Anyone who thinks plans to build a third airport died with Mayor Daley’s dream for Lake Calumet should have been at the Holiday Inn in Harvey last week for the luncheon of the south suburban chamber of commerce.
That’s how Mayor Daley sees it, anyway. “They’re selling this as a boon for the south suburbs and it’s not,” says Lisa Howard, a spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Aviation. “Any development spurred by the airport will be miles from these communities that need it the most.”
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From the city’s perspective a third airport (along with the new south suburban tollways that would feed it) will spur the kind of sprawling development that’s disfigured much of suburban Cook, Lake, and Du Page counties.
In reality, the struggle between Daley and Edgar is about money. The Republicans have long hungered to feast from O’Hare’s trough (apparently, their take from the unbridled boom in Du Page and Lake counties is not enough). For years they’ve threatened to cut off funding for city schools unless Chicago cut them in. And at one point years ago, in a moment of madness generated by Council Wars, white northwest and southwest-side Democrats almost did just that–just to bedevil Mayor Harold Washington.
She concluded with a subtle jab at Chicago. “You hear people in downtown Chicago say they will find it inconvenient to use this airport. That’s true. But a lot of us live out here.”
She shook her head.
