As we noted in Monday’s post, While Park Ridge Slept, Mayor Howard “Let’s Make A Deal” Frimark and the rest of our City officials must have been been hitting the Ambien CR for the past few years while the City of Chicago was busy constructing the new runway known as 9L/27R at O’Hare. What else could explain their virtually total silence on the subject for all that time?
But now the runway is open and attracting a steady stream of noisy planes buzzing the southern half of Park Ridge like Baron von Richtofen’s Flying Circus and irritating a lot of residents in the process. And the newly-awakened Frimark and his unofficial air marshall, 3rd Ward Alderpuppet Don Bach, are going hyper-active trying to make up for all that lost time.
So they hastily scheduled a “town hall” meeting for tomorrow (December 13) at 9:30 a.m. at City Hall, apparently as a tune-up for the main event next Thursday (December 18, 7:30 p.m.) at the Maine South High School auditorium, where O’Hare Noise Compatibility Commission (“ONCC”) executive director Brian Gilligan, ONCC chair (and Arlington Hts. mayor) Arlene Mulder, and an FAA player to be named later are scheduled to show up to say and do…we’re not sure what.
Could it be another meaningless song and dance like we got from the Com Ed representatives who showed up for Frimark’s last dog-and-pony show, following the power outage of August 2007? Come to Maine South next Thursday and find out.
But really, folks, what can we realistically expect to do about a new runway that has cost in excess of $500 million and is touted as being necessary to cutting the delays at O’Hare that purportedly trickle down to the rest of the country?
Well, if you’re Air Marshall Bach, you make foolish public comments about Park Ridge possibly rejoining what’s left of the Suburban O’Hare Commission (“SOC”), before recanting less than a week later and claiming that your original comment was merely “intended to put pressure on the [ONCC]” – as was reported in an article in yesterday’s Herald-Advocate (“Join SOC again? Bach doesn’t support idea,” Dec. 11).
Yes indeed, that’s sure a great way to win friends and influence people on the ONCC: Tell the organization with 28 member communities that you’re going to quit it and join the dynamic duo of Bensenville and Elk Grove Village in their unending crusade to spend jillions of dollars on their litigation to nowhere.
You may remember those two erstwhile Park Ridge “allies” as the sharpies who nicked O’Hare-obsessed former mayor Ron Wietecha and his City Council (2nd Ward Alderpuppet Rich DiPietro being the sole surviving dupe from that Council) for $650,000 of our tax dollars on a half-baked scheme to build a third Chicago airport near Peotone. Back then, Wietecha (with DiPietro’s backing) heralded that giveaway as an “investment” – which it turned out to be, but of the Enron variety.
But back to Bach, who despite recanting his interest in rejoining SOC is nevertheless now questioning Park Ridge’s continued membership in the ONCC and the quality of information it provides its members. He’s also claiming that Park Ridge and the other ONCC communities were advised that 9L/27R would only be used in poor weather and by smaller aircraft.
From whom exactly did you hear that, Air Marshall Bach? Was there a memo? How about even some handwritten notes scribbled on a cocktail napkin by somebody who used to work for the FAA? Anything? Anybody? Bueller?
The bottom line, folks, is that while 9L27R was being built our current mayor was too busy with other things – like cutting the size of the Council and working out deals for his buddies/campaign contributors on such things as zoning variances for the dormant Executive Office Plaza project, $2.4 million of concessions for Napleton, and trying to buy some land for a new cop shop.
You might want to remember that each time another jet roars over your house.
13 comments so far
All good points PD. I would also remind people that as they listen to the jet engines that the Mayor was not the only one who checked out on this issue.
You seem to have the ability to find things that I cannot, so please feel free to correct me. I have searched in the ways that I know how and I cannot even find a comment from a single alderman on this issue, let alone a postion.
So it would appear to me that all seven Alderman were standing on the dock next to Howard when the boat left.
