David,

You mentioned real estate values possibly being depreciated by noise in Winnipeg. We moved to Winnipeg around 1965--maybe before you were born--and were looking for a house for our family of five children.

We were taken to a house in a district, Silver Heights, and were interested by buying a very nice house with an attractive price. We were checking out the basement, when suddenly an ear splitting noise roared through the whole house, shaking it.

The real estate agent who had every reasonn to believe we were about to sign on the dotted line, took one look at our appalled faces--and closed his order book.

Yes, indeed, and if real estate agents are showing houses in condos near the airport where I now live, they will be closing their order books too.

Why did we do it--buy here? Because when we came we had a toy airport with a few small planes a day. And that is what we signed up for. We did not sign on for a full scale airport and an industrial sight pervading our view, where a park should be.

Studies have shown that real estate values do declined significantly when airports rise up in the districts. It is easy to see why that is so. A class action lawyer might aay that loss of real estate value could be classified as "damages."

Thanks for you comments. Thought provoking.

Joel