'D-M is safe; let's do the same for neighborhoods" reads the caption on your opinion piece of May 16. We agree. We are happy Davis-Monthan Air Force Base will remain as a major air base and an important contributor to the economy of our community. But we must be clear on what needs to be done to ensure the safety and health and quality of life of our community. The fact is that 28 neighborhoods in Tucson, comprising many thousands of people in midtown Tucson - plus schools, churches, day care centers, the university - are affected. We have no intention of, as you say, "gumming up" the good work of others. On the contrary, it was the ill-advised action of the City Council on Oct. 25 that "gummed up the works" when it overrode the recommendation of the Tucson Planning Commission and approved zoning amendment legislation that allows developers to build houses just southeast of the base. If this is carried out, it will totally bottle up the base and limit the possibility of extending flights over the presently sparsely settled Southeast area instead of the densely populated city center. We wish to save the base and prevent the destruction of our community and improve our quality of life. Since 1967, several accidents of military planes have occurred over the city and its environs, the two worst being the crash of a D-M plane onto a supermarket at 29th Street and Alvernon Way and the crash of another plane onto the street at the corner of Sixth Street and Highland Avenue. Only last year, Julia Keen Elementary School had to be closed because of the noise, vibration and danger of the flights overhead. Tears were shed by parents and teachers, and we the taxpayers are still paying for this loss. The health effects of the overhead flights must be appreciated. Noise and vibrations are stressors. Published medical studies in the United States and other parts of the world link aircraft noise with both physical and mental effects. Effects on children are even more pronounced. In addition, the economic loss of property owners is incalculable. The Joint Land Use Study funded by the Department of Defense designates a large swath of the central city - old established neighborhoods including Broadmoor, Julia Keen, Arroyo Chico, Barrio Centro and others - as "not compatible with residential use." How do you think these residents feel, many of whom have lived there for many years, to be told their houses are suddenly not compatible with residential use? The fundamental question that has never been answered is why increased aircraft traffic resulting from an expansion of D-M should be directed to the more heavily developed northwest over the central city rather than to the less developed areas southeast of the base. The haste with which the city is now approving development projects along the city-passed southeast zoning contour of the base only heightens suspicion that economic factors rather than patriotism are determining decisions regarding D-M.