Today Dickh#$d Daley admits closing the airport had nothing to do with security. What an a-hole.
Daley's Meigs alibi crumbles
April 9, 2003
BY LYNN SWEET AND FRAN SPIELMAN SUN-TIMES WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON--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 fears.
Ridge said his agency was never consulted over whether the lakefront airport presented a security threat to the city and was personally "disappointed" to see Meigs closed.
Daley invoked homeland security to explain why, under cover of darkness and without any prior public notice, he ordered a series of giant X's and slash marks carved in Meigs' sole runway on March 30.
The mayor's initial explanation was met with skepticism because for years he has wanted to close Meigs and convert it to a park.
On Tuesday, the mayor changed his tune. Daley dropped all pretenses about fears of a private plane flying into a Chicago skyscraper and acknowledged his real motive was to create more open space as envisioned by planner Daniel Burnham and others some 100 years ago.
"That's what makes Chicago unique from the rest of the world: that we have protected this wonderful lakefront. That's the greatest asset we have here,'' Daley said. From the Calumet River on the south to the Evanston border on the north, "we want to eventually fill in all the way ... for parks and open space," the mayor said.
Daley's number may have been up anyway when Ridge said he was under the impression that Daley's decision to shutter Meigs had nothing to do with terrorist threats.
"I know that the decision to close the field was made prior to Sept. 11, at least that's what was communicated to me," Ridge said
Complete Article
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-meigs09.html
Daley's Meigs alibi crumbles
April 9, 2003
BY LYNN SWEET AND FRAN SPIELMAN SUN-TIMES WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON--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 fears.
Ridge said his agency was never consulted over whether the lakefront airport presented a security threat to the city and was personally "disappointed" to see Meigs closed.
Daley invoked homeland security to explain why, under cover of darkness and without any prior public notice, he ordered a series of giant X's and slash marks carved in Meigs' sole runway on March 30.
The mayor's initial explanation was met with skepticism because for years he has wanted to close Meigs and convert it to a park.
On Tuesday, the mayor changed his tune. Daley dropped all pretenses about fears of a private plane flying into a Chicago skyscraper and acknowledged his real motive was to create more open space as envisioned by planner Daniel Burnham and others some 100 years ago.
"That's what makes Chicago unique from the rest of the world: that we have protected this wonderful lakefront. That's the greatest asset we have here,'' Daley said. From the Calumet River on the south to the Evanston border on the north, "we want to eventually fill in all the way ... for parks and open space," the mayor said.
Daley's number may have been up anyway when Ridge said he was under the impression that Daley's decision to shutter Meigs had nothing to do with terrorist threats.
"I know that the decision to close the field was made prior to Sept. 11, at least that's what was communicated to me," Ridge said
Complete Article
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-meigs09.html
