By Jon Hilkevitch

The outcry over jet noise from O’Hare International Airport that reached a fever pitch over the last year and a half is likely to intensify further this summer when takeoff and landing simulation data becomes available ahead of a new runway opening this fall.

The Federal Aviation Administration is expected within the next four months to release a preliminary report based on thousands of computer-generated flight simulations involving what will become O’Hare’s fifth east-west runway and a subsequent runway that the city plans to open in 2020.

The testing also takes into account the closing in August of one of O’Hare’s four diagonal runways.

All this work, however, might not bring relief after a record year for O’Hare jet noise complaints. The simulations are aimed in part at finding the best way to squeeze in hundreds more daily flights at the airport.

Suburbs expected to hear more jet noise as the result of the 7,500-foot runway opening this fall include Bensenville, Franklin Park, Wood Dale, Bloomingdale and Addison, FAA and city aviation officials say.

“Now what they are creating is basically an abusive situation,” Bensenville Village President Frank Soto said Friday. “It’s already unlivable at times.”

The simulations model a variety of weather conditions, flight-delay trends and passenger travel times, factors that will help officials understand how new air-traffic configurations will affect safety, noise and air quality in nearby communities, officials said.

The FAA will solicit public feedback on the soon-to-open runway and possibly hold hearings this summer. A few weeks later, the agency will approve use of the airport’s fifth east-west parallel runway — on land annexed from Bensenville — in time for its scheduled Oct. 15 opening, aviation officials said.

The runway is part of the city’s O’Hare Modernization Program, the overall goal of which is to increase the airport’s capacity to at least 1.2 million flights annually, or to roughly 3,000 daily, up from an average of about 2,400 flights a day now. Officials hope to reach the threshold without a continuation or worsening of the chronic delays that two runways built since 2008 have failed to eliminate.

FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro acknowledged the brief window for the public and local governments to digest the information and offer input, which he said was due in part to the timing of city approval of related contracts.

City aviation officials declined interview requests for this story.

Another runway

The city is also pushing ahead with another east-west parallel runway, which city aviation officials say would cost an estimated $1.7 billion and in five years could be the sixth and final east-west runway under the airport modernization program.

Chicago has told the FAA that construction will begin in 2018, officials said, even though American Airlines and United Airlines have long said and continue to say demand doesn’t warrant it and the city hasn’t said how it would be financed.

O’Hare spokeswoman Karen Pride on Friday confirmed that simulations are underway involving the proposed airstrip, which would be north of the passenger terminals, but she said the city can’t discuss the results until they are complete.

The ongoing simulation work is described as an “experimental design” in internal documents prepared by the city’s contractor, Ricondo & Associates Inc. The documents are labeled in a way that shields them from Freedom of Information Act requests, which the Tribune has filed, and other public scrutiny.

U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Chicago, whose district includes the O’Hare area, said he opposes the runway scheduled for 2020 and that his top priority concerning O’Hare is the jet noise problem. 

“Realistically, I don’t see a need in our lifetime for that runway,” Quigley said.

Last year, for the first time since 2004, O’Hare ranked No. 1 in the world in terms of total flights, at 881,933 aircraft movements, according to the FAA. But O’Hare also took last place for on-time arrivals among the 29 busiest U.S. airports, and second-to-last place (ahead of Midway Airport) for departures, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Last year’s record number of jet noise complaints also came with public skepticism about the transparency of the process to increase flights at O’Hare while protecting the lifestyles and property values of affected residents in Chicago and the suburbs.

Pride said: “O’Hare is committed to being a good neighbor by balancing the economic benefits for the region with quality of life for Chicago’s neighborhoods.”

But many residents inundated with noise from low-flying planes since O’Hare flight patterns were altered in late 2013 say they are especially wary about the upcoming changes because of the limited information released in the run-up to the first round of air-traffic modifications.

The addition of more parallel runways will solidify procedures that the FAA first implemented in late 2013 directing nearly all O’Hare flights to operate either east to west or west to east.

The forthcoming runway will be used for arrivals and departures, according to city aviation officials. The flight path off the east end of the runway will be between Irving Park Road and Montrose Avenue.

It was originally chosen to be the last runway built when in 2005 the FAA approved the plan submitted by the city aviation department under Mayor Richard M. Daley. The initial computer modeling done beginning in the early 2000s to assess how the airport would perform, on measures ranging from safety to efficiency, was based on the original sequence of runway construction.

