ROAR emerges from hibernation

Three years ago, he was a little-known, pajama-clad airport noise protester drawing bemused grins from city and airport officials. Now, he‘s the mayor.
The evening of March 25, about 60 activists, city and state-elected officials, homeowners and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak gathered in Our Lady of Peace Church for a strategic briefing and planning session sponsored by Residents Opposed to Airport Racket (ROAR).

The transition from neighborhood noise activist to the relatively lofty position of Minneapolis mayor was undetectable in Rybak’s words or mannerisms, and a collective sense of relief with having a mayor friendly and committed to neighborhood issues was palpable in the room. Instead of struggling to attract attention to environmental concerns, participants quickly moved ahead with an agenda of cooperative discussion and strategic planning.

Besides landing their candidate in the mayor’s office, noise activists have successfully lobbied for a full-time environmental specialist in the city’s planning department, elected ROAR board member Scott Benson to the city council, and activists Scott Dibble and Frank Horenstein to the state legislature to compllement veterans Jean Wagenius, Jane Ranum and Wes Skoglund. ROAR members have taken their motto, “It’s Loud, We Vote,” seriously.

Rybak praised Scott Benson for working hard with him in pressing the airport commission to complete the current LDN 65 home noise insulation program to standards agreed upon in the late 1990s. Northwest Airlines wants to cut the number of homes eligible for insulation, but Rybak pledged to stand firm for neighbors stating “they made a commitment then, and they still have $32 million to go to finish that first phase.”

Rybak chided the MAC for thinking “small picture” by concentrating so heavily on centralizing airport capacity at MSP while ignoring statewide airport assets, which could contribute air capacity and foster a growing state economy.

“I’ve been doing a lot of work building coalitions with business and political leaders from St. Cloud to Mankato and Rochester,” Rybak reported. “We’re working together to design a statewide airport strategy with the goal of diverting passenger and cargo traffic out state. We can have a significant impact on reducing the number of flights at MSP by working together.”

Rybak said he has met with new MAC chairwoman Vicki Grunseth and other commissioners, forged national partnerships with fellow Conference of Mayors peers, along with alliances with Senator Mark Dayton, congressman Martin Sabo and the Minneapolis state legislative delegation.

Rybak’s game plan for improving neighborhood conditions includes continuing the noise insulation program out to the LDN 60 contours as legislated in 1996, pushing for quieter aircraft to replace Northwest Airline’s noisy DC-9s, getting the MAC to think outside the box and use less polluting alternative fuel ground equipment ,and adopting a statewide, rather than a MAC-centric, airport policy.

“No other industry has been allowed to use the events of September 11th as an excuse to dump pollution,” Rybak stated in a poke at NWA’s recent efforts to cut residential mitigation programs.

Attorney Dan Boiven, Ryak’s appointment to fill the Minneapolis mayor’s seat on the MAC board of commissioners, said that “now is a critical time for airport neighbors” because NWA is doing everything they can to block mitigation and reshape the state’s political landscape to better suit their corporate agenda. Boiven reported that Governor Pawlenty seems eager to accommodate the airline and even spearhead efforts on their behalf.

Boiven characterized NWA’s political activities as an attempt to “gut” the noise insulation program, stating he has “never seen pressure like now.” Boiven said NWA is using the same promises of quieter planes and neighborhoods they used in the early 1990s in their battle against mitigation, and advised concerned residents to call MAC commissioners, state and local elected officials to remind them that residents expect them to keep the mitigation promises made years ago.

Boiven said he is building relationships with “everybody, whether they are on our side or not” to push the cause of noise impacted residents ahead.

Boiven predicts that when the airport’s new north/south runway opens, droves of south suburban residents will grasp the magnitude of noise impacts in a way they have never before experienced. Boiven expects that those residents and their elected officials will quickly join forces with the present coalition of Minneapolis, Richfield, Eagan and Bloomington residents to build political support for mitigation.
Boiven’s call to arms was echoed by Southside legislator Jean Wagenius who urged residents to call Governor Pawlenty and press him to appoint airport commissioners who will honor the ROAR long-standing pledges to mitigate airport noise.

ROAR president Sara Strzok declared that the organization’s post-election sabbatical is nearing an end as open window weather—and noise concerns—awaken this spring and summer.