Oh, NOW you say that O'Hare Airport isn't working
The city was warned more than two decades ago.
O’Hare Airport, a 1950s airport, before it was torn up for the O’Hare Modernization Program
That’s when a unique coalition of predominantly white northwest and predominantly black southern suburbs opposed the heralded expansion of O’Hare Airport. Instead they had arranged for private developers to build a south suburban airport at far, far less cost.
Can’t have that, A new airport was snuffed out but good by a greedy coalition of profiteers in line for big payoffs they’d get from expanding O’Hare. The expansion coalition include ex-mayor Richard M. Daley and his toadies, political patronage workers, organized labor, big business, downtown media and a long line of contractors who saw a pot of gold hovering at the end of new runways and taxiways.
Opponents of the expansion had hired aviation experts, including a former acting director of the Federal Aviation Administration, who warned that the runway expansion wouldn’t work because if all those extra planes showed up (they didn’t, but that’s another story ignored by most of the downtown media) they’d need a lot more terminal gates to handle the expected flood of new traffic.
Don’t worry about it, aviation experts opposing the expansion. Everything will be hunky dory. Be patient, you’ll see. And, you opponents will get the sop of a new western access to the airport, a new western terminal and a ring road the will set fire to your economies.
So, how did that go? Following up on those promises is another story that Chicagoan media have ignored.
Here’s the kicker: As if to prove the opponents and their aviation experts right, former Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced more than a decade later that—oops, we need more gates. So rip up terminal two for the grandiose and expensive ($16 billion—but no one in the media will follow up on that either). Subject O’Hare passengers to years of inconvenience and frustration—but what does that matter, O’Hare’s primary purpose is to be the “region’s economic engine.” Already, American Airlines is pulling back its service from O’Hare, A truly troubling sign because both American and United Airlines have used O’Hare as a hub airport for years.
So, now comes the Chicago Tribune editorial board already rising a red flag:: “O’Hare’s Global Terminal can’t come fast enough.” Not enough flights to New York City, no direct flights to a bunch of important international cities. Etc. Real problems, those. Oh, but the Tribune endorsed the original “O’Hare Modernization Program at the opening of this century to “untangle the runways.” It took two decades, instead of the few years that was promised. Cost overruns have been a mystery that doesn’t seem to bother anyone.
The alternative? Decades before Daley announced the OMP, aviation experts from Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana agreed that the region would run out of capacity. The best solution, they concluded after intensive study, was to build a new, “greenfield” airport exactly where the O’Hare expansion opponents fought for. There were just too many problems with trying to expand O’Hare, an airport designed in the 1950s. Talk about prescient.
O’Hare Airport after the multi-billion-dollar OMP boondoggle. Were all those added runways worth it?
“Ack, it’s too far away,” O’Hare expansion backers whined. They failed to note that opponents of the new Dulles airport in northern Virginia was way, way too far from D,C. No one would want to go there! To emphasize their point, they deceptively labeled the south suburban airport, the “Peotone” airport after a small village on the more distant south side of the airport. Never mind that the northern boundary abutted the southern suburbs.
I’d invite those who made the “too far” argument to visit Dulles. It’s large, efficient and crowded airport, connected by rail to downtown D.C. It has spurred astonishing economic development and jobs, jobs, jobs. New housing, new office buildings, new destinations, including the popular Sully National Air and Space Museum.
The south suburban location is a transportation hub, consisting of cross-country interstate highways and railroads. A fast rail link downtown already exists. Two international airport construction companies had proposed planning, building and operating the airport WITHOUT cost to the state, except for certain infrastructure improvements.
Its backers predicted it would be a great cargo airport and they were right. The site, at the nation’s crossroads between north and south, east and west has become the area’s preferred warehouse location for such users as Amazon. Instead of struggling economically today, many south suburban. predominantly black towns would be enjoy plenty of nearby jobs and vast tax revenues. Like you find next to O’Hare.
So, here’s my question. What kind of city, county or state in their right mind would turn aside the kind of economic opportunity that the south suburban airport held? Have you ever heard of politicians not salivating for the kind of economic development that the south suburban airport still offers?
Chicago and Illinois have. Shortsighted beyond reason. Selfish in the extreme. Ignorant about the possibilities. Don’t give a damn about helping people who need it the most.
Yep, that “progressive” Chicago.