"Column: What need is there to supersize San Jose Airport?"

Sunday, October 9, 2005

Here's looking at you, tarmac at S.J. airport By Scott Herhold The San Jose
(CA) Mercury News


You've heard the refrain a zillion times: To be a true big city, San Jose
needs blank.  A skyline.  A river.  A baseball team. Art. BART.

A first-class airport that doesn't require walking on the tarmac.

Wait a minute, just one minute.  I'm willing to buy a few of these things.
Maybe you are, too.  But that bit about the tarmac rubs me wrong.

The reason I'm fretting about this is that San Jose officials are studying a
proposal to demolish Terminal C at the airport, the compact little terminal
that -- yes -- requires you to walk out on the tarmac to your plane.

This isn't as much fun as it used to be.  Four or five years ago, the city
bought covered walkways that take you within a few feet of the aircraft.

But for a brief moment, you still have to face the elements at Terminal C.
You have to board the stairs to your plane.  You feel the sunlight, the
heat, and sometimes the rain.

And I like it.  Sorry, I just don't buy the idea -- put forward by Mayor Ron
Gonzales and others -- that we're a third-world airport because we lack
enough jetways.  I don't think the "Casablanca"
experience humiliates us.  I say it lends romance.

Memory lane

Terminal C is quintessentially San Jose -- workaday, unpretentious, a
reminder of what we were when we were growing up.  And we ought to think
hard before we consign its charms to the bulldozer.

"I love Terminal C," says Steve Tedesco, chairman of the San Jose Airport
Commission.  "It's so easy to get in and out of there.  And there's
something interesting about walking out on the tarmac to your plane.  These
people who criticize that as being a cow town airport are full of bull."

I'll admit the tarmac approach doesn't work for everyone.  People who carry
rolling suitcases find it difficult to coax them up the stairs.
It's harder still for the disabled.

But there's something straightforward -- and yes, even dramatic -- about
emerging from your plane into San Jose's weather.  Terminal C has a minimum
of the rat-like maze that you find in every other airport.

And lest I neglect to mention the obvious: When one of the greatest modern
communicators of religion, Pope John Paul II, arrived in a foreign land, he
didn't fall down and kiss the jetway.  He kissed the tarmac.  He would have
understood Terminal C.

Hometown vibes

I stopped by Terminal C for an hour or so last week, and I was charmed once
again by its compact funk -- the Martini Monkey bar, the kids'
play set and observation tower, the mezzanine above the food court.

Because Terminal C's approach allows for passengers to board both the front
and rear of the plane, a few airlines actually like it.  It saves them 15 or
20 minutes in a quick stop.

But the terminal is vulnerable not just because city officials feel it's
outmoded: There's also a question of money.  The airport depends on fees
paid by the airlines.  And the airlines at Terminal C have resisted major
increases unless they get new jetways.

That's one reason the city is talking about demolishing the old terminal and
replacing it with a new Terminal B to the north, a scaled-down version of
the originally grandiose plans.

Airport officials say Terminal C is not likely to come down for at least a
couple of years: You can't take out gates until you get new ones.

If it's razed, there will be more than one reason to mourn.  Aside from the
tarmac, one of Terminal C's greatest charms is a huge mural done by
California artist Millard Sheets, depicting San Jose history.

It's partially forgotten now behind a fast-food court, which has led fans to
question its fate.  An airport spokesman told me the city would save the
mural.  But it's molded into the shape of the sweet little terminal's
entrance.  It's comfortably at home, just as many of us are.


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