We were a diverse group of citizens who have come together from across Chicago to oppose the city’s bid for the 2016 Olympics. We were all volunteers.
Tom Tresser maintains this web site. Reach him at tom at tresser dot com.
About
We were a diverse group of citizens who have come together from across Chicago to oppose the city’s bid for the 2016 Olympics. We were all volunteers.
Tom Tresser maintains this web site. Reach him at tom at tresser dot com.
Go Chicago 2016 !
Stop government waste and corruption!
Thank God That this group has formed I would love to be your Chatham, Southside of Chicago Organizer. I thought of what lifew would be like to not have Washington Park, of some other wonderful South side venues.
It’s an exciting time to be living in Chicago. Let’s hope that we get the olympics. The city could realy use all of the jobs and infrastructure upgrades.
I want better hospitals, roads, and schools as well, but the only we can do that is with $$$$. The Olympics will bring in hundreds of millions in revenue for Chicago plus a decade-plus of increased tourism revenue. Read up on Barcelona’s summer Olympics — Barcelona is still prospering off of the 1992 Olympics, remaining one of the most visited cities in Europe.
Millenium park is a fine example of the Mayor’s management skills. He should have been fired for that. Now people want the Olympics and that will be billions over budget?
Never.
Millennium Park has redefined our downtown. Please visit Crown Fountain, I’ve never seen so many children having so much fun. It really is a park for the people. Go to some of the free concerts there. Without the vision of those that made this park possible, it would still be a bunch of train tracks and our downtown would close down after 5pm. “Make no little plans”! Check out the new Art Institute Modern Wing, another project many thought was too expensive and impossible. Both these projects are enormous successes that will benefit our city for a hundred years.
When we get the Olympics I hope all you folks leave town. You are an embarrassment. Go Chicago!!!
I think that having the olympics in chicago would be nice but the problem is the money.. Especially, in this really bad economy, U.S. would spend alot of money for new hotels, stadiums and etc.. if this bad economy, still continues till 2016, i suggest that Chicago should not hold the 2016 olympic games…
If you think the city can run the games within budget and without taxpayer funds then you either haven’t lived here long enough to know any better or have a city job courtesy of your local patronage chief.
Millenium Park: Budgeted at $150 million, completed at $475 million
O’Hare Modernization: Budgeted at $6.6 billion by the city, $20+ billion by everyone else
Soldier Field: Budgeted at $406 million, completed at $632 million
See a pattern here?
How about this: of all the projects in the past 30 years that claimed to be at no cost to the taxpayers, name one that actually lived up to it.
And you still think the city can handle this?
you people are crazy.. the olympics would be a great economic and global boost to not only chicago, but to illinois. stop being so selfish and realize what a positive effect the olympics have.
Keenen, this is solely (for me, anyway) a case of fiscal responsibility. I’d love to see the Olympics here… if we could afford it. We can’t. You can’t build on a bad foundation, and our city’s foundation – schools, transportation, city services, etc. – is in desperate need of repair. The long-term consequences of ignoring these immediate needs will far outweigh any benefit from holding the games.
I find the cartoon above a bit misleading. Every Chicagoan knows that Daley only has one oar in the water. Every week there is a new scandal breaking about the criminal activities taking place in local government. Some of the pro-olympic people should be doing their homework instead of following the cue of political hacks. Many of you people are like zombie-sheep (ala monsanto).
Let’s see if this comment makes it past censors.
How about the folks behind this team reveal their credentials and their political ties?
Perhaps some anarchist leanings? … Some not so pure political motives? I’m not accusing, just asking.
I find it interesting that a group like this doesn’t feel the need to identify key members, their qualifications, their background. I’d like indication as to your experience at economic analysis, budget analysis, something that indicates your actual residence in Illinois- some reason, any reason why we should put any stock in your claims.
Again, not looking for trouble, I make decisions based on information and I’m not seeing much from this organization.
get out of your double wides and get a job. Quit complaning about what the city needs to do for you and start doing for yourself. Man…what a bunch of whiners….
Come to the Chicago Center
2016 Olympic Bid Panel discussion
Friday April 24 at 7pm
1515 E 52nd Place-2nd Floor
Support panelist Tom Tresser of No Games Chicago!
The olympics are a false idea of unity. The olympics are built on cheap fast exploitation. Travel get out and see the world… meet people in your neighborhood if you need to feel excitement and pride for your city.
I’m glad you’re over in Switzerland having a vacation on people’s donations… Sounds like a great cause to me!!!
Seems like the Olympics in general are a bad thing for the economy of towns they inhabit…so is the olympics at fault or host towns’ inability to manage the games causing all the trouble. Furthermore does that mean you believe that Chicago is not competent enough to properly host the Olympics?
Do us all a favor…DON”T COME HOME! All of your negativity really isn’t appreciated and your lack of vision is embarrassing.
