X-OldHeader: From gpo@internetoutcomes.net-DeleteThis.com Wed Jun 19 11:31:16 2002 Return-Path: <gpo@internetoutcomes.net-DeleteThis.com> Received: from opus.labs.agilent.com (root@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com [130.29.244.179]) by jr.labs.agilent.com (8.9.3 (PHNE_18979)/8.9.3 AgilentLabs Workstation) with ESMTP id LAA09131 for <wind_talk_ls@jr.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com>; Wed, 19 Jun 2002 11:31:16 -0700 (PDT) Received: from msgbas1.cos.agilent.com (msgbas1.cos.agilent.com [192.168.148.33]) by opus.labs.agilent.com (8.9.3 (PHNE_18979)/8.9.3 AgilentLabs Workstation) with ESMTP id LAA18423 for <wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com>; Wed, 19 Jun 2002 11:31:15 -0700 (PDT) Received: from internetoutcomes.net (iml102.datareturn.com [216.46.226.234]) by msgbas1.cos.agilent.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id B26E5BAB0 for <wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com>; Wed, 19 Jun 2002 12:31:11 -0600 (MDT) Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 13:20:25 -0500 Message-Id: <200206191320.AA50528524@internetoutcomes.net-DeleteThis.com> From: "g o" <gpo@internetoutcomes.net-DeleteThis.com> Reply-To: <gpo@internetoutcomes.net-DeleteThis.com> To: <wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com> Subject: xSFO: Budget Realities Hit HOME ;-) X-Mailer: <IMail v6.05>
Bad news for the world and the bay area economy this last two years, is NOW good news for shutting down the runway project. ;-)
Too bad, the lobbyist, lawyers and spin-doctors for the runways are going to be out of work...Hooray for our side!
Regards,
g.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/06/19/BA241932.DTL
$5 billion plan for new runways at SFO hits dead-end
>From the looks of things, Mayor Willie Brown's dream of new runways at San Francisco International Airport is about to go down in flames.
San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin wants to clip $5 million from next year's runway budget -- and while that may not look like much, airport director John Martin says it's enough to "effectively kill" the entire $5 billion-plus project.
Or at least send the high-flying runway program, which has already cost $70 million, into a serious tailspin.
Peskin wants to chop the airport's budget for runway studies from $11.2 million to $6.2 million next year. That would slash the runway staff in half and eliminate just about every dime for lawyers, lobbyists and those PR consultants we've told you about who have racked up six-figure bills on the project.
Peskin says he doesn't mind the research, but thinks it's being done with a distinctly political bent aimed at making sure the only alternative presented to voters is filling in the bay.
"Let's get rid of the lawyers and lobbyists and stick to the science," Peskin says bluntly.
Airport officials counter that without lawyers and lobbyists to steer the project through scores of regulatory agencies -- and land 30 required permits - - the runways are doomed.
"Malarkey. That's total baloney," counters Peskin. "If I wanted to kill this straight out, I would drop $11 million out of the budget."
A majority of supervisors are on board with the idea, so Peskin's proposal is as close as you can get to a sure thing. It goes to a key vote Friday before the Budget Committee.
In the meantime, Martin has fired off an 11-page letter to Peskin defending his budget, saying the millions of dollars in PR, lobbying and lawyering contracts were essential.
"It just seems so shortsighted -- we're 80 percent complete with these studies," says Stuart Sunshine, the mayor's runway point man. "And unless we can finish them, we can't decide (what the best alternative is), and we're back to square one."
Which -- come to think about it -- may be what Peskin had in mind in the first place.
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