A team of public-minded people have been meeting behind closed doors for weeks to map out the Cleveland bid for a second headquarters for Amazon, working to come up with the best site and presentation possible.

The work is in secret now, so we don't know what sites the group might be pushing.

But we have a suggestion. Drop everything and focus on Burke Lakefront Airport.

Think about it. What other city could offer Amazon such a jewel, a downtown site fronting on one of the Great Lakes, with public transportation running nearly to the doorstep.

Because a large part of Burke sits atop a landfill and can't support buildings, an Amazon headquarters there could be surrounded by a huge, lush park, with biking and hiking trails sure to appeal to the kinds of workers drawn to Amazon.

Offering Amazon the Burke site would give Cleveland an immediate leg up on the competition. Every other site that might be considered in Cleveland would be similar to offerings elsewhere.

We've talked in Cleveland for years about closing Burke and making it part of an active lakefront. When Jane Campbell became mayor in 2002, she electrified the region with her original lakefront vision, with hundreds of people attending meetings to dream about what Burke and the rest of the lakefront might be.

Campbell eventually caved to the pedestrian interests of downtown's corporate culture, which wanted to keep the airport. She and everyone else without the will to face off with the corporate leaders have used the Federal Aviation Administration as the crutch for keeping Burke open. The FAA, they all have said, would fine the city millions if it closed Burke.

So what? The FAA needs Cleveland. The city owns the international airport here, meaning the FAA cannot afford a broken relationship. The FAA can threaten and stomp its feet during discussions about Burke, but if the city were to close it, the FAA would come to the table to negotiate solutions.

Even if the city had to pay some money back to the FAA, that money could be figured into the budget for developing Burke as an Amazon headquarters and park serving the entire region.

We know some powerful people are resistant to this idea. They should get out of the way.

Burke is Cleveland's best shot at landing the Amazon headquarters, and it's about time we stopped wasting half of the downtown lakefront on a little-used airport serving a tiny population.

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