Airport noise up from 1% to 10% as a ‘top’ issue city wide

In the most recently published City of Santa Monica resident satisfaction survey (February 2011), the airport noise issue has risen to #4 city wide on the list of resident concerns.  Prior to the FAA 250 degree heading test in 2010, city wide less than 1% mentioned it as a concern.


…Just over one in three (35 percent) residents volunteered the budget crisis or a lack of funding for city services as one of the top two most important issues facing the City of Santa Monica today in their opinion—making it the most mentioned concern.  Another 24 percent volunteered traffic congestion as one of their top two concerns in this open-ended question where no response options were given (and respondents were told to respond in their own words). Just over one in five (22 percent) mentioned too many homeless or homeless causing problems.  Rounding out the most mentioned concerns are airport noise (10 percent), education/education funding (10 percent), too much growth or development (nine percent), and infrastructure issues (nine percent). Seven percent each volunteered a lack of affordable housing, a lack of parking, and crime/gangs (six percent crime and one percent gangs).


The proportion mentioning airport noise grew notably as well, from one percent in 2009 to 10 percent currently (with less than one percent mentioning this issue in years prior to 2009). This may reflect the perception of greatly increased air traffic and a new flyover route the sends propeller planes over Sunset Park and Ocean Park when it’s foggy or cloudy. 
However, in the current study one in ten volunteered this issue, with 23 percent mentioning it in the 90404 zip code