The demolition crew came under the cover of night to carve up the runway of the little lakefront airport that had been the focus of debate for years.

Mayor Richard M. Daley, who lives in the airport's neighborhood at the southern tip of downtown, has wanted it transformed into a lakeside park. Friends of Meigs Field, a group of businessmen and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, had long fought its closing, contending that the airport is a vital link for business commuters.

The fate of Meigs (pronounced migs) had seemed more secure since an agreement reached in December 2001 by Mayor Daley and then-Gov. George Ryan to keep the airfield open until 2026 as part of a a plan to expand the city's giant O'Hare International Airport.

But that deal is apparently stalled in Congress, if not altogether dead at the federal level because of opposition to the O'Hare expansion. Mayor Daley now deems the closing of Meigs Field to be a matter of domestic security. Unannounced to the public, city workers and their bulldozers moved in late Sunday night -- even as private planes sat parked along the runway -- and started digging.