TCY Airport

An interesting article appears in Tracy Press today [link]. It says that the airport management appealed to the city for better support, which includes:
- Building a sewer line
- Financing a restaurant
- Financing a runway extension
- Do something about encroachement of residential subdivisions

A restaurant may be a good idea, though it depends on the quality of it. It takes more than a good wish to run something like The Three-Zero Cafe at Half Moon Bay airport. It needs a competent restoranteur, willing to invest into the business and to see it through to success, hiring good people, advertising, and plainly serving good food.

The runway extension is vital, because of one word: jets. That's where the money is. Prices in Oakland and the no-growth policies in Livermore made jets migrate as far out as Sacramento. Tapping into this spigot would be very interesting indeed, and a more assured source of revenue than a restaurant.

The sprawl is worrying because sooner or later a noise lawsuit is inevitable, especially if TCY starts housing jets. This is not anything a little rezoning could not fix, the question is though, if the city is willing to stand up to developers.