Airport Authority stands firm about joint-use airport bill

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published July 23, 2006 at 9:00 PM PDT

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

The San Diego Airport Authority members show no sign of changing their minds on the language of a ballot measure to share Miramar marine air station with a new commercial airport. KPBS reporter Alis

The San Diego Airport Authority members show no sign of changing their minds on the language of a ballot measure to share Miramar marine air station with a new commercial airport. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

A San Diego business group is pushing to drop the idea of sharing Miramar with the Marines. They suggest changing the ballot language to mandate local government to work with the military to make Miramar available for a commercial airport sometime in the long term future.
But Airport Authority Board member Bill Lynch says the authority's received many suggestions for ballot changes, and he doesn't think they're any better than the existing proposal.

Lynch: "It is like potato and potato, every version we've seen says essentially the same thing, we need a new commercial airport at Miramar, saying it one way and saying it another isn't going to make a substantial difference."

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Even board members who voted against the current ballot language for joint use say it's too late to second guess the measure now. Alison St John, KPBS news.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.