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Airport Neighbors Association
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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HOW TO SEND AN AIRCRAFT NOISE COMPLAINT TO THE AIRPORT

This is the only place in the State of Wisconsin where you can find information of interest to the public concerning the environmental effects of urban area airports in general, and Milwaukee's Gen. Mitchell International Airport in particular. As we collect information locally and from around the world, we will be posting it so you may draw your own conclusions. Anyone who visits this site is encouraged to participate. As such, this site will continue to change, but it will always serve to educate and inform.

People around the world are fighting to preserve their quality of life and their property values from the devastating onslaught of ever-increasing air traffic. Some have been successful, most are not. Some Milwaukee residents are just beginning to realize what can happen when an airport continues its quest for expansion in the name of progress.

We don't want to stop progress, but we also don't want to see our neighborhoods become blighted by this "progress." We believe that an airport should satisfy the needs of the community it serves -- be sustainable -- and not become, as in Milwaukee's case, "Chicago's Third Airport" just so out of state travelers have a cheap alternative -- at our expense. Pirating passengers from Midway and O'Hare is exactly what your Milwaukee County leaders are up to. The airlines that operate at Mitchell love this. It makes a person wonder who our elected officials are working for, doesn't it? We must impress on them that expanding the airport beyond the actual needs of the area it serves is foolish and will only result in a further degradation in the quality of life for many, many of our citizens. Expanding Mitchell with a new (sixth) runway and terminal building will not only wipe hundreds of properties off the tax rolls and close many small businesses, but will ultimately lead to lower property values and less tax revenue. Who benefits in that? Yup, you guessed it -- the airlines. In effect, it would be like Milwaukee County government taking the equity you have invested in your property and handing it over to some out of town corporation.

We hear all the time that the airport is an "economic engine." We are shown dubious figures that suggest a tremendous contribution to the local economy. One study may show that a new runway will provide many new jobs and revenue. Another study will show the exact opposite. Whose study are we to believe? In reality, an airport does not lead economic prosperity in a community, it is the result of it. A review of the socio-economic data for Southeast Wisconsin might be a good place to reaffirm this. As the airport grew over the last 10 to 15 years or so, our area has headed in the opposite direction. Can we look forward to this "economic engine" churning out more of the same?

Ask a Milwaukee County official if a busier airport will solve the problems of high taxes, low wages, failing schools, high health care costs, crime, poor air quality, and the high costs of operating local governments that, in return provides fewer and fewer services to its citizens. Ask them if they really believe a company will locate here simply because we have a big airport. Most of us already know it's more complex than that. It may be a difficult task to reverse the political notion that short term profit is better than long term livability. To be sure, we don't want anyone in office who believes that an airport can cure the ills of a community.