They might have a case with the latter (the project financing), but not the former.

Both of my grandfathers (who passed away within the past 3 years) were, and I plan to be.

Think about it: There are over 6 billion people on Earth. Many times that have lived before and will live in the future. We can't be reserving a dozen square feet for each one, especially not in urbanized areas.

[QUOTE=Chicago Shawn ]God bless you Des Plaines. If only all suburbs worked together with the city has you have done, we would all live in a much better region. So, someone correct my if I'm wrong, but isn't this the first anneaxtion Chicago has had for about 35 years? Kick Ass, our landlocked city just got a little bigger. [/QU
wasn't land annexed earlier this year in february (i think?)from lincolnwood, that parkland on the other side of the river so that they would be able to operate thillens stadium under the chicago park district?

^ That's like saying golf courses are great open spaces. I love golf, but they're not public open spaces. By that logic we should stop having cemetaries and create huge parks that people could actually use instead. Nobody goes to a cemetary to have a picnic.

And I don't give a crap about ancient spiritual practices. Christian burial can go the way of mummification and human sacrifice for all I care...

[QUOTE=findo102000 ]No that hasn't happned. There was talk about it, mainly from the Alderman of West Ridge who came up with the idea. The Chicago Cubs have bailed out Thillen's Staduim in the meantime. Lincolnwood is being a bitch about the whole thing because they are another arrogant suburb that turns its back on the city of Chicago. The reason that annaxation has not gone through, is because Lincolnwood is still bitter over a proposal to build a bridge across the North Shore Channel at Pratt Avenue 20 years ago, a plan originally pitched by the same alderman who is pushing the annaxation. They want a provision that no bridge can ever be built there, not even a pedestrian bridge, because they want to keep 'dirty' Chicago residents out of there 'pristine' independent town. Lincolnwood currently has the strip of land between Kedzie and the Channel wihin its boundries, but it can't make any improvements to the property or even police it, because they can't afford to. If Chicago annexed the property as planned, the area would get a new ~1.5 mile long waterfront park with the gaurentee that Thillen's Staduim would stay open to little leaguers. But of coarse, the snobby anti-city attitude of Lincolwood's officials are preventing that simple thing from happening. :hell: It still has a good chance of happening though, as the Cubs bailout to Thillen's was a one-time thing and the Chicago Park District will need the land annaxed to take ownership and keep it open.

Anyway, back to O'hare expansion...

^Actually this is true. Many of the people within the boundries of the exanded airport are glad to have thier homes purchased by Chicago. The city is being very generous, and giving the homeowners way above fair market value, which is more than they would get using a realtor whom has to fluff up the listing which happens to exist under a runway flight plath. Most of the opposition to the exansion is comming from those who live outside the boundries, and therefore are stuck with the increase of aircraft noise (which IMO, tough shit; you live next to the world's busiest airport, and it has been there longer than most of your homes). The city has spent millions though to soundproof buildings near the airport, including properties outside of Chicago.

Now, for those who have voulenterred to sell thier homes to Chicago, the contractural process has already begun for them. The only thing left to do is make the final ownership transfer, which will not occur untill this rediculas injunction is overrulled and thrown out. So, those homeowners do not have to worry, because the city is already in the process of buying thier homes, which the homeowners have been working with for the past couple months now.

FAA says it will OK key funds for O'Hare
$300 million is crucial to city's finance plan

By Patricia Callahan
Tribune staff reporter
Published October 8, 2005


Federal Aviation Administration officials have told Congress the agency intends to give Chicago the full $300 million grant the city requested to help pay for the first phase of its O'Hare International Airport expansion project, according to documents made public Friday.

Although the amount may seem like a small piece of the overall $15 billion expansion plan, the grant--$30 million annually for 10 years--is a linchpin of the city's financing for the project. Even the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation doubted publicly that the FAA would award the full amount, especially since other major airports are competing for the same limited pool of money.

The pledge comes before an FAA ruling on whether the benefits of the project outweigh the costs. Local FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro said the agency will make a final determination on that issue before any money is handed out.

O'Hare expansion opponents were outraged. "This is an attempt to play a shell game with the law," said Joe Karaganis, an attorney representing Elk Grove Village, Bensenville and a religious cemetery that borders the airport.

FAA officials included the disclosure in a filing late Friday with the federal Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. In the filing, the FAA asked the court to lift an order granted at the request of airport opponents that temporarily halted construction on the project.

The news of the grant took Chicago airport officials by surprise. Although Rosemarie Andolino, Chicago's airport expansion chief, expected the FAA to come through with the money, a spokesman said, she didn't know of the FAA's intent until called by the Tribune.

The FAA must notify Congress 30 days before the grant decision can become final, and the agency did so Thursday, according to the court filing.

It's not clear exactly what will happen on Capitol Hill in the next month. Congress could call for hearings or take no action, allowing the grant to go forward.

"What Congress does is Congress' business," said Laura Brown, an FAA spokeswoman in Washington.

The city plans to sell bonds to pay for much of the runway expansion project, and a key part of the bond plan hinges on the grant. Chicago officials had to strike a deal with the major O'Hare airlines to sell those bonds because the debt will be repaid with airport revenue, including higher landing fees and gate rentals. The major airlines agreed to go along with the bond plan for the first phase of the project only if the city received the full $300 million.

