http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/newsitems/2003/03-1-157x.html

Well it appears to be true. I might live 1,000s of miles from Chicago but do know this dispute over Meigs has been going on for years. It seems those who wanted it closed have taken the opportunity to use national security as an excuse to achieve their ends. 

I just saw it, what a sad day for flight sim aviation. Now the question is where will the home of MSFS go.

i find it funny how they gave no notice to the owers of the planes still parked there, whos gonna pay to have them moved because i read somewhere that insurance companys dont like planes taking off on taxiways, but i would need someone to confirm that

http://www.ohare.com/meigs/home.shtm

This is what i came up with when looking for the main Meigs Field homepage.... it's all BLANK. IT seems that they've had it planned for many months to do this and the City of Chicago knew about it (or at least those who have power) to tear the runway down and ground those 16-some planes that remain there... taking off from the taxiways is stupid, and risky (that's why we have a runway for!! It's too late anyway, they already destroyed the strip.

I'm soooo SORRY if this is SO darn long - A Tribute to Meigs - a History behind it. Enjoy. 

Meigs Field is an important part of Chicago’s history. Daniel J. Burnham, creator of the 1909 Plan of Chicago and designer of much of the city’s lakefront park system, realized the importance of traffic management and the need for balance between commons and commerce.

Many Chicagoans are not aware of aviation's long and colorful history on Chiago's lakefront. The very earliest flights in Chicago took place in Grant Park, adjacent to Meigs' present location. In 1910, Walter Brookins made Chicago's first flight from the park.

Walter Brookins prepares for the record-setting first flight over Chicago.  Grant Park, 1910.

The very next year Grant Park hosted the International Air Meet of 1911, at which numerous records for duration, altitude and speed were set. Over 600,000 attended the event daily.

Cal Rogers flies over the Chicago lakefront during the 1911 International Air Meet in Grant Park.

In 1918, the first air mail flight to Chicago landed in Grant Park. The following year, Grant Park became the site of the first scheduled flights to and from Chicago as regular air mail service was instituted.

Air mail pilots Ed Gardner and Max Miller inaugurated air mail service between New York and Chicago's Grant Park in 1918.

The same year, City fathers, realizing the need for convenient air access to the downtown business district began to debate possible locations for a downtown airport. Grant Park was less than suitable, not only because an airport would usurp its role as the City's premiere park, but because the proximity of buildings would make approaches and departures difficult as larger and faster aircraft became common.

"Chicago Plan" Author Supported Meigs' Siting
On July 4, 1909, Daniel H. Burnham presented his MASTER PLAN of Chicago to the City of Chicago.

Burnham's plan called for 4 outlying recreational islands and 2 1 mile long piers. These would welcome people coming into the city by boat as well as provide recreation facilities for Chicago's inhabitants.

Daniel Burnham's Plan of Chicago - 1909

     The Plan of Chicago--authored by Daniel H. Burnham, and Edward J. Bennett and published in 1909 by the Commercial Club of Chicago--became the blueprint for Chicago's wonderful existing string of lakefront parks and beaches. The Plan contained no mention of airports--they had not yet been invented--but it did include lakefront transportation facilities, including what is now Navy Pier.

     The "Burnham Plan" of Chicago included lakefront transportation facilities like this one that eventually became Navy Pier.

     Burnham died in 1912, but news articles recently discovered by the Friends of Meigs Field show that only seven short years later, Burnham's partner Edward H. Bennett himself advocated that the city's downtown airport be located on the Meigs site.

     "The lake front appears to offer a site naturally adapted for [airport] terminal facilities," Bennett is quoted in the Chicago Tribune on July 13, 1919. "A site on the lake front would appear also to be more conveniently placed than any other large area available within a short distance of the central business district."

Consensus in the '20's
     In 1920, the Chicago public approved a bond referendum to pay for construction of Chicago's lakefront. Construction began on Northerly Island in 1922, the same year that Mayor William Hale Thompson advocated locating the downtown airport there.

     By the late 1920's consensus had grown. The South Park Commission had voted to place Chicago's downtown airport on Northerly Island.

     The business community concurred. The Chicago Association of Commerce, in it's 1928 publication "Chicago--The Aeronautical Center" declared that:

     "The city of Chicago has recently taken steps that are expected to lead to an early agreement between the city, the South Park Commissioners and other parties to the Lake Front Improvement Ordinance of 1919 which will make it possible for the South Park Commissioners to proceed with the actual construction of the airport."

Depression stalls plans
     When the Great Depression hit in 1929, many grand civic plans were put on hold. The plan for Chicago's downtown airport was postponed but construction began on the first island, named Northerly Island. A Planetarium was to be constructed on this island as well as an Aquarium on the Shore. Today we know these as the Adler Planetarium and the Shedd Aquarium.

