But Does Settlement Change Daley's Mind On Meigs?

Did Chicago Mayor Richard Daley (right) get off easy in the settlement deal reached Monday between his administration and the FAA over the wanton destruction of Meigs Field?

Steve Whitney, president of Friends of Meigs Field, told the Chicago Sun-Times he applauds the FAA for "holding the city's feet to the fire," by requiring the Daley administration to pay the full $33,000 fine imposed for the city's failure to give the required 30-day notice of its intent to destroy the field.

As Aero-News reported, Daley sent in bulldozers the night of March 30-31, 2003 to carve huge "X"s in the airport's runway -- making the airport unusable to 16 planes stationed at Meigs, as well as those inbound to the airport.

"The city put pilots and the flying public at risk by the way they did this," said Whitney. "There were aircraft inbound to Meigs Field that morning. If anyone had been low on fuel, it could have been a tragedy."

Daley purposely concocted an emergency, Whitney adds, to speed along his wish to turn Northerly Island into a park.

"It was done this way because the only way to close Meigs Field was to do it illegally. There was too much public opposition for them to do it in the light of day," Whitney said.

Since the closure of Meigs, Whitney says, Congress has increased the fine by a factor of ten "because they never want this to happen again."

Despite the high cost of the settlement -- $1.033 million --  it could have been much higher... and will likely do nothing to dissuade the Chicago mayor from believing he did the correct and honorable thing in closing Meigs.

"Mayors all over the country wish they could close a piece of property like that on the lake," Daley told the Sun-Times in 2003. "Chicago is the envy of the world.... We're the only city going almost from Evanston to Indiana that's purely open space and recreation for people. No other city has this. I think it's the greatest thing I've ever -- one of the great things I've done besides the public schools."

"There would be lawsuits galore. That's why [the Meigs demolition was done in secret]. They'd be in federal court trying to monkey up the water," the mayor added.

FMI: www.friendsofmeigs.com