About
ROAR
Residents
Opposed to Airport Racket (ROAR) is an 800-member citizens group fighting
aviation noise from the Minneapolis / St.Paul Metropolitan Airport. Founded
in October of 1998, the group focuses upon improving the quality of life
by seeking to reduce airport noise.
For more information
about ROAR or its activities—or if want to become a member—contact
Sara Strzok at: sarastrzok@yahoo.com.
To subscribe to ROAR's
online newsletter, send an e-mail to
roar-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
TIRED OF THE SAME
OLD RACKET?
More and
more planes roaring over your house, day and night? An airport commission
that won't stand up to the noise and air polluters? Politicians who say
they can't do anything? That's why we need a group like Residents Opposed
to Airport Racket (ROAR). We think our neighborhoods are too special to
be ruined by airplane noise and other pollution. By organizing airport
noise opponents, and using creativity, we have begun to change the status
quo.
THE PROBLEM:
IT'S GETTING WORSE
In 1996,
the Minneapolis Planning Commission issued a warning: "The Metropolitan
Airports Commission (MAC) has underestimated actual growth in operations
at the Twin Cities airport. The numbers of passengers and operations have
been greater than predicted in the past years. Northwest Airlines asserts
that the recent type of growth will not continue. But what if it does?"
But what if it does?
is the question Twin Cities residents are now asking with the increase
in the number of planes flying over our homes daily. Since 1996, flights
in and out of the Minneapolis - St. Paul International Airport have grown
at least 8% to nearly 500,000 annually, or an average of 1400 per day.
MAC originally estimated that the airport would not experience the volume
we are seeing and hearing until the year 2020!
Noise as well as hazards
to health will worsen with the opening of the North - South runway. According
to a Boeing physicist, the takeoff of a single 747 is like "setting
the local gas station on fire and flying it over your head." The
effects of the airport's expansion are not confined to South Minneapolis,
but are also diminishing the stability and livability of Richfield, Bloomington,
Eagan, Edina, Mendota Heights, St. Paul and other communities.
THE SOLUTION:
JOIN ROAR
For decades
Twin Cities residents have warned airport officials that noise and airport
pollution were getting worse, and that airport capacity was strained to
its limits, but we were ignored. It was time for a new type of citizens'
group - one that knows how to mobilize large numbers of people who could
force elected and airport officials to get serious about addressing one
of the region's most pressing economic and environmental problems.
ROAR is such a group,
aggressively pushing for solutions to the rising levels of airplane noise
and pollution.
Formed in Minneapolis
in the fall of 1998, ROAR has now expanded to other metropolitan communities
where its primary purpose is to mobilize citizens to push for solutions
to the problems created by expanding an international airport in the center
of a residential community.
What ROAR
has done
- Used a pajama party
at the airport to bring media and community attention to the problem
of night flights
- Worked with elected
officials to force the MAC to use environmentally friendly dewatering
techniques for construction projects at the airport
Mobilized citizens from different metropolitan neighborhoods to work
together on our common airport concerns
- Ran a successful
campaign to have a new MAC chair appointed who would pay attention to
community concerns
- Won agreements
signed by both the Minneapolis and St. Paul city councils limiting city
employees from taking night flights
- Lobbied city, state
and federal officials to do more to fight noise and pollution
- Staged public forums
for political candidates to hear and respond to citizens' concerns on
airport issues
What we want
- A long range plan
that addresses what will happen when the airport reaches capacity in
its landlocked urban campus
- Elimination of
older, noisier "hushkitted" aircraft
- Restrictions on
night flights, which have increased 72% in the last five years
- New takeoff and
landing patterns that minimize noise over residential areas
- An Airports Commission
that fights noise and environmental pollution
HOW YOU CAN ROAR:
We invite you to become a member of ROAR. With more people
like you, we can make a difference.
Send your name, address,
and phone number and e-mail address to
ROAR, Box 80066, Minneapolis, MN 55408
Or e-mail sarastrzok@yahoo.com
Or subscribe to ROAR's email list directly at
roar-subscribe@egroups.com
Support ROAR with
a donation. We are a non-profit* advocacy group funded through the contributions
of neighbors and others that want to maintain and restore the livability
of our communities.
*Because our advocacy includes legislative efforts with local, state and
federal elected officials, contributions are not tax deductible.
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