Meigs Field News Archive:

Daley won approximately 71% of the votes cast, but turnout was only about a third of the city's 1.4 million voters, meaning that he received less than 1/4 of the potential votes in the city.

Many argue that Daley wins election not on election night, but in the months before, when he effectively prevents other viable candidates from running, thus assuring himself of no real competition.

On June 22, Bill Dock Walls, president of the Committee for a Better Chicago, was interviewed on local public television station WTTW's Chicago Tonight program by host Phil Ponce.

Well, it took a long time to get the video (and a $50 payment, too!) but it's here.  Listen to Mr. Walls' reply to Mr. Ponce's first question, about reopening Meigs Field as his first act as Mayor of Chicago:

"That was the day that democracy died..."

We are sad to report that a good Friend of Meigs Field has passed away.

Ed Lowenstern, known to most under his pen name, Ed Lowe, has written many columns supportive of Meigs, the Friends of Meigs Field, and critical of plans and actions to close the airport.  He wrote for a number of years for the River North News, before taking his talents to Inside Publications.  He also wrote for many other local and national publications.

We will miss Ed a lot.

The  Chicago Sun-Times, (9/18/06) reports that--after two years of legal wrangling and hundreds of thousands in legal bills--the City of Chicago has caved in and agreed to pay the maximum fine allowed by law for failure to give proper public notice of the closure of Meigs Field.

More significantly, the City will be forced to repay $1 million that it misspent from federal Airport Improvement Program (AIP) funds to pay for the demolition and development of a park.  A settlement agreement with the FAA is said to end over three years of legal wrangling since the complaint was first registered with the FAA by the national Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

"This vindicates what we've said from the start," said Steve Whitney, president of the Friends of Meigs Field, a 6,800-member national organization.  "Daley's action was illegal, and he's sticking the taxpayers with the bill."

"The closure of Meigs Field put the traveling public at risk," continued Whitney.  "The morning of the demolition, aircraft were inbound to Meigs Field.  If someone had been low on fuel, it could have been a tragedy."

The Emergency that wasn't

The City of Chicago closed Meigs Field in a midnight demolition raid on the night of March 30-31, 2003.  At the time, Mayor Daley said it was because of an "emergency" due to unnamed "terrorist threats."  The claim of an "emergency" was necessary in order to use a loophole in the Federal Aviation Regulations that allows an unannounced airport closure in case of an emergency.

The situation was clearly not an emergency. 

Had an emergency existed, the City had far less drastic means available--for instance parking vehicles on the Meigs runway--in response, while giving the FAA its earliest possible notice.

Reports from employees at the airport indicated that City officials had been tracking aircraft left overnight at Meigs for up to two weeks prior to the raid, apparently in order to ensure that all aircraft trapped by the action could take off on the taxiway (which was purposely left undamaged.)  If true, this means that the City could have given at least that much notice to the feds.

Instead, the true purpose of the secret action was to bypass fair and open public debate of the closure and to ensure that airport supporters (a majority by all polls taken at the time) had no voice, a goal Daley admitted freely.

Fortunately, the federal administrative law judge assigned to the Meigs closure case saw through this sham and denied the City's motion to dismiss the FAA's suit.

Delaying and obscuring

Once the City lost its motion to dismiss on February 17, the only tactic available to city lawyers was to delay and obscure the truth. 

With the denial of the motion to dismiss, Judge Ronnie Yoder set a schedule for the "discovery" process, including requiring the City and Mayor Daley to answer interrogatories (written questions.)  As devoted readers will recall, the City has time and again done its best to avoid giving specific answers to questions about the who, what, when, where and why of the Meigs demolition.

Once again, the City tap danced and delayed, requesting a series of continuances and delays, the latest being granted in late August until late in September.  Now suddenly, with the latest deadline upon us, the City has decided to "cut its losses", just in time to avoid having to answer the hard questions.

Deal may let Daley hide in election year

Although details of the settlement agreement between the City and the FAA are not public yet, it appears as if the deal will let Daley personally off the hook once again, this time just in time for the upcoming mayoral election season.

City Hall observers expect City to adopt the position of "we are putting this issue behind us", hoping that voters and taxpayers won't recall how their money was wasted by the time election day comes in February.

"If this lets Daley off without answering the important questions, voters should be outraged," said Whitney.

Squandered city funds a "drop in the bucket"

The total taxpayer funds that have been squandered in the debacle thus far are over $1.5 million, and will likely never be completely known.  Besides the $33,000 fine and $1 million in repaid misspent funds, the City's legal bills through June 26 were nearly $550,000, according to an article in Crain's.  More legal bills have been racked up since, but that isn't all.

