by La Risa Lynch

Mayoral hopeful state Senator Rickey R. Hendon (D-5) is putting words into action on a campaign promise to reopen Meig’s Field.

He has filed a resolution with the Illinois General Assembly to begin discussions necessary to reopen the shuttered airfield. Hendon announced his plans at a Monday press conference at City Hall. He hopes to get the resolution passed out the Senate during the veto session.

In the cover of night, Mayor Daley had bulldozers dig trenches in the shape of an X on the one-lane runway airport on Northerly Island seven years ago. Daley closed the airport citing concerns terrorists would use the small airport to target downtown highrise buildings.

According to a Chicago Tribune article, the Federal Aviation Administration contends such assertions were overblown. The FAA cited the city for closing the airport without proper notification.

“No one believes the mayor’s reasoning for closing the airport,” Hendon said. “If you’re closing Meigs Field because planes are flying across downtown Chicago, [then] you got to close O’Hare and Midway [airports] too because planes are still flying all over downtown Chicago.”

Reopening the lakefront airfield, Hendon says, will spur the city’s economy and create jobs. He said the airport generated $450 million into the city’s economy at the time of its closing. Those dollars created jobs in the restaurant and hotel industry.

“So its lots and lots of jobs related to Meigs Field that we lost that we can now recapture with the cooperation of the federal government,” Hendon said. “Mayor Daley has asked for billions of dollars for O’Hare expansion. So why not take some of that billions and put it toward reopening Meigs Field.”

The airport’s reopening would also mean the return of the Tuskegee Airmen’s Young Eagles program. The program exposed inner-city youth to aviation. The program operated out of Meigs Field until its closure. Now it operates out of the Gary Airport.

“They have to go all the way to Indiana for a program that is from Chicago,” said Hendon, who is the only Black to formally announce his campaign for mayor.

Several potential Black political leaders’ names have surfaced as potential candidates for the city’s top job. However, most including former ambassador and former U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun have been conducting listening tours while circulating petition papers. He contends playing the  “listening tour game” hurts potential candidates’ credability.

Hendon noted the notoriety former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s entrance into the mayoral race, has little bearing in his campaign. He noted that Emanuel faces a residency challenge from other possible contenders because he has not lived in Chicago for two years. Hendon said he has no plans to challenge Emanual’s residency.

“If you can’t come into Chicago, put your key in the door, go in the refrigerator, grab a Miller or Bud Lite, and kick your shoes off and lay across the couch, you don’t live here,” Hendon quipped.

When asked about key Black ministers’ efforts to find a consensus on a potential Black mayoral candidate, Hendon said: “no one African-American group should be able to pick or anoint a candidate.” Instead, he prefers a plebiscite where all the candidates could present their credentials.

Still Hendon said he is running because he has a platform on economic development, jobs and ending the foreclosure crisis.

“You have run on the issues,” he said, touting his record for taking on consumer issues like the red light cameras, a money-making revenue for the city and other municipalities.

Hendon passed legislation to curtail the use of red light cameras and to regulate the city’s botched parking meter lease deal.

He also worked on regulation to bolster the city’s film industry. Hendon contends the city had less than 5,000 movies and film related jobs. Now there’s more than 20,000 thanks to movies like Batman, Prison Break and Transformers.

“I know what I’m going to do as mayor of the city of Chicago,” Hendon said. “I don’t know what the heck the others are going to do.”