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VOICE OF THE PEOPLE (LETTER)
Meigs decision harms city-business relationship
Lester Crown, Chairman, Task Force on Aviation;
R. Eden
Martin, President, Civic Committee
Chicago Tribune
Published April 3, 2003
Chicago --
The Civic Committee and its Task Force on Aviation are deeply
disappointed by the decision of Mayor Richard Daley to tear up Meigs Field.
Meigs has played an important role in Chicago's economy by allowing easy access
by visitors to McCormick Place and to business offices in or adjacent to the
downtown area.
On Dec. 5, 2001, Daley and then-Gov. George Ryan reached an
agreement with respect to key elements of a plan to protect the aviation future
of northern Illinois. The business community had been working for such an
agreement for years.
The agreement included the expansion and reconfiguration of runways at O'Hare
International Airport, seeking federal funds for construction of a new airport
in Peotone.
It also provided that Meigs Field would remain open until Jan. 1, 2026. (It
could be closed after Jan. 1, 2006, if the General Assembly so decided.)
Daley now asserts that there was "no agreement whatsoever." But there clearly
was an agreement between Daley and Ryan on the key points, including
preservation of Meigs.
The mayor and the governor also agreed--with the support of the business
community--to seek a federal law assuring that the Daley-Ryan agreement could
not be reversed by a future governor or legislature. The aviation pact, however,
did not include a proviso that if Congress failed to enact such a law, either
party could abandon the agreement.
In any event, it is widely conceded that legislation of the kind sought by the
mayor could now be obtained in Springfield.
Daley suggests that his action in tearing up Meigs Field is justified by
security considerations. He is certainly correct to be concerned about security.
For that reason, the mayor recently obtained from the Federal Aviation
Administration a temporary flight restriction area over downtown Chicago. That,
however, permits normal flight operations along the lakefront and around Meigs
Field. Either the city did not ask for a broader restriction, which would
include Meigs Field, or, if it did, the FAA and the Department of Homeland
Security did not deem it necessary to bar flights in and out of Meigs.
But even if one were to conclude that the present security situation required
cessation of flights in and out of Meigs, the proper remedy would be to close
Meigs for the duration of the security problem--not to tear up the runways to
render them permanently useless.
Whether or not the Chicago-Illinois agreement to assure Chicago's aviation
future is a binding contract, enforceable in court, is not the point. The mayor
and the governor entered into this agreement on the entire package--including
Meigs--because they believed it was essential to protect the region's aviation
future. They were right--and that is what makes the mayor's decision now all the
more disappointing.
Chicago is a great city in part because of the history of collaboration between
the city's political leadership and the business community. The mayor's
unilateral action in closing Meigs does severe harm to that relationship.
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