The decision on the Prez' chopper was undoubtedly a thumb in the eye payback
to the rabid anti-Bush Democrats that dominate CT national politics in the
region, in particular Dodd, Lieberman and DeLauro (3rd Congressional
District). Now these clowns are all in a dither to try to explain the
decision, blaming it on everybody except themselves. The contract value was
not all that big for Sikosky, but the symbolism...its the first time the
Prez will be flying around in a non-Sikorsky chopper.

No way that Bridgeport will close BDR down, if for no other reason than to
tweak Stratford's nose. But it'll be the final nail in Bridgeport's economic
coffin if they do.

The airport is woefully underutilized. If the region had some decent
corporate activity, that place would be buzzing busy, just as it was as
late as the mid-eighties when it had scheduled regionals.

I read a while ago that Bob Crandall was considering basing his new air taxi
operation, POGO, at BDR.




"Robert Chambers" wrote in message
. com...
I'm based at BDR and there's a lot more to this story than meets the eye.

The airport is actually in the town of Stratford but the city of
Bridgeport owns it. Stratford wanted some tax money for it as it is quite
a few acres of property. Bridgeport said "we are a municipal
organization, we don't have to pay property taxes" so Stratford took them
to court and the court sided with Bridgeport so it's been a ****ing match
ever since.

What Stratford doesn't realize is that Bridgeport is not going to be
handing back to the FAA any grant money, they don't have it to spare.

Bridgeport has lost pretty much all the manufacturing jobs it ever had,
there are factory buildings and warehouses standing empty and loads of
vacant space waiting for people to build something on it. There's no
demand for space in the Bridgeport area. Transportation is a disaster
here with I-95 choked with traffic and construction. Labor costs are high
and Connecticut has a pretty business-unfriendly unemployment-insurance
setup compared to other states. Most of the manufacturing jobs have gone
out of the country or down south. Hell, even the presidential helicopter
got awarded to Lockheed who are in bed with some overseas outfits (who
will wind up making parts for it).

The Urban Land Institute aparrently looked at the land and came up with
this proposal pretty quickly so you know how much thought went into it.

Across the street from the airport is the old Avco-lycoming factory where
until 6 or so years ago they built the turbine engines for the tanks.
That whole property except for a few small companies is sitting empty and
idle. There's no demand for manufacturing space.

This is just a politicians way to try and make some brownie points with
the constituents. They figure that the voters in town would rather have a
bunch of warehouses and tractor-trailers in their neighborhoods instead of
the few aircraft and very little auto traffic.

Robert



AirMan wrote:

http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.... 517515&rfi=8


http://www.connpost.com/Stories/0,14...earch=filt er