But the ordering was later reshuffled. Soto, the Bensenville village president, said he believes the far south runway is being built now to justify Chicago’s forced annexation of several hundred acres in Bensenville for the expansion project and avoid the prospect that the properties on which homes and businesses were demolished would never be used for a runway.

“If they went ahead with the original plan and built the other runway first, there would have been a perception that they did not need (the Bensenville runway),” Soto said. “So they switched to counteract a perceived impression.

“I am hoping Mayor (Rahm) Emanuel appreciates the fact that what he inherited and how it was done may have not been in the best interests of not just the neighboring communities, but also Chicago,” Soto said. “I hope it sends a message that a lot of people are unhappy.”

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By Jon Hilkevitch

Chicago’s automated hotline for jet noise complaints is undependable and should be replaced by real people who know the issue and can “compassionately respond,” three Chicago-area members of Congress said in a letter Monday to the city’s aviation commissioner.

The letter calls on the Chicago Department of Aviation to take immediate steps to improve the O’Hare International Airport noise complaint reporting process, saying there is no reliable count of complaints because calls to the hotline are often dropped or not answered in a reasonable time.

The letter was sent to Aviation Commissioner Rosemarie Andolino by U.S. Reps. Mike Quigley, Tammy Duckworth and Jan Schakowsky, whose districts have seen increases in jet noise since new flight patterns were introduced in October 2013, when the newest O’Hare runway opened.

The lawmakers’ concern about under-reporting was lodged as such complaints filed by the public to the automated hotline and online reached record highs — 32,532 in September and 170,638 during the first nine months of the year, according to the city’s tabulations. For all of 2013, the total was 29,493 complaints.

The three Democrats said residents’ voices are not being heard.

“It’s no wonder that many of our constituents feel that the very system put in place to record their concerns is simply ignoring them instead,” the letter reads. “We believe it’s imperative that the city fund and operate a telephone hotline that accurately and compassionately responds to noise complaints.”

A hotline should be staffed by personnel “versed on the noise issue,” the letter said.

“Once we can eliminate the dropped or ignored calls, we can begin to get a truly accurate count of constituent complaints.”

Andolino did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The number of the O’Hare noise hotline is 800-435-9569.

Noise complaints can also be filed by clicking on a link at oharenoise.org/contact.htm.

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By Jon Hilkevitch

As the number of complaints about jet noise from O’Hare International Airport have set new records nearly every month over the past year, Chicago officials have responded that only a relatively few households are the sources of those gripes.

On Tuesday, voters will have the opportunity to put to the test the city’s contention that the majority of residents are not all that upset about recent changes in flight patterns at O’Hare.

Advisory referendum proposals are on the ballot in seven suburbs and the city of Chicago asking the electorate to weigh in on possible remedies — including mandatory measures that would need action by elected officials — to ease jet noise from planes departing and approaching O’Hare.

In addition, in three precincts in Chicago’s 44th Ward, voters will be asked whether the Chicago Transit Authority has provided adequate justification for its plan to build a controversial rail flyover bridge for Brown Line trains to cross over Red Line and Purple Line/Evanston Express tracks near the Belmont station.

All referendums in Illinois, while representing the opinions of the voting public, are advisory.

The O’Hare-related ballot questions are being presented to voters a little more than a year after the opening of a new runway that changed air-traffic patterns. Most planes now take off and land to the east and to the west. There has been a corresponding shift in jet noise that’s heard on the ground.

The referendum questions include asking voters whether they support:

Requiring the Federal Aviation Administration to create and enforce mandatory “fly-quiet” hours around O’Hare. The restrictions would replace the existing voluntary guidelines that ask airlines and pilots to try to reduce noise impacts after 10 p.m. Questions are on the ballot in Bensenville, Bloomingdale, Harwood Heights, Itasca, Norridge and Wood Dale.

An additional question in Bensenville proposes state legislation to reduce airport noise starting at 7 p.m. daily.

Also, Bloomingdale and Wood Dale are asking voters whether they support asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to enforce a noise control law that covers aircraft noise and has been on the books since 1972.

Calling on the FAA to expand the existing noise-contour map so more homeowners would be eligible for government-funded soundproofing. Variations on the question are on the ballot in Chicago, Harwood Heights and Itasca.

