Nucci to address traffic, other concerns on Massport Board

Courtesy+of+Massport

DON WEST

Courtesy of Massport

Sum Humphrey

Growing up in East Boston, John Nucci lived so close to Logan Airport that he and his friends could see the faces of pilots as they were coming in to land when they played in the streets. When he was a young man in the 1960s and ‘70s, Nucci and his family took part in protests against the airport’s expansion into their neighborhood.

Now he, a lifelong resident of East Boston and Suffolk’s Vice President of External Affairs, has joined the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Port Authority, the government body which operates the airport Nucci has lived in the shadow of his whole life.

In an interview with the Journal, Nucci said his appointment to the body that also manages Worcester  Regional Airport, Hanscom Airfield, and the Port of Boston will give him a chance to tackle several transportation issues facing the community.

Nucci shared that one of his biggest concerns for the area is traffic caused by Massport overflow parking by its users and commuters, and last week met to discuss the issue with Boston City Councilor Sal LaMattina and State Representative Adrian Madaro.

Nucci highlighted the environmental problems that also come from heavy traffic.

“Massport uses a number of sites around East Boston to park overflow cars when they run out of spaces at the airport,” he said. “That causes traffic, [which] causes harmful emissions. It’s not healthy and it’s one of the first things I want to understand better … We need to see an increase of high occupancy vehicles and buses and an increase in public transportation usage.”

But cars from Logan aren’t the only traffic tying up East Boston streets. Regular commuters clog the neighborhood’s narrow roads too, another issue Nucci wants to solve.

“Each day, thousands of cars commute from the North Shore to Boston, and many of them run right into an overcrowded route 1A. So they veer off of route 1A and into the neighborhood, which makes rush hour in the morning in East Boston an enormous challenge,” Nucci said. “I think to the degree we can use more people to use public transportation, more high occupancy vehicles like buses, more carpools, things like that, those are the strategies we have to look at.”

In November, Mayor Martin J. Walsh appointed Nucci to Massport’s Community Advisory Committee, which is comprised of representatives from each of the 40 cities and towns surrounding the state’s airports and airfields.

One of the CAC’s most important duties is to select a member to appoint to the Massport’s Board, a position his fellow committee members encouraged him to take on, Nucci shared. Because their nominee must reside in either East Boston, South Boston or Winthrop, Nucci was well-positioned for the role.

His appointment to the board follows a decades-long career in Boston city government, including serving on the Boston School Board, the Boston City Council and as the clerk-magistrate of the Suffolk County Criminal Superior Court.

“I’ve had folks ask me why do it, and the answer’s pretty simple. I believe in public service,” Nucci said, one day after he was sworn in by Gov. Charlie Baker in the flag room of the State House. “My entire career has been public service,” Nucci said.

Since his appointment in February, Nucci has been meeting with constituents from Massport and East Boston to better understand the challenges Massport faces.

“Certainly obtaining input from anybody who lives in East Boston, including students, will make me more effective as a Board member,” Nucci said, noting that many students live in off-campus housing in the neighborhood. Last year, in his Suffolk capacity, Nucci created a partnership with the city of Boston to use the athletic fields at East Boston Memorial Park as the Rams’ home fields.

But, while he will represent every resident in East Boston, Nucci said he will keep his professional life at Massport separate from the one at Suffolk.

“There needs to be a bright line between my duties at Suffolk and my responsibilities as a Massport Board member,” he said.