RE: “I simply don't buy that any airport sensitive community looking to reduce noise and pollution would keep restrictions that prevent the latest, quietest and most efficient technology into the TCCA.” (Jets and technological advances 5Apr09)

Noise by passenger aircraft of any kind doesn’t belong right smack dab on Toronto’s waterfront, period. And this notion of new commuter jets being “quieter” is just another of those convenient baseless stories trotted out by island airport protagonists. The noise generated by jets is of a different character than props. A lot of people find jet noise more penetrating, piercing and irritating, no matter how supposedly “quiet”.

My position about jets at the island airport is simply this: if Porter Airlines persists, and grows as it must to survive, then commuter jets are inevitable for the reasons I’ve already laid out earlier. The “no jets” prohibition in the tri-partite agreement, and all the related glib lip service, is just a stalling tactic that shouldn’t fool anyone if they are aware of the other non-prohibitions in the agreement like ”no fixed link”. Let’s not kid ourselves. Deluce and his well-heeled business cronies have commuter jets in mind as an engine for growth and profitability, no question.

I harp about this jet thing because I believe strongly if more people realize what this will mean for Toronto’s waterfront, then the full awful reality of where we’re headed and the very unwise trade-offs being made will start to sink in. Therein lies the only chance in my opinion to stop this absurdity of an island airport.

This is NOT a working hypothesis. We have real life examples right now. San Diego is one. There are other examples, but San Diego is a good place to start and quite apt because it provides today a glimpse of what Toronto’s waterfront is becoming. San Diegoians have generally but begrudgingly accepted the inevitable, and cope daily with all the overwhelming consequences of a busy commercial single-lane waterfront airport … noise, pollution, traffic congestion, etc. Torontonians should ask themselves: “do we want to allow our waterfront to become like this?”:

http://www.sdnews.com/pages/full_story?article-Airport%20revs%20up%20plan%20-to%20dampen%20jet%20noise%20=&page_label=results_content&id=2101633-Airport+revs+up+plan+-to+dampen+jet+noise&widget=push&open=&

I think not!

David Wilson