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citizen airport: an interview Geoffey Gibson T HE following are excepts from an interview I conducted with my longtime friend Sean Denny in May

GG:What would some of the qualities of its citizens be? Is there an ‘airport citizen’? SD: There are groups of citizens, just as in a city. There are business citizens, who are very efficient, functional, and move through it with ease. They are experts. They know exactly how to check-in, how much baggage they can or cannot

GG: So if the city was being designed for a certain group of citizens, it’s the business travellers? SD: Absolutely. It’s definitely being designed for them. I was behind some tourists the other day. I knew they were going to be slow, and stop to see aunt so-and-so or their sister

2001 on the subject of the civic qualities and life of airports. Sean is an advertising planner for a large advertising firm in San Francisco and typically travels for business 2-4 days per week. I would like to thank him for his candid and revealing comments about contemporary airport culture.

have, what they will have to take out of their pockets when they get to security check-in points, how to live within their city. They know how to use it, as opposed to the tourists, just like a regular city. If I’m a tourist in San Francisco, I don’t know where things are. I don’t know how the trolley works. I don’t know how much the BART costs. I don’t know the local customs. I guess there are three groups of citizens: the employees who run the place, the business people who are truly part of the community, and the tourists. Because all airports are alike, if you’re a citizen of one airport, you’re a citizen of all airports.

or whoever. They weren’t being functional about it. They were being emotional about it. They were in the way, but there was no reason to flip out. It’s not their fault that they’re not thinking like I am.

GG: Imagine all the airports of North America being amassed into one conglomerate city or metropolitan area. What characteristics would you use to describe this city if you had to? SD: That’s tough because, while there are different neighborhoods, the thing about airports, at least good airports, is that they’re all the same...It’s like the invasion of the Gap and Starbucks in neighborhoods that once had a lot of character and no longer do.They are not designed to be different.

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