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Union workers get rowdy at meeting on expanding Logan parking

The East Boston Times-Free Press reports some East Boston residents held back from saying what they really thought of Massport's plan to add 5,000 parking spaces at Logan because of hootin' and hollerin' pro-construction union members in attendance.

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democracy is pretty cool

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John Walkey: “How bout this, 5,000 more spaces has nothing to do with minimizing air pollution and everything to do with revenue. All those cars parked under the overpass and in every nook and cranny at Massport? They’re are not paying a dime. Those cars are over the limit and therefore Massport can’t charge them. That’s why they want to raise the parking limit. And in return they’ll give us what? A pittance to pay for a senior center? Some new pop warner jerseys? They’re raking in more dollars on our health bills. We should get all the revenue from any new parking spaces put in. Because according to them they’re only doing this for the “air quality benefits” not the revenue – so they won’t miss it right? What’s the dollar value on your kids’ health? Are some new footballs and orange cones worth lung cancer? Massport and their bogus community meetings.”

At the meeting Walkey argued that adding the additional 5,000 spaces will do nothing to stop Logan customers from getting dropped off and picked up from the airport but will only have an impact on the health of residents in Eastie.

Do you think union members tactic at the meeting was appreciated by Eastie residents who showed up?

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whether they appreciate it or not

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I think people in the neighborhood take note of nonconstructive bullies.The journalist did. Participants and journalists at this Boston 2024 meeting did, too.

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Have Massport build their 5000 car garage on one of the-parcels they own on south Bostons waterfront are the parcels going to be leased out for 100 years for luxury housing,
Massport does not give a shit about the health impacts that will effect people and may I say newly arrived highly professional educated people who are paying 6 figures for their luxury condos these new people are also concerned about this new parking garage, , Massport continues to step on the people of East Boston can they come up with another solution. Such as build a parking garage somewhere on 128 Burlington from the north and Braintree from the south.

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Mass port does own the Tobin Bridge and the Tobin Bridge has land underneath it's off ramps both in Chelsea and Parts of Charlestown , have them use this space to park cars and bus or boat passengers from Chelsea creek to Logan.

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When are they going to have 24-hour transit to the airport?

(crickets)

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They already have that. They're called "cars".

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Then charge you for parking when you can't otherwise get to work.

See how that works out for you, dear.

Parking at Logan is a racket. Parking in the Seaport is also a racket. Absolutely atrocious that any city after 1990 would ever create new places to get people to and just assume that all those cars can fit. Portland planned the Pearl District around transit - and it is thriving because of it. That was long before the Seaport was laid out. Time to get some grownups who know what they are doing in charge of these things.

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I don't care about the issue or whose side I'm on. Were those construction workers East Boston residents? If so, cool. If not, not cool.

I would imagine the members of the East Boston community will submit comments about the proposal. At least I hope they do.

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Sooner or later Massport will take each East Boston street one by one by eminent domain and make it theirs for parking or terminals etc. , , it will happen, not now but 25 to 30 years from now you will see it happen, this is why we need to elect local leaders that have balls to fight Massport, just because Massport gave Eastie millions to build parks it's like a temporary band .

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I'm just hoping they reinvest the profit they're going to make back into Logan. Perhaps they can start by shuffling all of the traffic lanes going in and out of the terminals so that the buses have an easier time moving people around.

Logan absolutely needs more parking, at least until the economy craters and air travel goes back down or we get that imaginary high speed rail service on the eastern seaboard. I haven't heard of a single transit proposal to improve access to Logan that doesn't rely on imaginary public funding or forcing people to change behavior because it's good for some determined greater good (the environment, someone's social justice imperative, etc.) at the expense of their personal convenience.

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That said, Logan is in a very prominent location, surrounded by East Boston and in spitting distance of downtown. People who live near it have to appreciate what a major international airport is; and Logan isn't going to be shut down anytime in the foreseeable future. They have to learn to live with it.

I think another regional airport should be encouraged to expand in order to reduce pressure on Logan. Maybe more cargo could be flown into an expanded regional airport set up for this purpose. Obviously, there are limits to Logan expansion.

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The usps already flies a lot out of Nashua for north of Boston mail (via ups and fedex). Mass sport owned Worcester to the west and someplace to the south should all start be used for more air freight.

Too bad third harbor tunnel didn't have third tube to run silver line and trucks. I think of it during my near weekly trips to Logan while sitting in traffic.

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use USPS to deliver a lot of their stuff,and use USPS planes. USPS by law delivers everywhere in the U.S., FedEx and UPS do not. It's cheap for them to subcontract USPS.

One of the reasons USPS has an enormous facility at South Station is they need to be close as possible to Logan.

