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Daley Calls Airplane-Free Northerly Island 'Fabulous'

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Continuing his farewell tour, Mayor Daley points with pride to an airplane-free Northerly Island--once known as Meigs Field.

Aviation aficionados remain outraged over Chicago's midnight demolition of Meigs Field which hosted business and hobby flyers on the lakefront from 1948 to 2003.

Daley used federal airport improvement money to demolish the field with bulldozed Xs on runways. He used fears of terrorism--aircraft easily flying into Loop skyscrapers-as a pretext for the demolition.

But on Friday, he spoke, not of security, but serenity.

"Northerly Island I love that," Daley said. "That's over 100 acres of open space and you should go out there ... It is fabulous."

Daley spoke at a four-acre expansion of the Jarvis Bird Sanctuary, between Belmont and Irving Park along Lake Michigan.

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