News

THANKS to the hundreds who attended and spoke out at the second meeting of the Southern San Fernando Valley Airplane Noise Task Force last night at the LA Marriott Burbank Airport Convention Center!

UproarLA kicked off the meeting, and was given 20 minutes to present. They explained the devastating health effects on residents of the new BUR flight paths, as well as interim solutions — jointly presented with former BUR Executive Director Dan Feger. These solutions could be implemented immediately and without the need for FAA approval — providing immediate relief to suffering residents. UproarLA presenters also touched on our F.A.I.R. long-term plan, which will be discussed in more detail by Mr. Feger during Studio City for Quiet Skies’ presentation at the next Task Force meeting.

Task Force members were provided binders containing the presentation, along with hundreds of pages of supporting documents: emails, memos, government studies, sound scientific data — which support the facts laid out by UproarLA. UproarLA’s Powerpoint presentation, including Mr Feger’s remarks, can be found HERE.  All supporting documentation is available HERE.

We are incredibly grateful to Mr. Feger, who traveled to join UproarLA’s presentation, provide his expertise and elaborate on solutions to the problem.

Many Task Force members gave careful consideration to the facts presented, and were given an opportunity to pose questions to the FAA, BUR and VNY. Many of the questions were suggested within UproarLA’s presentation, including: 

• Why did the FAA violate its own policy and shift noise over a NEW community? 
• When and why were the flight paths changed? 
• By whom, how, and when are aircraft vectoring (turning) decisions made? 
• Why has there been no official noise monitoring in the new affected community? 

We need the Task Force members to insist on timely, complete, and honest answers from airport staff and the FAA. We, and all of our elected officials, must keep the pressure on BUR and the FAA. Because of the FAA’s/BUR’s history of lies and obfuscation, we all must be diligent in demanding meaningful answers, transparency and accountability by those organizations.

Absent from the meeting were the Mayors of Glendale and Pasadena, who are voting Task Force members. We hope they or their representatives will be able to attend these important meetings in the future.

Each of 65 speakers was then given 90 seconds to voice concerns over the effects of the deafening, nonstop noise, pollution, and increased fire hazard. We are grateful to you all for sharing your personal stories with the decision-makes in the room. Your voices are being heard!

NOW we must keep up the pressure!

Call your local officials (contact info below) and 

• Thank them for participating in the Task Force
• Ask them to advocate for the New Community being devastated by the new flight paths
• Insist on full disclosure and answers to all questions from the airports and the FAA
• Demand the FAA fix this problem now: it has the tools to do so immediately, but as of yet, has refused.

And contact Southwest Airlines, whose flights represent an astonishing 70% of the ultra-low flights over our neighborhoods — tell them how their noise and pollution is upendcing your lives! Tell them about the F.A.I.R. solution:

And please take a minute out of your day to call our elected representatives — they are listening! — and tell them you join LA Councilmembers Krekorian & Ryu in supporting UproarLA’s FAIR plan for SFV aircraft traffic!

LA Councilman Ryu: Justin Orenstein  213-473-7004
LA Councilman Krekorian: Doug Mensman  818-755-7676
City Attorney Feuer: Rob Wilcox  213-978-8100
Mayor Garcetti: David Reich  213-978-0331
Sen. Feinstein: Peter Muller  310-914-7300
Sen. Harris: Heather Hutt  310-231-4494
Cong. Sherman: John Brodtke 818-501-9200
Cong. Adam Schiff: Joe Jankiewicz 818-450-2900

SB 592 and SB 330 have cleared committee hurdles and will be headed to the Assembly and then the Governor’s office by, or around, September 13th.

We must let our representatives know that we DO NOT SUPPORT ANY BILL THAT DESTROYS SINGLE-FAMILY NEIGHBORHOODS.

Furthermore, neither of the Bills addresses the real problem in California which isn’t a housing shortage, but a shortage of affordable housing.

Please feel free to let our State Representatives, and the Governor, know that there are better ways to solve this problem than ruining neighborhoods.

We can up-zone commercial corridors, develop underutilized state property (thousands of lots), encourage employers to establish their companies further

out in the suburbs in order to change commuting patterns…. We just need the time to RESPONSIBLY figure this out.

PLEASE WRITE, OR CALL, IMMEDIATELY to oppose the passage of these bills.

assemblymember.nazarian@assembly.ca.gov  (818) 376-4246 or (916)319-2046

senator.hertzberg@senate.ca.gov  (818)901-5588 or (916) 651-4018

governor@governor.ca.gov  (916) 445-2841

gavin.newsom@gov.ca.gov

Just a reminder that SB 330 and SB 592 are being heard on Wednesday, Aug 28 in the Appropriations Committee of the Assembly, chaired by Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez and sitting on that committee are Richard Bloom( BH) and Jesse Gabriel (Encino).

assemblymember.gongalez@assembly.ca.gov  

assemblymember.bloom@assembly.ca.gov;

assemblymember.gabriel@assembly.ca.gov

Also letting Senator Portantino know that we support the suspension of SB 50 is important because Wiener is trying to reintroduce this bill.

senator.portantino@senate.ca.gov

Our representatives in both the Senate and the Assembly are under great pressure to support Wiener’s bills.   Our representatives need to hear that their constituents oppose them.