In addition, voters in Bloomingdale and Wood Dale will be asked whether the O’Hare Noise Compatibility Commission, which was created by the city of Chicago to represent noise-weary communities, should increase residential sound-proofing in the municipalities to remediate aircraft noise.

Advising Congress to direct Chicago to implement noise-mitigation measures to address the noise changes resulting from the new runway that opened in October 2013 as well as the next new runway set to open in late 2015. The question is on the ballot in Bensenville.

Requiring the FAA to review existing criteria setting noise- and air-pollution standards related to O’Hare flights; and requiring that the FAA consider “local community input” from areas affected by new air-traffic patterns. The question is on the ballot in Park Ridge.

Complaints about O’Hare jet noise reached an all-time high of 30,249 in August, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation. Chicago officials noted that 44 percent of the complaints came from 11 addresses, including in Bensenville, Itasca, Norridge and Wood Dale.

Voting on the O’Hare issues will come four days after Chicago Aviation Commissioner Rosemarie Andolino re-stated the Emanuel administration’s opposition to expanding fly-quiet hours, making the fly-quiet program mandatory or supporting use of more O’Hare runways during overnight hours as a way to spread out jet noise effects by reducing the number of flights over specific communities.

“People are experiencing noise, I understand that,” Andolino testified Friday at a city council budget hearing for 2015. “However, there are limited things we can do. I can’t just magically make something happen.”

Andolino, who is expected to leave her post this month after serving as aviation commissioner since 2009, has tried to walk a political tightrope, carrying out the $10 billion O’Hare expansion plan for two mayors while also trying to portray the airport as a good neighbor and a steward of the environment.

On Monday, Andolino will host for the last time the national Airports Going Green conference, which the aviation department began during her tenure.

As Andolino prepares to leave City Hall to take a higher-paying job in the private sector, critics say Mayor Rahm Emanuel risks a fierce public backlash by appearing to care more about the economic benefits of more flights at O’Hare than he does about the quality of life of residents. The criticism is even coming from his allies.

At Friday’s budget hearing, Ald. Margaret Laurino, whose 39th Ward on the Northwest Side is below a heavily used O’Hare flight corridor, said her constituents are frustrated and angry “and I don’t blame them because I feel the same way.”

The city’s hard line is “a mistake,” added U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, a Chicago Democrat running for re-election Tuesday who also said he has had numerous fiery conversations with Emanuel — to no avail — about helping to provide noise relief.

“There are things the administration can do right now to alleviate the problem, if they wanted to,” Quigley, whose congressional district includes the O’Hare area, said in an interview Friday. “The mayor is not without the ability and the access to the administration in Washington to reach an accord.”

Quigley said he hopes Emanuel will soon “understand that he doesn’t have to hurt the economic engine we call O’Hare in order to address the legitimate concerns from the neighbors.”

“Frankly, I don’t think she (Andolino) has made any effort,” he said.

Meanwhile, the question to voters Tuesday in three precincts of Chicago’s 44th Ward is whether the CTA has “sufficiently justified” the $320 million proposed Brown Line flyover bridge in light of the project’s potential negative impact on nearby residents and businesses.

Activists in Lakeview are urging a “no” vote. They say the flyover, which would extend as high as 40 to 45 feet, would be an eyesore and add to noise in the neighborhood, jeopardizing a business district that is home to thriving shops and restaurants.

The CTA plans to acquire about 16 properties occupied by homes and businesses for the project, which the transit agency said is needed to de-clog the busy Clark Junction rail intersection and build capacity for future ridership demand.

Lakeview resident Ellen Hughes, who is leading a campaign to kill the project, said the proposed elevated bridge to allow Brown Line trains to bypass other rail traffic is expensive, unnecessary and would have a “permanent, devastating impact on a large chunk of central Lakeview.”

Emanuel said during the unveiling of the plan last spring that it would end “3- to- 4-minute waits” at Clark Junction, which is north of the Belmont stop. But opponents and many riders say typical delays last no more than a half-minute.

The CTA continues work to design the bypass bridge. The next step in the public process will come next year when the CTA releases a draft environmental assessment, CTA spokesman Brian Steele said. The agency will solicit further public comments and hold a public hearing, he said.

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By Greg Hinz

Folks who have grown weary of having planes fly through their backyards near O’Hare and Midway international airports are about to get a little help.

