FAiR Coalition Secures Meeting With Mayor Emanuel on Wednesday, January 27 at City Hall

Greetings Neighbors,

Once again, the power of citizens to prevail takes center stage as the Fair Allocation in Runways (FAiR) Coalition has secured a meeting with Mayor Emanuel. If you have not already done so, join with your fellow citizens by going to www.fairchicago.org. FAiR is the leading voice for citizens in both the city and suburbs impacted by the changes made at O’Hare in October 2013, changes made without any real community input. FAiR is the largest civic movement on Chicago’s NW side and near NW suburbs....Go FAiR.

From the FAiR press release on the meeting, which only took 2 1/2 years and 23 demands to meet.

Two and a half years after its founding to address the noise and pollution blanketing parts of Chicago and suburbs that resulted from the O’Hare Modernization Plan’s new runways and shift to mainly east-west flight paths, seven months after the first-ever Community Conversations directly between citizens and aviation officials about O’Hare’s negative effects on neighborhoods, and twenty-three requests later, representatives from the largest citizen movement on the North and Northwest Side of Chicago and Northwest Suburbs will finally speak directly to the person who is ultimately responsible for O’Hare and its impact on citizens: Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

“FAiR is excited to finally have this opportunity to dialogue directly with Mayor Emanuel so he can immediately act to put solutions in place and hear firsthand what people have been forced to live with for over two years” said FAiR Leader Helen Rosenberg. The meeting will take place Wednesday, January 27th at 10:30 a.m. at City Hall. Ever-growing pressure from FAiR prompted Alderman Nick Sposato (38th) to step up at the September Budget Town Hall Meeting at Wilbur Wright College and ask the mayor to meet with FAiR.

After months of requests to set a date by both Alderman Sposato and FAiR Leadership, the date was agreed upon just this week. “We wish it could have been before the next Fly Quiet Committee meeting,” said Al Rapp, FAiR’s representative to the committee, “but we’ve been assured that no decisions will be made about the diagonal runways or recommendations for Fly Quiet plans while conversations continue with the Mayor.”

“As FAiR has said from the beginning, Mayor Emanuel is ultimately the one who okays what happens or doesn’t happen at O’Hare,” added Colleen Mulcrone, FAiR leader. “FAiR fully expects that the Mayor will act with urgency to fix this plan because so many constituents have been demanding action in ever-increasing numbers for so long and so constantly. As the current ‘owner’ of the airport at this critical moment, his decisions today will resonate in helpful or harmful ways for tens of thousands of citizens for decades to come. Whatever results from these conversations and decisions--that will be Mayor Emanuel’s legacy on the North and Northwest Side.”