^^ On his perfectly coiffed hair perhaps??

Hopefully he'll be in jail soon like the rest of our governors.

^
hopefully? Assuming he's done wrong, then yes, hopefully he'll be in jail. If his worse crime was being a bad leader, then good riddance. Hopefully the next guy or gal gets it right.

but c'mon, he has done some really neat things. Especially when it has involved children's health and day care. I think some recent study found Illinois to have achieved the #1 or 2 spot in the country in children's services. Then again, we can go on for some time about his f*ck ups.

Anyhow, the state and the region (and yes, Daley and the city of Chicago) need to tune in and figure out new or revised funding sources for transit. The city of Chicago should be somewhat liable in doing more than just fixing up certain train stations/platforms.

Can the RTA change its sales tax funding formula without involving the state? If not, we need to fix that. New York's system works because it covers its operating costs through charging a fare. In other words, the money is raised locally. The CTA should not be dependent on the state for operations, but rather on the people in the Chicago area who use it.

I agree with Hamos that RTA needs more consolidation to reduce the wasteful infighting, but I think it also needs to move away from state oversight.

Gary-Chicago Airport flightless again
 

From the Post-Tribune:

SkyValue bails, cites weak demand

April 28, 2007
By Jon Seidel Post-Tribune staff writer
GARY -- SkyValue USA has canceled summer service out of the Gary/Chicago International Airport, a spokeswoman said Friday, blaming low customer demand for upcoming flights.

Meanwhile, airport director Chris Curry acknowledged loaning an undisclosed amount of airport money to the cash-strapped airline without the approval of its board.

SkyValue's last flight from Gary will be May 6, with refunds available for the canceled flights.

Spokeswoman Gabrielle Griswold said SkyValue will decide later this year whether to return for winter service.

"The marketplace has been slow to step up and pay what are normal prices," Griswold said.

'Psychological block'

Florida-based SkyValue reported high ticket sales earlier this month. Griswold said the airline's winter program had been a success, but demand is not picking up for the summer.

Griswold said the airline's customers have a "psychological block" and want to pay between $79 and $99 per ticket.

"Frankly, nobody can run a service out of there on those prices," Griswold said.

SkyValue spent most of the day Friday in negotiations trying to prevent the cancellation, Griswold said.

"The financial strength is not there at this time," Griswold said.

Leading up to this announcement, passengers have begun complaining about consistent delays. A flight to Florida was delayed at least 11 hours Thursday.

According to SkyValue's Web site and information hotline, its Friday flight was delayed five hours.

Word of SkyValue's imminent demise traveled quickly in Gary on Friday.

In the morning, Mayor Rudy Clay said he heard SkyValue had "major financial problems," and he was trying to find a way to prevent the loss.

After learning of SkyValue's canceled service, Gary Mayor Rudy Clay said the city will continue to expand its airport.

"Just because it's raining at the airport doesn't mean we're going to drown," Clay said.

It's not the first airline to fail in Gary, though.

Pan American Airlines began passenger flights out of the Gary airport in 1999, but shut down in 2002.

Southeast Airlines started serving passengers in Gary in February 2004, just to end service 10 months later.

Hooters Air also flew out of the Gary airport between June 2004 and December 2005.

"It's not like we haven't experienced this before," Curry said.

'I'm on vacation'

SkyValue's troubles were dire enough that the airport has been giving SkyValue money without first asking the airport authority.

When asked how much public money was given without first checking with the board, Curry refused to comment.

"I don't want to talk about it anymore," Curry said. "I'm on vacation."

Authority member Harold Foster confirmed that no vote had been taken on the payments, though he said the board would not have necessarily been opposed to authorizing them.

"Some decisions were made," Foster said, "and I think they were made with the intention of keeping the airline solvent.

"It didn't go the correct way."

Other board members including Silas Wilkerson and John Evans, either did not know about the payments or wouldn't acknowledge them.

"If there was any money given," Wilkerson said, "it definitely wasn't approved by the board."

A special meeting of the Gary/Chicago International Airport Authority has been called for 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Curry said he will ask the board to ratify the payments at that time.

http://www.post-trib.com/news/361971,skyvalue.article

^ The first thing that airport needs to do is change its name to the Chicago-Gary Airport.

People are flying to Chicago, not Gary.

Market that.

^^^I'd get rid of 'Gary' all together. The name is too universally synonomous with everything and anything negative.

They should call it the Chicago/Northwest Indiana International, imho.

Well, Newark has some of the same crime-ridden connotations in the NY area, as well as a similar just-over-the-border location. The airport does pretty well, though.

