I agree that Peotone is a joke and that O'Hare needs to be expaned. The one thing that I really liked about the Suburban O'Hare Commission's website was that it said the new runways would cause people living north and south to hear a lot more noise -- oh, and same for people living east and west. I think the only thing that would make the SOC happy was if Boeing designed a commercial plane that takes off and lands vertically (maybe there's hope for the Osprey yet)! The problem with people who live near the airport complaining is that they have no credibility. First, they complain about expansion. As has been mentioned above, the airport was there first. The only people who can rightfully complain are those who moved in before it was even Orchard Field. So that means, if you've moved in in the last half-century, shut your mouth. Second, they complain about the noise and the pollution. The noise and the pollution from Stage 3 planes is so much less than it was from earlier planes.

The idea of an expanded airport at Gary is intriguing. Flying into O'Hare a couple of months ago, we flew directly over the Gary airport. There is a lot of room for expansion. The drawback, of course, is that it is in Gary. But then again, the area near Midway is not a crown jewel of Chicagoland, yet Midway is prospering.

Those are a few of my thoughts on the subject.