Anon on 12/12/08 at 12:31 PM:
We don’t believe we have significantly more information than anybody else – perhaps we just care more about these things and dig a little harder for it.
You are right that nobody currently in City government covered himself/herself with glory on this new O’Hare runway issue. But while we hate to cut any public official slack for not doing his job, Bach, Carey, Ryan and Schmidt didn’t arrive on the scene until May 2007, after the new runway was already well on its way to being built.
Only Frimark (since 2003), Allegretti (2005), DiPietro (1995) and Wsol (2005) had seats in the big room at 505 Butler Place prior to O’Hare breaking ground for the new runway in the Fall of 2006, when it was still in the planning stage and Park Ridge might have stood a chance of having some meaningful input in the process.
So it looks like we went from a mayor obsessed with O’Hare (Wietecha) to a mayor who was oblivious to it (Frimark).
Air Marshall Bach. Hilarious.
He needs a uniform like the one Groucho wore in “Duck Soup.”
“So it looks like we went from a mayor obsessed with O’Hare (Wietecha) to a mayor who was oblivious to it (Frimark).”
Frimark wasn’t oblivious…he actively chose to turn his back on the issue and, subsequently, the residents now feeling the full effects of the opening of the new runway.
Let me all ask you am honest question.
What would you expect Frimark to do in this case?
They built the runway due to increased air traffic probably to take a load off the other 2 east-west routes.
O’Hare has existed since 1955 and people in town have complained about it ever since.
Just go the the library and look though old newspapers and see what I mean. it has done no good.
The last runway built prior to this one was a SW one which goes over the center of town and opened in 1971.
I can recall reading papers from 1970-1971 efforts to stop the new runway from being built and obviouisly it didn’t work.
Here’s my thought on the matter.
Get use to it. It’s not gonna stop.
I think Touhy is probably right. Unless they build another E-W runway out there (and they don’t seem to have the money for that any time soon), which U.S.senator or congressperson is going to do anything to restrict the use of that runway. And with the airlines’, Chicago’s, Cook County’s, Illinois’ and the country’s economies in the tank, where’s extra money going to come from to do all the soundproofing that needs to be done?
But you’re right about Park Ridge should have been involved in the process back in 2004-05, when maybe we could have got them to build one of the southern E-W runway’s first, instead of the one that’s over Park Ridge.
MikeTouhy,
Working backwards, you’re correct, we are going to have to “get used to it. It’s not gonna stop.”
There is little, if anything, Frimark or anyone else can do at this point in time.
However, if Frimark had done his job early on and bothered to participate in the process as he was repeatedly asked to do, then the people of Park Ridge would have been far more prepared for what was coming.
Park Ridge could have been far more prepared to measure the effects, and offer a more solid set of data to the ONCC and FAA as to what the pre-runway noise levels and traffic were compared to now.
The funding for sounnd insulation would have had another Mayoral voice pushing to make sure the money is there should the measured effects prove to necessitate it.
Finally, instead of Arlington Heights’ Mayor Arlene Mulder having to ask that the FAA consider Park Ridge’s concert schedule, our own Mayor could have been the voice representing the interests of Park Ridge in relation to Uptown summer events.
Instead, Frimark chose to ignore requests for his attention to the issue.
Anonymous at 10:11AM,
I seriously doubt anyone in office locally could have had any influence on the construction schedule and planning for the OMP.
Of one thing I am sure, Park Ridge is looking at years of increased flight traffic and noise over its center without any relief the E-W southern runways might provide.
Tacitus claimed that Nero indulged himself and merrily played his fiddle while Rome was ravaged by fire.
Whether he did or not is controvertible.
What is INCONTROVERTABLE is that Frimark has indulged himself – in so MANY ways – and Park Ridge is paying the price. The lack of his presence while the fate of so many residents was being determined speaks volumes.
Frimark’s “leadership” has been shameful.
And certainly not worth the glorifying column space wasted by Alderman Bach’s love letter in this week’s Herald Advocate.
