It's a strange piece. Most of the obstacles to airport construction that it describes are nullified by the other obstacles that it also describes. Airports can

It's a strange piece. Most of the obstacles to airport construction that it describes are nullified by the other obstacles that it also describes. Airports can't handle the liability they incur because imposing airport noise on housing is a regulatory taking. But also, if you build an airport at such a remove from the city that no housing suffers, housing gets built out toward the airport. Except of course, it's not a taking if you were there first. If the housing comes to the airport, there's no liability. Also, airports don't work without being close to their city. When they tried to build Mirabel airport 35 miles from Montreal, it withered and died from being too far away. This is transparent nonsense; 35 miles is not even a long distance. The airport you use if you live in Santa Cruz is SFO, more than 60 miles away. (There is a closer airport in San Jose, which doesn't go to convenient locations.) It takes a long time to travel between any major airport and its city. HKG is separated from Hong Kong by the ocean. A 40 minute drive to the airport is considerably better than is typical now! If Mirabel withered and died from being 35 miles outside Montreal, that can only be because Montreal's air transport needs were already met.