… and what the heck did Daley do to it?

Check this link to the Friends of Meigs Web site, which has the latest news.

The war’s got him down.

In other exciting aviation news, the Tribune’s Jon Hilkevitch got his hands on a study soon to be released by Ricondo & Associates which says that Daley’s expanded O’Hare would result in more delays, especially in bad weather.

Why? Because even if you build out the airport, once the number of flights increases to the projected 1.6 million you’re just going to wind up with more delays. Further, one whole new runway would be completely useless in any kind of bad weather, according to the report.

This is exactly what the much-maligned Sen. Peter Fitzgerald has been saying all along about the Daley-Ryan expansion plan, but nobody paid any attention. By sheer luck were we spared this travesty, thanks to Fitzgerald’s opposition in the Senate and the aviation industry’s self-destruction since Sept. 11.

Tribune columnists John Kass (politics) and Blair Kamin (architecture) both had good things to say today about Da Mare’s outrageous, midnight raid on Meigs Field.

Kass, in “Daley’s abuse of power leaves marks on city“:

This is not a complicated story of insider deals, of contracts, connections, of documented paper trails.

Rather, it is simple, with photographs, something TV is interested in watching: the destruction of a valuable resource simply because it was in Daley’s way, and because he knew no one could stop him.

Little Big Man finally revealed himself as the absolute boss ruling Chicago and Cook County with wrought-iron fists.

Kamin, in “Land grabs don’t get any more naked than this“:

Noble ends don’t justify ignoble means.

As much as I believe that Meigs should become a park, the way Daley has gone about it stinks as badly as the nose-wrinkling stench that once wafted out of the Union Stockyards.

If you ever doubted that all the important urban planning decisions in Chicago are made by a democratically elected monarch whose throne is on the fifth floor of City Hall, then what happened Sunday night — when backhoes appeared at 11 p.m. and jabbed giant Xs in Meigs’ runway — should erase your doubts forever.