Originally Posted by
Shimagnolo
If you are a city official, you need to learn the difference between the vast majority of the "the public", and a handful of whiny old grumps. (And I do mean *old*, because the grumps are typically elderly.)
In Longmont CO, there has been an analogous situation with a few whiny old grumps complaining about airplane noise. One obsessed woman started an organization dedicated to closing the airport, (and she lives SIX MILES from it). As step one she found 5 elderly people to join her in suing the skydiving operation for (imaginary) loss to their property values. (The skydiving planes are small turboprops which are quieter than the jets and piston aircraft also based there.) They lost after forcing the skydiving business to run up huge six-figure legal bills. So of course they are now trying to appeal the case. Tens of thousands of people live near the airport, and only five households joined in the suit. The airport manager got so disgusted by the city council trying to appease the whiners, instead of standing up to them, that he quit after working there for 19 years.
It reminds me of a situation in Arlington, Texas when I lived there. There was a huge "hike & bike" plan that was being voted on. A few grumpy local business owners fought it tooth and nail, and swore it would cost Arlington taxpayers BILLIONS of dollars in construction, traffic congestion, decreased gas mileage due to congestion, etc. They would always lead with "And bikes are ok, as long as they're in parks," not realizing that most of the money in the several million (not even close to 1 billon, heck maybe not more than 0.01 billon) dollar 10 year plan was actually for parks. After continually harping on the BILLIONS of dollars line, I finally looked it up myself and figured out that the actual on-street striping in the plan was something just in the low thousands over 10 years. Luckily, the old grumps ultimately lost.