The worst part is: Once an airport gets torn down, it's lost forever. It never gets re-built. And we basically don't build new airports in the USA anymore. Can anyone remember the last time a new airport was built (outside of people building private dirt airstrips on their 20 acre ranch in Idaho)? As population centers shift and housing gets built, people move in next to noisy airports and then say to themselves "Holy shit, I moved next to an airport and it's loud. How could I have known? Surely this is the airport's fault!" and they go complain to their city.

A little public airport with a nice asphalt runway in my hometown recently went up for sale, and the price was within striking distance of what I could afford as an investment, but I chickened out and failed to pull the trigger. It would have meant moving across the country to manage it and convincing my company to let me work remotely (this was just before COVID when WFH suddenly became normalized). Sadly some shitty developer bought the plot and promptly closed the runway and facilities so he could build whatever shit he's going to build. Big regret.