Fighting the O’Hare nightmare

The city of Chicago is hoping to win economic stimulus funds to help fund its O’Hare Modernization Program (OMP), but as Jerry Mullins and Weber Merritt of the Stop-OMP campaign make clear, not everyone believes that this would be stimulus money well-spent.

For almost as long as the 24 years that John Geils (pictured, right) has been president of Bensenville, a small village in Illinois, the O’Hare Modernization Program (OMP) has been a problem for him conceptually and in practicality (see: Chicago O'Hare seeks stimulus funds).

The problem is that OMP simply will not accomplish what its supporters claim. It won’t decrease flight delays; it won’t decrease the amount of time passengers and planes have to wait for weather to clear and worse; and it is threatening to become a real safety issue for travellers as well as residents who live close to the airport.

No support from O'Hare's airlines

Never mind the farcical talking points OMP supporters will throw out with regard to opening runway times or increasing capacity to satisfy demand. And, if that’s not enough, this US$20 billion pork-barrel project isn’t even supported by American and United Airlines, O’Hare’s marquee hub magnets that are cutting flights and jobs.

The increased runways plan means 1,000 more runway crossings, one of the most difficult aspects of an air traffic controller’s job.

The real reason why so many support OMP is because it offers a huge opportunity for federal pork, cronyism and political corruption. It seems with every passing week, a new criminal indictment or investigation is announced in connection with OMP.

There are more basic issues to discuss however, like funding. Some OMP supporters would have taxpayers pay for the expansion – making OMP nothing more than a US$20 billion pork project. The national taxpayer watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste calls OMP, “potentially the largest piece of pork federal spending in aviation history”.

Who will pay?

The FAA won’t pay for it, and the airlines have also said they won’t pay for it. The City of Chicago is facing major layoffs and furloughs. Nobody can afford to fund the OMP.

Of even greater concern to Chicago area leaders like village president Geils is the burden the expansion would place on neighbouring communities.

Residents are surprised and angry at the major jet noise from the new “bad weather” runway that has just opened and is already handling more than 350 flights a day – significantly more than the Chicago environmental impact statement expected.

Chicago has also forced some 600 hard-working families out of their homes in the village of Bensenville (pictured left). Entire neighbourhoods are boarded up, even though funding for OMP has not been secured and work has not begun. The OMP also calls for the unnecessary destruction of St. Johannes, a sacred religious cemetery consecrated in 1849. Multiple generations of families are buried there, including veterans of the Civil War, World War I and World War II.

The OMP is simply a nightmare. It’s a nightmare to the taxpayers who are going to be asked to fund it, it’s a nightmare to the airline travellers who will continue to be delayed and it’s a nightmare for local residents who have always been good neighbours to the airport. The only part of this story that is not a nightmare is that local leaders like John Geils are still fighting to stop OMP.
 

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