Want a Blue Angels jet to not plunge into your neighborhood one of these summers? Start bitching today. With attention momentarily focused on the safety of the Seafair “tradition,” it’s a great time to lodge your objections.
Last summer when I complained to the city about how little I liked the noise and the fear the Angels bring, I was told that the city actually gets very few complaints about the jets. Here are the totals the mayor’s office provided at the time:
2005: 10 complaints
2006: 17 complaints
We should be able to outdo those paltry totals in 2007. Here’s what to do:
- Contact the mayor’s office and city council so they can record your complaint.
- Call the Seafair board at (206) 728-0123
- Call the FAA regarding low flying aircraft at 425-227-1389
If you don’t speak up soon, you’ll have to live with logical assumptions like this clip from the PI:
Since Saturday’s crash, no one in the neighborhood has raised the issue of the safety of the Blue Angels, said Pat Murakami, president of the Mount Baker Community Club. In Mount Baker, the Blue Angels “used to fly so close that if they had their helmets off, I swear I could tell you their hair color,” Murakami said. But the Angels now fly higher and farther from residential areas, and the jets haven’t been as loud and annoying, Murakami said.
Logic chain: Nobody in Mount Baker has complained > Blue Angels used to be even more annoying > Being less annoying means nobody objects
Do you object? Take a few seconds and share your thoughts with the powers that be. Being counted works.
–j
One vote for the BA. The noise once a year ain’t so bad and they are beautiful. Hell for a trillion dollars in tax money don’t we deserve this much?
At risk of lowering the level of discourse: sm schwartz, you’re a stupid fuck. Has it occurred to you that if Uncle Sam didn’t waste money on this kind of crap that you might actually pay less in taxes?
While we’re petitioning to end the Blue Angels, I think we should also petition to move SeaTac. With the current flight paths coming from the north (nearly directly over my house), it’s just a matter of time before something frozen falls from the airplane lavatory into my backyard or onto my house. Let’s move the neighborhood birds also. While they are somewhat entertaining with their morning chirping and flashy feathers, a crash into my window or “bomb” is just waiting to happen.
Is there a way to complain via email? Maybe I missed it, I haven’t had my coffee yet.
Dearest Friend Anonymous …
1. As I am stupid, can yu explain what a stu8pid as opposed to other fick might be?
2.; Yes, dear one, I know that it cost $$ for the planes to fly over head. This is one of many things we spend money on as a community along with … stadia so rich fucks (!) can see other rich fucks(!!) pretend they ar eplaying sports.
along with national parks, a space station, the Smithsonian, theme parks in obscure places, farm subsidies, NPR, and … oh yeh the Iraq war. So?
Do you know that there are people who collect stamps PRINTED wi tax payer money! I am shocked, shocked.
Children, be good to each other.
wesaturtle, if you click the links in the post, you’ll get the mayor’s e-mail form. You can also get the council’s e-mail addresses on their page.
It didn’t take long for this “discussion” to stoop to a low level.
I understand both sides of this issue. But I disagree with the glorification of our military for entertainment value.
I’m not anti-military, I would support a just war (show me a just war). But I don’t support the Blue Angels anymore. When I was a kid it was “cool”! But now that I understand what fighter jets really do I don’t think it’s very “cool” anymore.
Also, stop shaking my damn house!
Well said joey!
BTW, I just got some info from the mayor’s office. First, you can call this number to leave a comment for the mayor if you’d rather phone than e-mail: 206-684-4000
Also, including my complaint, mayor’s office had received only ONE phone call about the Angels prior to today. We should change that.
Is this really the issue that people believe has enough neighborhood impact that we want to put our energy behind?
Drawing the line at the once-a-year Blue Angels performance seems silly when there are much more serious local issues that affect us every single day like terrible roads, urban planning, crime, local parks and public spaces, watch-dogging local development especially on 15th and 19th, parking and safety problems from local schools and churches, local transit issues, rising property taxes, 520 bridge replacement and possible 520 and I-90 bridge tolls, and yes, daily flight path noise.
This is a neighborhood blog and it would be great to see this energy focused on issues that affect us all year.
I’ve lived on the hill for nine years in a house that is rapidly approaching its centenary and rattles when an SUV playing rap music drives past. Yet, the Blue Angels have never bothered me as much as the appalling state of some of our neighborhood roads.
Let’s get our priorities straight and leave this tempest in the teacup where it belongs.
~GC
Touché, GC. Fair points. With the Blue Angels, there is a very specific issue to deal with. In the others you list, we’re talking a much more ambiguous set of problems. Not that I wouldn’t and won’t encourage people to take them on. If it helps, I don’t plan to make this the defining conversation for the summer. But I do plan on telling people who want to do something how to do it. No harm in that. It’s not like I’ve diverted your attention from other issues. You’ve got a good list and I bet most readers have a similar catalog that they’ll continue to care about. Blue Angels, or not. Thanks for your comment — it’s a good challenge.
I call for a new online poll. It’s the only way to move mountains big and small!
Looks like I am in the minority with the anti-BA sentiment. For years I have been wondering what the city sees in the Blue Angels. Then after 9/11 I could not believe that we, a very “progressive” city, allowed a loud, scary, expensive, un-green, war propaganda show in our skies. And now that they have had yet another Blue Angel crash and death I hope Seattle will consider cutting this disgusting display from the Seafair lineup.