Construction of Northerly Island.

     Then, in a bold move to pull itself up by its bootstraps, Chicago decided to host a world's fair. In 1933, the Century of Progress fair opened on Chicago's lakefront, built on Northerly Island and the south lakefront.  The World's Fair titled A CENTURY OF PROGRESS celebrating Chicago's 100th birthday and received more than 39 million visitors during its two years of activity. This was a giant success just as the previous World Fair of 1893, THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION.

     Aviation was a theme of the fair, with aircraft of all types featured. The arrival of Italo Balbo's aerial flotilla to the fair was commemorated with a monument that still stands in Burnham Park across the harbor from Meigs Field.

     Blimps and airplanes plied the skies over the fair; one attraction featured seaplane rides in Sikorsky S-38's owned by Pal-Waukee Airport. (See Johnson Wax "Spirit of Carnauba" page.)

     Shortly after the World's Fair closed in 1934, plans were made for a lakefront airport. The Chicago City Council and Illinois State Legislatures passed resolutions to create the airport and plans were advanced for as many as 3 runways for the airport. Yet the combination of a poor economy, uncertainty over world events, and mixed civic feelings over the use of the lakefront for an airport delayed construction.

     In 1941, a report of the Chicago Aero Commission recommended once again that the downtown airport be located on or near Northerly Island.

     Finally, in 1946, the years of waiting ended. The decision to build an airport on Northerly Island was finalized, a long term lease with the Chicago Park District--successor to the South Park Commission--was signed, and construction begun.

     The size of Northerly Island in 1946 was not sufficient to accommodate the advances in aircraft and airport designs since construction of the original landfill, so the Illinois state legislature granted an additional 24 acres of lake bottom, nearly 1/3 of Meigs' current area, for construction of an airport.

     The construction took over two years, culminating with a grand opening on Friday, December 10, 1948. Despite sub-freezing temperatures, the opening was attended by nearly 100 aircraft, including over 75 Flying Farmers.


     The celebration was attended by many city and aviation leaders, including Mayor Kennelly, Merrill C. Meigs, and W. Stuart Symington, Secretary of the Air Force. Festivities included the dropping of 51 glass bottles containing store gift certificates into Chicago's harbor from a Cessna 170 flown by Mr. & Mrs. John Wilson of Lockport, IL.

     "I didn't expect when I got up and milked the cows at 4 o'clock this morning to be rubbing elbows over lunch with the brass hats from Washington and the tycoons from Chicago's State Street stores. But that just shows what can happen when aviation really comes into its own as it has in this small instance of Chicago's lake front strip," said Talladay.

     Years later, after the senior Burnham's death, his son, Daniel J. Burnham, Jr.--a well-known city planner of his own right--included Meigs Field as a comprehensive regional airway structure in his 1956 Planning the Region of Chicago.

     In later years, the runway was lengthened to its present 3,900 feet. The present passenger terminal was added in 1961. Today, it is estimated that Meigs Field contributes a minimum of 1,500 jobs and $57.3 million annually to the local economy.

     Meigs Field, which temporarily closed in 1996, was reopened in early 1997 thanks in large part to efforts by the Friends of Meigs Field. Today, Chicago’s jewel of the lake will remain open until the year 2002, at which time the City will once again revisit the issue. In the interim, the Friends of Meigs Field are working to develop cooperative plans that permanently incorporate an operating Meigs Field into the Museum Campus as a "living aviation museum".

the fact he had to go in at night without letting anyone know his intentions makes me question his intelligence

  Wonder if I can get Daley to reimburse me for the fuel burnt flying back to 3CK (lake in the hills) lol

   Damnit i'm pissed. 

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Don't kid yourself Craig, this guy is no fool. This is how these people operate. It was obviously a well planned operation, timed to perfection to take place when everyone's attention is on more important world events. Using national security to justify it is a master stroke. I think it's too late for Meigs but let this be a warning. Something like it could be happening near you at this very moment. 

ty for the welcome cragie, but i've accually been here for years, just never registered with the board till today. if you hadn't posted allready, i was gonna spread the news. lol

terrible shame ...
I saw it for myself less than 2 weeks ago as I flew out of OHare ...
If I were Bill Gates I would have bought it for old times sake from the spare change down the back of my car seat .. - but that's why I'm not Bill Gates  

Did you guys get that several planes had been left stranded at the field??!!

Well I think one thing is for certain, that mayor is NEVER going to get elected again. *Slur of expletives*

Oh My goodness i can't belive this guy did that!

