Meigs Field closed~~Crews dig up runway in middle of the night

ABC 7 Chicago ^ | 03/31/03 | Paul Meincke and Andy Shaw

[cherry_bomb88]

March 31, 2003 — Meigs Field is now out of service after the city cut into its runway. According to the city and the FAA, Mayor Daley has the authority to close Meigs, but many want to know why he chose to do it now-and in the middle of the night.

Very few people knew what was about to happen when the heavy equipment rolled into Meigs Field Sunday night at about 11:30. The FAA wasn't even informed until 2 a.m. Monday, well after the hired crews had started carving four X's into Meigs runway.

"I still can't believe it happened. It's pretty upsetting, to say the least," said Dr. George Shehl, a cardiologist from West Virginia in town for a convention. Nobody told him the runway was being destroyed. Shehl's plane is one of 16 now sitting at an airport that no longer has a working runway.

"The closure at Meigs reduces the risk and perception of risk at Meigs. It makes Chicago a safer city and makes us feel like a safer city," said Mayor Richard Daley.

The mayor today said his decision to close Meigs was based on security considerations even though there have been no specific threats, and as recently as ten days ago, he said there were no plans to close Meigs. He acknowledged that he wants to turn Meigs into a park, but offered no plan or timetable, and he defended his decision to move under cover of darkness, repeatedly calling it appropriate.

"I am not willing to wait for a tragedy as some have asked me to do, to happen before making a very difficult and tough decision," said Daley.

"What happened today was vandalism. And if mayor daley was a student in his schools he thinks he is improving, he would be seeing the principal," said Rachel Goodstein, friends of Meigs Field.

The group Friends of Meigs and other general aviation pilots are infuriated by what they call the Mayor's storm trooper tactics in destroying what they believe is an irreplaceable asset.

"This is a question of taking away a city asset that people, that the people of Chicago have invested tens of millions of dollars in and throwing it away," said Steve Whitney, Friends of Meigs.

The FAA says it's "concerned" by the mayor's action that it will put more pressure on O'Hare and Midway airports. The Air Traffic Controllers union calls it a stealth maneuver that's a major step backwards for Chicago and the epitome of arrogance. George Shehl and 15 others want their planes back.

"This is completely unprecedented in the history of general aviation in this country. This was a last possible thing I thought would happen. Now I'm concerned about my airplane," said Shehl.

The plan is to allow those 16 planes to take off using the 3,000 foot long taxiway here at Meigs. While that is possible, but it is subject to FAA approval and that could come in the next couple days. The Friends of Meigs say that they are exploring legal possibilities, but when you look at a pile of asphalt it makes that extremely difficult.

Before the bulldozers: the long debate over Meigs Field Andy Shaw

The mayor's unusual move at Meigs comes after years of political debate over the airport on the lake. His decision to shut down the airport now was apparently born of frustration that Federal Aviation Administration officials ignored his safety concerns for months before temporarily making downtown Chicago a "no-fly zone" two weeks ago-- even though New York, Washington D.C., and Disney theme parks have been off-limits to flyovers since 9-11.

"I think just the whole debate about the flight restrictions, temporary flight restriction and how hard it was to get as compared to Mickey and Minnie getting it," said Mayor Richard Daley.

As for the controversial decision to shut down the lakefront airstrip late last night without an announcement, Daley wanted to render Meigs unusable before anyone could file lawsuit to stop him.

"We made the decision and did it for public safety," said Daley.

"I think it is ironic we are fighting a war in Iraq to fight a man who does whatever he wants to do in his country and we have a mayor who is doing the same thing," said Barbara Whitney, Friends of Meigs.

"I support the security part but doing it in such a way, I don't support that," said Albert Su, Chicago resident.

Daley's tactics may offend some people, but he got nearly 80 percent of the vote in last month's election and most city residents don't care about Meigs.

"Does it matter to a Chicagoan? Not really, I never used it," said Sarah Moore.

The Blagojevich administration is solidly behind the mayor. Even though Daley didn't tell the governor or Lt. Governor Pat Quinn about it until this morning.

