May Li
This year, the D.C. Fair Skies Coalition, an advocacy organization of nine local groups including GUSA, Georgetown University, and the Citizen’s Association of Georgetown, filed a petition for review against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) concerning the recent alteration of flight plans over the Potomac River. This alteration has resulted in more planes flying over Foggy Bottom and the Georgetown neighborhood, which, for Hoyas, means even more ambient noise on a campus already ridden with the cacophony of seemingly-perpetual construction.
Flights over campus—and the racket that accompanies them—have been a reality on the Hilltop for decades. With Reagan National Airport just down the river, plane-related noise is an inevitability. Blue & Gray tour guides halfheartedly joke to prospective students that they’ll get used to the roar of jet engines eventually.
This Editorial Board understands and shares the concerns of the Georgetown neighborhood; we all want to live in peace and quiet. However, while the FAA’s move to reroute flights has elevated ambient noise to hitherto-unreached levels of annoyingness, there’s really only so much we can do about it—especially considering that the FAA gave us the chance to comment on it before-the-fact.
With that being said, we can only continue to grin and bear it for so long. Georgetown administrators, residents, and students should relish the rare opportunity to make common cause and engage in that time-honored American tradition: complaining about the government.