"This is a drop in the bucket, compared to what Chicago has lost," said Whitney.  "A downtown business airport like Meigs is worth its weight in gold to the economy."

Friends of Meigs Field have documented over $490 million in annual spending by Meigs users prior to its demolition.

"The economic losses are staggering," said Whitney.  "Not only from the loss of business by Meigs users, but also by the additional delays caused by displaced traffic at O'Hare and Midway."

Wasting $100 million, Parks and Planes

Moreover, the City and Chicago Park District continue to ignore proposals such as the one by Friends of Meigs Field that could bring as much as $100 million or more to the Chicago Park District for parks across the city.

"Our proposal for a combination park/airport/air museum is one possibility," said Whitney.  "Others may be feasible as well.  The key is to capitalize on Meigs as an airport to benefit both aviation and Chicago parks."

Chicago Tribune editorial:

"We do know that the taxpayers' costs for the midnight raid on Meigs Field keep rising, thanks to a mayor's belief that he can do whatever he wants."

Chicago has paid more than $500,000 in legal fees to battle the Federal Aviation Administration over the March 2003 closing of the airport at Northerly Island, according to figures provided by the city.

The city is challenging a $33,000 fine for shutting down Meigs without giving the FAA a required 30-day notice. And lawyers on the city's clock are preparing to fight the FAA on another front: The agency is investigating whether Chicago improperly used $2.9 million in airport development funds to close Meigs. The FAA could fine the city up to $8.7 million if it finds the development funds were misused.

Bottom line: The mayor's surprise decision to bulldoze the airport's runway while most people were asleep already has cost the city millions of dollars, and the tab could top $10 million.

The mayor told only a handful of people about his decision to close Meigs before sending a demolition crew to carve six giant X marks on the runway. Daley said he ordered the airport closed because terrorists could use it to launch a small plane attack on downtown. Few people bought that explanation.

The city eventually prevailed against lawsuits that sought to keep Meigs open. But the city's battles with the FAA have continued.

Looking forward at the FAA's cases against the City of Chicago, the more advanced case is the fine for not giving proper notice of the airport closure.  FAA rules require at least 30 days' notice for safety purposes as well as to analyze and advise on the adverse effects of airport closures.

(In fact, on the morning of March 31, 2003, at least one charter aircraft was IN THE AIR enroute to Meigs when the news became public.  If that aircraft had been low on fuel, it could have resulted in tragedy.)

On February 17, Judge Ronnie A. Yoder stood up for honesty and openness, and denied the City of Chicago's motion to dismiss the case against it.  That means that now things get interesting.

After some procedural delays, the next step will be for the City of Chicago to provide answers to the FAA's first round of "interrogatories" (written questions).  [In fact, Daley's lawyers were scheduled to do so by last Friday, June 23, but the answers are not yet posted on the DOT's docket website.] 

If the City doesn't continue to obfuscate, we will shortly learn the answers to questions like:

Murder at Meigs Field

The show is an audience-participation event that tells the story of fictional (remember, it's ONLY FICTION) Mayor Warren J. Weekly (not Monthly, and certainly not Daily), his chief of staff G. Gordon Piddley, and a host of others as they debate the future of Meigs Field.

Performance details:
What:  Murder at Meigs Field
Where:  The Tavern Club, 333 N. Michigan Ave.
When:  Friday and Saturday, June 30, July 1, July 7, and July 8

For more info:

http://murdersrus.com/tavern.html
http://thetavernclub.com/murder_at_meigs_field.html

Listing in this week's Crain's Chicago Business Things to Do:
http://chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=21146
 

The City of Chicago continues to waste money defending the indefensible, while the taxpayers foot the bill.

According to Crain's Chicago Business this week, the City of Chicago has already spent over half a million taxpayer dollars on legal bills trying to defend its actions before the FAA.  In one of the two cases, the legal bills are approaching seven times the maximum penalty allowed by law.

As reported by the Friends of Meigs Field in March, the City has hired high-powered (read: high-priced) Washington lawyers--including a former Chicago city lawyer--to fight the FAA's fines for improperly closing Meigs in 2003.  The legal bills are mounting, with no end in sight.

There are two distinct issues the City is facing.  First, in the fall of 2005, the FAA finally determined that Mayor Daley and the City of Chicago did indeed violate the Federal Aviation Regulation pertaining to closure of airports like Meigs.  The rules require at least 30 days' notice of closing of an airport with a published instrument approach.  At that time, the maximum fine was $1,000 per day, thought enough to prevent municipalities from such rash actions.  In the wake of the Meigs Massacre, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association pushed for new legislation (termed the "Meigs Act") that raised the penalty by a factor of ten.  Congress eventually passed this provision.

