December 15, 1940 – Newly elected Congressman Charles S. Dewey calls upon
all Chicagoans to begin backing a plan to place an airport in the heart of the
city, a project that would extend from the lake a mile west to the New York
Central Railroad tracks and from Sixteenth Street north to the south end of
Soldier Field. Dewey’s plan would raise
the airport above the Outer Drive and the Illinois Central tracks just to the
west of that roadway. The congressman lists
four distinct advantages of his plan:
(1) the city could recoup the cost of construction through fees charged
to the airlines; (2) the project would provide a huge market for unskilled
labor; (3) the location of the new airport would be a huge improvement in air
service to the city and a boon for all city businesses; and (4) at least a
square mile of “blighted area” would be removed from the near south side. Dewey says, “It is fantastic to put the main
airport out at the edge of the city. The
cheapest land, actually, is that in the blighted areas near the center of
Chicago.” Meeting objections an already
noisy city become even noisier with an airport in its center, Dewey says, “A
city is practically built upon noise.
Listen to that street traffic noise 20 floors below my office. Noise means activity.” [Chicago
Daily Tribune, December 16, 1940] Dewey served one term as a representative from the Ninth Congressional District of Illinois, was defeated in his bid for re-election in 1945 and went back to the banking business as a vice-president of Chase National Bank.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment