Freedom Of Choice

In January of 1988, I made my first trip to Los Angeles to visit a friend who had moved out there from the East Coast.

As we made our way up the Pacific Coast Highway to a Malibu restaurant, I noticed several houses perched right on the edges of cliffs, some of them with supports built into the cliff wall underneath to prop up the homes.

Knowing California's association with earthquakes, I just had to ask.

"Frank, what are these people paying for insurance?"

"They can't get it," he replied.

"Then why do they build there?", I continued.

His answer was simple: "Because they want their view of the water."

And so it goes. People buying or building a home in the location they choose, willing to risk it all in the face of unforeseen circumstances. They are not to be denied.

If there's one thing great about America, it's that it gives you freedom of choice. But with choice comes a certain amount of risk.

And never is that more evident than in home ownership.

People who move to Florida to escape the cold and a state income tax know full well that when "the mean season" comes, there's a good chance they're going to be in a hurricane. Also, there are pests in the form of alligators, insects and snakes. (As to the latter, when in Florida, look twice before you sit on the "throne" to do your business.)

Folks who move to Arizona are aware that you're going to have a string of days where the temperature is in the three-digit range. Water, or the lack thereof, may soon be a problem, if it isn't already.

And, as stated above, California comes with its own set of risks. Not just earthquakes, but forest fires and rain-induced mudslides.

New Haven's East Shore and East Haven are no exception.

For the better part of 60 years, those folks who chose to buy or build houses near Tweed-New Haven Regional Airport had to know that they were going to incur a certain amount of risk in being impacted by the airport's operations. After all, it's an airport; planes of different makes and models use it often. Now, many of the airport's neighbors will tell you that, indeed, they knew an airport was there when they chose to locate nearby. The problem, as they see it, is that Tweed was never meant to be more than a "Piper Cub" airport, which is to say it was intended for "general aviation", private planes and not commercial air carriers. (As if it were their call to make.)

Actually, it was intended for commercial service. More on that shortly.

In 1929, work was started on the New Haven Municipal Airport. At that time, the Morris Cove and Fairmont Association (now the Annex) neighborhoods were not part of New Haven. That wouldn't happen until 1958. And yes, there were people living out there. Nowhere near as many as would move out there in the postwar years, but they were there.

And aviation was still in its infancy, the airplane itself being a scant 26 years old. Flying was at best very risky. It was literally "seat of your pants" stuff, with none of the modern navigational aids which accompany today's planes.

Surely, the residents who were already out there could have protested the airport's construction, not wanting to risk having a biplane to come crashing into their house.

But no. The folks out there at the time pretty much accepted the airport. I imagine some were even amused at seeing an airplane up close for the first time.

The airport opened for business in August of 1931, with John H. Tweed as its first manager. Shortly after, a commercial carrier, Li-Conn Airways, began operations. As the name connotes, they flew paying passengers between Long Island and Connecticut, meaning New Haven. American Airlines followed.

In the years following World War II, New Haven, like many Amercian cities, saw its population shift, with many residents fleeing downtown for the suburbs.

Houses went up in the Cove and East Haven, their relative affordability and rural setting being big draws. (I imagine there were also "covenants" involved, dictating to just whom those houses could be sold.) Before long there were houses literally across the street from the passenger terminal. The neighborhood swelled with families. (Just imagine what might have been had then-mayor John Murphy listened to Jack Tweed, and the city had bought all that land for future airport use instead.)

The airport's neighbors didn't seem to mind the American Airlines DC-3s, the Eastern Air Lines Constellations or the Allegheny Airlines Convair 440s and 580s or the F-27s that would serve New Haven in the coming years. . And Pilgrim Airlines, with their Twin Otter air taxis to the New York airports, seemed to fill Tweed's role as a "niche" airport. Even Mayor Richard C. Lee envisioned helicopters transporting passengers from Tweed to the New York City airports (which would have been nice, had there been any helicopter transport services willing to oblige).

All that changed in 1967, when Eastern Air Lines introduced jet service to New Haven with 727s and DC-9s.

Admittedly, those first generation of jet-powered aircraft were, to put it mildly, quite noticeable. Folks who chose to move out there up to that time never expected jet-powered aircraft to call on Tweed. But like it or not, the jet age had come to New Haven.

It didn't stop there.

Tweed has flirted on and off with jet service since then. Eastern continued to use jets into the early 1970s. Allegheny Airlines followed with BAC-111 jets in the mid-1970s. In the 1980s, Air Wisconsin flew BAE-146 aircraft from Tweed to Chicago/O'Hare. In the 1990s, United Air Lines brought in 737 aircraft on its Chicago run. The early 2000s saw Delta's Comair subsidiary using regional jets to Cincinnati. And now, Avelo Airlines is flying 737s from Tweed to places as far away as Houston, St. Louis and San Juan. The difference? The current generation of jet aircraft engines are far more efficient than their early predecessors.

Now here's the punchline.

Since 1967, people have continued to choose moving out to the East Shore, still lured by the comparatively low prices (versus, say, Orange or Woodbridge). And, like their predecessors, they cling to the singsong of, "I knew the airport was here, but I expected it to be only for private planes."

Nearly 60 years on.

Keep in mind this was something they chose to do. No one put a gun to their heads and said, "Buy this house near the airport or else!" No different than anyone who buys a house near an active railway. Or an interstate highway. They know what's involved. Too, many of today's airport neighbors have no knowledge of those first-generation jet engines which powered Eastern's planes in the late 1960s and have nothing with which to compare the current generation of jet engines. The folks at Pratt & Whitney could point out remarkable improvements in today's engines over their predecessors. But, like those denizens with houses perched on the cliffs above Malibu, some folks will not be denied.

In the wake of surviving a private plane crashing into his home in 2013, one East Haven owner actually vowed to rebuild the property and move back in! Hey, that's his choice, right?

So, don't go listening to the "victims" with their tales of woe. Didn't they smell the jet fumes they claim are always in the air when they were looking at the house? Didn't they see any fuel emissions on the roof shingles, as they also claim? Or did all this magically come about after they signed the closing papers on the sale?

And, while jet operations were relatively minimal in years past, Avelo's current schedule of jet service (Tuesday being the exception) would leave no doubt with any potential home buyer that jets are operating at Tweed, if the "noise" is as bad as residents say it is. (As Sunday was usually a "quiet" flight day in past years, many folks who attended "open houses" on the East Shore that day didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, save for the occasional "touch-and-go" being performed by a weekend pilot.)

Oh and, as Lt. Columbo used to say, "one more thing": No homeowner in the Morris Cove or East Haven ever sold their house for less than they paid for it. No one. Maybe they didn't get the price they were asking, but rest assured, they always came out of it with a profit, continuing the cycle of new homebuyer-turned-airport-opponent.

Because, as has been the case for decades, when it comes to home buying, be it the East Shore or anywhere, for that matter, the lesson is the same: Do your due diligence.