U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley announced today that he’s formed a Quiet Skies Caucus of congressmen designed to “raise awareness of aircraft noise and work to find meaningful solutions to the problem.”

The initial members, like Mr. Quigley, are all Democrats. Included is one other Illinoisan, Hoffman Estates’ Tammy Duckworth, plus 10 others, mostly from California and New York. Interestingly, not on the crew is another Chicago Democrat, Dan Lipinski, who represents the area around Midway.

Mr. Quigley, whose district includes O’Hare, says his hope is that the group “can help mitigate the noise that is disrupting our communities.”

The congressman earlier pressed for a new environmental impact study on the ongoing O’Hare Modernization Program of new, relocated and extended runways. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been resisting. Mr. Quigley also wants federal regulators to allow more homeowners and businesses to qualify for soundproofing.

Expect the caucus to grow with time. But anyone who thinks that O’Hare noise will easily be tamed is fooling themselves.

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by Matt Simonette

State Rep. Kelly Cassidy and U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley. Photo by Hal Baim

Openly lesbian Houston Mayor Annise Parker was among those who spoke at the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund’s annual Champagne Brunch Sept. 7 at the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel in Chicago.

Among the politicians attending were U.S. Rep Mike Quigley, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, State Sen. Heather Steans, State Rep. Kelly Cassidy, and alderpersons Tom Tunney, Deb Mell and James Cappleman. “Out to Win” was the theme of the event, which celebrated the organization’s work in training, vetting and providing support for LGBT candidates across the country.

Cook County Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner Debra Shore, who is board chair of the Fund’s Victory Institute, hosted the program and introduced Zach Wahls, who made the news in 2011 when he testified on behalf of his lesbian mothers before the Iowa House Judiciary Committee, when the Iowa legislature considered banning gay marriage. Video of Wahl’s testimony “went viral,” and he became a sensation among marriage equality supporters.

Wahl, who was conceived through artificial insemination, said bluntly, “My existence is political, like it or not. We aren’t the ones who picked this fight … we didn’t start

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By Rosalind Rossi

None of three hearings to gather public input on proposed O’Hare International Airport runway changes were held in areas predicted to be hit with an onslaught of heavy air traffic under the plan, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis indicates.

The Federal Aviation Administration says it followed the rules on legally-required public hearings before it approved the $8 billion O’Hare Modernization Program, which has since triggered skyrocketing O’Hare noise complaints.

But critics — and one U.S. congressman – are crying foul. 

The FAA’s failure to hold any required hearings in areas due for onerous air traffic “calls into question the process, and it’s aggravating,’’ said U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill. 

If the rules allow the FAA to sidestep adversely-impacted communities as hearing sites, the rules should be changed, said Quigley, who has been trying to persuade city and federal officials to address new O’Hare noise beefs.

“I am planning to analyze this and put forward meaningful changes that will require sufficient hearings focused in areas most impacted” by airport changes, Quigley told the Sun-Times.

The hearings were held 9 years ago but the result of those hearings — a dramatic shift in flight paths — didn’t launch until last October.

The FAA went “above and beyond” the guidelines by holding three public hearings on the environmental impact of the airport work — two more than were required, said Chicago-based FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro.

The agency was looking for a certain kind of venue and an FAA order on public hearings doesn’t cite where they must be held, Molinaro said.

The three hearings covered more than jet noise and were “spread out geographically around the airport” so residents from 14 communities around O’Hare could easily attend, he said.

Jac Charlier, a leader of the Fair Allocation in Runways Coalition, said hearings should have been located in areas affected by the top issue.

“We have a bigger problem if the FAA does not realize noise is the number one issue,” said Charlier. “You have a federal agency holding what are essentially sham hearings.”

The FAA held the hearings in February 2005, when what one federal inspector general called “one of the largest and most costly reconfigurations of an airport in the United States” was a mere proposal stretched across literally millions of web pages. Eight years later it started bearing air-traffic fruit.

Last Oct. 17, O’Hare finally switched from using mostly diagonal runways to mostly parallel ones as part of project. The Chicago Department of Aviation contended the move was critical to expanding flight capacity at the nation’s second-busiest airport and to reducing O’Hare delays that were bottling up the U.S. air traffic system.

