On March 31st, 2003 at about 1:30 a.m., construction workers under direction from Chicago’s Mayor Richard M. Daley arrived and destroyed the runway at Chicago Meigs using bulldozers to gouge large X shapes onto the runway surface, rendering it unusable for airplanes, which included sixteen aircraft parked there.
The Mayor’s intention to close Chicago Meigs Field as an airport dates back to 1994 when he announced plans to use the site as a park.
Chicago Meigs airport located on Northerly Island, leased the land from the Chicago Park District. In 1996 when the lease expired the Park District refused to renew it causing the airport to be closed by the city between October and February 1997, when pressure from state legislature persuaded the city to allow the airport to be reopened.