I always tested everything at Meigs, amphibians in the water, maneuverability with the buildings and stall speeds with the short runway. Yep, never gonna be the same   

Oh, and we could choose our defualt airport

This is a real pain, but don't worry.  When elections come along, this is going to pop back up in his face.  8)  It will be a wonderful example of how he goes back on his word. 

Hopefully they'll find a way to open it again.  It's pretty selfish of him to do such a thing.  He said himself that there was no specific threat of an attack by a private aircraft in Chicago.  I'm sure he's just looking for an excuse to build a park named after him.   

EMAIL THE MAYOR!!

mayordaley@cityofchicago.org

hehe, wonder how many nasty e-mails he's gonna be getting

i don't believe that this is true. remember,we've got april 1st...

Being Australian, I don't know what the significance of this airfield is. Although I do mourn the loss of anything that is of importance and emotional significance to so many.
Please accept my condolences. I haven't read alot of this thread, just skimmed over it, but it seems to me another case of an elected official taking their assumed authority a bit too far.
 

i hope that Daley isnt gonna be in office very long-do u remember this? Quote:

maybe its just me but i dont think its 2006 yet....

Like father like son?

I just e-mailed the Mayor and passed on the anger of the flight sim comunity (somewhat exagerated of course), and the friends of meigs site, linked elswhere in this thread, has a wonderful coments forwarding service on the main page. I used that to.
  I would suggest, even if your only minorly interested in the subject, that you could help those of us fighting this, by forwarding opinions of outrage, real or imagined, through the above mentioned sources. The more the the better. Don't care if your out in austraillia, or out on the moon. The flightsim comunity is a strong population of people whose opinions are probably not expected by the mayor, and could in fact aid in the backlash.
  Thanks

Either Mayor Daley has gone beyond his domain & broken the law..... or the system is wrong & you should blame that.

If Daley has broken the law then you should concentrate on this aspect & read what others are doing about this. If not - then the Chicago city political system has some pretty loose strings & it's that that is fundamentally wrong..

Democracy is supposed to be contained within a system of checks & counterchecks so that elected people are accountable to people all around them who also hold power - not to mention the people who elected them. If one man can yield too much power then one man always will - there will always be someone out there ready to grab power if it's sitting on the shelf. Corrupt politicians only survive in a flawed system.

& I certainly agree with Hagar that mentioning the FS community would be an own goal. IMHO, You should take a look at the 'save meigs' sites (there used to be a guy who ran one of them that hung round here..) & see what they advise & support them if you can. In my mind that's the best course of action.....

He can be slapped with perjury. He signed the agreement to keep it open till '26. It is still in the making, (apparently) and according to the legal system, he will be in a world of hurt if its signed. There are several plans out there.

One more word - Recall.

Trust me, I have myself been very careful to exspress that it was my opinion that "the flightsim comunity was out raged" as a would not presume to speak directly fo anyone here.
 Accually, it was through a few of these sites, that it was made clear to me that the intent at this point is in fact to flood the Mayor, as well as others, with an out pouring of public out cry. I was in fact told that I could help by getting friends to contribute.
 The main lead organization at this point, seems to be Friends of meigs, and as such on the main page they are asking for any or all comments, sorting out the nutty ones themselves, and sending the E-mails to the appropriate destinations, so I wouldn't worry too much about us screwing things up. We're so desperate round here that anybody protesting is welcomed with open arms. ( I live about an hour from Meigs BTW)
Daley is a smart man. He's covered his bases good, and the general feeling is that there is little or nothing legal that can be done at this point cept mabey fines from the FAA, which does nothing for the field of course.
 As for wether it's Daley, or the Systems fault, it's both, though hard to explain to those outside the relm of our politics. Any Chicagoan can tell you this is the home of crooked politics, crooked politicians, and crooks in general.  Remember that Al Capone guy? He's nothing compared to the Daley political machine that's been in power for decades. literaly. Meigs Feild, it just so happens, is something of an unique situation in terms of it's exsistence and lease agreements, and has it was owned by the park distric (made up of good friends of the mayor) it was able to be closed through the mayors office taking advantage of wording in the lease agrement and getting the park district to play along.  He simply went around that system becaus every time he went through it, something got in his way (ussualy lawsuits filed on behalf of Friends of Meigs, and it's affilliates, combined with just such public noise has i tried to drum up earlier today) and kept the field open a little longer.
 In Chicago, the mayor owns most of those checks and balances, and the one he doesn't own, i.e. the feds and the public he just went around in the dark of night. welcome to buisness as usual round here.
Anyhow, there is some talk of sueing for breach of verbal contract, but as far as purgery goes, he's not liable because the deal to keep open to 2026 was part of an agreement that has already fallen through, and is hence nothing more than a political promise by a mayor, and we all know what ussually happens to those kinda promises. lol
 Anywho, i assure you, I'm only doing what i've been told i can best help by doing: Wrangle up a "few" people to write some letters, and that's what i've been doin all afternoon.    I've been led to believe that the intent is to simply embarrass him into reversing his course, or into thinking that the impossible can happen, and he might accually lose the next election by destroying the trust of the people.  If that's my own goals, so be it, I cannot deny that, but it happens to be the goal of most involved around here due to the unnusual political climate that exsists.  Does that make things a bit clearer? 

