Letters

The space devoted to the East Hampton Community Alliance’s “research project” [“Pilots Group Says East Hampton Airport Drives $77 Million Into Local Economy, Supports 800 Jobs,” 27east.com, January 27] and your “Airport Is Economic Driver” headline [Eastern Edition, March 4] does a disservice to your readers.

As your story indicates, this was not an unbiased examination of the airport’s economic impact on the region, but a study designed “to build the case for keeping the airport here.” This biased advocacy project can be criticized on multiple counts, but two stand out for me.

To start with, the study and your article assume that all money spent by those jetting and helicoptering into the Hamptons would disappear if the airport was closed. Does anyone really believe that? Yes, a few of the tourists would probably choose to fly to other places for the weekend, but I suspect they would easily be replaced by others, especially if our once quiet environment was restored by the airport’s closure.

The biggest problem with the study is that it completely ignores the airport’s costs, both tangible and intangible, to the local economy. How many people have left due to airport-related noise and pollution? How many stay away? What is the airport’s impact on housing values in the flight paths? What about the costs of cleaning up the existing pollution on the airport grounds? Not to mention the potential costs of groundwater contamination to the local aquifer.

The Express News Group claims its “focus is on community.” If that is truly the case and you want to serve the needs of the entire community, I suggest you support an unbiased economic study of the true costs and benefits of the East Hampton Airport and refrain from providing coverage to one-sided, biased studies like the one commissioned by the pilot’s group.

Jim Stone

North Sea