O'Hare Modernization Program is now the O'Hare Pork Program

The last time I drove on Irving Park Road south of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport was in June. I noticed a pall over area, traffic was lighter than I was accustomed to, and there was an eerie silence there.

After some online research I found out why.



On the south side of Irving, the homes and businesses are vacant. Not only are they vacant, but they owned by the City of Chicago. In a telephone interview yesterday, Bensenville city manager Jim Johnson told me that the Chicago has "gone through the condemnation procedures to purchase the homes and businesses in the area." Chicago is now the owner of about 600 Bensenville houses.

So it's full speed ahead for O'Hare expansion, or more formally, the O'Hare Modernization Program?

No.

In November, a few days before the opening of the first new O'Hare runway in almost forty years, the Chicago Tribune disclosed that several airlines have backed out of the $15 billion project. American Airlines and United Airlines call the expansion "ill-conceived." Delta Airlines calls it an "impulsive grab for [tax] funds."

The airlines are supposed to be a major funding source of the O'Hare expansion.

Now what?

The O'Hare Modernization Program, which has always been controversial, is now almost bereft of supporters. Bensenville wants to get its land back, it has lost almost $9 million in sales tax revenue. But Mayor Richard Daley wants to press ahead and expand the land grab into neighboring Elk Grove Village.

Exactly how?

Daley is hoping to leverage his clout with the Chicago Democrat who moves into the White House next week, and tap into the federal economic stimulus pork-barrel plan, but opposition to OMP continues to grow.

"Everybody knows that the expansion plans will do little to reduce flight delays at O’Hare Airport," says John Geils, Bensenville's village president. "Six major airlines, including United Airlines and American Airlines, pointedly told the City of Chicago that they want a thorough re-examination of the benefits of the O'Hare Modernization Program. Could the message be any clearer?"

It's pretty clear to me.

OMP, says Geils, "smells like a pet pork project."

And to me it looks like a big boondoggle, one that taxpayers shouldn't have to pay write a check for.

It's time to remove the pall over Bensenville.

For more on this subject, read Dan Curry's O'Hare entry at Reverse Spin.

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