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For anyone who lives west of Boston, even in the nearer burbs inside rte 128, Worcester could be a great alternative. As for now, it only appears to have a couple flights per day to Florida. Last year I took one of these and it was an absolute dream. No crowds, no hassle at check-in. Upon returning, I stepped outside the terminal and was greeted with complete silence. No headaches from the noise/crowds/cars. Cheap-ass parking too.

Worcester needs to expand to take some of the heat off of Logan.

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Worcester Airport (ORF) is certainly under-used. There are reasons for that. The two biggest:

  1. Accessibility -- ORF west of downtown Worcester and not accessible from a limited access highway. It's time-consuming to access for most people in Greater Boston. That really limits the best-paying customers -- business travelers.
  2. Altitude -- Worcester Airport is over 1,000 feet in altitude (while Logan is at sea level). When the cloud ceiling is, say 800 feet above 'mean sea level', Logan is working slow but fine. OTH, Worcester Airport is SHUT DOWN. Think of the business traveler returning from a trip and diverted to Logan. That was a major factor in killing ORF's commercial service.

But, there's hope. Massport and the local FAA have invested $30M (yep, 30 mil) in a 'blind landing system' (British term) to overcome the altitude problem. Massport bribed (OK, incentivized) JetBlue to start up those flights to Florida. When the one-year incentive period, JetBlue kept the service.

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1. Massport does NOT 'own' the Tobin Bridge. Mass DOT does. From Wikipedia: "Legislation was passed to transfer the bridge from Massport to the new Massachusetts Department of Transportation, effective January 1, 2010." Tobin tolls were (are?) a mechanism to pay the debt from the so-called Big Dig. When Massport 'owned' the Tobin, it was not a revenue source.

2. Massport's arguments that (a) traffic to/from Logan is often at off-peak hours and (b) parking reduces 'drop off' and 'pick up' trips are both valid.

3. Of course, Massport wants to increase revenue. Otherwise, the revenue will go to cabs/Uber/Lyft and outlying parking concessions. People who need to travel will travel.

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Massport's arguments that (a) traffic to/from Logan is often at off-peak hours and (b) parking reduces 'drop off' and 'pick up' trips are both valid.

I'd be really interested in that analysis.

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I don't have a detailed study on this topic. And don't think you need one -- if you're open to logic.

On (a), traffic to/from Logan is often at off-peak hours. Aircraft, full aircraft, depart and/or arrive Logan continuously between 6:00am and 9:00pm. Yes, there's a 'rush hour' effect, but the 'peaking factor' is not like those for the MBTA or the highways. Many Logan travelers drive during non-rush hours.

On (b), parking reduces 'drop off' and 'pick up' trips. Those involve two vehicle trips per passenger. What percentage are they? I don't know, but it's significant. Then you have the outside commercial lots. (I've used Park-Shuttle-Fly many times.) They drive you to the airport for departure, and from on arrival. Two trips, with an estimated average of three passengers. Not much 'green gain' there.

Alternatives: The outside commercial lots now sometimes turn people away because they're full. The Silver Line is crowded, slow and does not handle bags well. So, most people don't use it (primarily students).

Bottom Line: The freeze on Logan's parking spaces was part of the Big Dig mitigations -- about 25 years ago. Since then, Logan's passenger count has increase by over 10 million (yes TEN MILLION PEOPLE). An increase of five thousand parking spaces is more than reasonable.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/11/14/massport-moves-closer-ad...

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Sounds like the Southie Boston2024 meeting where union guys lined the walls around the room we were in.

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investing in private cars is like investing in the coal industry.

We should expect more from one of the most educated areas in the world.

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Really? Tell that to Tesla and Google and all the rest of the educated areas of the world that are working on electric cars, self-driving cars, etc.

After jumping through hoops Massport can build the infrastructure to accomodate more cars. They can't build the infrastructure to make it more convenient to get to the airport without a car.

Want to change people's behavior? Make public transit more reliable, accessible and luggage friendly. But when you can't even depend on the red line to get you back and forth to work on a regular day you're taking your chances with the T.

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...enough work for constr workers now as the entire friggin city gets torn down and turned to condos. Smh

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I'll say it again: if Massport wants to make it more convenient to get to the airport without a car, they need to un-screw-up the Blue Line shuttle buses.

Here's how: separate them from the Rental Car Center buses.

They used to be a great way to get to the airport at rush hour, when the Silver Line is extra-slow and the Blue Line runs frequently. But that meandering detour to the RCC, and the very long stop while rental car customers who didn't pack for a transit trip slowly heave their bags, killed what used to be a quick trip.

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