I think the jets are cool. I dig SF for everything - from the crazy parades, whacked out festivals, concerts in the park to jets flying over each year. You could say the huge variety of events we have in SF give this city the DIVERSITY that I crave.

As for the grave danger of getting hit by a crashing jet - I'll take those odds over the regular road hazards in the City any day!

I'm of two minds about this. I love airshows, and I think most people in SF are capable of looking past the propaganda aspect of the show. But the danger is real, and if a large majority of residents in the city have an issue with it, then it probably needs to be confined to the water or eliminated entirely. A friend of mine is a combat vet with PTSD, and he basically has to go into hiding during Fleet Week. And many others don't like the noise. So the complaints about noise are legitimate, and I share the concern.

Note that most airshows are done in what is known as "the box." Dangerous maneuvers and close-quarters flying are done in an area where the vectors would put a disabled aircraft into an unpopulated area. So when the Blue Angels fly here, they aren't doing high-speed head-on passes over the city proper...they're always over the water and pointing towards more water when they do that. It's a form of risk mitigation. But yeah, the danger from saner maneuvers is still there, and jets flying overhead is certainly disconcerting for many city residents.

I love the jets - they're cool and along with gay pride and Love parade I feel they make our city a cooler and more diverse place. Too many times leftists think diversity applies only to certain categories, it doesn't. There's room in SF for everyone - including those who love the military and military equipment.

How about the cost at a time when the next great depression is right around the corner:

from the Blue Angel's Website:

How much does an F/A-18 cost?
The 1997 basic acquisition price of a single F/A-18 Hornet is approximately $28 million. The cost of additional weapons-related equipment varies according to the configuration and use of each aircraft can significantly increase the total price.
x 6 = -$168 million dollars for a base price.

How much fuel does an F/A-18 Hornet use in a show?
On the average, one F/A-18 uses approximately 8,000 pounds or 1,300 gallons of JP-5 jet fuel at a cost of roughly $1,378.
x 6 = $8268.

Sure seems to me that this country has more important ways to spend money than a fancy air show.

"Jets are cool!" Okay, Beavis & Butthead. Lots of things in San Francisco are cool, and don't disrupt everything and endanger lives. I agree that it's a huge waste of taxpayer money and fuel, and I also have personal reasons for detesting the Blue Angels. I work graveyard shifts, and sleep during the day, or try to - during Fleet Week it's pretty much impossible. Even when I'm not trying to sleep, the noise is so loud it startles the shit out of me as well as my cat, who's not one of those easily-spooked cats, either. Then I have to go work a 12-hour overnight shift on no sleep. I wish they would do away with this useless, redneck-style entertainment, or at least move it out to the 'burbs where it belongs.

Poor Enzo - perhaps we can require the entire city to be on "quiet time" for he and his kitty. Or maybe Enzo (and his cats) can learn to DEAL with the noise - like all of us have learned too, being that we all live in, you know, a major American CITY.

Campers,

Mr. Morse is incorrect about the Angels passes over the City. In NYC they are simply not allowed to fly diectly over the buildings. Here, they fly in between them. I know cause I live in the Tenderloin and they do it every year. My own theory is that it's an in-your-face from Feinstein cause the City rejected the Missouri and the Iowa.

That said, I was stationed on the Enterprise in the early 60's and I love the jets. Just bring them in over the water, let em perform over the Bay and send them out the same way. Just like NYC.

h.

h. -

I think what I said is a bit more subtle. Aerobatic maneuvers are done with an energy vector over the water. Check out the safety section on this page:

http://www.answers.com/topic/airshow

Aerobatic maneuvers may only be performed if the energy vector of the aircraft is not directed toward the crowd. All aerobatic maneuvers must be performed inside the "airshow box", a rectangular volume of airspace which provides the specified distance from all spectators, and up to a certain altitude over this area. No people are allowed in the airshow box except those assisting the pilot in his or her act (for example, to hold poles the aircraft flies between, or to drive ground vehicles associated with the aerial act). This means any roads in the airshow box (such as a highway at one end of the airfield) may have to be closed, and any buildings in the airshow box must be evacuated during the airshow.

When the Angels and other aircraft fly over the buildings, they aren't doing aerobatics...but that doesn't make them any less disconcerting for some.

h. I think you're on to a decent idea: constrain the flying to a smaller airshow box over the water. That wouldn't satisfy the folks who have a problem with the airshow's very existence, but it might cut down on the noise. Yes, we live in a major city, and we expect a certain amount of noise...but that doesn't include the deafening roar of military jets overhead. Not that we'll have to worry about that for too much longer...the US won't have enough money to keep them in the air for much longer.

Let me get this straight;cigarettes are not welcome here,due to the second-hand smoke or whatever,but a team of jets can strafe the city,putting more pollution in your lungs than all the smokers in the city would in yen lifetimes of heavy smoking.If a gang of bikers came through town on their obnoxious harleys,we would be upset at the noise and smoke they created,but these jets can fly over us and create more noise and pollution,and we cheer them?War is a cowardly act an this is just another display of showing the world how tuff we are,as if they cared.This useless arrogance is another reason why the world hates us,and I don't blame them.I can't stand arrogant,fearful people throwing their weight around and so should you.The fascism and hypocrisy are gaining groung here in a city that proffesses to be above all that.I hope and pray that,since I can't stop this idiocy,none of the jets will crash over the city,or anywhere else for that matter.Maybe it's like the stop-light theory,that they won't put up a stop-light until an accident occurs.The dumbing down campain is working like a charm.

Let me get this straight;cigarettes are not welcome here,due to the second-hand smoke or whatever,but a team of jets can strafe the city,putting more pollution in your lungs than all the smokers in the city would in ten lifetimes of heavy smoking.If a gang of bikers came through town on their obnoxious harleys,we would be upset at the noise and smoke they created,but these jets can fly over us and create more noise and pollution,and we cheer them?War is a cowardly act an this is just another display of showing the world how tuff we are,as if they cared.This useless arrogance is another reason why the world hates us,and I don't blame them.I can't stand arrogant,fearful people throwing their weight around and neither should you.The fascism and hypocrisy are gaining groung here in a city that professes to be above all that.I hope and pray that,since I can't stop this idiocy,none of the jets will crash over the city,or anywhere else for that matter.Maybe it's like the stop-light theory,that they won't put up a stop-light until an accident occurs.The dumbing down campain is working like a charm.

whaaaaaaah! whaaaaaah! sheesh.

To Shane - I live in the Tenderloin, I can deal with city noise. There's people screaming and blasting music outside my window constantly. I cannot deal with the sonic boom of a jet flying directly over my house 20 times a day. Nobody could sleep through that. It's ridiculous and totally fucking unnecessary.