The runway ran parallel to the lakefront. Approach and departure never got close to any “skyscrapers”. What a load.
I can remember doing industrial trade shows at McCormick. Watching the activity on Miegs during lunch breaks was fun.
I was a local GA Flight Instructor in suburban Chicago for 45 years.
When I had a student nearing their final hours of training, I would have them fly over to Meigs, for a break and give them some procedures to operate in an out of the airport safely.
Meigs operators were very accommodating for years, until the city decided to charge pilots a fee for any landings there.
When the control tower operators arrived the next morning for their shift after Daley bulldozed the runway, they were shocked, because in the FAA was not notified of the airport runway destruction in the dead of night.
The max fine the FAA could assess to Daley was a $33,000. fine, which taxpayers paid for.
Whenever there were trade shows at McCormick, the airport would be packed with corporate aircraft.
After Daley bulldozed Meigs, corporations boycotted McCormick and took their trade shows and conventions to Las Vegas.
Daley couldn’t care less.
Maggie Daley wanted petunias planted everywhere and the Mayor gladly accommodated her.