After the big switch, O’Hare noise complaints soared to record levels, particularly in Chicago, where some residents said they were blindsided by a blitz of planes over their homes — especially at night, when the single runway usually used for night arrivals brings planes in over the city.

Jet noise topped a list of O’Hare project concerns gathered in 2002 by the FAA to prepare for its environmental impact hearings, FAA documents show. FAA “noise contour” maps posted a month before the hearings indicated the runway overhaul would produce jet noise loud enough to qualify homes for sound insulation in areas directly east and west of O’Hare.

But all the hearings were north and south of O’Hare, where heavy noise was expected to diminish.

Two hearing sites stood to benefit from project’s runway shift, FAA maps indicate. The third was essentially unaffected by it.

Elmhurst, host to one hearing, has experienced the biggest drop in O’Hare noise complaints since the flight path conversion, a Sun-Times analysis indicates.

Another hearing was held in a part of Elk Grove Village that has a diagonal runway pointed right at it that will eventually be decommissioned under the O’Hare plan.

No serious jet noise was occurring in or predicted for the third location, in Niles, public hearing “noise contour” maps show.

More than 24,000 Chicago area residents will be subjected to serious jet noise by the time the O’Hare Modernization Program is completed in 2020 – or 6,267 more than before it began, FAA documents predict.

But only about 1,500 residents showed up at the three hearings — a turnout even the FAA conceded was “very light given the dense population” around O’Hare.

And by the end, reaction ranged from 3 to 1 to 4 to 1 in favor of the city’s proposal, FAA documents about the hearing note.

“You don’t need to be a brain surgeon. If you want positive feedback, go to the people that will be in your favor,” said Norridge Village President James Chmura.

Norridge has experienced the biggest jump in noise complaints since O’Hare launched its dramatic shift in flight paths, a Sun-Times analysis showed.

It was followed by Itasca, the city’s 41st Ward, Wood Dale and the 39th Ward as experiencing the biggest increases in noise complaints in the five months since the runway switch compared to the same five months a year earlier. None of the top five noise complaint areas were public hearing sites.

“Nobody wanted any yelling or screaming. That’s probably why they had

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By Rosalind Rossi

Last fall’s opening of a new runway at O’Hare International Airport is already kicking up turbulence.

Noise complaints have skyrocketed more than 500 percent in the first full month since runway 10C-28C opened Oct. 17, heralding a massive shift in flight patterns.

And although the switch to mostly parallel runways from mostly intersecting ones was supposed to reduce delays in all kinds of weather, that’s not how the first full month of on-time performance numbers shook out.

O’Hare’s November on-time arrival and departure rates dipped last year compared to November 2012. Monthly commercial flight cancellations jumped, too — by 56 percent.

The huge spike in city noise complaints has prompted aldermen from two affected wards on the Northwest Side — the 41st and 39th ­— to request a City Council Aviation Committee hearing on O’Hare noise relief. The alderman of the 45th Ward, also hit with newfound plane noise, supports that effort.

The massive change in the way O’Hare is using its runway ­— so that most traffic now arrives from the east and departs to the west ­— apparently has sent residents who never experienced heavy flight noise before running to the phones to register their beefs.

So, while the overall number of people complaining across the region hasn’t changed that much, those who are calling appear to be airing their grievances more often, apparently spurred on by some aldermen, suburban officials and an advocacy group, the Fair Allocation in Runways Coalition.

Where the complaints are coming from has shifted, too.

The city has seen sharp increases in the number of people complaining, while the suburban region, as a whole, has seen a decrease. In the city alone, monthly complaints jumped 787 percent, and the number of people griping rose 473 percent between November of 2012 and November of 2013. Bucking the suburban trend, Norridge and Wood Dale also saw especially large increases in calls to the O’Hare noise hotline — (800) 435-9569.

As for the increased flight delays, Chicago Department of Aviation spokesman Gregg Cunningham said “weather was a big influence,” but it’s “far too soon to draw conclusions” from one month of data.

U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., a member of the House Subcommittee on Transportation, agreed that the flight sample size was too small to be definitive. He said the one-month increase “raises eyebrows” given the high expectations for the airport project but he presumes delays will eventually subside.

However, Quigley said he is worried that far more neighborhoods than those projected to qualify for sound insulation are being hit with onerous noise levels. During spring and summer, when windows are thrown open, complaints probably will jump even more, he said.

