Sacto Airport Another Vanity Project

April, 2, 2012

By, Katy Grimes

SACRAMENTO – I’ve long mocked the Sacramento “International” Airport for not having any direct international flights. We used to have one direct flight to Cabo San Lucas. C’mon -this is Sacramento.

The former Sacramento Metropolitan Airport was such a joy to use before the international status was bequeathed. Reminiscent of a smaller, valley airport, parking was easy, inexpensive and right near the terminals. Flying in and out was easy in the oldest terminal, until the Sacramento County Supervisors approved a $1 billion construction vanity project, under pressure from local labor unions.

I just returned from a business trip, and had to fly out of Sacramento’s brand new $1 billion airport terminal – not a whole new airport, just a new terminal. A few months ago when the new terminal opened, local media was all a-twitter about it, engrossed with the $60 million people-mover tram, the millions of dollars in art including a two-story giant red rabbit hanging from the ceiling, chic, high-end restaurants and shops.

This isn’t progress – it’s another government boondoggle. And it’s definitely not about an infrastructure need, as airport officials and Sacramento politicians love to repeat to media.

Airport Safety Is a Bad Joke

The TSA security area is the first humiliating violation of personal privacy passengers must endure. After taking off my coat, my sweater, my shoes, my belt, opening my computer and my iPad, removing change from my pocket and the necklace I was wearing, I was coldly invited into the full body scanner and made to position myself as if I was about to be frisked by the police – legs spread, hands over my head. And then the machine took a scan of my naked body while my husband watched, growing more pissed off with each passing moment.

Finally given the go-ahead, I was rushed away from the scanner to collect my coat, sweater, shoes, purse, belt, necklace, suitcase, carry-on bag, computer, iPad, and somehow get all of this back on my person.

There are no tables or chairs nearby to stop and collect gear and redress. I saw three people run back to the security station having forgotten something.

The TSA hurried everyone through, after holding them up during the scanning process. And they weren’t nice about it. With each airport I’ve been through having different policies about what comes off, or goes through, travelers are confused. Do I open my computer or not? Belt on or off? One idiotic TSA agent was incorrectly telling people to take their toiletries out of their suitcases.

Is anyone in charge? The TSA makes the DMV look like a professionally run agency.

The last time I flew I received a pat-down. I don’t know why I was pulled out of the lone, other than the stink-eye I gave one TSA agent when I was asked for the fifth time to open my laptop.

Shop Till You Drop

After leaving the security area, passengers are immediately thrust into mall-shopping meca. Restaurants, bakeries, cool looking bars, higher-end clothing stores, gift stores and book stores envelope the passenger in an attempt to make one forget the horrible TSA experience and the gross Fourth Amendment violation.

No amount of alcohol or retail therapy could make me forget the personal physical violation as well as inhuman treatment by some TSA agents. It’s no wonder so many people prefer car travel.

Amendment lV of the U.S. Constitution states, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Publicly Funded Vanity Project

The TSA aside, Sacramento’s new $1 billion terminal is a textbook example of a government boondoggle. Whether officials acquired the money from the federal government, or from local taxes, it’s still a taxpayer-funded project, and one which Sacramento did not need.

I remember when the airport project began, in the midst of the worst economic downturn the city and state has ever seen. Then-County Supervisor Roger Dickinson, now Assemblyman Dickinson, D-Sacramento, defended the project and said that despite the recession and despite Sacramento’s massive deficit, it was actually a good time to build the airport because materials and labor would be cheaper.

No one who has ever signed the front of a paycheck would make such an irresponsible, arrogant statement. The county supervisors had the authority to halt or postpone the project, but did not.

Poor Planning and Vanity Projects

The terminal has its problems: No directional signage in the terminal, lack of connectivity to elevators, escalators that don’t go to all floors, and no walking allowed to the gates. Passengers are reliant on the $60 million people mover train, which moves 1100 feet. Wow. I could walk faster.

Sacramento did not need a people mover train. This was a case of designer dreams and unlimited funds.

The old terminal was far more user friendly and much easier for travelers to navigate. The escalator was right inside the doors, but in the new terminal, passengers must go searching. And with no signage, you’re on your own. Once you do locate the escalator, there are 4 down escalators, but two of which only go down one floor, leaving passengers unable to get to baggage pickup.

Some are saying that there are no signs because airport designers thought signs would add clutter. Whatever happened to form follows function?

Baggage claim at Chicago O’Hare airport takes less time than bag pickup in Sacramento.

Sacramento could have done a stupendous retrofit of the old terminal, updated, and saved a boatload of taxpayer money. But saving money is not a priority with vanity projects.

Vanity projects are all the rage in California. Arenas, new airports and terminals, grandiose public schools, colleges and universities and government buildings, High-Speed Rail, light rail projects, fancy train stations, fancy city and county supervisor chambers, public officials spending money on high-end offices – it doesn’t stop. And it’s all being done with taxpayer money.

There is a nasty trend in California government  of using taxpayer funds for unnecessary and first class travel, expensive lunches and dinners, high-rent offices, boondoggle conventions and conferences, very high salaries — and massive vanity projects Californians do not need.

A study done in 2000 speculated that by 2016 , the number of passengers using the airport would double from 8 million to 16 million, and most importantly, Terminal B wouldn’t be able to handle the doubled capacity.  However, now Airport Director Hardy Acree says the forecast is under 11 million.  But, according to Acree, that doesn’t mean the airport will lose money on the new terminal.

Yeah right. And red rabbits can fly.