Slog
News & ArtsTuesday, January 15, 2013
LGBTQITSLFA Bigots Will Have to Fly Into Oakland and Take BART
Posted by Dan Savage on Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 10:32 AM
A San Francisco supervisor wants to rename the city's airport in honor of civil rights leader Harvey Milk, a change supporters said would send a global message about the importance and struggles of gays and lesbians for equality. Supervisor David Campos will introduce legislation Tuesday that would place the proposal to rename San Francisco International Airport as Harvey Milk San Francisco International Airport before voters in November. To send the name change to voters, Campos needs the support of five other supervisors, and Monday he already had four co-sponsors.
I love this idea—and I can't wait to read the first story about someone's luggage being lost in "the bowels" of Harvey Milk.
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People landing at SFO (or hopefully soon HMIA) also need to take BART (or a taxi) to get into SF proper..
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Too bad SFO is such a chronically delayed airport. I'd hate for Harvey's memory to be weighed down by being associated with something people loathe.
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Someone is going to be tasked with the crappy job of evacuating lost baggage from Harvey's Milk.
Yeah, job creation!
Yeah, job creation!
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I love it. When I was in the navy in Oakland, I met Harvey and Scott. I stayed with them on a couple weekends and even helped Harvey pass out flyers for his first run for supervisor, He asked me to wear my whites and I did. It got a lot of attention.He was charming and very kind.
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I flew into SFO last week and out of OAK yesterday, using BART both times. Had to ride the bus, still, to go from the train to the airport in Oakland, but not for long: the elevated peoplemover there looks pretty near completion. When it's finished, the mass-transit convenience of the two airports will -- since you have to ride a tram from BART to all the domestic SFO terminals -- pretty much be a wash.
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BART is a given—the real rub is that bigots will have to take the fucking shuttle bus just to get to BART, which is what they deserve.
15
Nobody calls airports by their commemorative name. They call them by their IATA name: SFO, PDX, JFK. Basically you're buying a sign here. Which is cool, I guess.
SFO is a hell of a lot easier to get to the city from than it used to be before the BART extension, I'll tell you that. But OAK is still better, and better yet soon. Shame that no one in America can figure out how to put the train RIGHT IN the station instead of a bus or other train or mile-long walk away. I'll never forget Copenhagen; I remember getting sort of pissed off because the sign said "train" but there was no walkway that I could see -- and then the wall opened up and the train was there. Ten feet away.
SFO is a hell of a lot easier to get to the city from than it used to be before the BART extension, I'll tell you that. But OAK is still better, and better yet soon. Shame that no one in America can figure out how to put the train RIGHT IN the station instead of a bus or other train or mile-long walk away. I'll never forget Copenhagen; I remember getting sort of pissed off because the sign said "train" but there was no walkway that I could see -- and then the wall opened up and the train was there. Ten feet away.
16
Isn't SFO on the Caltrain line? Maybe not as convenient as BART, but better than nothing.
Fnarf, the green line stops right at DCA.
Fnarf, the green line stops right at DCA.
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@15: JFK's not a commemorative name? And how about Reagan National and John Wayne? Does anyone call those DCA and SNA?
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@19, JFK is the IATA name. That's what it says on your luggage tag. There are people who call it that who have never heard of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. If SFO changes its IATA code, I don't know what it would be to -- HMI is already taken (Hami, China). HBM is available (his middle name was Bernard) but I don't think there's going to be a clamor for anything "BM".
As for DCA, see above. Republicans call it "Reagan", I suppose.
@17, @18, I didn't know that. Cool. You still have to go outside, but it looks like they did it right. Sadly, I haven't flown into Washington in forty years.
As for DCA, see above. Republicans call it "Reagan", I suppose.
@17, @18, I didn't know that. Cool. You still have to go outside, but it looks like they did it right. Sadly, I haven't flown into Washington in forty years.
22
You don't have to leave the building at O'hare to get to the CTA blue line. Not that that makes O'hare the pinnacle of convenience.
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Aaand I just scrolled down to see the story about the severed heads at O'Hare. Place just can't get ahead. Ha.
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@15 - OAK is a more reliable airport (it's amazing how different weather conditions are just across the bay), but don't forget BART does go directly into the terminal. With the addition of Virgin America at SFO, just about the only reason I'd consider OAK these days is Hawaiian Air. East Bay residents of course have grounds to disagree, and I suppose none of this really matters all that much if you don't live near a BART stop.
Doesn't Heathrow Express go right up in there to a few different terminals? I get really turned around in that God-awful airport. Though I suppose it's a moot point because it's not the same thing as if the tube actually went to the airport.
Doesn't Heathrow Express go right up in there to a few different terminals? I get really turned around in that God-awful airport. Though I suppose it's a moot point because it's not the same thing as if the tube actually went to the airport.
