FAA Fines Chicago For Meigs Field Demolition

[Fly2e]

CHICAGO -- The Daley administration agreed Monday to pay a $33,000 fine -- and repay $1 million in federal airport development grants -- to settle claims stemming from Mayor Richard M. Daley

[dcunning30]

$33K is not much of a fine, but I'm glad they did something.

[Airshow_lover]

Good for the FAA!

I'm so mad they dimolished Meigs.

[The Ruptured Duck]

Fines?

I wanted to see the mayors thumbs cut off

[beaky]

Fines?

I wanted to see the mayors thumbs cut off

For a start; then perhaps drawing and quartering...

It was a criminal act- he should be in prison.

[dcunning30]

It was a criminal act- he should be in prison.

Daley own's Chicago.  Nothing will happen to him.

[PlutonianEmpire]

Daley own's Chicago.  Nothing will happen to him.

Sad, but true.

[Lazerbeak]

For the record, (and this is just my opinion) even though I always liked Meigs, at the end of the day it was just an airfield. Personally, I rather liked the idea of them putting a park there. But again, that's just my twopence worth.

That being said, the way Daley went and demolished the field without notifying the FAA (or the people whose planes were still there) was still very underhanded. I'm glad to see he's paying his dues.

[beefhole]

For the record, (and this is just my opinion) even though I always liked Meigs, at the end of the day it was just an airfield. Personally, I rather liked the idea of them putting a park there. But again, that's just my twopence worth.

That being said, the way Daley went and demolished the field without notifying the FAA (or the people whose planes were still there) was still very underhanded. I'm glad to see he's paying his dues.

Perfectly fine opinion.  However, as you said, it was the way in which he did it that was absolutely despicable, not to mention hazardous.

[Hagar]

I'm glad to see he's paying his dues.

Unfortunately that won't be the case. The only ones to suffer will be the taxpayers of Chicago. This has already been pointed out in an earlier thread on this subject in the General forum.

[dcunning30]

It's a mere slap on the wrist.  He has to pay back the $1M that he misused, and only got a $33K fine.  That's less than a year's wages for a janator in city hall.

[Hagar]

Note the City has agreed to pay. This does not affect the mayor in any way. [quote]Instead, City Hall has agreed to reimburse the airport development fund by $1 million using money from a "non-aviation fund." Under the deal, airport revenue can go only to clean up "airport-related environmental contamination" at Northerly Island.

The city has agreed to pay the full $33,000 fine imposed by the FAA after Daley failed to provide the required 30-day notice when he sent in bulldozers to carve giant X

[dcunning30]

Hagar,  your points are exactly correct.  I mis-spoke when I said "he".  I was thinking "city" though.  That's why I said it's a slap on the wrist.  To an individual, $33K may be significant.  But to the 3rd largest city in the US, $33K is trivial.  But you're also correct, the taxpayers will foot the bill.  But then again, Chicago is not shy about imposing taxation on it's citizens.  

[PlutonianEmpire]

Just nuke chicago and be done with it.

[beaky]

For the record, (and this is just my opinion) even though I always liked Meigs, at the end of the day it was just an airfield. Personally, I rather liked the idea of them putting a park there. But again, that's just my twopence worth.

The Friends of Meigs have proposed a compromise between the two: a park and an airfield.


http://64.143.36.15/

But Daley needs the "scare factor" of an airport to maintain control of the site for... what else? Luxury housing and commercial development.
There will be a park, of course- this, in addition to security from those little airplanes plummeting out of the sky, is what Daley  has sold to the people of Chicago for 20 years now.
But mark my words, there will be a mall or a casino or condos there in the near future: no politician fights that hard and for that long just for a park, especially in a city that already has adequate parkland. He's a proven liar, and a criminal.  Do I believe he just wants more green space for the good people of Chicago? Uhh... no.  

Not that he stands to benefit personally in any way from kickbacks from lucrative no-bid construction deals or anything like that- I mean, after all, he's the mayor of Chicago!!  ;)
Maybe he just wants a new mayoral mansion right there on the water...