The 100,000 members of Citizens Against the Lake Calumet Airport, the Harold Washington Party, Hegewisch Airport Oppo-nents, Third Airport Alliance, Bensenville Environmental Pro-tection Coalition and No Urban Airport feel your editorial of March 18 (”A turbulent flight to nowhere”) falsely depicts the social, political and economic issues associated with the Lake Calumet airport proposal and the proposed runway expansion at O`Hare.
First and foremost, airport protesters have the right to hold their elected officials accountable for such extravagant public works projects. These protesters are also voters who expect government to safeguard and protect their property and not destroy it. Their neighborhoods were created to provide peace and quiet-not to serve the pleasure of business interests.
The City of Chicago antici-pates an estimated 41,500 addi-tional jobs in 30 years if the air-port is built. This does not ad-dress the assumptions that mar-ket forces, technological and managerial changes could elim-inate any net gain of jobs.
New O`Hare runways are not needed because actual delays are down dramatically. O`Hare con-tinues to draw more passengers than any other U.S. airport.
Opponents of the Lake Cal-umet site favor the selection of a green grass site for the third air-port. It should be constructed in stages while closely monitoring changes in market, technology and managerial trends.
The Tribune is inaccurately inferring that the Lake Calumet protesters oppose economic growth. We believe it is irresponsible of the City of Chicago to develop an airport at a site that requires risking more than a staggering $10 billion in public money on a project that is an all or nothing venture.