"With respect to Mayor Daley, he has good common sense and I think we can place a great deal of reliance on his good judgment," said Lt. Governor Pat Quinn

"This is a pure and simple land grab and he is hiding behind homeland security to try to make it happen," said Steve Whitney, Friends of Meigs.

Daley defends decision to close Meigs Statement made from City Hall

As most of you know by now, we have closed Meigs field. We have done this to protect the millions of people who live, work, and visit our downtown Chicago in these very uncertain times. Nine days ago, as you know, we announced that the FAA and the Homeland Security Department had approved our requests for a temporary flight restriction over the greater downtown area. We are grateful to those agencies for approving the restriction, but it's simply not enough to insure an appropriate level of safety and security to the people of Chicago.

First of all, a temporary flight restriction is just that-temporary. It could be lifted at any time without the approval of the mayor, the city council, the people of Chicago.

More important, it does not address the problem that occurs every day as the aircraft approaches Meigs Field within a few hundred yards and only a few seconds flight time of our tallest buildings. And not just our tallest buildings, but hundreds of thousands of people not only at the Taste of Chicago and the Grant Park concerts, the Museum Park, Navy Pier, Water Filtration Plant, will be using the beaches and visiting our museums.

Those airplanes appear to be going to Meigs, but within sudden turn, they could cause a terrible tragedy downtown on our crowded parks. That scares me. It scares people who live, who work, and visit our downtown. And who use our parks and work every day here in the city of Chicago. They should not have to wonder whether the airplane that appears to be headed for Meigs might have other intentions.

There is very little the city can do to reduce the risk of an attack by an aircraft. We have no control over airplanes in the air. We had to fight for months just to get the temporary flight restriction, months and years as well. But we can control whether we have a city airport that's a few seconds away from the heaviest concentration of people in buildings in North America.

The closure of Meigs reduces the risk and perception of risk at Meigs. It makes Chicago a safer city and makes us feel like a safer city.

Why did we act so quickly? Because the fears exist right now. To do this any other way would have been needlessly contentious and jeopardize public safety, prolonged anxiety among Chicagoans for months and year.

The groups that want to keep Meigs open are certain to be unhappy with the decision. I understand the concern, but public safety must come first and foremost here in the city of Chicago. The private aircraft that have been using Meigs will find plenty of space at other regional airports and there are. Yes, it will be less convenient for them, but the safety of the entire city had to take precedent over the wishes of a relative handful of private pilots and businesspeople.

As for 16 small planes currently parked at Meigs, we're awaiting word from FAA as to whether it will allow them to take off on the runway. Regardless of the FAA decision, I want to assure the owners of the aircraft the city will reimburse them for the expenses of removing the planes from Meigs.

Some of you may be wondering how the city can afford to close Meigs. In fact, Meigs has been subsidized to the tune of $3 to $4 million by the airlines and customers using O'Hare International Airport. Closing Meigs will provide welcome financial relief to our cash-strapped airlines.

Finally, to anticipate what I know will be a question, yes, I do want a park at Meigs Field. Yes, I am fully aware that many of you will likely question for months to come the motive for closing the airport. The reason we closed the airport now is a fear shared by the Park District, emergency management specialists, and myself about all those airplanes coming so close to so many people in the downtown area.

While there have been no specific threat, let me repeat -- there has been no specific threats-- as mayor of the city of Chicago, public safety is one of the primary responsibilities. I take it very seriously. I am not willing to wait for a tragedy as some have asked me to do, to happen before making a very difficult and tough decision.

Thank you very much.

FAA concerned about Meigs closing

Federal aviation officials say they were concerned to learn this morning that Meigs Field was shut down because removing any centrally located airport, such as Meigs, puts added pressure on Chicago's O'Hare International and Midway airports.

FAA Great Lakes region spokesman Tony Molinaro says the city can close Meigs because it is an "unobligated airport," which means the city has paid back all the federal money that was given to it for the airport.

Spokeswoman says governor didn't know about Meigs closing

A spokeswoman for Governor Rod Blagojevich says they didn't know about the Meigs Field closing ahead of time. But spokeswoman Cheryle Jackson says they weren't surprised either.

