Giving Away the Farm
Whitney and his allies argued that Meigs had pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into Chicago’s economy while relieving congestion at O’Hare and Midway, and they got support from the Sun-Times, the Tribune, Governor Jim Edgar, and state legislators from both parties. Worried that the fight over Meigs might jeopardize his plans to expand O’Hare, Daley grudgingly backed off. In December 2001 he and Governor George Ryan agreed Meigs would stay open until 2026.
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Probably a stretch. But according to the Tribune, bulldozing the runway and relocating the fire department’s air-rescue base cost the city at least $4 million, $2.9 million of which came from Federal Aviation Administration airport-development funds. Using development funds to destroy Meigs pissed off the FAA, which wants to impose fines of more than $8 million. City lawyers are still fighting with FAA lawyers over that.
Those claims echo the claims Daley and his aides made about Soldier Field and Millennium Park when they tried to sell them to the public: they underestimated the construction costs and overestimated the return. According to the Park District’s own budget records, Soldier Field will bring in about $19.8 million in rental revenue this year. But the Park District has to pay $11 million to the private firm SMG to operate Soldier Field, $4.2 million on loans it borrowed to build the new stadium, and $3 million to rent new offices because its old offices, which were free, were demolished to make way for the new stadium. And that’s not counting the money that’s been budgeted to cover security, utilities, and garbage collection. “You could argue that no money is coming in for the taxpayers out of Soldier Field,” says Erma Tranter, president of Friends of the Parks, an advocacy group that opposed the stadium deal.
If the Park District plays it as it did with the Park Grill, Clear Channel will also get exclusive rights to concessions and kiosks. And maybe taxpayers will get to foot the bill for private security guards to shoo away Mexican ice cream vendors the way guards have been shooing photographers out of Millennium Park.
Whitney and his allies presented their plan at a Park District budget meeting that December. The board members asked no questions and made no comments. And they’ve expressed no interest since. But the group says the deal’s still on the table.
Who Was on That Committee Anyway?