The lasting benefits the Olympics would bring to Chicago would be enormous. Many other host cities were literally put on the map after hosting the Olympics; Barcelona is the best example of that. The amount of commerce and tourism that has poured into that city before, during and after the games is astounding. The Olympics are the perfect way to bring this amazing city to the forefront of the world.
Unfortunately, you have to spend money to make money. I for one think the Olympics would be a great way to invest in the future of Chicago.
It’s people like you who contribute nothing to progress. If people like you ran the city, we would still be a swamp-filled, stockyard trading post between NYC and LA! Think of the possibilities.
GO CHICAGO 2016!!!!!!
These guys are a bunch of clowns and you do not speak for close to a majority of people who live here. please move away so that all of the things you dislike about Chicago no longer have to bother you! Email me and I will personally buy you all bus tickets out of town to the destination of your choice. The only requirement I have is that you never return! 🙂 Let me know.
As for the Games, they WILL come here and they WILL be a boon for the city! The Obama Administration and Daley will crush your lame efforts. Yes Daley has been an ass hat at times but he has also made Chicago a very popular, beautiful city as well. If you have a problem with municipal politics, perhaps you should focus your efforts to the appropriate officials. Don’t use this stage to air your grievances. That is some weak sauce folks! 🙁
Blah Blah Blah – talk about a waste of money. I bet you’d prefer we hosted the international scabble competition. Oh wait – is it competition that you hate? Tools!
i would like to see all the statements of your GROUP travels to switzerland and compare it to your total donations. just because you want to be heard and the internet or local media is not enough were it most counts doesnt mean you have to spend $, good luck and i hope WE WILL HAVE THE 2016 OLYMPICS
I support No Games. The facts are, as others have noted, that our Mayor is incapable of managing any significant project on time or on budget.
Millenium Park and O’Hare of course. Lets not forget Block 37 development over 20-yrs; the $100M+ wasted by the CTA on the station there; the entire CTA rebuild of the Brown line; Grant Park garage; Wacker Drive rebuild and the river walk. How about that last tax increase to fund the “libraries”? Anyone seen any built yet?
Next, we have various patronage scandals and documented contracts to clouted friends. These are facts, with people in prison for them.
Plus, our Mayor enters into ridiculas 75-yr leases for Midway and Parking meters, then says of the current economic crisis “who could have predicted”. Hmm, and yet his team can predict a 75-yr contract is good for the City for the life of the deal?
Let’s not forget his $550M-yr slush fund provided by TIF financing. If that went into the general fund we would not have a budget deficit today. See these links for details of this crime.
http://www.cookctyclerk.com/sub/TIF.asp
http://www.chicagoreader.com/tifarchive
Lastly, no city in 30-yrs has been able to manage Olympic builds on budget, and this includes China which is more authoritarian than Daley.
All you folks supporting the Games, can you refute any of these issues I mentioned?
I believe he will push this great city to insolvency if we and the rubber stamp city council let him.
Would you please show up at this meeting? My alderman doesn´t respond e-mails against Chicago 2016:
11th Ward Alderman James A. Balcer, 12th Ward Alderman George A. Cardenas, 25th Ward Alderman Daniel Solis and Chicago 2016 invite you to a Community Forum to discuss details regarding Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Speaker: Lori Healey, President of Chicago 2016
When: Wednesday, July 8, 2009, 5:30PM
Where: McKinley Park Field House
2210 W. Pershing Road
One of the commenters above would like all of us to identify ourselves–you’re kidding, right?
Here’s a message for you patronage workers who are secretly fed up with what the Chicago Way has done to this city. Go back to your bosses and tell them we’re just a few crackpots, nothing to see here, nothing to worry about. Then, at the indoctrin…I mean “community meetings for dialogue” when they are shocked by the pushback they get, you just shrug your shoulders. We’ll take it from there.
Aside from not daring to give my name, I’ll tell you who I am. I’m an ordinary, unconnected Chicagoan who loves this city but is disgusted with the way it’s run. I know that the cost of the Olympics to us regular people is a lot more than the blank-check-guarantee issue. Having the Olympics here will totally disrupt our lives. We won’t be able to go anywhere, do anything, enjoy our own city while the overlords and out-of-towners take over and mess it up. The public facilities we’ve more than earned by our tax dollars (at triple what we should have paid), and the amenities we’ve created by our ongoing support of local businesses–not ours any more, for the duration and maybe longer. The supposed economic benefits? Those will be just for the well-connected and their minions. They get the glory and the bucks, we’re stuck with the headaches. No, thanks.
P.S. webmaster, can you change the button to say something besides “Submit”? That’s just what we don’t want to do!
I can guarantee that if we get stuck with the Olympic freak show, I’m outta here on a one way mission. Whether to a suburb or clean across the country, it’ll be a done deal.