She says Blagojevich found out about the closing this morning from Illinois Department of Transportation staff.

Jackson says Blagojevich supports closing Meigs because of the security concerns of having a landing strip downtown.

Jackson called Meigs a convenience and a luxury that current security issues no longer allow.

She says the governor used Meigs to fly back and forth to Springfield, but now will use Midway.

[Protagoras]

DALEY WITH SADDAM'S WIFE AT A RECENT POLITICAL CONFERENCE

[Flyer]

Good to see you again. Have you visited our local forum yet? We do a lot of idle chat, but it's a great place to hang out with the locals and keep up with our activities.

Houston Chapter Forum

[eBelasco]

Meigs is the default airport in FlightSimulator. Has been for years.

[JustPiper]

I had to comment on this. I know local politics very well, have lived here for 50 years, involved here politically for 40. Blago, who was my alderman, related to Mel, a family friend on the donkey side, are 'all' tied into Richie. Jr. would never have dared done this until Blago was elected governor, then voila Meigs is vandalized. tis' the history of the city. Why it is called Chicago and not Daley Metropolis is the only shock of this to me!

[cherry_bomb88]

I just have one thing to say...............

img src="http://www.dribbleglass.com/images/billboards/anti-defamation.jpg">

[cherry_bomb88]

I just have one thing to say...............

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

[supercat]

Why it is called Chicago and not Daley Metropolis is the only shock of this to me!

And why don't the license plates say "America's Daleyland"?

[supercat]

That premise is alright as long as the pilots obey the restrictions. What happens if a terrorist takes the plane right into downtown? Not much time to stop him from doing his dirty deed. Not that I'm defending Daley by any means.

For single-engine aircraft that don't want to go beyond gliding distance of shore, the coast of Lake Michigan represents a major flight corridor. Meigs Field or no, there will be many aircraft which have good reason to fly near the city. Even if the lake shore flight corridor were closed down (unlikely) it wouldn't take long for a plane apparently headed to Midway to change course for some terrorist action.

Of course, I don't think the airplanes that used Meigs Field would have posed much of a threat to the Sears Tower anyway, but that's another story.

[JustPiper]

And why don't the license plates say "America's Daleyland"?

Chuckling, thats good!!!

[JustPiper]

Except here its the Irish mafia....kinda like Gangs of Chi Town ;)

[unspun]

Casino, did you say, TRG? Casino? Casino? "I'm shocked! - shocked that there would be a casino in Daley's plans!" To all concerned: "stay tuned." Look into the Illinois forum for announcements regarding the Friends of Meigs and a certain rally...!
http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/profiles?location=61

...no ...really ...a casino?

Good for you, John Kass.
____________________________________________________________
John Kass
Daley's abuse of power leaves marks on city

Published April 2, 2003

I've been trying to figure out Chicago's outrage over what Mayor Richard Daley did to Meigs Field, after he sent bulldozers at night to ruin the nice little lakefront airport.

And I started out to joke about how the savaging of a tiny airport upset so many. But then I realized that Mayor Little Big Man's destruction of Meigs isn't funny.

Yet his carving of the large ugly X's into the landing strip, his arrogance in brushing off questions, has accomplished something remarkable. He crystallized things for Chicago.

This is not a complicated story of insider deals, of contracts, connections, of documented paper trails.

Rather, it is simple, with photographs, something TV is interested in watching: the destruction of a valuable resource simply because it was in Daley's way, and because he knew no one could stop him.

Little Big Man finally revealed himself as the absolute boss ruling Chicago and Cook County with wrought-iron fists.

Most readers, and a few of his newfound critics, are bothered that he destroyed the airport at night. They're aggravated that he'd use a pathetic story--protecting Chicago from tiny-plane terrorism--as cover for vandalizing Meigs, which he has wanted to do for years.

Will it be another $500 million park--the bond financing arranged by the influential bond seller Tony Fratto, finally costing a billion in real money?

Or will it become a casino?