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Yeah it does! Though 'Merril' I wasn't addressing you.

I just think we should try to do the little we can by focussing the pissed off folk here in a constructive way & adding to the clamour in a way that may do some good....

Your ideas seem to be right on! Thanks!

p.s. I think the 'save meigs' site was the one ran by the guy that used to hang round here years back. He used to post messages about Meigs & asking for support.

Erm... this supposed agreement with the Friends of Meigs aside, the City of Chicago did just break the law.  Any field that is to be closed must remain useable for the period of one year.  It's basic aircraft safety, it's still on all of the charts as a useable field.  Someone's a@@ CAN fry for this, the question is, will they?

I doubt it will take too long

It's kind of sad for me especially.  I'm also from Chicago (City proper, btw) and I've been away for some time since I joined the AF. 

My first flight sim experience was with the original program on a Commodore 64 when I was a kid.  I used to fly through downtown and attempt to find my house.  Pipe dream of course since everything was green outside of the downtown... but hey I had to dream...

The only shining moment was I visited last year with my son and went to the Sears Tower observatory and he got to see the airport with the planes taking off.  He's 4, so he wont remember it, but at least somewhere in his subconscious he might... that and daddy still flies from there on the computer.

Like i said pete, it's hard to explain to outsiders, but your not given the choice of who to vote for in this city. The Daley demecratic machine makes sure of that. He handles politics the same way he handled the field. If you can't beat it, destroy it in the middle of the night.
Ussually, what opponent is left afterwards is so bad, he or she is laughable. Hence the 80% voting for Daley in the last election, and the remaining percentages devided up among the remaining handful of jokers we were given to choose from last time. it's literaly the system that we've had here for decades. The daleys hand down the mayorship like a father handing down a watch to his son. the time to stop it was years before I was born. Generations ago.  Remember, this city draws its heritage from gangsters, who rigged the system long ago.
 As far as the FAA is concerned, BTW, they are only talking fines right now, stemming directly from the afore mentioned 1 year period, but the city itself has final say on closing the airport through some legal deal made years ago, so the FAA is saying there isn't much else they can do.  
  On a lighter note however, the airport was closed once before, mid 90's, and it was legal tactis such as the AOPA mentions in it's article, along with a movement of public outcry, that got it reopened. There is still hope here, as AOPA is only one of the organizations currently looking to engage in these "guerrilla tactics".

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Can't you take the same idea dealing with the mayor

i got little thingy if u want to know
the 3.1k long taxiway as a runway the stranded airplanes will be departing north;)and if u havent heard fundihng for midway and O'hare will stop until meigs is re opened(id like to see daley get through this;)

PS:i dont use Yahoo! messenger.

What makes me laugh is the bewildering logic behind this guy's plan. He seems to think if he tears down an airport at night no one'll notice the next day!!!

Now the city of Chicago needs to kick the mayor out of office

As Ali G would say "He's dissed our posse, so now we must pop a cap in his ass! He does not restepca us"

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...and a Mayor Michael Balandic and Jane Byrne before Washington.  There might have been somebody before Balandic but I was wee small then. 

Nah..  Daddy Daley was in charge of the fiasco of the the 1967 Democratic Convention.

From http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/mayors/mayortxt.html

Daley, Richard Joseph 39th Mayor

Bilandic, Michael Anthony 40th Mayor

Byrne, Jane Margaret 41st Mayor

Washington, Harold 42nd Mayor

Orr, David Duvall 43rd Mayor

Sawyer, Eugene 44th Mayor

Daley, Richard Michael 45th Mayor

I forgot about Orr and Sawyer.  They were kind of like interims when Washington died.

Hehe, I forgot about those interims also, but thanks much for the list, things are much clearer now. 

  Anyhow, as expected, APOA has filed the fed suit as of monday, though I am not clear as to what exactly it is directed towards, other than stopping (temporarily?) the destruction of the field.  The news media has calmed itself down a bit, so i'm not clear what exactly the suit is about. Of course, there are links in this thread to the organization's site, I believe, for those that are more motivated to look into it than I this morning. lol

later all.

lol, poster error 501z: Ram deficiency in poster head.

  Sorry for the double post, but i don't see em anywhere but in the history as I reply. I'll post a third time later tomorrow if they still don't show.