In the meantime, the City has fought tooth-and-nail against the fine, asking for a hearing before an administrative law judge (R. Yoder), and filing for a dismissal of the case.  Earlier this spring, judge Yoder saw through the City's smokescreen and rhetoric and ordered the trial to proceed.

Using information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, Crain's Washington correspondent Paul Merrion obtained records that show that the City has already spent in excess of $200,000 fighting a $30,000 fine, and the case hasn't even gone to trial yet.  As Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation--a Chicago-based good government advocacy group--was quoted in the article:

"It may be time for the city to re-evaluate this strategy."

At the same time, the FAA is continuing its investigation into the question whether the City has illegally diverted federally-restricted airport revenues to demolish Meigs.  Originally thought to be about $1.5 million, City filings eventually admitted to over $2.8 million in spending.  If the FAA finds against the City, fines could be triple the amount, or almost $9 million.  Legal fees in this case, which haven't even passed the investigation phase yet, total over $300,000.

Chicago city taxpayers are paying for this.

On Thursday, June 22, Chicago mayoral candidate Bill "Dock" Walls appeared on the local Chicago public television station and said: 

"My first act as mayor will be to reopen Meigs Field."

When pressed on why Meigs would top his agenda, Walls replied,

"Because that was the night democracy died in Chicago."

Walls is an advocate of open and inclusive government in Chicago, and has the background to match.  He was a member of the staff of former Chicago mayor Harold Washington, who was known as a reformer in the city before his death in office.

More info:
Chicago Tonight website: http://www.wttw.com/main.taf?
p=1,4,4,1&Date=06%2F18%2F2006
Walls for Mayor website: http://wallsformayor.com/
Background information on candidate Walls: http://sites.webmanaged.com/folder3206/
listing/Bill_Walls_fact_sheet__2.pdf

London, England's own "Meigs Field", London City Airport (LCY) built on waterfront property and nearly as compact as Meigs.

"I learned that, last month, Airbus and London City Airport tested the Airbus A318 at that length-restricted airport.

"This would be the largest aircraft to use the airport if approved -- although the Avro RJ series that currently operates at LCY is close. Since the Avro RJ is out of production the authorities at LCY are looking for another, currently produced aircraft to take its place in order to assure long term jet airliner viability for the airport.

"LCY bears lots of similarities with Meigs Field."

The fact is that London has been following a vision for the future, while Chicago has been squandering a similar opportunity.  Originally shorter than Meigs' runway, LCY has been lengthened via landfill, and is now a whopping 4,327 feet long (only 428 feet longer than Meigs.)  It operates with similar weather and obstructions, and manages to serve many European destinations with commercial service, easily accessible from downtown London.  It served just shy of 2 million passengers in 2005.

The news that LCY has recently successfully tested the Airbus 318 emphasizes the potential of a city-center airport like Meigs in serving regional transportation needs not just for pilots and corporate aircraft, but for the general public.

Oh for some decent leadership in Chicago...

Bill "Dock" Walls, former staffer for Mayor Harold Washington, and president of the Committee for a Better Chicago, will announce his mayoral candidacy this Sunday.

Mr. Walls is a strong supporter of a reopened Meigs Field, and a campaigner for honest and open government.

The Committee for a Better Chicago is a coalition of organizations dedicated to improving city government in Chicago.  The CFABC was formed in 2004, and at its inaugural press conference took on the issue of the midnight destruction of Meigs Field. 

At the time, Mr. Walls was quoted as saying:

"When Mayor Daley claimed “public safety” was his reason for carving up the public’s property and claimed, “if Mickey and Minnie can have a No Fly Zone, then Chicago should too” – well it seems he was portraying Pinocchio at the time. He lied…again and again. And then, after the runways were destroyed and there was nothing anyone could do about it, he admitted he lied.

"Well, we can do something about it, and we’re here to endorse and offer up a plan submitted by the Friends of Meigs Field that will pay for restoring the airport, provide needed revenue to the Chicago Park District, and give the citizens of Chicago another downtown park that we can afford – the Bessie Coleman Skypark."

Lt. Col. William R. Thompson, one of the very first Tuskegee Airmen, passed away.  He was 90.

Bill Thompson was one of the staunchest supporters of Meigs Field, Chicago's famed lakefront airport.  He was an active supporter of the EAA Young Eagles program at Meigs, an experienced pilot, and a mentor, willing to help anyone with an interest in aviation.

