant topic then to build a new airport. Proposals to build it at Miramar or a joint SD TJ Airport. None of the plans obviously got off the ground. Here it is almost 2010 and still a congested single runway airport, for a city and Metro the size of SD.

It seems strange and one would think, a more suitable airport would have been built years ago. I imagine also there is just no place to put it. It is amazing though thru all these years, the airport does seem to have functioned with just one runway.

[Sassberto]

Originally Posted by sav858

I always thought the main issue was finding a suitable site for it, which there are virtually none in SD County. It's kind of hard to draw up a plan when there is no place to put a new airport. Miramar was really the only logical, suitable site but the military is having none of that which there is nothing SD can do about it.

If getting federal funds is so hard for SD then how did we get federal funds for this current expansion?

It's not hard to get the funds if you have a plan in place! Realistically the time for all of this to have happened was 20 years ago... it's not going to happen now. I think the airport ship has sailed, pardon the pun.

Miramar was not only opposed by the military, but failed miserably among SD voters as well. Business leaders want it, but the people who live here don't seem too interested. Losing Miramar to an airport is a pretty big upheaval to the miltary/social and geographic elements of the city.

The land was there in the 80's and even into the 90's... I always felt Otay Mesa (Brown Field) was the perfect site. But you are right in that available land is mostly gone by now.

[Vicman]

Originally Posted by Sassberto

The land was there in the 80's and even into the 90's... I always felt Otay Mesa (Brown Field) was the perfect site. But you are right in that available land is mostly gone by now.

While we do have eminent domain, taking already developed/owned land would increase the price tag on an airport property. (The owners have to be compensated)

In Japan they do not have eminent domain, so the Japanese government had a very difficult time getting expansion for Narita Airport. There were several farmers opposed to the expansion of Narita.

[sav858]

I guess San Diego is just stuck with a small airport for the time being. Seems like the city just missed the opportunity to build it back then. One of the proposals was a cross-border terminal where people could access the TJ airport, but I don't know what ever happened to that idea.

[Huckleberry3911948]

no let them go to otay mesa airport. we have taken on way too many of baja problems.
we also should never build power or sewage plants there.
more leverage for illegal immigration.
remember NAFTA, those home depot and smart and final stores are pretty empty in Tiajuana.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry3911948

no let them go to otay mesa airport. we have taken on way too many of baja problems.
we also should never build power or sewage plants there.
more leverage for illegal immigration.
remember NAFTA, those home depot and smart and final stores are pretty empty in Tiajuana.

Tijuana