Comparing a market of 22 million to one of 9.5 million isn't exactly apples and oranges though...

^ Not to mention the fact that while Newark is a ghetto itself, it is surrounded by a lion's share of New York City's sprawl--North Jersey.

While Chicagoland sprawl also flows into NW Indiana, I think suburban Chicago is more identifiable with its Illinois, southern Wisconsin suburbs for some odd reason

This recent chatter has reminded me of something I've been wanting to bring up...

Why not drop the O'Hare Expansion thread and just start a new Chicago Airport Developments thread that would include anything and everything happening at ORD, MDW and GYY? News about the death of the Peotone airport project would also be welcome.http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/imag...ies/tongue.gif

^ Great idea.

Mods, let her rip!! :D

Yeah, but Chicago sprawl doesn't flow into Wisconsin yet, except maybe along the lakeshore a bit. There's still a large, rural swath between suburbs like Grayslake and Antioch and the Wisconsin border.

I live in the northwest suburbs, but I identify with NW Indiana a bit. I've ridden the South Shore a couple of times and I go to the Indiana Dunes at least once per year. While that does make me unusual around here, it wouldn't if I lived on the South Side or in the south suburbs. It's all relative.

As for the Newark thing - it's a roughly comparable situation. I would never expect Gary to have anywhere near the traffic of Newark, nor would I expect Chicago to generate enough traffic to justify a third airport like Newark. But don't you think Gary can take a page out of their book in terms of attracting city business travelers to fly into an out-of-city, out-of-state airport?

Never say never. Remember, NYC's total passenger traffic from LGA + EWR + JFK is only slightly higher than ORD + MDW (both totals are approximately 100 million per year). Midway is already maxed out for capacity, and after the O'hare expansion, it too will be maxed out. The inevitable new traffic will have to go somewhere.....really the question is Gary/Chicago (if Indiana can get its act together) or Peotone.

Not a bad idea at that. Ought to call it Illiana Airport. People who live along the border call the area Illiana, anyway. Or, better yet, bring back the name Calumet Airport.

I like "Calumet Airport".

Viva, I wasn't thinking so much of total passenger traffic as the amount of people COMING to Chicago. The huge numbers at O'Hare are caused by the fact that it is a transfer point for gazillions of air travellers per year. When you filter out the transfer people, I'd be willing to bet that the demand for Chicago visitors is adequately served by O'Hare and Midway.

But if additional capacity is needed, Peotone is a shitty choice. It's way too far from downtown Chicago, and chances for connecting it to transit are slim. Gary is definitely a better option if they can solve their image problems. It's convenient to both highway and transit, with substantially-sized runways.

That and add to the fact that it's downright inconvenient for most of North Jersey to even get to JFK. It requires bypassing Manhattan if by car or transfering trains at Penn. While O'Hare might be slightly inconvenient to drive to for NW Indiana and some south/southwest suburbs of Chicago, it's still reasonably close (usually within an hour) and the entire I-80 corridor outside Chicago has maybe 2 million people at most. That's a market for an airport the size of... *gasp* Midway. Compare this with the western and northern suburbs of Chicago, which have double the population the all suburbs south of I-55 have.

Yes Newark is in another state, but its very close to the City Center, in fact Newark Airport is closer to Wall Street that LGA or JFK, this is not true of Gary.

I say go with Peotone. All new Airport developments have to be in an less developed area. Plus it keeps the airport in Illinois.

that is the biggest thing for me, keeping it in illinois. mitchell in mke and gary can rot, for all i care. if they are putting in a new airport to serve chicagoland, keep that money in illinois. which reminds me, isn't rockford marketing their airport as a 3d chicago airport. (apologies if it was discussed above, i just kind of skimmed through the posts as the cta is my biggest worry right now.)

The problem with Peotone is that its about 45 miles from downtown. That's almost twice as far as Dulles, Mid-America, Intercontinental, etc are from they're respective city centers (and those are all airports considered quite far from downtown). I think certainly Chicago's southland will need an airport, especially as sprawl and population fill in the undeveloped parts of Will County IL and Lake County IN. The thing is, a Gary/Chicago airport is a much better way to serve them, seeing as its located near I-80, 90, 94, and 65, not to mention is linked to downtown Chicago by a 35-40 minute express train ride, 50 minutes if local.

Peotone is only on I-57, and would be about a 50-55 minute express train ride (add 20-30 minutes for local service) to downtown if the Electric line were extended. I just have a feeling a Peotone airport would end up like Mid-America outside StL, except even more expensive and even farther from a population source to draw traffic from.