This post contains portions of a letter sent to all Bridgeton city residents by former Lambert-St. Louis International Airport Director Donald W. Bennett in 1989.
Airport expansion will not destroy Bridgeton!
In the weeks since the airport planning group announced they had narrowed the study for Lambert expansion to 4 alternatives, misinformation and rumors have been rampant. In retrospect, we should have said nothing until a final plan was developed.
First, please do not jump to conclusions. The final recommendation for airport expansion will be made in mid-October. Given the preliminary work I’ve seen, I am confident that many of the fears and concerns being expressed will be found to be unwarranted. Bridgeton will be totally destroyed are simply not correct.
Second, this letter is a general mailing to the residents of Bridgeton to address fears of airport expansion. We deeply regret that there will be some displacements. I can assure you, though, that the number one priority in reviewing the four options in the minimum disruption of community life. Specifically which properties will be needed for airport expansion will not be known until a final recommendation is made.
Third, those who need to move will be dealt with fairly and sensitively. Since property purchases began several years ago, we have successfully purchased over 1500 homes through separate negotiations iwth individual property owners. In addition to a fair purchase price, there are a host of other services provided to make the move for homeowners, renters, and affected businesses as easy as possible.
If we do nothing and let the center of air travel move to other states where airports are expanding, Lambert will slowly be strangled. That means we will ultimately lose jobs when that happens. The total negative impact on the entire community will be far worse than having to buy a number of homes for Lambert expansion.
Expansion of the airport is a painful decision that will, unfortunately, affect some people. We all understand this human factor and are pledged to work diligently to minimize the impact on those who must be affected. But to do nothing, or try to move (the whole airport) elsewhere, would be unfair to the people of our region today and destructive to our children’s future.
In 1989, I was a young kid. Now, in the year 2012, my former classmates and neighbors who stayed in St. Louis are paying on the increasing debt load for a barely-utilized path of concrete that opened 5 and a half years ago. According to Bennett, the plan that was supposed to save our generation’s economic future was the very thing that has given us a $1.4 billion debt burden and left us with a runway that would have better luck hosting local drag races than commercial jets. Mr. Bennett was correct in saying that Bridgeton would not be completely destroyed. However, eliminating half of the city of Bridgeton and the entire community of Carrollton during an exasperating 20 year period is not exactly what most people today would consider “diligently minimizing impact.”
J. Desy Schoenewies
56 Houses Left 
Posted this today on my facebook page with a link to your flickr album . . .
Took Maddie to Tony’s Doughnut’s and then out to practice driving which netted me a “My Dad > Your Dad” tweet.
We drove the abandoned subdivision of Carrolton in Bridgeton (the noise abatement area of the new runway). All the homes in these streets have long been removed but the sidewalks, streets, and streetlights are still in place; but some in severe disrepair. It was kind of eerie driving through streets arranged in a subdivision but lacking homes. The streets still have names on google maps but the street signs of all the side streets have been removed. Many of the streets had metal barrier gates with signs stating “ROAD CLOSED, No trespassing, property of City of St. Louis. For those who don’t know, the airport is in northwest St. Louis County but the airport and noise abatement areas are in city of St. Louis – kind of a weird St. Louis City island in the middle of the county.
A few planes passed overhead as we drove but not a single one from the new runway; these planes were already high enough to not need this additional noise abatement zone. Pilots hate the new runway – more time and fuel needed to use it and the airport is simply not busy enough to need it.
“At $1.1 billion, it was the costliest public works program in St. Louis history. It required moving seven major roads and destroying about 2,000 homes, six churches and four schools in Bridgeton, Missouri. Construction began in 1998, and continued even as traffic at the airport declined after the 9/11 attacks, the TWA purchase, and American’s 2003 reduction in flights. On April 13, 2006, American Airlines Flight 2470 became the first commercial airliner to land on the new runway. Since the construction, the runway has been shunned by fuel- and time-conscious airlines because it is farther from terminals than the older runways; an estimated 5% of flights use it.”
Sad . . .
http://www.flickr.com/photos/radio_inactive/show/with/2235186124
I drove through that area today and took some pictures. I’ll post them and link to this site. It was an odd experience. Probably would have been more so if I was one of the people who used to live here. I was very surprised when I came across the Patrick J Oconnor Park. It was a Sunday. The weather was beautiful. Clear blue skies and the temps were in the mid 70’s. Everything appeared to be well maintained and ready to go. There was not a soul to be seen.
I was fortunate enough to grab a street sign…Bricelyn Dr., as well as one of the LAST snow route signs. Some of you Carrollton folks should remember…the ones with the jolly snowman?! …Almost got busted by the local constabulary, lol. Actually had an OLD id, with my old address…14805 Bricelyn Drive, on it…so he let me go. I remember going to New Years’s Eve parties, at the top of our street (Bricelyn and Selwyn)….lost a kite in those woods…dated my first gf, who lived on Pont Dr., a couple of houses up from Bonfils!? Good Times, definitely!