Chicago Area Local News

BENSENVILLE, Ill. (CBS) ― A DuPage County judge has ruled the City of Chicago may go ahead with the demolition of 500 houses in near west suburban Bensenville for an expanded O'Hare International Airport.

Judge Kenneth Popejoy ruled that an earlier preliminary injunction blocking the demolitions is over, and the city made proceed with the demolition, the judge's clerk told CBS 2.

As CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports, the remaining residents of the suburb are angry that much of their town is about to be demolished.

He's a newcomer to Bensenville, but former Chicagoan Jerry Hatchett is now one of the last remaining residents of the section of the suburb on which a new runway for O'Hare is supposed to be built. Ninety-four percent of the homes here are now empty.

The abandoned homes the city has acquired and condemned for a new southern O'Hare runway constitute about 15 percent of the whole village.

"I'm not too happy about it," Hatchett said. "I don't have no neighbors. But I know it's gonna be short-lived. You know, when they make their decision, we'll be packin' up and gettin' out of here."

Thursday's ruling in DuPage County Circuit Court brings the demolition bulldozers much closer.

"If a bulldozer shows up on a street of the Village of Bensenville, the Village of Bensenville is the owner of those streets and is in control of those streets," said Bensenville's lawyer Joseph Karaganis.

And village President John Gelis said, "We'll take whatever steps we have to to stop this destruction. Why are you going to destroy this beautiful neighborhood when there is never going to be an O'Hare Modernization Program?"

Officials in Bensenville were arguing the dire state of the economy means the expansion cannot happen anyway, and the homes would be lost for nothing.

That is the same beautiful neighborhood that village officials claimed in court is horribly contaminated by cancer-causing chemicals. They claimed that tearing down the abandoned homes would release poisons into the air and spread them.

A DuPage County judge rejected that argument, noting the dangers of vandalism and other crime caused by so many abandoned buildings.

"Where is Sen. Obama? And Sen. Durbin?" Gelis asked. "Where is Gov. Blagojevich on this particular issue?"

They all support O'Hare expansion, that's where. The truth is that Bensenville's long fight against this project looks more doomed than ever. It's cost village taxpayers millions of dollars and it has delayed and raised the price tag of O'Hare expansion, but seems unlikely to save these homes.

Longtime Resident Vows To Stay Put Until Bulldozers Arrive
"We're still holding. We're not selling anyway. We're not moving now," homeowner Bernardo Flores said.

Bernardo Flores has lived in his house in Bensenville for 24 years. He worked two jobs during that time to pay it off.

"The way is, everything now, the economy right now, what we gonna do?" Flores asked. "I don't know tomorrow if I'm gonna have a job...and then I'll be stuck with a mortgage for the rest of my life."

Flores shared his thoughts with CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot after a judge granted permission for Flores' house and the other 500 homes and businesses in this area, to be demolished.

Signs on Flores' well-manicured lawn that read, "No O'Hare Expansion" and "Build the Third Airport," show his true feelings about the plan. He says while some neighbors have sold their homes to the city, he's staying until the bulldozers come.

"A lot of people, they sold their property right away, because they were afraid, they put too much pressure on them," Flores said.


Earlier Thursday, community leaders and residents gained on Meigs Court, a residential street in Bensenville. They compared the planned demolition in their community to the bulldozing of a better known Meigs – the downtown airport Meigs Field, which Mayor Daley ordered bulldozed in the dead of night five years ago after a long battle with the state to close it.

The 11th hour news conference was held ahead of the court ruling.

Most of the homes are boarded up and unoccupied. But Arlene Benson says some things are worth fighting for, including her quality of life.

"I have lived here for 52 years, and I have enjoyed a lifestyle that would be totally impossible for me to enjoy on my present income – on Social Security, and it just could not be replaced," Benson said.

CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery and Suzanne Le Mignot contributed to this report.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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