One thing it's not anymore is an airport. It was chopped up before the Friends of Meigs Field could get to a judge. But Daley is the one who elects judges.

Compared to other things he's done, Meigs is chump change, almost insignificant in dollars and in the exercise of power.

The other things weren't done at night. They were done during broad daylight, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of deals paid for by taxpayers.

The wrought iron from his pals, the concrete flower boxes, the asphalt, the gargantuan salt contracts, the salt spread so heavily each night in winter that city crews had to sweep the pasty choking stuff off the Loop streets in the morning.

The French bus shelter deal went through, with his allies on the CTA board attached. When Michigan Avenue merchants balked, they were threatened with blackmail by CTA boss "Honest" Frank Kruesi--their names and businesses were to be plastered on buses.

Or that goofy $600 million Soldier Field renovation--which squats rudely on the lakefront like a fat man trying to squeeze into a pair of tiny shorts.

Or the ridiculously expensive lakefront Millennium Park (Fratto's Field), the phony government minority contracts diverted instead to pink guys with Outfit connections, the car towing deals and so on.

Meanwhile, Daley's brothers get rich on zoning work and the political selling of insurance, and he sneers at those who dare question him.

Few do. Unfortunately, too many Chicago journalists, once considered tough, don't like to aggravate him with questions he doesn't want to answer.

What passes for TV news in Chicago isn't interested in covering politics like it once did. TV often ignores this newspaper's investigative reporting on City Hall and the gutsy editorials on the editorial page about political sleaze and costly layered deals of high-ranking cronies.

On Tuesday, though, even the once feisty Chicago Sun-Times, the Pravda of political Chicago, thought Daley had gone too far.

"Meigs maneuvers land Daley where critics want him," the newspaper headlined its editorial, apparently worried that he had clumsily exposed himself to some evil critic, whoever he is.

By using the awesome leverage of his control over local governments and the courts, by stoking public contracts and subsequent campaign donations to intimidate and buy off his opposition, he's the one boss.

He has co-opted not only the usual political hacks but, shrewdly, has also scooped up the once independent arts community, using organized subsidies, new theaters, grants for dancers, actors, artists, poets.

He has Jesse "The King of Beers" Jackson protecting his flank among blacks. His army of Latino patronage workers, the Hispanic Democratic Organization, weakens Spanish-speaking opposition.

And he remains white in the city of tribes.

Except for some of my colleagues at this newspaper, there is no real challenge to the manner in which he whips Chicago in line, with muscle and with fear.

If you don't believe the fear, ask any tavern owner or shopkeeper, cop, firefighter or city worker. Listen to the trembling voices of corporate business leaders when they're questioned about Meigs. They're terrified of angering him.

Yet for all of that, it has been his destruction of Meigs Field that has distilled one idea in many:

That Cook County and the people in it are his, that Daley can break his toys and leave them strewn on the ground, simply because he can.

jskass@tribune.com

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the information and the heads up!

[Copernicus]

Has anyone told Neal Boortz?

He is going to pop a gasket when he hears about this.

[TheRightGuy]

Casino, did you say, TRG? Casino? Casino?

Last spring, shortly before the primary election Pat O'Malley was a guest at a "meet your candidates breakfast" dog and pony show sponsored by Maine Twp. GOP Women. Pat agreed to arrive about half an hour early and meet persoanlly with about half a dozen of us who were working on his campaign, including a couple of "heavy hitters" from Park Ridge.

Most of the talk centered around O'Hare expansion deal GRyan cut with Daley, a very sensitive issue, especially with the Park Ridge bunch. At one point Pat threw back his head and said, "you guys really don't know what all this is about do you??" And we all went, "yeah, er maybe, er no?"

At that point Pat went on to expalin, "the inside deal is done." He said the terms were O'Hare gets expanded, a token Peotone gets underway, Meigs closes, and Daley gets a casino on the site. I tend to believe in Pat O'Malley. I guess he could be a little misguided on this issue, which I doubt, but I don't doubt his honesty.

[Musket]

Thanks for the heads up. Kass is great. He and Don Wade are about the only media people worth a damnned in this corrupt city. There will be a casino on Meigs- you can bet on that.