If these bills get through the Appropriations Committees then they get full Senate and Assembly votes before going to the governor.  We don’t have much time.  September 13 is the date that these bills must be approved and sent to the governor or they die.

Encourage everyone to reach out to their representatives and to this committee chair and voice your opposition.  Everyone’s voice matters here, there is a lot of monetary support behind the bills from the Zuckerberg Initiative. So fighting to keep our local control and single family neighborhoods from upzoning needs a lot of voices in opposition to make the difference.

Together with Studio City for Quiet Skies, we are providing this update to you about some very disturbing developments regarding the new Van Nuys Airport (“VNY”) “fix.”  We have reviewed the FAA materials produced online and watched the FAA presentation of August 6, 2019.  Shockingly, this “fix” appears to create a second superhighway of departures out of VNY running along almost the exact same path as the Burbank Airport (“BUR”) proposed procedures that our communities have vehemently opposed – just in reverse. 

Happy Fiscal New Year: The 2019-’20 City Budget Begins

The new fiscal year began on July 1, and with it came a number of new budget items that our Councilmember, David Ryu, has been fighting for. The new budget includes an additional $25 million for tree maintenance and increased staff at the Urban Forestry Department, $47 million of sworn overtime of LAPD officer overtime to increase neighborhood patrols, $25 million for repairing broken streets, concrete streets, and alleyways, and greater allocations into addressing homelessness and the City’s reserve fund. A more in-depth analysis of the City Budget can be found here.

Matt Adams, our nationally recognized attorney, continues his work on our behalf- aggressively fighting for our community.  He is coordinating with the L.A. City Attorney’s Office, routinely communicating with the FAA, and monitoring any issues that may impact our efforts.
 
Yesterday, Mr. Adams sent a letter to the FAA’s legal counsel pushing forcefully for a resolution to the existing departure routes that are decimating our community.  
 
He also protected a Burbank Airport (“BUR”) solution in light of new flight path changes at Van Nuys Airport (“VNY”).  Mr. Adams noted that UproarLA supports the FAA’s efforts to address noise impact issues at VNY but knows of “no defensible reason why the noise concerns at the two airports would be treated differently.”   
 
He preserved our community’s options for an optimal solution at BUR by reminding the FAA that:
 
A solution at one airport risks creating additional complexity at the other. With that possibility in mind, we note that [federal regulations] explicitly prohibits the FAA from taking any action that would ‘have an adverse environmental impact’ or ‘[l]imit the choice of reasonable alternatives’ until the agency ‘issues a record of decision’ with respect to the proposed New Routes at BUR.  In other words, changes at VNY will not provide a defensible justification for eliminating from consideration-or refusing to adopt-alternatives to the New Routes at BUR.

Read Letter Here

The work Matt Adams does, and will continue to do, is what will get us out from under this horrendous BUR flight path.  But we need your help to fund his work, so please consider making a tax-deductible donation (per I.R.S. guidelines) to our Legal Fund.

Donate Now

 Thanks for being part of our group and your continued support! Please feel free to reach out to us with any questions, we’ll be happy to answer when we can.

The Fourth of July is quickly approaching, and as we celebrate America’s independence with family and friends, it’s natural to relax and let down your guard. Rest assured that we won’t!

ACS has been in the business of providing your community full-service home security and patrol for more than 20 years. We remain one of the only local companies that monitors, dispatches, and responds to alarms ourselves.

Here are some tips and reminders to help you enjoy a safe and happy Independence Day:

THANK YOU! AND NEXT STEPS

Dear UproarLA Supporters:

What an amazing turnout this morning at the BUR Authority meeting yesterday! About 200 people showed up and packed the room, hallway and stairwell to be heard and share their personal, moving stories. Thank you to all of you who attended and sent letters of support- you represented so energetically and wonderfully the thousands who could not make it.

You can view the meeting in its entirety below:

This meeting resulted in numerous critical first-time admissions by the BUR Authority:

• The flight path has shifted over areas that never before received aircraft previously and the aircraft are too low.
• They would return to the historical flight path if they could.
• It is an emergency and requires immediate action by BUR staff and the Authority.
• This is the number one issue now for BUR and will be on the agenda every meeting moving forward.
• They will reach out to the FAA and airlines to start looking for solutions, now.

UproarLA will follow up on the many issues/suggestions raised at this meeting. We will continue to attend every BUR Authority meeting and seek answers and specifics as to what BUR staff and Commissioners have done in the intervening period. We will continue to assure your voices are heard and pressure is applied as aggressively as possible. We will also continue our dialogue with City and Federal officials to pursue specific next steps.

We cannot do this without you, and appreciate your time, efforts and passion. Please keep the pressure on BUR, City of LA and Federal officials- it is paying off!

UproarLA will be sending more specifics on actions you can take shortly.

Thank you for everything you do!