Residents get few answers they like at $25-million meeting with FAA over Logan flight paths

Steeper ascents are not a very good solution as they require much more engine thrust and thus create a lot more noise for those underneath. Slow ascents can be very quiet and are used in many European airports. The airlines do not like them because it slows down the flights. Tough. We own the airspace above as as Commons - it is not the property of the airlines.

Or, they could just insert a little random delta into the software to fan out the airplanes over a wider corridor.

Hah, I was just going to suggest an idea like the soundproofing, but never having heard of it ever being done before, I wasn't sure if it was even feasible.

This is what they do when the build highways nowadays; the state builds 20'-high "noise abatement walls" between the highway and the neighborhoods it passes through. So require them to pay for similar soundproofing to be done in people's homes. It won't reduce the noise in people's yards, but it'll certainly help with the sleeping issues.

Another question: Why has no one ever looked into creating and mandating jet noise reduction at the source? Jets have been around for nearly a century, and no one's figured out how to build a "jet muffler" and then have it become required equipment on all airplanes?

They did - much of Wintrhop, East Boston, and Revere has had sound proofing paid for by Massport

I think concepts of cabals and conspiracies are generally overblown, but in this case there are a lot, lot of very rich and connected people in Brookline and Newton and Hingham and if you look at the maps, those are not impacted by plane noise.

Not true that Newton and Brookline exercised political muscle to avoid any overflights. The Runway 27 corridor was the result of complex negotiations between the R27 committee - made up of public activists (many from JP, Roxbury, South End), and Massport and the FAA. It was designed to thread departures over the least populated area. There was fear that fanning would allow Massport to increase the volume of traffic over the entire area so a restricted corridor kept volume down. But much has changed in the past decades - decreased traffic, quieter jets - so the agreement is out of date. It should be rescinded which may require a citizen lawsuit and action on Beacon Hill.

Personally, I have zero problem with some air noise over Roslindale when the wind patterns so dictate. I do think it's total bullshit though that the very rich folks living 2 miles away in South Brookline never have to deal with it, apparently through federal policy. The fact that this is a GPS system, not some fixed landmark system should make it easier to shift around.

One major difference, you knew about the noise and chose to move into the area. These folks were their first. The flight plans were changed with no regard to the impact the changes would cause.

As for the tone of your post, it seems that you are proud of the fact that you are putting up with the noise, good for you your choice.
Referring to others as pearl clutching delicate flowers is an ad hominem attack that serves no useful purpose.

It's all well and good to say that you have it worse because you live next to the airport. Many of these people didn't sign up to live under an approach path that has planes arriving every 90 seconds all day long.

So it's not as intense as what you choose to live with (that doesn't give you any right to denigrate what someone else has to live with), it's affecting their lives in a way that it wasn't before.

RNAV is great for the airport, but with the airport being so close to where people live, they should be working with the community rather than stonewalling.

You obviously don't understand what is the issue here. It's not that this issue existed when we bought our homes and we now want the flight paths changed. It is that the flight paths changed in the last couple of years and it is a real problem. Years ago the residents of JP/Roslindale forced the end of plans to build an interstate highway through our neighborhood and now the FAA has built an airplane interstate highway in the sky 1000 feet over our heads. And it is not every 3-4 minutes. Starting at 5:30 every morning they takeoff every 40-45 seconds. Is it really unreasonable that they fan them out or make them takeoff over the water until 7am? The damn airport is built on landfill from the harbor for a reason after all.

This is what representative democracy is about. We elected politicians who created the FAA who have made the choice to do this to us. Now we can vote out politicianc who do nothing about this and we can support the ones like Lynch who are trying to enact reasonable changes. Threatening their budget is the best way to enact changes in a uncontrollable government bureaucracy.

If Liz Warren really gave a shit about us she woult write a letter to the FAA. If she can treaten the SEC and Big Banks, why not Big Air?

Cybah, I generally agree with your posts, but the concern in this instance isn't as you described. The many communities represented were there because of recent changes that concentrate the flights into even narrower corridors than before. Milton has always had planes (and should since we benefit from being close to Logan), but they were previously part of a wider dispersal of flights south of Boston. The new system introduced in the past few years (which was the focus of last night's meeting) did something akin to concentrating multiple lanes of occasional flight traffic into a single constant stream of traffic. So yes, unlike in Chelsea, things in Milton and Medford and Somerville and Roslindale and Westie and all the other towns represented last night have changed for the worse in the past couple of years, and noticeably so.

I grew up in Winthrop and the runway was just across the harbor at the end of my street. I know noise (and crappy Massport soundproof windows) and the smell of diesel fuel and burnt rubber if the wind was blowing our way. My dad was also a baggage handler for 30 years so the airport was an important part of supporting our family and I hardly viewed it as an enemy force.

That said, there have been multiples meetings, and fights, between Massport and Eastie/Winthrop/southie over the years and residents succeeded in protecting their neighborhoods to an extent. Why aren't the rest of us allowed to complain when the airport impacts get more burdensome in our towns? All we are asking is to return to the wider dispersal of planes that existed before 2 years ago, and I agree with Vaughan that it would be nice if Brookline and Newton could share the pain too.

Cities generate more trash than a rural area. Why bother with paying for services needed to pick and dispose of trash since a cost of city living is more trash being generated from both homes and from litter. A cost of city living is more murders, thefts, vehicular homocides and other violence in cities than in rural areas. Anyone living in a city should just accept that and hope they are not hurt instead of having to pay for a police and judicial system for preventing or prosecuting and jailing criminals.

Another way of saying this: "You moved into a city; cities are noisy; suck it up." The same then can be, "It's a city; people are murdered in cities; suck it up."

Do we allow freight ships to dump the crew's feces into the harbor? Freight ships provided vital services. They need crews. Crewe are humans and generate body wastes. Do we just say polluting the just the cost of having more freights ships coming in.

The Charles was polluted for seveal years and slowly is becoming cleaner. But cities generate pollution. Perhaps we should just accept that cities pollute their waterways instead of spending millions on clean up.

What about the added costs to cars for decreasing how much pollutionn they create? Internal combustion engines create smog and CO. That's the cost of running a car. Why spend so much money on making cars less polluting?

When jets are flying over the same corridor in less than minute intervals (I've timed them from where I live), creating noise that sounds like missles flying through the air, then the jets are generating noise pollution that impacts residents' and citizens' lives in different but no less destructive ways.

Compared to many European countries the US is a very LOUD country. Why we are so obsessed with loud chopped motorcycle pipes, loud car/truck mufflers, blasting junk music is a mystery. Maybe has something to do with our macho militaristic attitude toward life?

PLEASE - PLEASE file your complaint. The data is a critical part of the noise abatement efforts. Unfortunately, Roslindale does not complain much. The complaints out of other towns - such as Milton - are getting the attention of Massport and the FAA 9plus Lynch).