He had a wonderful sense of humor, and a strong sense of honor.  Bill was an amateur historian, dedicated to spreading the word of the Tuskegee Airmen, and making sure the stories were told accurately.

Bill also was unafraid to take a stand against injustice and ignorance.

We will miss him.  A lot.

Since Meigs' midnight demolition, the rescue squad has been relocated 9 miles and many long travel minutes farther south, on the Illinois/Indiana border at the lakefront.

In the time-critical world of search and rescue, mere minutes often translate into lives saved or lost.  As one member of the Fire Department rescue squad, who wishes to remain anonymous, said:

"They have turned us from a rescue squad into a body recovery squad."

And the Mayor's reason Meigs was closed was for "public safety"???  How many lives will it cost before reason prevails?

Chicago Tribune story:

Man dies trying to rescue dog

Chicagoan drowns in Lake Michigan

By Tonya Maxwell and Andrew L. Wang
Tribune staff reporters
Published April 17, 2006

After Easter breakfast with his wife, Richard Looey headed out for fresh air with two of his boxers, Ringo and Daisy.

Looey told his wife he planned to take a long walk along the lakefront and slipped a camera into his pocket. He liked to snap pictures of the dogs on special days.

About two hours later, police arrived at the couple's Northwest Side home and told his wife, Maria, that her husband of 25 years was dead.

He tried to rescue a dog that had either fallen or jumped into the lake, authorities said.

About 9:20 a.m., rescuers responded to a call about a man shouting for help from the lake, just offshore in the 4300 block of North Lake Shore Drive, Officer Kristina Schuler said.

When a Fire Department helicopter arrived minutes later, the man was underwater and nowhere to be seen, said Larry Langford, a spokesman for the department.

Rescue divers were sent into the lake and brought the man to land about two minutes later. He was taken to Weiss Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 10:15 a.m.

A spokesman for the Cook County medical examiner identified him as Baba Looey, 57.

The odd-sounding name was a nod to his sense of humor, Maria Looey said. Her husband had legally changed it because his given name, Richard Bogulewski, left so many tongue-tied, she said.

He owned a tool and die business, could pilot a plane and was curious about the world, she said.

"He was very creative. He could make everything from anything," she said. "And he loved his animals."

The couple didn't have children, and they cherished the dogs, she said.

Twice in the past several years, the Looeys' dogs have had litters of puppies. One was adopted by Jennifer Crane of Wilmette, who quickly saw their love for the animals.

"There's no question in my mind that he would have had no other thought than to go in after dogs," she said.

Friends of Meigs Mark 3rd Anniversary of Midnight Massacre

Park plans stalled, air traffic forecasts soar

Chicago, IL – On Friday, March 31, volunteer pilots of the Friends of Meigs Field plan a memorial “missing man formation” flyover of the site of Meigs Field to mark the third anniversary of the illegal midnight destruction of the famed single-runway airport. Weather permitting, pilots will fly the length of the destroyed runway, with one aircraft breaking away in the time-honored symbol of a missing comrade.

The evening of March 30 marks the third anniversary of the Midnight Massacre at Meigs Field. On that night, the City of Chicago sent in bulldozers to carve up the runway, without notice, while over a dozen aircraft were trapped on the tarmac. Planes enroute to Meigs the following morning had to divert without notice to other airports.

The Federal Aviation Administration has found that the City of Chicago violated federal aviation regulations in closing Meigs without proper notice, and imposed the maximum fine allowed by law at the time, $33,000. (Immediately after the closure, Congress passed the Meigs Field Act, raising the fine tenfold to prevent a future recurrence anywhere else in the U.S.)

City Fighting – Legal Bills Likely Exceed Fine

The City of Chicago is opposing the FAA’s fine in court, a move which has likely already cost Chicago taxpayers more in legal bills than the fine itself. It is reported that the City has hired Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw, Pittman, LLC, a top-price Washington DC aviation law firm, to defend them in this action. Legal bills to date are unknown, but likely to exceed the $33,000 proposed fine.

Investigation into Misspent Funds Continues

The FAA also continues to investigate the possibility that the City of Chicago misspent over $2.8 million in restricted federal Airport Improvement Program funds. If true, the City would need to repay the money or face fines of up to triple the amount, or over $8 million.

Park Plans Delayed

According to a recent presentation by Chicago Park District Director of Planning Arnold Randall, the Park District is behind on its plans to redevelop Meigs Field into a nature preserve. In the spring of 2005, the Park District held a series of public “input” meetings in which a large number of Meigs supporters took part. At those meetings, Mr. Randall projected that initial plans would be available for public view in the fall of 2005. Yet here it is, three years since the demolition, with no plan in sight.

