AOPA President Phil Boyer has served the association, currently 397,000-plus members strong, since 1991.
Your association has been waging the battle to save beleaguered Meigs Field on Chicago's beautiful lakefront for almost 10 years. I have personally spent more effort on this project than any other during my term as your president. We have fought the battle both to save the airport and to change the attitude of "Meigs complacent" Chicago residents, those who elect the mayor and should be holding him accountable for his decisions. In a recent survey, some two-thirds of Chicago voters disapproved of Mayor Richard Daley's destruction of Merrill C. Meigs Airport. Even a majority of Democrats (Daley's own party) didn't like it. And more than 70 percent didn't believe the mayor's claim that the airport presented a terrorist threat to downtown Chicago, according to a scientific poll published June 16 in the Chicago Tribune.
But Daley doesn't care. The city Park District, which owns the Meigs land, plans to go out to bid on a $2.7 million contract to tear up the runway, taxiway, and one building. The control tower and terminal building will be left standing. The city is going to put Ping-Pong tables in the terminal and allow skateboarders to use the remaining hard surfaces.
Since 1995, AOPA has committed a significant amount of money and resources to trying to save Meigs, and as your association president I'm still not ready to give up. But I also have to say in all honesty that I don't think I'll ever land again at Meigs.
As we neared the end of our legal options, AOPA felt what was really needed was a truly bold step, something that would catch the attention of the media and Chicago citizens. We laid the seeds for such action two years ago, when the association commissioned an independent consultant to perform an appraisal of the value of the airport. And AOPA had just the plan. In a major press conference May 22, attended by every major news outlet in the city, I announced AOPA's unique $41 million buyout plan for Meigs Field. The city Park District's ownership of the land where Meigs was built is what allowed Daley in 1996 to repay and obtain release from the city's FAA grant agreement, a situation we have not found in any other federal airport grant. Two years ago, knowing we could face another attempt at closure, we used this same ownership quirk to our advantage. Since the Park District was legally a separate entity, the FAA could grant the City of Chicago federal funds to buy the airport from the district. Using the July 2001 appraisal, conducted by a nationally recognized aviation expert, we created a win-win solution for all — the city would get nearly $40 million in federal funds that could be used on city parks and there would be a 20-year guarantee on keeping the airport open. At this media event I read letters of support from the FAA associate administrator for airports and from Sam Skinner, former secretary of the Department of Transportation. I also showed a video from Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.). Chicago media played the story big. But city spokespeople dismissed the idea with half-truths and outright misstatements, and Daley — again — claimed the land belonged to the "people" and that the "people" wanted a park.
Several members have criticized AOPA for withdrawing its lawsuit from federal court in mid-June. Let me assure you that I approved this action after weighing all the pros and cons. Federal Judge James Moran made it very clear to our AOPA attorneys that he was going to rule against our action. It was definitely time to end the financial bleeding on this front. To continue that lawsuit would have wasted AOPA members' dollars. Not only would we have had to pay our own additional court costs and attorney fees, but also we would likely have been responsible for paying all of Chicago's court costs. As a pilot or a manager, you have to recognize when the elements are against you and you need to abandon the approach or risk wrecking the aircraft.
Through the years, AOPA has never been hesitant to commit the association's resources in the battle for Meigs when there was the slightest chance for success. Many others have partnered in the fight as well, but none have individually contributed as much as AOPA. Even now, AOPA continues to press its formal complaints with the FAA and the Illinois Department of Transportation over the closure of Meigs.
The FAA reauthorization bills moving through the U.S. House and Senate both contain the "Meigs Legacy Amendment," which AOPA helped write and lobbied for. The amendment would prevent closure of an airport without sufficient notice and establish a $10,000-a-day fine.
When all was said and done, how the mayor closed the airport may have been illegal, but the courts so far have affirmed that he had the right to do it. AOPA and other Meigs supporters have tried everything from public, legislative, and congressional pressure to lawsuits in an attempt to make an unreasonable mayor see reason. But even the disapproval of his own voters hasn't dissuaded him.
When I review what AOPA has done over the past decade to save Meigs, I'm proud to say that we left no stone unturned. With the help and support of our members, we've fought one hell of a fight, and while the surveys show we have won the war of public relations in Chicago, we may have lost the battle to save the airport.
For more information on AOPA's actions to save Meigs, visit the Web site ( www.aopa.org/whatsnew/newsitems/2003/030403meigs.html).
