A long time ago, a friend of mine (Art Behrer, a retired P.E.) sent me a copy of a letter written on Jan. 30, 1944, by Fiorello LaGuardia, then mayor of New York City, to various airline authorities. Apparently, determining runway alignment at the relatively new airport on Long Island involved a lot of "red tape."

The letter was addressed to seven recipients, including Eddie Rickenbacker, World War I flying ace who was president of Eastern Airlines at the time; Juan Trippe, president of Pan American Airlines; and other airline executives from American Airlines, Transcontinental & Eastern Air, American Export Airlines, Colonial Airlines, and United Airlines, all operating out of New York City.

LaGuardia’s letter may be of interest to today’s executives trying to cut through red tape to accomplish difficult tasks. Some engineering jobs are made even more difficult by the involvement and meddling of various special interests. Such projects involve semi-public works such as airports, interstate highways, bridge rehabilitation, and business-government office projects such as rebuilding the World Trade Center in New York City.
LaGuardia’s letter was brief, terse, and to the point:

This is the last call on the matter of the runway layout at the new Airport. [There will be a meeting on] Thursday, Feb. 3, 1944, at my office, City Hall, at 2:30 p.m. o’clock, come prepared to make any suggestions or forever hold your peace. I have heard some grousing about the present layout which I know is not justified. If you have any cockeyed ideas on tangent runways that have not yet been tried out, keep them [to yourself] for some other time.

I am willing to hear constructive criticism and to receive helpful suggestions. I cannot compete [with] white tablecloths and soft pencils. Everyone who gets two drinks under his belt is now designing runway layouts on restaurant tables.

We will have a map here, our consulting engineer will be here, and I expect to have the matter finally, completely, and definitely settled.

You may bring anyone you desire from your engineering, technical, and piloting staff. Lawyers cannot contribute anything. This is not a legal matter.

I was in high school in the neighboring state of New Jersey when this letter was written and had no idea that an internecine struggle was in progress between the city fathers of New York and other interests regarding runway layouts and "cockeyed ideas" involving "tangent runways."

LaGuardia ― an accomplished politician who was known to be outspoken but a square shooter ― apparently was able to settle many, if not all, of the "technical" issues during the meeting. Eventually, the airport was named after the mayor and is now known as LGA in airline parlance. It has been expanded more than once. Having flown in and out of that airport many times, the runways seemed to operate satisfactorily; I never ended up in Flushing Bay, one of the bodies of water which almost totally surround LaGuardia Airport.

Today, getting approvals and completing public works projects is even more difficult since it seems that just about everyone has opinions on what, where, how, and whether almost anything should be built. While it is certainly true that the technical aspects of any civil engineering project should be reviewed by environmentalists and others to ensure it is properly and safely constructed, many projects suffer from overkill.

As an engineer specializing in stormwater management, I have heard politicians and lawyers, especially those who are running for public office, attempt detention basin designs during a lunch meeting. Of course, 60 years ago much more open land was available for public works construction and far fewer lay persons and politicians added their "two cents" at decision-making meetings.

"The Little Flower," as Fiorello LaGuardia was known, had the right idea in his letter. Basically, he appealed to reason and called for restraint from all those involved in planning the airport improvement.

The next time you fly in or out of LGA, remember that at least one strong-willed but forthright and honest politician was an important element in getting the job done!



Alfred R. Pagan, P.E., is a consulting engineer in Hackensack, N.J. He can be reached at 201-441-9719; or e-mail him at pagan@cenews.com.