Daley cites security in closing of Meigs
Pilots' group blasts overnight demolition of runway
March 31, 2003
[ORD] Tribune staff reports
Published March 31, 2003, 12:05 PM CST
Saying he was doing so out of concerns for public safety and his desire to spare citizens "months and maybe years" of contentious debate, Mayor Richard Daley today ordered Meigs Field closed and its runway torn up.
"We have done this to protect the millions of people who live, work and visit downtown Chicago in these uncertain times," Daley said at a City Hall news conference called after construction equipment early this morning destroyed Meigs' runway.
"The safety of the entire city has to take precedence over the wishes of a handful of private pilots and business people," the mayor said.
However, Daley and other city officials conceded they had received no specific threats about a possible terrorist attack involving a private aircraft.
Meigs, the city's lakefront airport, was closed early today after construction vehicles showed up overnight and began digging up the runway.
At dawn, the view from the top of the Adler Planetarium showed a series of large, X-shaped portions of concrete carved out of the runway's center. Large, illuminated "X" signs marked either end of the runway. Sixteen aircraft appeared stranded, parked along a taxiway and unable to take off.
Steve Whitney, former president of Friends of Meigs Field, vowed to be in court today to challenge the city's action. The organization has opposed Daley's plan to close the airport and turn it into a park.
"We are absolutely shocked and dismayed," said Phil Boyer, president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, another organization that has fought Meigs' closing. "Mayor Daley has no honor and his word has no value. The sneaky way he did this shows that he knows it was wrong."
However, Boyer conceded in a prepared statement that "federal and state airport laws may not have been broken by this action."
About 11 p.m. Sunday, several backhoes, large trucks carrying floodlights and generators, and other equipment escorted by Chicago police arrived at the airport and started working on the north-to-south runway.
A Chicago police squad car blocked the access road to Meigs Field. An officer said the airport and park nearby were closed, and no pedestrian or vehicle traffic was being allowed in. He would not comment on the activity.
A night operations supervisor at the Great Lakes Division of the Federal Aviation Administration said she was not notified of any airport closing.
Daley originally intended to close the airport in February 2002 and turn it into a park and nature preserve, but held off doing so to win then-Gov. George Ryan's support for federal legislation backing the $6.6 billion expansion of O'Hare International Airport.
Under terms of a deal reached with Ryan in December 2001, Daley agreed to keep the lakefront airport open until Jan. 1, 2026, though Meigs could be closed anytime after Jan. 1, 2006 by a vote of the General Assembly.
The deal was supposed to have been solidified in federal legislation endorsing the O'Hare expansion. But earlier this month, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, declared the federal bill dead because of the opposition of his Republican counterpart, U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald.
Meigs' closing also follows the federal decision, at Daley's request, to impose a no-fly zone March 22 for the city. Private aircraft were barred from flying within 3,000 feet of the ground over downtown Chicago and much of the North Side. At the time, the mayor thanked federal authorities but repeated his criticism of small aircraft being allowed anywhere near the Loop.
Whitney said Meigs is an important facility, as it is used by medical and air-sea rescue aircraft and could be used by emergency aircraft in the event of a disaster in downtown Chicago. "It makes absolutely no sense from any standpoint, particularly for homeland security, to close Meigs Field," he said.
"Something is going on. It's outrageous to not let people know what is going on," said Maggie Gauatier, a member of Friends of Meigs Field.
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