Discussions on the future of Cleveland’s Burke Lakefront Airport have reignited following the release of two recent studies that suggest closing the airport could be economically beneficial for the city.
Every time in the last 40 years an administration talks closing Burke, the idea goes away when the EPA tells the city they have to pay for cleanup of the hazardous waste on the landfill land the airport was built on. City of Cleveland can’t even afford to staff a normal amount of police officers. And the subject of building another stadium for the Browns has also come up. Not likely voters will approve any increase in taxes to pay for any of the mentioned items. Money has already been spent to make improvements prior to the 2016 Republican convention. I am not too concerned about the city closing Burke like Chicago closed Meigs.
Ever since Daly got away with illegally closing Meigs, I see it as an ever-present threat to virtually any airport. He should have gone to jail over that.
But even if there isn’t another Meigs, there will almost certainly be another SMO that is “open on paper but closed in practicality” so the so-called city planners can generate their own data showing a reduction in utilization to justify their redevelopment plans.
“could be economically beneficial for the city.”
Of course the city would benefit.
Changing a cost and liability into a revenue tax producing area.
This is happening all over.
Close it down. Put up your waterfront condos and move along.
However, don’t come crying when you need a staging area for disaster response. The Avery County Airport has set the example.
When the city of Holland Michigan closed their airport, how could it possibly benefit the city?
Imagine an airport 1 mile from lake Michigan, a marina, and a state park, having no benefits for the city?
I called up AOPA, and they said that the city waited too long to ask for their help in the matter, and the back taxes were too great.
So let’s put up another park. When the state park is 1 mile away…
Looking at FlightAware, there have been 3 MedEvac flights in there over the last 24 hours, all jets. Is this the closest airport for a hospital that does transplants?
When “the city” means the mayor and his supporters, then of course “the city” benefits from the re-development.
Yes BKL is the closest to every Cleveland Hospital – Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals etc. One of those flights you mention yesterday was a lung transplant patient with Thoracic surgeon and more on board. I have been on hundreds of Life Flight and similar missions out of BKL
DukeNow is correct, Burke is the closest to the Cleveland Clinic and University hospitals. I flew fixed wing air medical out of BKL for 3 years. As I said before, once the current administration finds out how much the EPA wants the city to spend on cleanup of hazardous waste on the site, this closure idea will go away again until the next mayor is elected.
What does Cleveland have in it’s favor that this airport is not the best thing going for it?
It is as close as you can get by air to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a nice destination. You can literally WALK there from Burke ! I hope it stays open, I got my Instrument training at Cleveland -Hopkins years ago and did many approaches to Burke. Closing it is short sighted.
More focus should be put on rebuilding Hopkins Airport.
It’s no surprise Hopkins was just ranked worst medium sized airport in America.
(Probably the “deadest” airport after 7:00 pm in America too.)
Leave Burke alone.
One element that needs careful consideration is this airport’s unique and scenic waterfront location on a major body of water. Is it sufficiently elevated and levy protected from lake-water rise and storm surge with climate-change shifting/increasing rainfall patterns [insert war-drum-roll/beats here]??
Recent events all-over the USA make apparent that unanticipated river/lake-rise and flooding could put everything in-view in this photo… the airfield and the surrounding low-lying city-areas and even the marina located under this Acft’s final approach… at high risk.
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