By Ed Lowe
Senior Writer
In a break with Mayor Daley's position, Ald. Joe Moore (49th) has indicated that he favors the restoration of Meigs Field as a small general aviation airport in Chicago's downtown area. Moore stated that he favors the adoption of the massive plan proposed by the organization known as "Friends of Meigs," which would restore the airport facilities and add an aviation museum in keeping with the Museum Campus concept of the area, and would also permit the inclusion of parkland and recreational areas on the Northerly Island site.
Inside conducted an exclusive interview with Ald. Moore to discuss his reasons for standing up for the restoration of the airport. The "Friends" plan would rely on Federal funding, already available for the purpose, which would provide funds in the neighborhood of $100 million that could be used to enhance the airport and provide for improvements in parks throughout the city. As to why the Mayor opposes adoption of the plan, Moore stated: "I suppose that's anybody's guess. It's ironic because those who have been around the City for a long time will remember that when the present Mayor's father was in office, in the 1960s, he proposed building an airport in the lake. Now the Mayor, on his own, closed down this little airport which really served a good purpose.
"I think that a heliport would be a good idea—there was one (at Meigs) before the Mayor bulldozed the runways. And I think anyone who uses the lake for recreation, whether it's boating or swimming, would feel much more comfortable if a rescue helicopter was just a mile or two away as opposed to having to rely on one that's as far as 30 miles away."
The Alderman was aware of the fact that, when Boeing Corporation moved its corporate headquarters to Chicago about three years ago, the Mayor proposed a heliport in the downtown area for the purpose of facilitating Boeing executives' movement to and from corporate jets located at Midway Airport. There has been some recent talk that the Mayor has again proposed a heliport to be located in an area somewhere between Cermak Road and Fullerton Avenue, the Lake and Halsted Street.
Moore's response to the Boeing heliport or the rumored new heliport proposal was a bit sarcastic. "So build a new one as opposed to taking the short drive over to Meigs?!"
"There are plenty of places where we could improve existing parks. The Mayor proposed an extension of Lake Shore Drive north to the City limits, through Rogers Park. The idea was a non-starter here in Rogers Park. There are a lot of beautiful street-end parks—Loyola, Jarvis, Juneway Fargo, Howard, Northshore, Columbia—all along the Rogers Park shoreline. Those parks need better landscaping, better washroom facilities. The Leone Park field house at the end of Touhy Avenue is in desperate need of repairs," he said.
Inside asked whether the Alderman was bothered by being so firmly on the opposite side of the Meigs issue from the Mayor. "I have never hesitated to disagree with the Mayor from time to time. On this issue, I disagree very strongly with his position on closing the airport, and now that the Friends of Meigs Field have come up with a very intriguing proposal, I think their plan merits a lot of close study. The 'sweetener' for that is that we could literally take millions of Federal dollars and put them into our park system while at the same time providing the City of Chicago with a small state of the art general aviation airport to fuel the central city's economy. The plan is especially interesting in that it shows that airports, parks and recreation can co-exist.
"We're very fortunate in that our forefathers provided for parkland along the lakefront. It makes Chicago a livable city. Our neighborhoods need parks as well and the Friends of Meigs plan would provide the money for that purpose.
"I'm talking with my colleagues in the City Council and they are intrigued, particularly, with the idea of helping the Park District through their financial difficulties using this plan as a win-win situation. I've encouraged the Friends group to keep involved with Park District meetings throughout the City that are discussing uses for the Northerly Island."
Ald. Moore also mentioned the various efforts to have large areas in Lincoln Park and Edgewater preserved as Landmarked districts. "I'm a big preservationist and I think we need to do whatever we can to preserve our heritage. I'm generally in favor of it though I'm not so intransigent as to not realize that some times there's an old building that must come down because it is not historically significant. I like the concept because I'd like to preserve our city's heritage and its character." |