In a report earlier this year, U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General Kenneth Mead called the $300 million "an unusually large request." As of last year, the FAA was committed to $917 million in such grants during the next 11 years, and that figure was distributed among 30 projects.

The airlines have not yet signed on to a finance plan for the second phase of the airfield expansion, for which the city plans to seek an additional $228 million in FAA grants. In all, the city is seeking $2 billion in grants and ticket taxes for the project.

Last week, the FAA approved the city's airfield expansion plan. But hours later, at opponents' request, the federal appeals court in Washington temporarily tabled FAA approval of the project, forcing construction to stop until the court had time to consider the merits of the challenge.

The filing that contained the grant disclosure asked the court to restore that approval and allow construction to move forward.

Attorneys for the opponents argued last week that federal approval of the project, particularly the relocation of graves at St. Johannes Cemetery, is illegal on religious grounds. They also contended that the city should not be allowed to acquire and destroy property without first proving it can finance the project.

In its filing Friday, the FAA countered that it vetted the city's financing plans adequately.

The agency also argued that its approval did not violate a religious-freedom law and that the opponents were demanding a "veto system in which religious claims simply trump all other considerations."

At least 177 homeowners and businesses in Bensenville voluntarily offered to sell the city their properties, the FAA filing states.

"Delay in construction of even a short duration will cause profound harm to the project--increasing its costs and postponing its benefits," the filing states.

It isn't clear when the appeals court will rule. Expansion opponents are expected to counter the FAA's arguments in court filings next week.

----------

pcallahan@tribune.com

^ Great news.

I can't wait till they crush those suburban homes that are in the way of expansion :crazy:

http://www.neiu.edu/~lbbrown/387/scalable/ohare2.jpg

The new layout for O'Hare

O'Hare overview

http://images5.theimagehosting.com/284148.jpeg

http://images5.theimagehosting.com/890664.jpeg

http://images5.theimagehosting.com/556137.jpeg

I think building Peotone is a bad idea. Expand O'Hare, maybe even Midway. The third airport of Chicagoland should be Gary-Chicago International Airport.

Absolutely. The logic, however, seems hopelessly lost on suburban Illinois politicians.

^Yeah, but the Gary/Chicago Airport is WAY WAY ahead of the game.

The State of Indiana has given bipartisan support for the expansion of Gary/Chicago airport and have given the okay to secure funds for its renovation. It already has highway and potential rail connections to downtown Chicago. Also, the FAA has approved Gary/Chicago's redevelopment plan in its ENTIRETY!

By the time Jesse Jackson, Jr and those other bumblefucks sort out their differences, Gary/Chicago will be on its way to securing status as Chicagoland's 3rd major airport

Midway really can't be expanded... the area around it is actually pretty dense, so every acre of additional airport space would displace people. Around O'Hare, by contrast, the portion of the total additional space that includes homes isn't that great. It makes sense to bulldoze 200 acres of homes to add 1,000 acres to an airport, but not to bulldoze 1,000 acres of homes to add 1,000 acres to an airport, IMO.

You're completely right about Gary-Chicago, and I think just about every Chicagoan would agree. The problem is state politicians downstate. They don't care what's best for the city/metro, they care about state tax coffers, and Gary is across state lines in Indiana. It makes far more sense for the region, and far more sense to anybody from Chicago who had to actually use the airport, but they don't get their tax dollars.


I just wish it was easier to reallign state borders to actually make sense. Northwest Indiana should be part of Illinois. Give East St. Louis & environs to Missouri, etc... you could probably turn Missouri into a blue state in the bargain.

^Yeah, I wish Illinois and Indiana could create a mutual organization akin to the NY-NJ Port Authority. It would really make for better use of infrastructure

I've been instructed to take my inquiries about the O'Hare F.A.C.E. project over here.


Is anyone familiar with this other construction project at O'Hare? Has anyone seen the articles in the Tribune the past few days? Does anyone think the city sueing Murphy Jahn (Helmut Jahn's firm) over the design flaws will have reprecussions with respect to his highrise project downtown?

This relates to O'Hare expansion because many people contend that if the city cannot keep the cost of this project under control, the cost of the full expansion will be far more than the city says it will cost.

Thoughts?

I flew into and out of O'hare this past weekend visiting my brother, and by some luck of God, both my flights were on time. But I actually thought about it while in town... how the NYC area has PANYNJ. Chicago should surely have something similar like CGPA or something.

^ a PANYNJ type of deal is the only sensible path to a future that is mutaully beneficial to all in the region. unfortunately, greed, inertia and stubbornness will prevent this from ever happening.

They have, sort of... forget what it's called.

VERY TRUE. The newly expanded O'Hare, Midway, and the newly expanded Gary will all be highly sufficient... even for the Summer Games in 2016! :crazy:

And again, I've said it a thousand times, and I'll say it again. The newly expanded GCIA will have access to public transit rail with a quick link to the loop.... Peotone won't.

I have friends that are working for the OMP, they said that dozers were ready to start demolition the minute they got the "go ahead"... why no pics in this forum???