Cunningham said the city has been a “national leader” in sound insulation, having already insulated 4,000 homes around O’Hare, including those projected to be impacted by the latest runway. Some 2,000 more are due for insulation by 2020, when the $6.6 billion O’Hare Modernization Program is scheduled to be completed with the installation of two more parallel runways.

However, under current rules, homeowners not living in areas projected to be hit with heavy noise won’t even be eligible to be considered for insulation relief until after all additional runways open in six years and a new noise analysis is performed.

At a minimum, all of the 45th and 39th wards fall outside the area currently eligible for soundproofing, even though 88 people from those wards called the hotline in November to beef, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis indicated.

Quigley and others are pushing to change the soundproofing eligibility formula to make more homes eligible for help sooner.

“I think the noise is a lot louder than people thought it would be, much farther out,’’ Quigley said. “Many more people are being affected.’’

The mayor of Norridge, where noise complaints jumped from 11 to 985, also isn’t waiting for 2020. He is sending all homeowners a petition in their February water bills asking that new O’Hare landing options be considered and that sound insulation eligibility be expanded.

During a summer briefing on flight pattern changes the new runway would bring, Norridge Mayor Jim Chmura said, Chicago officials sold Norridge residents “a bill of goods.’’

“We heard all the good things. ‘It wouldn’t affect the village of Norridge. The planes would have engines with less noise. Money would be available down the line for insulation,’ ’’ Chmura said.

“None of that is true at this point.’’

Before he bought his house 20 years ago, Chmura said, he actually sat in front of it for a few days, several hours at a time, to check for airplane noise. It wasn’t a problem. But now, Chmura said, for him and others in Norridge, it suddenly is.

“We’re fighting City Hall here. And I mean City Hall,’’ Chmura said.

The new east-to-west flow means that 70 percent of the year, one runway in particular — 27L — is expected to absorb 100 percent of all night arrivals, city aviation officials have said. Spread out over the entire month of November, 27L night arrival averages nearly tripled between 2012 and 2013, city aviation data shows. Perhaps that’s why calls about nighttime noise more than tripled during that time.

Quigley said he’d like to see O’Hare spread out its runway usage more evenly, particularly at night, so some neighborhoods aren’t saturated. He noted that the O’Hare Modernization Plan was supposed to save airlines $370 million in efficiencies and passengers $380 million.

“If there’s so much savings, we should bring some of those dollars back to the community and open more runways at night,’’ Quigley said. “All of that financial gain should not be borne by a few residents.’’

However, Chicago Aviation Commissioner Rosemarie Andolino so far has nixed that idea. In a Jan. 8 letter to Quigley, Andolino said altering the flight path of Runway 27L night arrivals would “displace noise impacts from one neighborhood to another.’’

The path into 27L takes planes over I-190, I-90 and forest preserves, Andolino wrote, making it “a good example of land use compatible with airport development.’’

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By Jim Caple

Twenty-five years ago Thursday — and a mere century after Thomas Edison developed the lightbulb — lights finally went on at Wrigley Field for the first scheduled major league night game in the ballpark’s long history.

Rick Sutcliffe, the Cubs’ starting pitcher on Aug. 8, 1988, calls that night: “Easily the biggest event I was ever part of. I pitched a lot of opening days. They were all special. They all meant a lot. There was never an empty seat. But the thing about opening night, we knew — or we thought — there was never going to be another one.”

Well, as you remember, or will be reminded of as you read on, Mother Nature had a say in that. Here, in the words of some of the principals involved and die-hard fans in attendance (including yours truly and his pals), is the story of the fight for lights at Wrigley Field and the night the Cubs turned them on.

U.S. Congressman Mike Quigley is a lifelong Cubs fan who was living in Wrigleyville in the early 1980s when the Cubs first proposed adding lights. Thus started what he says was his first community political-action issue.

Mike Quigley: When I went to my first Cubs game, I had never seen baseball in color. My parents didn’t have a color TV. It was 1969. I went

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Click here to see Buzzfeed’s piece on why Mike Quigley is the “Most YOLO Member of Congress.”

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At the beginning of the 113th Congress, Congressman Quigley was appointed to the powerful House Appropriations Committee by Democratic leadership!

This is a terrific opportunity for Mike and the 5th District, and he couldn’t have done it without your support.

As Greg Hinz noted in Crain’s Chicago Business, “

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