People, people. While I share your disdain for Frimark, there is nothing, nada that could have been done to stop the Daley/O’Hare juggernaut from steamrolling ahead on this issue. Even the airlines being bankrupt can’t stop Hizzoner from continuing to expand O’Hare. Park What? Do think the machine could give a rat’s a$$ what the North Shore wanna-bes (as we are described from outside our city’s borders) think about O’Hare. They do not. We just have higher property values than they do in Bensenville and Des Plaines, so they picked that battle. Dream on if you think there is anything that can be done on this issue. About 15 years ago, we lived another a flight path in town, and I called the complaint line multiple times a day, month after month. No one cared.
Okay, so if ChiTown is right, why is Frimark, Bach and the rest starting to run around like chickens with their heads cut off?
Anonymous at 3:22,
I agree with ChiTownJoe that “there is nothing, nada that could have been done to stop the Daley/O’Hare juggernaut from steamrolling ahead on this issue.”
However, ChiTownJoe is missing the more subtle point that while “Hizzoner”, presumably Chicago Mayor Daley along with stated support from represntatives of all 50 states, couldn’t and can’t be stopped from expanding O’Hare, our own Mayor could have been present to voice the concerns for Park Ridge while the steamroller was “moving forward” with the OMP plans. As Seeking Nessie correctly observed, Frimark was not present, and he actively chose to ignore taking part in the process in any way that might have contributed to:
1) Preparing Park Ridge residents for the trials and tribulations to come.
2) Making efforts to ask that sound monitors be in place BEFORE the new runway opened so that measurable information could be provided about the DIFFERENCE between pre- and post- runway opening noise.
3) Push for increased funding for the ONCC sound insulation program, which might be needed to cover properties not previously thought to be affected, even as measured by the ONCC’s own 65 DNL threshold, if that proves to be the case.
4) Pushed for an acceleration in the scheduling of properties to be sound insulated.
5) Appointed a representative from Park Ridge to take a voting membership seat on the ONCC’s sound insulation committee when that opportunity was presented to him.
Leadership consists of things such as being the voice of the people, even if you know you can’t “win” against a behemoth opponent such as O’Hare expansion. Sitting silently by is not something any real “leader” would choose to do, but “real politicians” will never willingly admit to their constituencies that something can’t be “fixed”, nor will they willingly offer “bad news” before they absolutely have to.
So, you ask, why are the likes of Frimark and Bach “starting to run around like chickens with their heads cut off?” I believe it is because, in the oldest “tradition” of “real politicians”, they want to appear to be doing something, since prior to now they have essentially done nothing. Though I would qualify that by saying, Bach has made a somewhat noble effort to participate at the ONCC and represent Park Ridge. However, when he again employs one of his “attention-getting” devices by making statements about rejoining SOC, another statement he apparently doesn’t really mean, he’s shooting himeself and the rest of us in the proverbial foot. Those sorts of threats to a room full of ONCC members and staff isn’t the kind of thing that creates the “spirit of cooperation” the ONCC strives for, nor the kind of “positive” atmosphere Bach himself so often touts.
This is nuts. The City does nothing 3-4-5 years ago when the runway is being planned and now we’ve got people like Bud Jones telling us to write the FAA and politicians to get O’Hare to change the flight pattern into O’Hare so that planes won’t fly over Maine South.
As if the location of Maine South was unknown to the FAA when it approved the flight path of teh new runway.
I remember reading (either on this blog or on Park Ridge Underground) about “there goes Elvis,” which talked about how Frimark (I think) always tries to come up with something to distract attention from his screw-ups or point the finger at someone else.
This sure seems like another “Elvis” moment, with Frimark having done nothing, absolutely nothing, about O’Hare for the past 3 years he’s been mayor and now trying to get everybody to run around calling and writing the FAA, Schakowsky etc. so that they won’t realize that he was asleep at the switch. Typical Frimark.
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