Parking at Logan Costs as Much as a Flight [OPINION]

Like many Americans, I love to travel. Unfortunately, traveling is expensive and therefore I don't do it as often as I would like.

Hotels, airfare, and the cost of eating in restaurants can make traveling quite prohibitive for a good number of folks. And if you want to take the little ones to a theme park as a destination it can be damn near impossible. Family vacations that involve air travel are especially unattainable for many.

Returning from a recent trip out west to visit with the kids, I was shellshocked to find out how much it costs to park at Logan Airport for a week. We are accustomed to flying out of T.F. Green in Warwick where parking rates are considerably less, or it is more convenient to be dropped off and picked up, avoiding the parking situation altogether.

A week parking in the Central Parking Garage at Logan Airport cost me $304.00. THREE HUNDRED FOUR FREAKING DOLLARS! That is the cost of a plane ticket to somewhere. Round trip!

What is absurd about this is that I own the parking garage. I own the airport. So do you. It is managed by Massport, but we bought and pay for it through our taxes. To add insult to injury, they charge us a toll to enter and then leave our airport. By the way, there are some in the legislature who want to increase that toll and add new ones to roads not already charging tolls.

Keep this in mind when you are voting today. There are no local or statewide races on the ballot this time, but there will be next year.

In the meantime, the scoundrels that are charging you and me $304.00 per week to park in our own garage at our own airport begin debating a multi-billion dollar transportation bond bill tomorrow, as well as accompanying legislation to raise even more taxes to pay for the already tolled roads because they've misspent the money we've already given them – and the $304.00 per week we pay to park at the airport isn't enough.

The last one out of this hell hole, please turn out the lights.

Barry Richard is the host of The Barry Richard Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. Contact him at barry@wbsm.com and follow him on Twitter @BarryJRichard58. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.