Homeowners Call O'Hare Noise Meeting With Mayor 'A Waste Of Time'
CHICAGO (CBS) -- It took an anti-airport noise group two dozen formal requests over the past couple years to get a meeting with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, but they said their meeting at City Hall on Wednesday was "a waste of our time."
Colleen Mulcrone, a representative of the Fair Allocation in Runways Coalition, came out of the meeting saying it was more of the same.
"This really was a waste of our time," Mulcrone said. "We are going to look forward, then, to others who will champion our cause," she said.
Mulcrone said complaints about the impact of significant changes in noise patterns around O'Hare after a new runway opened two years ago continued to fall on deaf ears when they met with Emanuel at City Hall.
"He does not care about us, he does not care about our devaluation of our properties, he does not care about our health, he does not care about our children's health," she said.
Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans said she understands their frustration.
"It's up to me to prove to those citizens that we can make meaningful change," she said.
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Evans said relief would come in the form of quieter planes, more soundproofing for homes under O'Hare flight paths, and rotating which runways are used at night; but it was noted people affected by jet noise from O'Hare think the mayor doesn't care.
"Until we actually make these changes, I understand why the residents believe that," Evans said.
Muclrone said the FAIR Coalition supports a proposed ordinance sponsored by Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41st) to keep open all four diagonal runways at O'Hare to spread noise more evenly in the surrounding neighborhoods and suburbs. The measure would require City Council approval before closing any runways at O'Hare, and mandate the reopening of Runway 14L/32R, which was closed last summer. Another diagonal runway, 14R/32L, is scheduled to close in 2019.
The Emanuel administration has said those two diagonal runways will not be kept open.
Napolitano said the Emanuel administration needs to do more than just continue expanding O'Hare; it also needs to look at how the changes are affecting homeowners.
"In fairness to the mayor, in fairness to Commissioner Evans, they inherited the problem," he said.
The alderman said he hears complaints all the time about noise from jets that are now flying over homes that didn't have any problems with jet noise before a new O'Hare runway opened in 2013.
"These planes are driving them nuts," he said. "They didn't move next to an airport. An airport changed."
Runway 10C/28C opened in October 2013, and new flight patterns at O'Hare sent hundreds of flights over homes that had few planes flying overhead before, and do not lie within the existing O'Hare noise contour map, which hasn't been revised since the first new runway at O'Hare opened in 2008. Homeowners within the contour map qualify for taxpayer funded soundproofing.
