OPINION
Runway fight doesn't fly

By Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist, 8/8/2002

From a distance it looks like an odd move, the mayor's decision to continue waging war over a new runway at Logan International Airport.

After all, the restrictions attached to the runway by the Federal Aviation Administration are greater than many opponents expected. Despite that victory, Menino says he will press on with a lawsuit in Suffolk Superior Court in January.

But, really, the rationale for this wasteful fight is obvious. It's basically old-fashioned class warfare.

Menino puts it differently, of course. He prefers to think of himself as a warrior for environmental justice. But this is a tale of us vs. them. ''They'' - there is always a they in this kind of storyline - don't have to put up with noise, and ''we'' do. ''They'' in this case are the swells of Lexington and Concord, the neighbors of Hanscom Field. And ''we'' are the city residents, especially those in East Boston, who live under Logan's flight paths.

Approval of the runways last weekend promised to end a 30-year battle over Logan. Under the conditions set by departing FAA Administrator Jane Garvey, the new runway will be available only when winds from the northeast or southwest exceed 10 knots per hour, the equivalent of 11.5 miles per hour.

The runway is an effort to clean up the mess at one of the most congested airports in America. Delays in takeoffs and landings attributed to heavy winds now add up to a mind-boggling 142,000 hours a year, according to the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan. Massport estimates that the new runway would reduce delays by 90,000 hours a year, by allowing the use of more than one runway when winds kick up.

The longstanding battle forced a string of restrictions that the government had never before imposed on a runway. Despite the recent ruling, an injunction that has blocked its construction for 28 years remains in effect, pending court action.

Menino says the fight to him is all about process - he wants a seat at the table, the FAA held only one community meeting, and so on. He speaks of master plans and more process. But then he gets to his real point.

''Why can't the corporate planes move to Hanscom?'' he asked yesterday. ''Why does Boston have to take it all?''

Menino scoffs at the notion that the historical landmarks of Lexington and Concord would be made vulnerable by a sharp increase in air traffic. ''They talk about the battlefield, but I have the Custom House, the Old North Church, and the castle in South Boston. They are structures, which are more fragile than land.''

That's a fair point. But this is the question Menino does not ask: What about all the people who spend all those hours on all those planes that aren't moving? Wouldn't a better-functioning airport be good for the city?

The city has already spent a small fortune over the years trying to stop this project. Now the mayor wants to spend more public money, supporting the citizens' groups that would like to spend the next few years in court, continuing a battle in which they've already won major concessions.

Aviation specialists say the restrictions will probably mean more noise, not less, for residents south of the airport. With it open on a full-time basis, there would be less air traffic over South Boston, Dorchester, and Milton. The restrictions help only some residents. Inevitably, the restrictions will make the new runway less effective, and not necessarily less of a nuisance.

Sparring with affluent suburbanites can be fun. But Logan is a fact of life in Boston. That is not to say that the FAA or Massport should be able to trample the wishes of residents, but it does mean that a lot of us are sometimes going to hear a landing airplane. Three decades of protests have won a lot. But at this point, the only victories left are hollow ones.

Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at walker@globe.com

This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 8/8/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
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