Higher buildings not worth losing benefits of SJC

Re: “Council should back raising downtown building heights” (Letter to the editor, Feb. 14):

“As technology improves, we improve with it — we hope that our City Council keeps this in mind as San Jose explores the idea of raising building heights to bring density to downtown and the Diridon station area.” That is Mr. Quevedo’s declaration in his letter. I beg to differ.

No known technology today will allow many of the planes that currently use San Jose Airport, once fully fueled and filled with passengers, fully fueled to take off over higher buildings without the danger of accidents or other occurrences. The outcome will be to turn SJC into a small regional airport as all international flights will withdraw from using the airport.

Higher buildings will not compensate for the loss of revenue and prestige that an international airport affords our city. In order to have “the downtown our city deserves,” the letter-writer should be advocating for more family-oriented retail (instead of empty buildings) and more family-style restaurants (instead of bars).

— Michal Lubin, San Jose