Somerville Mayor Complains About Airplane Noise

[benndragon.livejournal.com]

I clearly must be bored, to be opening up this particular can of worms. OTOH, the article includes a phone number you can call any time you want to complain about it, which will be infinitely more fruitful than complaining about it here: "Massport’s noise complaint line is 617-561-3333."

Time to stop the buzzing

ETA: Since some folks argue that calling Massport is just as fruitless as complaining here, here's another number to call for folks who are indeed interested in knowing about the airplane noise you are experiencing: "You can help us by also reporting the disturbance to 311. The statistics you provide will be an important weapon is[sic] our ongoing campaign."

Comments

[ron_newman]

Repeating my comment from the other two places I left it:

I’m not sure this is a battle that really can be won, or that the city should spend significant time, energy, or money on it. If we somehow divert the flights from being over Somerville, won’t that just push the problem over to Jamaica Plain or Chelsea or some other equally undeserving community?

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

The runway could be shut down. The FAA could be forced to honor its commitment about when to use the runaway. It's a new runway and promises were apparently made and broken. Seems like a valid fight.

[ron_newman]

If the runway is shut down, won't that move the noise to other towns?

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

What did they do before the new runaway? I see in the old post Dorchester got less noise now, but I'd have assumed a new runway was mostly increasing traffic. If you can't increase traffic without making people's lives worse, don't. Especially if you promised you wouldn't make them worse.

[ron_newman]

for some history, I suggest reading Tom Champion's post from August 2010. I really thought this issue was dead and buried.

[benndragon.livejournal.com]

So the question becomes, why did the Mayor bring it up again? Curiouser and curiouser!

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

MAYBE HE SHOULD BECOME MAYOR OF A TOWN NOT SO CLOSE TO AN AIRPORT THEN

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Did you even read the link? It's not like he became mayor and suddenly discovered there was an airport nearby. The airport has grown and broken its promises.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure you missed something there.

[benndragon.livejournal.com]

Yes, this is the sort of gluteal haberdashery I expected.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

You are welcome.

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

i salute your sesquipedalianism...

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

*googles*

I usually use "obfuscation" for that, but yours has more syllables. :-)

[ronhaha108.livejournal.com]

The complaint line (as they call it) is nothing more than data entry. I've spoken with a supervisor there and asked what they do with the data and was told that they verify that the weather conditions warranted using specific routes and that's it. I asked if the complaint information was used to help coordinate different routes and was told no, the routes are dictated by the FAA and not MassPort. I also asked if complaint data was used to determine if a city or region could apply for MassPort's noise abatement program and was told no and neither Somerville nor Medford (where I live) were cities that could get into that program.

On the positive, because of runway work this past summer, I've had only very few noise filled days.

[ronhaha108.livejournal.com]

by the way, I applaud Mayor Curtatone for speaking out on this and re-raising this issue, I'm going to forward this article to Mayor McGlynn's office in Medford. When government agencies aren't held accountable for their promises, it takes away our individual rights. It's happening again with the Green Line extension...

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

I am rather happy that the mayor is taking this on. Promises were made in bad (hideous, in fact) faith and I respect that he has the chutzbah to stand up to it and make some noise of his own. I am fascinated by the response to someone wanting a governmental agency to keep a promise. It is not that I don't understand cynicism, but at least keep it to yourself while someone who has not actually given up stands up to that kind of corruption, goodness.

I also asked if complaint data was used to determine if a city or region could apply for MassPort's noise abatement program and was told no and neither Somerville nor Medford (where I live) were cities that could get into that program.

Why not? And why do people accept "no" for this kind of question, particularly since it is based on lies to begin with?

Thanks to the mayor for at least trying.

[ronhaha108.livejournal.com]

why are you questioning me? I asked the question and was given an emphatic no. I then told them I would continue to call the complaint line each time I was annoyed by overhead planes (and have called at least 100 times), I've contacted Medford's Mayor's office and my local representatives, what have you done?

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

I wasn't questioning you, though I can see why it looked like I was. In fact, what you have done it awesome and I applaud you for doing it, speaking of applauding!

When I asked why do folks accept "no" for this kind of question, I did not mean "why did you accept no when you called" (though, again, I can see where you saw that, sorry for not being more clear), I meant more collectively, why is "no" allowed to be an answer?

I wrote an entry here recently, talking about the bus service that failed last weekend leaving folks stranded for hours in Davis Square during a snow storm. I have called several times at this point, and have refused to accept the answer that there are not enough resources for folks to do their jobs. This was a gross oversight and not acceptable. There *are* resources; they simply did not use them to get the job done because, as she said, the system is not set up that way. It should be. I gave her my complaint number and told her I wanted a call back when a decision on the matter that they are revisiting is reached. It does not sound like you could do that in that one situation, but the complacence of folks to accept this sort of thing is a bit pathological and it gets to me. And sometimes I am complacent, too. Gets to me there as well.

Thank you for being an example of fighting that complacency. I think what you have done is terrific and if more folks did it in numbers, we could see some change.

To answer your question, I have done nothing. I am not affected by the noise most of the time, probably partly because I have some hearing problems that weirdly come and go, so I don't actually hear everything in the ways folks would without these problems might (I said most of the time because I do recall hearing it once, I don't recall when that was or where in Somerville I was at that moment).

Unlike other folks who are unsympathetic because they are not adversely affected and have little use for folks who are, I am quite aware of how disruptive loud noise can be (I am not immune to all of them by any stretch--just don't have a problem personally with the planes), having had to bear it on occasion when I did not live in Somerville. In fact, my partner and I have had serious arguments over it in the past--he feels like folks who don't want loud noise should not live in the city, and I don't believe it is anywhere nearly as easy as that. Folks do not always have the capacity to move, for whatever health, economic, or other logistical reasons. All that aside? Folks thought of this issue, promises were made, and they are not being kept--I might think folks were laughing about what they got away with, except that it does not seem to register enough even to warrant laughter. From reading the entry from Mr. Champion from last year, it seems that that Massport and the FAA dont' even have to *hear* the complaints--they simply refuse to listen and get away with it. My question was in my mind, "why is no an ok answer for them to give after such promises were made, which were clearly never intended to be honored".

Please accept my apologies. I wish more folks were as proactive.

[ronhaha108.livejournal.com]

Wow, thanks for the mea culpa, I appreciate it.

I agree, it's too easy to be complacent or just complain about things, thing is this will have a long term effect on the community and needs to be resolved as soon as possible, as other people will come into office and not have the first hand knowledge of what was promised and the issue will just be lost.

I'm so glad we have someone in a power position who is taking a stand on this issue.