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Councilors buzzing over helipad plan

Helipad atop Motor Mart garage in Park Square, Boston

The Motor Mart garage roof in Park Square served as a helipad in 1947. Photo by Leslie Jones.

The city won't build GE a helipad without scrutiny from the City Council. On Wednesday, the council formally votes to approve at-large Councilor Michael Flaherty's proposal for a hearing on the city's proposal for a public helipad somewhere closer to GE's impending Fort Point headquarters.

In his hearing request, Flaherty notes this is not the first time somebody's proposed a helipad in the years since the city's last one was shut in 1999 to make way for the South Boston convention center:

Establishing a helipad would likely lead to an influx of helicopters to the area, which would impact noise, air pollution, and safety concerns in our neighborhoods; and, plans to construct a helipad were halted in 2008 after strong neighborhood opposition.

He adds:

State and local officials have begun actively identifying potential locations to place the helipad without public input.

Leslie Jones helipad photo from the BPL's aviation photo collection. Posted under this Creative Commons license.

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Comments

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It will take 0.0000004% of the cars off our overcongested roadways

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Why GE needs a friggin heliport? What makes them so important? I dont understand.

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No, I don't know, but we agreed to build one for the convenience of GE executives and the other 1%'ers that just won't move to Boston without one (the helipad will be "public" in the sense that anybody with enough money and/or their own helicopter will be able to use it).

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GE executives and the other 1%'ers that just won't move to Boston without one (the helipad will be "public"

This gets a big waaaah. Big deal if they won't come because we won't pay for a helipad. They want one. Let them pay for it themselves.

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the other 1%'ers that just won't move to Boston

You think these people are going to live IN Boston?

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I assumed they would live in their sky castles and would need helicopters to come down to the surface world!

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We need one of these for "public benefit"... yet we can't properly fund the T.

Yes, let's build something .0000001% of the population will use, yet the 10% or more of the population that uses the T gets the shaft again.

Our politicians priorities are screwed.

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We're being screwed by our politicians. Have we made any progress in funding infrastructure - the T, roads, bridges, water, etc.? No. Everything is crumbling around us yet tax breaks are given to a company that clearly doesn't need the help and we have to build this heliport. I feel violated.

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You couldn't pay me to fly in that thing.

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I've got nothing against GE wanting to build a heliport with their own funds. The city/state can put in restrictions on the number of flights per day and hours of operations. I can't imagine there's going to be much of an impact from 5-10 helicopter landings per day. It's the city after all, plenty of other noise that will cancel out a few helicopters.

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Just curious-- if some company needed a heliport for some blue collar construction purpose, law enforcement, or even wanted to open a helicopter pilot school, would the city council be open to this as they seem to be now that a billionaire has decided to move his company here? Mortgage assistance for GE employees, tax breaks for GE, and now a parking spot for the GE owner's helicopter? Try asking the city for a permit to fix up your rear porches, see what they tell you. The city government has turned on the city's residents, especially those who have been here a while. Can't wait until Tito gets elected and turns us into Detroit. As bad as it will be, maybe the only thing that can bring back the families is a strong, but hopefully temporary, crime wave. Bring down the property values and maybe we can get the middle class back.

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with your dog whistle"Tito - Detroit" comment coupled with the idiocy of suggesting an increased crime rate would mitigate the real estate market resulting in an increase in the middle class returning to the city.

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I thought this was already a done deal as part of the agreement? Marty making empty promises again?

Not that I'm complaining, but despite believing we have a few good people sitting on it, I don't exactly trust the city council to do much in the way of public interest when big bucks are on the line... **cough cough BRA power cough cough**

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OK - now we know that Envy is alive and well in Boston. So how are we doing with Pride, Wrath, Gluttony, Lust, Sloth and Greed?

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Pride: 3,000,000 suburbanites wearing "Boston Strong" shirts can't all be wrong!
Wrath: Try walking less than full speed across a crosswalk where there's not a light. Actually, even if you have a light
Gluttony: Meet me at dollar oyster night and I'll show you
Lust: Hard to tell since they closed the Combat Zone
Sloth: Based on the performance of the MBTA?
Greed: Believe it or not, some jerks are trying to get the city to build them a helipad

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