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This myopic attitude of some government officials--certainly not all of them--has been encouraged by the myriad of local airport officials. Throughout the United States there is an amazing array of local functionaries who have something to do with the local airport.

There are supervisors, boards, and commissions. There are advisors, consultants, and managers. Sometimes these bodies report to the mayor, to the city council, or to nobody at all. Sometimes they are elected, sometimes appointed, and sometimes their tenure stems from some extremely obscure procedure. 

Some of those men are competent, well-qualified public servants. Other times they are not. But regardless of their personal qualifications, few have available to them in any real depth the wide range of talent and experience needed to cope with the many complex problems concerning airport location, planning, and construction. It is true that some expert advice from Washington is available. And although it may be reasonably adequate, on more that one occasion it simply has been ignored.

It would be a mistake to give the impression that the sins of airport "unplanning" thrive only on those provincial areas that do not have ready access to expert talent and advice. Indeed one needs but look at Chicago to see that this is not true. 

Midway Airport was once reasonably adequate, but that was in the days of the DC-3. The number of passengers handled was relatively small, and if they felt grossly mishandled, they could always take the train! Shortly after it was built, the once-proud airline terminal located in the southeast corner of the field became grossly inadequate. The airport fathers had overlooked the fact that the Civil Aeronautics Board was busily certifying additional carriers to serve Chicago and that the traveling public had discovered the plane. 

As new carriers were certified, they demanded space in the already crowded building. Ticketing areas and waiting rooms were always so congested that there was never sufficient time to sweep them out. On rainy days the terminal resembled a monstrous caricature of a pigsty more than it did a transportation terminal in the second largest city in the United States. 

Years after it was needed, a second terminal was constructed. But for months after it opened its doors, there were no facilities to feed the thousands of people that were forced to use it each day. The only oasis in the vast Midway Airport was a small hot-dog stand about as large--and as modern-- as a railway diner of Civil War vintage. It did not even have running water!

Midway Airport was reasonably adequate for passengers passing through. But only when flights were delayed did they see its real deficiencies. There were no good restaurants nearby, no theatres, and no hotels. Only by going all the way to Chicago's loop could these facilities be found. Ant that one-way trip might mean as much as forty-five minutes by taxicab or bus, across numerous rail crossings and through some of the Windy City's more dilapidated slum areas. Year later some restaurants and motels were built nearby, but


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