I have no sympathy what so ever for the rich assholes (Property values in Santa Monica are now equal to or greater than nearby Beverly Hills) that live around the airport...
The homes on the northwest side have been there since the 40s, are relatively small, in many cases have the original family descendants still living in them and have increased in value only because there is no more room for anything in Los Angeles....and, far beyond my comprehension, people still actually want to live there.
I would not characterize the people that live in that area as 'rich'. This is definitely not 90210.
The airport area of SM, though not South Central, is actually the 'wrong side of the tracks' in SM and has been since I lived there. 'Rich' is up north on San Vincente. (Probably where the helicopters are then headed with the organ transplants)
In any case, before the jets there was no problem. The traffic patterns were on the southeast side and that area at the time was all open fields while on the northwest side where the homes were was a 'no-fly' area. Things started getting controversial when an AD Skyraider crashed into homes off the end of RWY 21, killing some people, and then a USAF Thunderbirds support T-33 went off the end of 21, slid down the hill and ended up against the chain link. A little further and it would have taken out homes across 23rd street. Then the civvy P-51s started showing up.
(I loved watchin' 'em.)
Even after the jets started operating there, the only complaints were, not unreasonably, about the night ops. The airport is excellent for piston engine training and even the original 'anti-noise' folks didn't have a problem with that. Those homes were there for a long time before the jets.
So while a criticism of the city itself may be warranted, I'm not sure you're criticizing the correct group of rich 'a$$holes'.
(BTW I know Claire Walters sounds like a beauty parlor, but she was a notable Powder Puff Derby competitor, was she still around when you trained there?)