The mayor of Chicago showed his extreme arrogance by carving up Meigs.
You know, the construction equipment, which came in late on a Sunday night, had police escort!!!
Look at this picture of the carnage>
friendsofmeigs.org
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Mayor Richard Daley launched the surprise closing of Meigs Field at a secret meeting over the weekend where he huddled with top aides to solidify a strategy designed to strike before any opposition could be mustered, City Hall sources said Monday.
Those at the table included city lawyers, mayoral chief of staff Sheila O'Grady, Cortez Trotter, the city's emergency response chief, and Aviation Commissioner Thomas Walker.
The lengthy list of those unaware of the plan to move under cover of darkness late Sunday included the city's 50 aldermen, Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Homeland Security officials and virtually everyone else in the Chicago area.
The action, which Daley defended as needed to protect the Loop from possible terrorist acts launched with small planes, signaled the apparent death of an agreement that Daley reached in late 2001 with then-Gov. George Ryan. It called for the governor's support of a $6.6 billion expansion of O'Hare International Airport in return for the mayor's commitment to continue to operate Meigs until at least 2006 and his support for development of a new airport near Peotone.
Daley's supporters in Congress tried to get the deal cemented into federal legislation to prevent some future governor from undoing it, but that move was blocked by Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.), a staunch opponent of O'Hare expansion.
That, a pugnacious and unapologetic Daley argued at a Monday news conference, left him free to move on Meigs.
"There is no agreement," Daley asserted. "There is no federal legislation." |
