New / Old 008?

Politics throwing a wrench in this plan....and maybe for the best:

• Three members of Congress — including U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia — are pushing back against Mayor Brandon Johnson’s reliance on federal air traffic safety rules to justify his decision to use a former National Guard armory as an equipment storehouse instead of a new Southwest Side police district.

  The shuttered armory area alderpersons have wanted to turn into a new police station is next to Midway Airport. In a letter to Johnson Friday, Garcia, a former mayoral challenger, and fellow Illinois Democrats Sean Casten and Brad Schneider added federal muscle to the campaign for a new station, which would speed response times in a Chicago Lawn police district serving the second-largest geographic area with the fewest officers per capita.

  While they share Johnson’s “focus on aviation safety,” Casten, Garcia and Schneider said they “believe there is a path forward” to allow the former Illinois National Guard Armory at 5400 W. 63rd St., which the state is donating to city for $1, to be used to create that new police district in Chicago Lawn.

We've gotten a few e-mails about this building and suffice it to say, with the money needed to rehab it and bring it up to code, it might make more sense to start from scratch.

This was a military armory, under federal control. It's almost ninety years old, when certain environmental standards weren't even in existence, and once passed into law years later, a lot of military outposts were exempted from the new rules (i.e. think asbestos first, then think about diesel fuel). The potential for health related lawsuits ought to kill this thing immediately. Not to mention it's too close to a runway and too high for being inside the airport fence. They'd have to take off part of the building to bring it into compliance, and then there's always the chance off a runway overshoot that could wreck the entire structure.

Obviously, some politician has a connected relative in the building trades and wants to steer some business their way.