The frightening thing over the past couple days are the Libs that really don't have a problem with what the mayor did. Half seem to be disturbed by it, but half are not. Can you imagine what would happen if a Republican did such a thing?

[KeyLargo]

Meigs Airport - Opinion
By Mark Huber

March 31, 2003ÑThe brass-knuckle mayor of Chicago, Richard M. Daley, committed a midnight act of airport vandalism, sending bulldozers to rip up the asphalt at Chicago's historic lakefront GA airport, Meigs Field. While Daley can temporarily savor his sneak victory, the consequences of his backhoe penmanship will endure for decades and ripple throughout the nation's air transportation system.

The Mayor has long sought to convert Meigs to parkland. Never mind that Chicago can't properly maintain its current sprawling park acreage. Never mind that Daley tried to use keeping Meigs open as a bargaining chip to block construction of a third Chicago airport at Peotone, secure a multi-billion dollar funding package to renovate O'Hare (His Honor's fabled and now iced "World Gateway" program), and even as bait for legalized casino gambling in the city. Under the real politik cover of a Democratic Illinois governor and the hyperbole of national security, Daley ordered the bulldozers in before Letterman could finish his Top Ten list.

The aviation alphabets immediately fired back with faxes and bombast, about as useful as a hapless Iraqi challenging an American M-1 tank with flintlock. What will be more entertaining are the motions being filed by lawyers for the angry owners of 16 aircraft stranded by Daley's urban renewal gambit. Or perhaps the site of the Mayor being hauled off by federal marshals for blatantly violating the FARs relating to airport closures. Don't hold your breath.

No. When the dust settles, the real loser is O'Hare International Airport, Chicago's beleaguered economic engine, home to the nation's largest bankrupt airline and perhaps also the nation's second largest bankrupt airline. O'Hare needs help. Now. With the exception of United's terminal, O'Hare's concourses are a serious embarrassment. Its tangle of intersecting runways, penalty boxes, and undersized taxiways were poured long before the country became an IFR world and regional jets made the scene. Throw limited visibility and a little precipitation into the mix and air traffic at O'Hare backs up worse than a tenement toilet, fouling airline schedules on both coasts. The mess that is O'Hare drove Delta to develop its megahub at Cincinnati and encouraged Northwest to twin hub out of Detroit and Minneapolis. It is why many residents of Chicago's northern suburbs fly from Milwaukee. O'Hare needs the kind of help only the federal government can provide.

If you believe the Mayor's national security shtick, you probably think that closing LaGuardia would have prevented 9-11. But in deciding to dig Meigs, Daley also cited a "handshake" deal with former Illinois Republican Governor George Ryan gone bad. (Imagine that.) The "deal" was that Chicago would keep Meigs open for 25 years if Ryan would convince Congress to fund Daley's grand vision for O'Hare. This was either incredible na•ve or savvy, depending on your party affiliation. Suffice to say that Governor Ryan was a lame duck and a grand jury magnate. This makes for something less than effective leverage with a higher branch of government. And there was another little political problem. The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Hon. Dennis Hastert, represents Chicago's western suburbs, where voters moved in next to O'Hare, then complained about the noise. Take these factors, the federal budget deficit, the fact that the two carriers who handle 80 percent of O'Hare's capacity are or could face bankruptcy, and you get a reluctant Congress.

But negotiations over the O'Hare-Meigs nexus were continuing in Washington until the backhoes rolled. Many federal lawmakers view Daley's move at best in bad faith, at worst as betrayal. Delaying or perhaps killing O'Hare modernization could be the payback. With billions at stake, it makes plowing Meigs potentially a very expensive decision.

[aruanan]

Or perhaps the site of the Mayor being hauled off by federal marshals for blatantly violating the FARs relating to airport closures. Don't hold your breath.

The author can spell "beleaguered" but not "sight". This is why automatic spell checking is such a bad thing.

[OperationFreedom]

Please take note of this excellant post.

[spintreebob]

You only named a few of the MANY airports in the area.
Schaumburg welcomes them.