Reportedly, the Park District parted ways with its consultants on the project for undisclosed reasons. When questioned, Mr. Randall indicated that new consultants would likely not be hired until late spring or early summer, and that preliminary plans would not be made public until fall at the earliest.

“Not much has happened in the last three years as far as development at Meigs, and that is because the Park District does not have a plan nor the funds for a nature preserve,” said Josh Levy, spokesman for the Friends of Meigs Field.

“What you see at Meigs today is a concert pavilion and a bike path to nowhere. Outdoor concert venues are great for the city, and we should have more places to listen to live music. The concerts that are planned for Meigs this summer can easily be held in Grant Park, with just as much revenue for the Park District.”

Levy continued, “As of now, there is only one site downtown that can accommodate an airfield, and that is at Meigs Field”

Airport Congestion to Grow with VLJ’s—Meigs Would Help

According to a new study by NASA—cited in the March 28 issue of the Wall Street Journal—the introduction in 2006 of a new class of business aircraft, “Very Light Jets” or VLJ’s will add to congestion at many of the nation’s airports. Singled out for special concern were Las Vegas, Houston, and Chicago’s Midway airport. Projections indicate that as many as 355 additional flights of VLJ’s per day will be added to Midway’s jammed runways in coming years, maxing out the airport’s capacity. Without Meigs Field, there are no “reliever airports” in Chicago, leaving few palatable options to attract business aviation users to downtown.

“A re-opened Meigs would provide relief to Midway and O’Hare airports. VLJ’s are less expensive to purchase and operate, and they are faster and quieter than older general aviation jets. VLJ’s are designed to operate out of shorter fields, bringing users closer to city hubs. VLJ manufactures already have thousands of orders for their jets, so the demand is obviously there. The question is, will Chicago have a place for these jets to land?” asks Levy.

Proposal for Parks and Planes

The Friends of Meigs Field have developed an award-winning cooperative proposal for a combination park/airport/air museum on the Meigs site, paid for with federal aviation funds instead of local taxes.

Mr. Levy explained the Friends of Meigs Field plan called Parks and Planes:

“Our proposal would be just as much fun for the average Chicago family as another lakefront nature park,” said Levy. “It would be a great place to take your kids, to go fishing, biking, walking and enjoying the skyline.”

In the short run, the proposal would use the existing peninsula to: 1) replace the Meigs runway, 2) add 18-20 acres of parkland to the original site, and 3) build an aviation museum and education center. At the same time, federal funds of up to $100 million or more would become available to the Chicago Park district for park development across the city.

In the long run (10-20 years), an expanded footprint would accommodate both an improved airport and 100 acres of parkland or more, more than is currently available on the existing peninsula. Similar plans are already underway in Cleveland and other cities.

“People that we’ve talked to, both residents who are new to the South Loop and business travelers who use O’Hare and Midway, have encouraged us to continue our efforts to re-open Meigs. They see the clear advantages to having an airport downtown.”

Attention Meigs supporters:

For the past week, the Chicago Tribune has been running a series on "Chicago's 7 Blunders" (a follow up to an earlier series Chicago's 7 Wonders, get it?)

None of the options they picked were the midnight demolition of the "World's Coolest Little Airport" (Meigs Field), but today they are asking their web readers to vote, and write-ins are allowed.

Do your part...

Visit http://www.chicagotribune.com/blunders and enter your own vote.  Remember...it's Chicago! 

Vote early...vote often!

4/3/06:  The Results

Although Meigs wasn't an official choice on the poll, a running tally of the Tribune's poll indicated that Meigs Field most likely accounted for a substantial portion of the "Other" responses.

On April 3, the Tribune printed the results, including a section they termed "Blunders we forgot to mention":

Leading this section was Meigs Field:

"One of the biggest blunders in city history was Mayor Daley's abrupt, late-night closure of Meigs Field. Ordering the cutting up of the runway in the darkness of night -- with planes still parked and therefore becoming stranded -- was an extraordinarily arrogant and unnecessary abuse of power. "

 -- Rex Shannon, Chicago

Alert Friend of Meigs Josh Levy provides us with the following:

"Here is a very well written account of events (from the Meigs tower operator) about his experience on 3.31.03:"

Eloquently written by Michael Thomas Daffenberg, it can be hard to read for a Meigs fan.  Yet it should be mandatory reading to understand the shock and anger generated by the illegal closure and demolition by the City.  As one responder wrote:

"You labelled it an untellable story, but for anyone who has lost something they care about, or anyone who loves their job, or anyone who has been impacted by the decisions of others in which they had no say...you tell it wonderfully."