Here is my comment from a different thread
Posted by Resident, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, 44 minutes ago

This accident brings to light the fact that the airport is actually becoming more and more of an important economic source for Palo Alto. Tesla is one of many local companies that send off executives to meetings from Palo Alto airport rather than having to deal with one of the major airports. The cause of the accident is not known, but like all accidents, it has to be investigated so that the same can't happen again.




But the truth is that this airport is meeting a commercial need for local businesses and may even be a factor for why some businesses are locating here. In my opinion, the City should be more welcoming and looking at ways to boost the airport and making the users of the airport spend money in Palo Alto. We should be looking at ways to get restaurants and other service businesses opening near the airport to attract airport users. We should see if public transport should serve the airport e.g. run the Embarcadero shuttle all the way to the airport from downtown, etc.




People should start looking at the airport from what it is, a commercial/business amenity and not look at it as a playground for the rich. I doubt if any of the 3 in the plane yesterday would like to have been considered billionaires playing with their expensive toys, rather business people using a local amenity to get them where they needed to go in a 21st century manner.

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All amenities have downsides and this accident shows that the authorities should look into security/safety concerns and also why the loss of one power tower should cause disruption to the whole city for a complete business day, but accidents like this are rare and if nothing else serve as a learning experience and practice run for big emergencies.

It was a tragedy yesterday, but another small plane crashed into a building in Texas today. The bigger tragedy would be to make panic decisions rather than looking at the bigger picture and working out what went wrong and preventing the same mistake being made again here or elsewhere.

Closing the airport because of this tragedy would be the same as slowing the trains through Palo Alto to prevent suicides.

"Tesla is one of many local companies that send off executives to meetings from Palo Alto airport rather than having to deal with one of the major airports."

So Tesla execs should not have to deal with the major airports like the rest of us?! What elitist privilege.

There are many ways to transport executives to southern California, including Southwest Airlines. We are not obliged to operate a dangerous, expensive hobby airport for the convenience of a few at the expense and peril of the many. Close this playground-for-the-privileged, now.

Why don't we just close the 101 because of all the fatalities there? The bottom line is that no innocent people on the ground were killed, unlike the countless cases involving drunk/distracted drivers on our highways.

Airports aren't just playgrounds of the privileged. They are not "hobby" airports even though some use them recreationally (just like highways). It's where medevac choppers are based, and where business happens. 3 people traveling via private airplane would have been cheaper and faster than flying commercially for shorter distance destinations.
Airports are also crucial pieces of infrastructure. When the next earthquake happens, parts of Palo alto are rubble and the highways damaged, guess from where supplies will come?

Predictably, on this and other threads, the airport special interests have flocked in mass to defend their elite privileged status. They must have quite an email alert system.

Despite what the lobbies say, airports aren't like highways, which are used by all most all of us, rather than an elite - and rich - few. Highways don't pose the unique risks to non-users that small planes flying out of airports in dense residential areas do. And highways don't ask for operating subsidy from non-users like Palo Alto airport pilots - from Atherton and Woodside - do.

Moreover, as others have pointed out, emergency air service could be provided out of Moffit, a military facility that is much more efficient than PAO. Endangering thousands of people on the ground every day, keeping them awake with their constant nuisance overhead buzzing every weekend - all primarily for the benefit of a few selfish hobbyists isn't something we should be subsidizing or even tolerating in this budget environment.

Close the Airport NOW.

The PA airport is a great asset for Stanford and PA residents.

It is very safe if you do not try to take off in thick fog.

A yacht harbor/ marina would be an additional asset and should be developed.

"When the next earthquake happens, parts of Palo alto are rubble and the highways damaged, guess from where supplies will come?"

Not from the PAO runway, which will be a useless undulating jumble of cracked concrete due to the liquefaction of the marsh mud on which it is built.

"Why don't we just close the 101 because of all the fatalities there? The bottom line is that no innocent people on the ground were killed, unlike the countless cases involving drunk/distracted drivers on our highways."

As I said before, 101 is a part of our transportation infrastructure available to everyone. The airport is available only to the privileged few, such as the elite "executives [whose companies] send them to meetings from Palo Alto airport rather than having to deal with one of the major airports." I have never seen a more clear statement of privilege.

That nobody on the ground was killed by the flaming wreckage raining down was a miracle. Miracles are notoriously unreliable. However, some of them are critical wake up calls, like this one was.

Close the airport and save lives. We also have better and more pressing uses for that land, uses that benefit everyone.

Resident, 2 words San Carlos..