Ronald Payne sent in this blast from the past for Picture of the Day, a photo of base to final at Meigs Field in Chicago. The photo was taken in 1997, six years before the airport was closed.
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley had been trying to close the airport on Northerly Island since 1994 to open a park, but had little luck. After a brief closure from October 1996 through February 1997, he was forced by the state legislature to reopen the airport.
In 2001, the city struck a compromise deal with the State of Illinois and others to keep the airport open for the next 25 years. However, the federal legislation component of the deal did not pass the United States Senate.
In a controversial move on the night of Sunday, March 30, 2003, Daley ordered city crews to destroy the runway by bulldozing large X-shaped gouges into the runway surface in the middle of the night. No notice of the demolition was given to the FAA or the owners of the planes tied down at the field. As a result, 16 planes were left stranded at an airport with no operating runway. The stranded aircraft were later allowed to depart from Meigs’ 3,000′ taxiway.
I was to actually fly a plane into Meigs? First time was with an instructor on a night cross country.
Daly a liberal? Democrats in Chicago are hardly liberal. This is what happens in a two-party system; the simpletons can’t discern any nuances of behavior, only a title.
Regardless, as a Chicagoan and aspiring pilot, I had thought Daley had good intentions while operating from within a very corrupt system. Then this, and you realize the leadership (really, ownership) we suffer under at so many points, everywhere on earth. Why wasn’t it prosecuted? Another phenomenon that can only be explained by the underlying powers of this country. Daley’s brother was Secretary of Commerce! We mere mortals will never know how something so obscene and clearly criminal could be met with only a shrug.
Hardly liberal? LOL
Get rid of the liberals & I bet it can be reopened with a profit.
U goi it “right” Paul ; but when most of the recreational pilot community is made up of “thoss” who don’t have a clue how the free market works……..
The federal bill to keep Meigs Field open was sponsored by Senator Richard Durbin (D-Ill.). Thirteen of the 15 co-sponsors were Democrats. Unfortunately, in the 108th Congress there were 50 Republicans, 48 Democrats, and 1 Independent. Thanks to the Republican majority in the Senate, the bill was never passed.
Yes, I remember Meigs Field! I “grew up” there as a young teen girl, back in the ’60s. I took a bus to the L, the L into the Loop, and then walked a couple of miles, just to watch the planes. It was my favorite airport because so many interesting planes came through–everything from the first Lear Jets to, believe it or not, an Aeronca C-3. I used to watch Merrill C. Meigs practicing landings in his Bonanza (he had a check pilot in the right seat), and when he saw me, he waved.
Can you imagine how thrilled I was to actually fly a plane into Meigs? First time was with an instructor on a night cross country; second time was in ’69 after I earned my license, with 3 male non-pilot passengers!
A criminal act that should have been punished severely.
Flew into there once in a flight simulator. It lives on!