We open this week's episode by talking about how little information sharing there ever really is among any airport community. Even candidate forums on airport issues here are now semi-private!

More broadly, we are not alone with airport expansions. But on the plus side, more and more, we're noticing other airport communities using our resources. Which is great! Traditionally, few airport communities share information--except on very broad federal legislation that never goes anywhere.

To help everyone, we continue to experiment with ways to make it easier to search our database. (Among other things the new Studies and Airport Law Cheat Sheet pages.) We continue to be a bunch of old nerds trying to collect data, not only the flight paths and noise but also politics, socioeconomics, and especially history.

Once we understood how bad FAA law is, we wanted to understand why there had been so little local opposition to that law--other than just 'flight paths'.

Much of it comes down to that lack of information sharing. There's no Yelp for airport communities. That is why there has been such a thriving market for airport consultants and people doing the wrong things over and over.

Last week we considered a story so crazy it could be a made-for-tv movie.

This week we tell a story just as crazy, but with a much happier ending. And one which we hope helps explain a little why people have been making so many of the same mistakes since.

The first billion dollar drug was Tagamet, created to address ulcers, a rampant disease you don't often hear about now because after wasting so much money addressing the problem the wrong way, people finally started doing so the right way. Once a problem goes away, it's amazing how quickly it fades from memory.

Along came Barry Marshall, an Australian researcher who found the real cause by intentionally giving himself an ulcer to prove his point. There are easier ways to win a Nobel Prize, but few more useful. His stunt saved hundreds of thousands of people from needless suffering and ended the waste of billions of dollars.

For decades, residents in airport communities have been focusing on immediate relief and not getting to root causes. It's hard to tell people who are suffering they're wasting their money. They're desperate. But that is part of the reason why we keep reaching for Tagamet and leaving the disease unchecked.

One lesson we've taken from airport advocacy has been how focused everyone has been on blaming the FAA for everything. But look closer. A lot of the decisions that made airport expansion possible were (and are) encouraged by your local electeds.

"No politician will tell you they support noise and pollution." But time after time, they continue to choose "jobs and growth" over community health and well-being. Regardless of what people say, you can tell what they really believe by the votes. And it is that, as much as the FAA, that not only make current expansions possible--they actively prevent research into ever making it stop.

If you remain skeptical, we hope you'll share information on your community's airport expansion. How are things going with your consultants? The way we end all the Tagamet is by sharing our experiences, our data, our outcomes, and doing the real research we should have been doing all along. If we had, we'd be at the right place now.

Solve for Sea-Tac. Solve for every airport.

Barry Marshall

STNI: Legislation 2026

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