Meig's Field

[Capt._Viper]

I'll toss in my two bits for Santa Monica, Home of the first DC-3 test flight.

[simonmd]

Can I ask what reason the Major gave for closing it suddenly? Was it to make money on the land? I'd have thought that the Meigs real estate would be very valuable.

[dcunning30]

Can I ask what reason the Major gave for closing it suddenly? Was it to make money on the land? I'd have thought that the Meigs real estate would be very valuable.

As it's reported, Chicago Mayor Daley's wife wanted to turn Meigs field into a park.  He had been looking for a reason (excuse) to close down Meigs, but the FAA would have none of it.  When 9/11 happened, he claimed terrorists could take off from Meigs and crash into the Sears Tower, but that didn't fly, pun intended.

Previously, Daley and Illinois Governor Ryan had a joint agreement with the FAA to not get rid of Meigs.  When Ryan lost his re-election bid (which marked a milestone for the beginning of his corruption trial) Daley, decided on the basis of a technicality their agreement with the federal government was no longer valid since Ryan was no longer governor.

And to impose his will to close down the airport, Daley hired some non-union workers to come in in the middle of the night and carve huge X's into the runway, rendering it unusable.  It was noted about the union status of the workers added to the intriege due to Chicago being a strong union-friendly town.  Also, Daley didn't even notify the FAA when he did it.  The FAA learned about what was done AFTER the fact, just as the owners of several planes rendered stranded at Meigs as well.

The general concensus with Chicago citizens was "Yea, Daley was wrong, but who cares?"  Chicago citizens are used to government corruption and intriegue.  Since the Meigs incident, there have been many more scandals and incident of government corruption.  It's just life in the "City with Broad Shoulders"

[simonmd]

Wow, you couldn't make it up could you?! Surprised they didn't want to shut down KORD for the same reason!

[dcunning30]

Sad.   :-/

[Felix/FFDS]

[quote]Sad.

[commoner]

.....Oh dear...I feel quite ill from seeing such vandalism....must get a couple of tabs and lie down..............dcunning please give a bit of warning if you must post such awful pics..........commoner

[Hagar]

x-rated

Good one.

Shame to see an airfield like that. I hope this doesn't give people ideas. I suspect plenty of people would like to see their local airfields vandalised like that in this country.

[Hai Perso Coyone?]

I personally have my default airport set to whereever I live...when I was in Sudan it was Khartoum International...and now in Italy....it's LAGO's Rome....along with the city's scenery highly realistic....

[KDSM]

And ya know whats funny?
Chicago used  over 2 million it got from washington for airport improvements to destroy meigs

[Felix/FFDS]

[quote]And ya know whats funny?
Chicago used

[Woodlouse2002]

So in a country with almost as many guns as people, why don't you shoot him?

[dcunning30]

So in a country with almost as many guns as people, why don't you shoot him?

You never heard of the "Daley Machine"?

Daley knows people who can get things done.  You go after Daley and you are given a set of cement boots, and you go swimming in lake Michigan.  

[KDSM]

[quote]

You never heard of the "Daley Machine"?

Daley knows people who can get things done.

[Wing Nut]

[quote]I've driven past what was once Meigs last summer.