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@24, you mean ORD, LGA, BOS, CDG?
@22, no, you just have to walk three miles through the corridors. And the heads? "A shipment of 18 human heads, still covered in skin". Yeah, like you've never lost your head in the airport when your flight gets delayed for the seventh time running.
@22, no, you just have to walk three miles through the corridors. And the heads? "A shipment of 18 human heads, still covered in skin". Yeah, like you've never lost your head in the airport when your flight gets delayed for the seventh time running.
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@25, the last few times I've been to LHR I've gotten to enjoy a half-hour bus ride around the back of all the terminals, where the planes and service vehicles are, including one occasion where we had to stop and back up because a moving jet was about to put a wingtip through the side window. Much scurrying through unmarked service corridors, doors, and stairwells, too, with people standing there showing where to go, and redirect you after you found the door locked at the top. I always got the impression that, in one of the busiest airports in the world, every person working there had always just started their first day on the job. I gather they've made a few changes since then.
I'm sticking with LAX for "shittiest airport", though. Especially if you arrive at customs one minute after ten 747s full of new immigrants from Asia with three 25-cubic-feet suitcases each (i.e., pretty much any day of the week).
I'm sticking with LAX for "shittiest airport", though. Especially if you arrive at customs one minute after ten 747s full of new immigrants from Asia with three 25-cubic-feet suitcases each (i.e., pretty much any day of the week).
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@26: If that's what you call those airports in casual conversation, then I'm guessing you're the only one. The rest of us humans typically call them O'Hare, LaGuardia, Logan International and de Gaulle.
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@27 - re: LHR. I've had one or two easy (enough) walks straight from the terminal to the train, but just as many similar to what you described. Once even off boarded onto the tarmac due to some sort of plane traffic jam, which I usually really like (makes you feel like a Beatle, or Palm Springs in 1980, or... uh... Saginaw, MI), but we walked.... and walked... and walked... in London... in February.
Very true about LAX.
JFK, I should add, while not totally terrible, requires a lot of mental preparation on my part (generally, prepare for an 4 hour delay, rejoice when there isn't one).
Very true about LAX.
JFK, I should add, while not totally terrible, requires a lot of mental preparation on my part (generally, prepare for an 4 hour delay, rejoice when there isn't one).
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@21 and @3 - The IATA code doesn't change; Will Rogers World Airport is still OKC.
As a past San Franciscan, I'd love to see something public in The City named for Harvey besides a concrete Muni entrance full of winos.
As a past San Franciscan, I'd love to see something public in The City named for Harvey besides a concrete Muni entrance full of winos.
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You all are lucky in that your IATA airport codes stand a chance of bearing some relationship to the name of the airport (JFK, LHR = London HeathRow) or the name of the city they're in (MIA, DEN, LAX). I live in the land of all IATA codes starting with Y. Specifically my "home" airports are YYZ and YTZ.
(Snipped from Wikipedia's article on IATA airport codes:
"All major airports in Canada use airport codes that begin with the letter "Y", although not all "Y" codes are Canadian. Many Canadian airports simply append a combinations of letters in the city's name to the "Y": YOW for Ottawa, YYC for Calgary, and YVR for Vancouver. Some Canadian codes are much harder to identify simply through the letters alone, particularly at two of Canada's largest airports, YUL for Montreal-Trudeau and YYZ for Toronto-Pearson.")
(Snipped from Wikipedia's article on IATA airport codes:
"All major airports in Canada use airport codes that begin with the letter "Y", although not all "Y" codes are Canadian. Many Canadian airports simply append a combinations of letters in the city's name to the "Y": YOW for Ottawa, YYC for Calgary, and YVR for Vancouver. Some Canadian codes are much harder to identify simply through the letters alone, particularly at two of Canada's largest airports, YUL for Montreal-Trudeau and YYZ for Toronto-Pearson.")
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@7- Just try telling that to folks living in Tacoma when Seattle had the brainfart in the '80's to rename Sea-Tac Int'l to Henry M Jackson Int'l after Washington's Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson. Tacoma pays some hefty portion of operating costs at SeaTac, but Seattle unilaterally renamed the airport without Tacoma's or citizen input. The screams of protest could be heard in Spokane, and got so loud they re-renamed the airport after a month. But not before his widow was dragged through the PR nightmare. She was the only person anyone felt bad for in the debacle, however.
It was a sad chapter in Seattle/Tacoma history. But you had to be there.
Airport names matter a great deal to the folks whose city the airport serves.
It was a sad chapter in Seattle/Tacoma history. But you had to be there.
Airport names matter a great deal to the folks whose city the airport serves.
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"As for DCA, see above. Republicans call it "Reagan", I suppose."
Maybe they do. I still call it National just like I did before the rename that I was not in favor of.
Maybe they do. I still call it National just like I did before the rename that I was not in favor of.
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