An Open Letter to Governor Baker
Dear Governor Baker,
I live in Milton, MA. I live under 4R, a satellite based sky highway. I moved to my home in 2005. Living in Milton, 10 miles from the airport, I expect a certain amount of plane traffic. I got the expected amount through around 2013. In 2013/2014, NextGen was fully put into place. NextGen trades fairly distributed fanned out air traffic for an efficient, targeted beam of traffic. Last year, nearly 60,000 planes flew over Milton. SIXTY THOUSAND! They fly lower than they need to, in the name of efficiency.
Sometimes, planes fly about every 90 seconds for 20 hours per day, weeks on end, over the exact same small swath of homes. This is completely unnecessary, and it is not safe. I live under the equivalent of a smoky bar. So do my three young children. They also go to school under the equivalent of a smoky bar, as Collicot and Cunningham elementary schools are under this same path. The decibel levels on the playground are 88. EIGHTY-EIGHT! I googled that decibel level for you: it’s about the level of a lawn mower. Which my kids get to hear every 90 seconds at home and at school. Would you be distracted by a lawn mower going by your office window every 90 seconds, for 20 hours per day? Would its pollution be healthy? To give you an idea, I recorded this handy 19 second video:
Would you be distracted by a lawn mower going by your office window every 90 seconds, for 20 hours per day? Would its pollution be healthy?
Last fall, my husband and I took our children out of school for a week to catch up on their sleep because the planes kept us all awake for weeks on end. In September, over 6,000 planes flew over our house and we were completely sleep-deprived. We have lost productivity with work because of lost sleep and stress. At some point, our property values will start to fall. People snarkily suggest that we move — but if we do this, if we give up and let profits win, this public health problem remains, and we rely on our local, state, and federal officials to resolve it. In the meantime, the planes still sound and look like this:
People snarkily suggest that we move — but if we do this — if we give up, move out of town, and let profits win —this public health problem remains, and we rely on our local, state, and federal officials to resolve it.
People in my town aren’t asking for no planes. That would be a ridiculous expectation. But we are asking you to appoint somebody to MassPort’s board who cares as much about the humans on the ground as they do about the money Boston earns from gate fees. We have attended several Massport Board meetings. Massport’s board members have made it abundantly clear that the bottom line is what drives them. And Massport and the FAA sets up their own tests for standards — and, remarkably, they pass every time they test themselves!
Massport’s board members have made it abundantly clear that the bottom line is what drives them.
Massport has set up their metrics such that they argue “only a small amount of people are affected.” Of course a relatively small amount of people are affected — because it’s a concentrated path! People feel tortured. Have you ever had a roommate that plays the same song over and over, at a volume of 11? It’s something like that (except with pollution), for 20 hours a day. And the people who aren’t bothered by the noise of the planes are still inhaling the ultrafine particles that may one day cause their kid’s fatal heart attack.
And though a relatively “small” number of people (THOUSANDS) are affected by NextGen, how many are you, as governor, comfortable with torturing in the name of money?
Sincerely,
Melissa Fassel Dunn
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