Gov. Ryan has offered Mayor Daley a deal on a proposed new runway at O’Hare Airport that also bodes well for the survival of Meigs Field, which Daley has said he’d like to close and turn into a nature park.
In a meeting last week, the governor and mayor had failed to arrive at an agreement over O’Hare and the continued operation of Meigs. However, on Monday, Dec. 3, Ryan announced he’d practically give Daley his way on O’Hare—and he pledged that the funds to keep Meigs open for another 25 years would not be taken from Chicago’s share of state funds, but would come from the airlines themselves.
The airlines already subsidize Meigs Field through fees and charges they pay to use O’Hare and Midway airports. Ryan said they’d be more than happy to do so for 25 years, resolving the question of who would make up for Meigs’ annual operating budget deficit of $200,000—a sticking point in last week’s talks between the two.
The mayor’s office has not yet commented on Monday’s announcement by Gov. Ryan.
Chicago businessman Steve Whitney has been crusading against the Mayor’s announced plan to close Meigs for years. Through his organization, Friends of Meigs, Whitney has been lobbying both the state legislature and the governor, as well as Congress and the White House, to mandate the continued use of the lakefront airport.
“Going ahead with the demolition and spending money to destroy a city asset makes no sense when there’s nothing to replace it,” he said. “There are a lot of better things to do with the money that will be used to destroy Meigs. And, there is no detailed plan or budget for what they plan to do.”
Whitney said he believes “the coolest little airport on the planet” is a safety valve to the overcrowding of O’Hare and Midway because of the way it siphons traffic from the major commercial airports. In the event of a terrorist attack on Chicago, he said Meigs would be an “invaluable asset” for medical evacuation and the arrival of emergency personnel.
Meigs is one of the Chicago treasures that began in the Depression years as a part of the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. Originally known as the Northerly Island, it was the base of one of the Fair’s most popular rides, the Skyride, that carried fair visitors via cable cars across Burnham harbor to the “island” from a point in what is now the Soldier Field parking lot. Following WWII, the “island”— actually a peninsula extending from the Adler Planetarium —was converted into a small airport for use by general aviation planes.
One of its main uses has been for corporate aircraft. Because of its proximity to downtown business and to McCormick Place’s successful convention business, executives fly into Meigs to save time, often using private jets.
Meigs has other uses as well: The Young Eagles Program is based there. This program, a voluntary effort by private aviation enthusiasts, gives young inner-city children an opportunity to actually sit in a plane and experience flight. A sponsor of the program is the Tuskeegee Airmen, the African-American fighter pilots of WWII. The Tuskeegee Airmen use their record and experience to motivate minority youngsters toward careers in commercial aviation.
According to Friends of Meigs news releases, in his ongoing efforts to shut Meigs, the mayor has seen that increased fees for the use of Meigs have been imposed on the flyers who use the facility. In fact, landing fees at Meigs are four times higher than they are at the larger commercial airports, the group says.
Also, Whitney said, the city has not lived up to its agreement for improvements during the five years Meigs was extended: “keeping commuter airlines, improving the terminal, maintaining the parking facilities. They did follow through by installing equipment for instrument approaches to the airport, but they only put in a minimal amount of maintenance. They haven’t delivered on a promise to resume food service when it reopened. They’ve gone out of their way to avoid improving the facility.”
As to the plans to create a park on the Meigs land, Whitney and other critics of the Mayor’s plan point out the there is neither money nor need for additional park space in the area since plenty of unused park is available in the area south of McCormick Place. There’s also plenty of parking available in the McPlace lots.
And, Whitney said, “The most recent idea is for a bird sanctuary [but] there are ten in the city now. One at Irving Park and the lake is completely fenced off. No one can go into it.”
Cynics have expressed reservations about the Mayor’s plans, expecting that should the airport be shut down and removed, the next step would be a movement to install a riverboat gambling casino attached to the Island. This would create a source of much needed additional revenue for the city.
While the administration has denied any plans in that direction and has correctly stated that any license to permit riverboat gambling would have to be approved by the State legislature, there’s still lingering doubt about those assurances. Gov. George Ryan has stated repeatedly that he believes Meigs should continue in operation. In fact, the airport was briefly shut down four years ago until a compromise was reached between the state and city that allowed for the reopening of Meigs for a five year period ending on Feb. 10, 2002. During this period, nothing has been done to repair or remodel Meigs’ aging facilities.
Yet the use of the airport continues to increase.
In his effort to apply pressure on the Mayor, Whitney’s organization enlisted 25 national and regional organizations to publish an open letter to the governor and mayor urging them to keep Meigs open permanently. Signers of the letter, published in the Sun-Times, included representatives of all aspects of the aviation community. Airline pilots, air traffic controllers, state aviation officials and groups representing businesses across the Midwest expressed their urgent need for Meigs’ continued operation.
One of the signers of the letter was the Chicago Firefighters Union, which represents the air-sea rescue squad based at Meigs. In another action, more than 10,000 individually signed post cards were delivered to Mayor Daley urging him to reverse his position on Meigs. Support from the governor and Congress have kept Meigs open until now. But the agreement between the mayor and former Governor Jim Edgar is now due to expire in just three months, and Whitney’s activities have become more frenetic as the deadline approaches.
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