ADRIAN WALKER
Uphill fight at Hanscom

By Adrian Walker, 8/13/2001

BEDFORD - Walking around Hanscom Field on a Saturday morning, it's hard to
understand what the neighbors are all wound up about.

The tiny parking lot is filled close to capacity, but for an airport with
200,000 takeoffs and landings a year it's a very quiet place. Shuttle
America, Hanscom's only commercial carrier, flies only to Trenton and
Buffalo from here, which could have something to do with the relative lack
of activity.

The residents of tranquil Bedford, Concord, Lexington, and Lincoln are
decisively winning the battle against expanded small-plane service out of
Hanscom, and now we know why.

The Federal Aviation Administration has decided to respond to complaints
from Hanscom's well-heeled neighbors by erecting higher and higher hurdles
for airlines that want to begin or change - that is, expand - service at the
airport.

The need for more flights out of Hanscom is obvious to anyone who has spent
half an hour on the tarmac at Logan trying to get out of town or an hour
looking down at the lights of Providence, waiting to get back into town.
There are many, many of us.

But it isn't obvious to people who cloak their not-in-my-backyard sentiments
in tricolor hats while attempting to sell the notion that it would offend
Paul Revere's memory to allow Shuttle America to fly from Bedford to
LaGuardia.

It is to these people that the FAA has knuckled under, requiring airlines to
submit an environmental assessment far more stringent than the agency
requires at other airports. The agency is even considering going a step
further, requiring an assessment of the enviromental impact on historical
sites as well. Together, those requirements could close Hanscom to any new
airlines for months, maybe years. It's telling that the FAA never announced
this; it was divulged in documents obtained by the Globe under the Freedom
of Information Act.

Environmental assessments sound benign, but this isn't about the
environment. This is the time-honored game of burying proposals in
paperwork, studies, and red tape. You want to fly into Hanscom? We'll talk
to you after your report on the impact on 1,000 registered historic sites is
filed.

The people lobbying to curtail the expansion of Hanscom claim to be at the
service of a populist movement. Indeed, many of the opponents of a new
runway at Logan, who once viewed the Hanscom crowd as adversaries, have now
embraced them. As they see it, they have joined forces against the
bureaucracy that is the Massachusetts Port Authority.

Their crusade has a few problems. First, Logan's troubles are real, steadily
getting worse, and are not going away.

Give Acela a chance? Please. The high-speed train is a slower way to get to
New York than the shuttle. In time, more people will opt for the train, but
Acela is not going to solve the Logan problem.

More fundamentally, the burdens caused by airports should be evenly
distributed. Several neighborhoods in Boston suffer more noise pollution
than the area around Hanscom ever will, and Hanscom's neighbors don't
deserve an exemption just because they bought houses in the suburbs. By some
estimates, 3,000 people a day from the towns around Hanscom take flights out
of Logan Airport. In light of that, it's hard to argue against a
Hanscom-to-New York shuttle.

Massport's critics have a valid point when they argue that the state lacks a
coordinated, regional approach to transportation. But just saying no to
everything isn't a plan either, and quietly blocking expansion in one's own
backyard certainly doesn't bolster credibility.

They accuse Massport of playing divide-and-conquer with residents, but it's
clear that there really is a double standard. Residents of Roxbury, the
South End, and South Boston complain about Logan and get nowhere; their
better-connected suburban counterparts get exactly what they want.

It's no way to honor the principle of one nation indivisible.

Adrian Walker can be reached by e-mail at walker@globe.com.


This story ran on page 1 of the Boston Globe on 8/13/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.