Here’s the email I sent to the Mayor. Feel free to use it as a template if you so desire.
I would like to formally express my disgust with the Blue Angels and request that they no longer fly over our city. In addition to objecting to the painful amount of noise pollution they generate, I feel the senseless wastefullness of burning so many fossil fuels and expelling of carbon emmisions into our atmosphere is not consistent with the values of our community. By squandering the precious resources of the planet for “entertainment” we are disrespecting the future citizens of our planet as well as cheapening the lives of our men and women in uniform that are making the ultimate sacrifice to secure those resources. The Blue Angels don’t belong in our community.
DON’T BE THE GRINCH WHO STOLE SEAFAIR
Come on folks let’s be a bit more tolerant. We are all inconvenienced from time to time, it’s part of living in a society.
Every Spring and Summer various parades, festivals, walks and runs take over my neighborhood. Although I am not a big fan of some of the causes or organizations, I don’t complain, it’s just a few weekends out of the year and others seem to get so much joy and pleasure out of these events.
Seattle is not a monolithic city, and many embrace Seafair as a multi-generational experience. They remember the Blue Angels and the Hydros as part of their childhood and wish to share it with their own children.
It is just one weekend a year, you may not like it but so many others do. It is pure narcissism to assume that because you don’t like the Blue Angels that no one else should be allowed to enjoy the experience. Why not just live and let live?
As a new resident to the area, I am happy to finally add my voice to vibrant Seattle policital and social movements. I will be contacting the City with my support of the Blue Angels immediately. Thank you for this forum.
I purchased a home in the Mt. Baker/Genesee Park neighborhood over three years ago, and was dismayed to learn that I was directly underneath the Blue Angels flight path. While I understand that some (including my live-in significant other) view these demonstrations as amazing technical feats, to me they represent an environmental and political ideology that is difficult to swallow. Beyond that, they are so unbelievably F-ing loud it literally rattles my home, my walls, my insides, etc. Additionally, it brings some serious “riff-raff” into my ‘hood: empty beer cans all over my lawn, men peeing in the yard strip, violent fistfights, and loud verbal altercations are just a few of the problems I’ve dealt with consistently, never mind the fact that it sends every dog and cat in the neighborhood into a panic and prevents me from parking anywhere near my own home. I just don’t think an event like this belongs in a dense setting. I’m not saying lets outlaw them or cancel the shows: hey, to each their own. I do think, however, that a more suburban or rural setting is appropriate for these guys and their fans; less traffic issues, less homeowner impact, less potential for disaster should another unfortunate crash occur.
I called the Mayor’s office today and they said that not only are they NOT hearing any dissent on the issue, but they are not even responsible for the Angels’ being at Seafair anyway. Seafair is a private event, and they Angels are invited to participate by Seafair, and permitted to fly so low by the FAA.
I’m curious to see if the folks who love the Angels would agree that a more suburban/rural setting would be easier on everyone: haters and lovers alike??
While the SeaFair Board (whatever that is) and the FAA get pointed at by the city and the mayor, the truth is that SeaFair can’t fly without permits and city resources. Calls to the mayor and the city council aren’t a waste — especially because the FAA has bigger fish to fry and the SeaFair board has no responsibility to public feedback.
I hate the blue angels. They are so offensive to those families that have lost someone in recent wars. How much does the fuel cost for one of these adolescent penis wagging matches? It’s just disgusting.
Every year they terrorize people’s pets. How many have gone missing due to their ear shattering shreiks! BAN THE BLUE ANGELS FOR GOOD.
May 14, 2007 Another acrobatic jet crash:
Just a matter of time before the Blue Hellions drop a bomb on peaceful Seattle, killing a family or two?
NEW: 1 dead in Canadian Snowbirds jet crash:
By MATT GOURAS, Associated Press Writer 53 minutes ago
GREAT FALLS, Mont. – Gillian Scarber was watching a group of Canadian Forces Snowbirds jets practicing maneuvers at Malmstrom Air Force Base when one of them broke from formation and plummeted to the ground.
The jet crashed Friday during rehearsal for a weekend show at the base, killing the pilot. The cause of the crash was under investigation.
“It just smacked into the ground, and there was a big ball of flames,” Scarber told the Great Falls Tribune. Smoke drifted across the highway as emergency crews raced to the scene, she said.
You’re a jerk and a negative-nancy. The jets are out once a year for a conservative three days. So YOU quit bitching. This is ridiculous. Move to Marysville if you don’t like them.
I hate the Blue Angels so much. They CLOSED THE I90 BRIDGE in the middle of the day for this crap. Traffic was backed up to Federal Way and who knows how far north. What a joke. So a couple hundred people with the day off or no jobs get to watch the Blue Angels repeat the act they have done for the last decade in the process of screwing over the hundred’s of thousand drivers trying to do something with their day. Fantastic.
Man, they always close I90 for the practices, and 520… you sound so surprised? I think people that have lived here longer than most of the transients posting on this blog know what to expect. If your argument is burning fossil fuels, I guess they should get rid of the Hydro races too. I for one think that this city needs more fun events to be had by all. The cap hill block party is more of a joke than a good time. So please let us have our one hour of fun a year by watching these guys do things I couldn’t dream of doing.. and especially in those LOUD A** MF’s. Just gives me chills every time.