Rosalind Rossi of the Chicago Sun-Times reported a real interesting story the other day about O’Hare Airport noise – an important quality-of-life and health issue for many city and suburban residents.
The article notes that airplane-related noise complaints are streaming in from unexpected areas of the Chicago region following runway expansion and reconfiguration.
But what also caught our eye was the fact the Chicago Department of Aviation – which oversees O’Hare and Midway airports and is ultimately run by Mayor Rahm Emanuel – didn’t respond to repeated inquiries from the Sun-Times.
“Two spokespeople for the Chicago Department of Aviation declined repeated requests for an interview about overnight O’Hare jet noise, and would not respond to emailed questions about what the department publicly reports on the matter.”
Such silence by the Emanuel administration seems to say a lot – about its commitment to transparency, and respect for an issue that’s important to a lot of people.
This blog post was written by the Better Government Association’s Robert Herguth, who can be reached at rherguth@bettergov.org or (312) 821-9030.
