Dan Weikel of the Los Angeles Times reports (Commercial Operations to Close at Palmdale Regional Airport, Jan. 27, 2009) that the City of Los Angeles is throwing in the towel on what it created in the early 1970s as the Los Angles Intercontinental Airport, and for which it condemned some 17,000 acres of high desert land near Palmdale (60 miles north of Los Angeles). The city is surrendering its federal certification to operate that airport. Since 1971 eight airlines have tried to operate out of that airport but without success. United Airlines was the most recent one, and it gave up a couple of months ago.
In the early 1970s the city blew $100 million acquiring all that land, much of it by eminent domain, for that airport, and the Lord only knows how much more money was spent trying to make a go of it. And remember, those were circa 1970 dollars which means that the $100 million figure has to be multiplied by three or four to get the equivalent in today’s dollars. Your tax money at work.
For our earlier posts providing details of that fiasco, see The Palmdale Airport Saga Goes On, Dec. 17, 2008, and Update on Palmdale Airport, Nov. 13, 2008.