3 Good Things About Living Under O'Hare Field

Living here in pastoral Park Ridge, what can there be that's good about our noisy O'Hare Field neighbor....? Actually, despite some righteous rage at its daily noise and pollution, there are at least three.

First, its convenience. For air travelers, those departure gates are literally 20 minutes away. Of course getting to the gates and getting off the ground can be a half-a-lifetime difference!

Second, the airport continues to attract income-generating businesses and visitors to our community. In a recessionary downturn, every new buck is new help!

But there is a third and less quantifiable good that comes from our noisy neighbor. I grant that only some Park Ridgers may share this with me, however let me state my case anyway. For those of us who are retired from both careers and travels, there can be something exciting yet safe about O'Hare Field. Something that neither Mayor Daley nor our own mayoral candidates may think much about. It is that small tingly sensation when you stand in the safety of your own home at the very same time you feel the excitement of one of the world's busiest international airports.

Think of it this way. Even though you may be like me and done with the special drama of air travel, you can still look outside your window and experience the surge of global energy crackling in the skies above you. Every criss-cross pattern of contrails means perhaps another hundred passengers off to London, Paris, Tel Aviv or Peking. With a hundred different heartbeats of hope and anticipation.

Back down here on the safety of Park Ridge terra firma, imagineers like me look up and get a vicarious kick out of it all. What makes the thrill especially nice, is that it's totally cost and danger free. So to all those neighbors -- including my own brother who is also under one of these noisy flight patterns -- may I offer one retiree's very personal opinion.

You don't have to like our noisy O'Hare Field neighbor, but in a way you can always enjoy it!