1.5 million is, in Chicago, peanuts compared with the amount of
continual graft and corruption that goes on (entire state, not just
the city). The biggest potential cost is that increasing congestion
at OHare since the Meigs closure is going to give better ammunition to
the people that want to build the new airport at Peotone, outside the
city. There's a lot of maneuvering to get this done, since it opens
up an entirely new venue for corruption independent of the city. The
OHare expansion project may never get done, and Daley may have cost
the city a big airport, not a small one, in the long run.