If the fat of airport construction ever really starts frying down Peotone way, we can look back on this week as one point in which the insiders really tried to fire up the grill. Fortunately, there’s still a good chance they won’t succeed.

The moment in question was the announcement by e-commerce giant Amazon that it will build two new distribution centers in the south suburbs. The new facilities in Matteson and Markham are expected to employ about 2,000 people.

“With so many Amazon facilities emerging in the Chicago metro area, I am concerned that we’re going to need a more accessible airport … that isn’t on the other side of Chicago,” said U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Matteson.

State Sen. Napoleon Harris, D-Harvey, called on Gov. J.B. Pritzker for more vocal support for the long-discussed Peotone airport, as a way to lure more investment from Amazon. And Pritzker, not to be outdone, reminded that he set aside $205 million of his proposed $45 billion infrastructure program for road construction related to the proposed airport.

Read the rest at chicagotribune.com

David Greising is the president and chief executive of the Better Government Association, joining the BGA in 2018. For nearly a century, the BGA has fought for honest and effective government through investigative journalism and policy advocacy.

Greising’s career started at the City News Bureau of Chicago, with stops at the Chicago Sun-Times, Business Week magazine, the Chicago Tribune and Reuters. He was a co-founder of the Chicago News Cooperative and worked briefly as a consultant to World Business Chicago. Today, Greising writes on government issues in regular columns for the Tribune and Crain’s Chicago Business.

Under Greising’s leadership, the BGA has played a key role in uncovering public corruption amidst the wide-ranging federal probe, starting with an in-depth report about Ald. Ed Burke’s conflicts of interest before the federal charges against Burke. The BGA also has exposed waste and fraud at O’Hare and the proliferation of corruption and poverty into Dolton, Lyons and other Chicago suburbs. The BGA’s policy team has led calls for ethics reform in Chicago’s City Council and in state government.