05/08/06  Wright Amendment was key component of Oak Lawn Renaissance.

For over 35 years, I have been a business owner in Oak Lawn, living between Cedar Springs Rd and Lemmon Ave.  Anyone who knows the City, knows that this is the heart of the Love Field flight path.  Those of us who live here know what airplane noise is all about.

Though some folks don't understand it, the Wright Amendment is a quality of life issue?

In the early 70's before they opened DFW International Airport, living here was a nightmare.   People would ask me why I chose to live in Oak Lawn.  My answer was simple:   the new airport was on the way, and things would get better.  I was right.  After DFW opened, you couldn?t ask for a better place to live, especially if you worked Downtown and wanted to experience the true vibrancy of living in a city. 

Thinking back, it was like someone flipped a switch the day DFW opened.  Not only did the worst of the noise start to go away, the street traffic improved and the air was cleaner.  You never walked out your front door to be faced with the pervasive smell of jet fuel.  On a pleasant day, you could turn off your air conditioning, open a window and enjoy fresh air.

Over the next years, the economy of Oak Lawn followed the Dallas business cycle.  Although there were some ups and downs, it always came back stronger, and always with an upswing, which brings us to the successful redeveloping neighborhood we see today.

One key factor that made all this possible is the Wright Amendment. 

The Wright Amendment held Dallas? feet to the fire, and forced the City to live up to its agreement with Fort Worth.  In other words, the Wright Amendment forced Dallas to put all of its support behind DFW, and not go into competition with it by using Love Field as an alternate airport with national air service. 

Inadvertently, the Wright Amendment also gave Love Field area neighborhoods an opportunity to redevelop to solid residential communities rather than devolve into the blighted neighborhoods you find around the likes of Midway Airport in Chicago. 

The Wright Amendment  also supported the fledgling Southwest Airline, allowing them to develop their business model and become one of the most successful airlines in the world.  It?s sad to me that Southwest, the airline Love built, has turned on the community that supported it all these years.  Saddest of all is why:  so a few folks up in Missouri can get cheaper airplane tickets, the lazy won't have to drive out to DFW and so Southwest can shove hundreds of more millions of dollars into it?s pockets.

Please stop and think about yourself.  How many times would you fly out of Love Field beyond what you might already be doing?  Is it really worth destroying the quality of life of the tens of thousands of people who live near Love Field 365 day a year?  So you can save a few dollars on an airplane ticket and not have to drive a few extra miles?  How many times a year, two, maybe three?

Speaking of stopping and thinking, we are being told Stop and Think (one of the groups who support keeping the Wright Amendment in place) is a bad thing because they have financial support from American Airlines.  What about the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent by Southwest Airlines to have the Wright Amendment repealed?

Take this one step further.  In my travels throughout this country as a professional Designer, I can tell you there is no other city in this nation with such a vibrant residential core that begins at its heart in the Central Business District and continues as in our case to the north, almost to the Oklahoma border.  Do we really want to give this up for the financial benefit of Southwest Airlines or some ill perceived notion that this will improve the economic health of our City?  In reality, it?s going to have just the opposite effect.

Frank M. Stich