San Francisco Fleet Week 2006. Roy Morlidge/ BEAT File Photo

By Tim Jue / Beat Staff Writer

Not everyone is looking forward to seeing the Blue Angels in town today. Complaints, ranging from the migraine-inducing roar of the jets to concerns over veterans who may see a resurgence of PTSD symptoms are being levied by a myriad of individuals who take issue with the city’s annual Fleet Week festivities slated to draw hundreds of thousands of spectators into San Francisco.

Tim Redmond over at the San Francisco Bay Guardian includes a fascinating e-mail sent to a local TV station in a post on the Politics Blog. It ticks off everything that’s wrong about the Blue Angels zipping over their heads.

Among them:

• The Blue Angels pose an immediate, grave risk to life, limb and property by flying at near-sonic speed, in extremely tight formation, at extremely low altitude over densely populated neighborhoods.
• The air shows waste taxpayer money at a time of unparalleled federal deficits, and they waste oil and fuel when those are in short supply.
• The engine exhaust from the Blue Angels’ jets and other aircraft in the aerobatics displays pollutes the air, the bay and the soil, exacerbating global warming.

An online discussion on Yelp.com over Fleet Week was split amongst people who couldn’t stand the sound of the fighter jets and those who encouraged others to pay respects to military men and women coming to liberal-leaning San Francisco.

“Last year I decided the Blue Angels didn’t deserve the energy of my hate so I ignored them as much as I could, even though I work outside in the neighborhoods they practice above,” one poster named “Poe” wrote. “I also wore ear plugs to work and tried to schedule my jobs so I would have as little contact with them as possible.”

Others vented about the political undertones that they claimed Fleet Week represented:

“Last thing I want is the U.S. Military holding smog-filled recruiting events in my City so more kids sign up to go kill for Corporate profits,” Yelp.com user “Roy J.” wrote.

“Even if you don’t agree with the Iraq invasion, maybe go out show some respect to those people that had the courage to do what most people don’t,” user Kapelli M. responded. “They signed up to defend others in their country, including you.”

Last year, San Francisco city Supervisor Chris Daly tried to introduce legislation to ban the Blue Angels from flying over the city for fears that a mid-air crash like the one in Beaufort, S.C. in April 2007 might endanger individuals on the ground. Daly also told the Chronicle last year that the fighter jets “terrorize small children, seniors, pets, local wildlife.” His plan never did pick up steam, and the Angels were allowed the fly last year with no restrictions levied by the city.

But this year, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is preparing to receive a lot of phone calls this week from angry residents fed up with the noise and vibration from the Angels overhead, ABC7 reported this week.

“What is going on what is the noise? Why are you allowing this again Mr. Mayor? But at the same time marking the fact that the overwhelming majority are saying we’re glad they’re back,” Newsom tells ABC7 News.