# Meigs Field 'abandoned', says Chicago **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 10, 2005, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meigs-field-abandoned-says-chicago/289418 "2005-02-10T16:38:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meigs-field-abandoned-says-chicago/289418/1 "2005-02-10T16:38:55Z")
I don’t feel like ranting, so I’m just sharing a little mundane stuff. According to an [AOPA article](http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/newsitems/2004/041206meigs.html), the City of Chicago is claiming that they _had_ to demolish Meigs Field because it was ‘abandoned’. > [@](#): > > We had to spend airport funds. Meigs Field was an “abandoned” airport that had to be cleaned up! That’s the gist of Chicago’s response to an FAA probe into whether the city illegally used federal funds. > > And from here, as Lewis Carroll would say, it gets curiouser and curiouser. Incredible as it may seem, the city’s attorneys argued that if Chicago hadn’t spent that money, it might have had to sue itself for not removing the runway, taxiways, control tower, and other airport infrastructure. [This article](http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/newsitems/2004/041006meigs.html), which is linked in the original link, says: > [@](#): > > Daley is also attempting to justify the city’s possible misuse of $1.49 million in federal grants and passenger facility charges to tear up Meigs. The mayor claimed that the city, which leased the land for Meigs Field from the Chicago Park District, “lost its lease” and had no choice but to close the airport. And because the city could no longer use the land as an airport, it was obligated to restore the property to its original condition. > > That’s another of the partial truths propagated by city spokespeople. While the Park District is nominally independent of the City of Chicago, the mayor appoints the seven-member board of park commissioners. To think that the Park District doesn’t do exactly what the mayor wants would demonstrate a certain naiveté about Chicago power politics. And not to put too fine a point on it, but the man who ramrodded Meigs’ destruction from the mayor’s office is now the superintendent of the parks district. ‘Abandoned’? What about all of those airplanes that were using Meigs Field before Mayor Daley destroyed the airport? If the airport was ‘abandoned’, then why were all of those aircraft parked there? Of course, this ‘abandonment’ story is another canard. After destroying this historic airport, Daley claimed it was necessary for ‘security reasons’. > [@](#): > > Just one month after Daley destroyed the airport, the Chicago Sun-Times carried the headline “ **Daley’s Meigs alibi crumbles.** ” The article reported that “Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge blew Mayor Daley’s cover story on Meigs Field on Tuesday. Around the same time, in Chicago, the mayor confessed he bulldozed the airport to make it a park and not because of security.” Chicago admits to spending $2.8 million in federal funds to destroy Meigs Field. If the FAA determines that the funds were used improperly, the city faces a fine as high as $8.4 million plus $31,000 for failing to give at least 60 days prior notice of the closing to the FAA. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meigs-field-abandoned-says-chicago/289418/2 "2005-02-10T18:03:52Z")
None of which is going to get Meigs reopened, unfortunately. ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meigs-field-abandoned-says-chicago/289418/3 "2005-02-10T19:56:07Z")
But hey, it’s going to be a moneymaker to the city, not a place where terrorists can take off from and land their planes on their way up to Rhinelander for a noontime patty melt before returning for the evening. It’ll be a nice concert venue. After X years, it will be returned to the city and turned into a park with all the cash that was brought in from having Brittney Spears concerts there. Then it will be a park again. Honestly.