I don’t think it’s wrong to support the Olympic games but I think it’s wrong to support them only under the guise that “Chicago will make hundreds of millions of dollars” without knowing WHO is actually making that money. How many minority owned businesses are getting a their share of construction contracts? How many of those construction firms have political connections? Ok, millennium park is nice and brings tourism from all over the world but the reality is that it was poorly managed and went over-budget. The people on this blog trashing NO GAMES are probably out-of-town transplants that don’t own property or have kids in the CPS system. Sorry but I don’t trust politicians.
Explain to me NO Games “Pothole “Economics” . We don’t want the games because we don’t want to be liable in the event Chicago is the only Olympics in the past 30 years not to make a profit much less have to use city taxes to pay off the debt. Fix the trains. fix the schools, fix the potholes. Wake-up…NBC, Visa et al are not going to give Chicago billions for these infrastructure categories. But if we get the Olympic, there will be State, Federal and an international grant to improve the infrastructure. Without the Games…where will the money come from to fix the infrastructure, schools and potholes?…Guess what, 100% guarantee that city and county taxes will HAVE to be raised. So we can fix them for free, or increase taxes to fix them. Support the 2016 bid is the sure thing.
As a disclaimer, I’m somewhat in support of NoGames’s agenda. However, I do have some questions…
I understand that the mission of NoGames is to prevent the Olympics from coming to Chicago, but does NoGames have any contingency plans? Is NoGames trying to make sure that, in the case that the games do come to Chicago (which is very likely), the games will be a short-term burden with long-term benefits? Are the resources of NoGames solely dedicated to criticizing Chicago’s bid in much the same way that the City of Chicago’s resources are dedicated to making sure the games come here? Will NoGames abandon its cause if the bid is successful, or will it try to make sure that money is going to the city’s infrastructure?
I say that we should try to get the Olympics.
With some of the building trades with as much as 3,000 tradesman out of work. The Olympics will spark work for the Chicago area for Chicagoans.
Now would you want to be responsible for keeping unemployment as high as ten percent.
I should know, I am waiting to be called back to work.
GO OLYMPICS 2016
History show us that Chicago’s Columbian Exposition and Burnham’s plan of a lakefront park had its detractors and nay-sayers as well. It takes a real ‘outside the box’ thinker like Daley to create such awe inspiring ideas like covering an unsightly railyard to create Milennium Park. Who would ever have thought Chicago had a chance to host the Olympics until Daley brought it up.
Instead of vollunteering your time to stop Chicago from getting the games, how about vollunteering your time to making sure that OUR Olympics are the best they could be and allow Chicago to grow as an international destination.
Still waiting for even ONE of the pro-Olympics Polyanna’s to rebut the fact that this city and this mayor can NOT operate under budget!! Hello?? Where are you? C’mon, you pro-Olympic people!! You got NOTHING! If you do not respond with REAL WAYS we all WON’T be footing the bill, then eveyone will know you’re an idiot — or new to Chicago!! Mealy-mouthed cheerleading will not pave my streets or pay city salaries! GO, GO, GO RIO!!!!!
fuck you, guess what your’e supporting the fact that the olympics are going to a third-world country. go to the favelas of rio and ask yourself again if you support the olympics going there.
Get over yourself! The games can come to Chicago! I’m sure you will censor this and only give information on one side, not the other. Do me a favor check your webpages for grammatical issues and spelling.
Seriously, your professionals? Maybe in complaining.
It’s really weird that anyone would oppose the olympics coming to their city… Seems you people need to do some more research…
Congratulations to all those folks who campaigned hard for a city that is inclusive and free from the likes of the self appointed aristocracy, the IOC.
I watched the final announcement giving RIO the 2016 franchise operation of the Games. I was amazed that they had all those in the building stand for the Olympic Anthem….are you kidding…they are so wrapped up in their own notice of self importance they actually believe they are a country.
You are rid of them and good for you.
Unfortunately we in Vancouver Canada must suffer their presence and with just five months left to the 2010 Winter Games we are sickened by the cost overruns, the debt and the level of deceit and disinformation.
You made those of us who failed in our campaign to keep the IOC and their travelling country club out of our city very proud of your hard work, tenacity and ability to discuss and bring forth the truth. IT is a good day to live in Chicago, I only hope the folks in RIO are treated with respect and dignity by their organizing committee and government.
Once again, thanks to all of you that worked so hard…
Just curious, about two things.
First, how did your “groupe” fund it’s trips to both Switzerland and Denmark?
And two, now that the games will not be coming to Chicago, will I see you all at and of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Chicago, or at any of the Chicago Public Schools as volunteers?
Didn’t think so.
Eileen? Suck it. And learn to spell “group.” 😀
And next time you feel like posting somewhere for the rest of your life, get all steamed up and accusatory about something that makes sense, dumb-ass. Whether the No Games Chicago people *volunteer* or not has nothing to do with the fact that now King Daley and his endless line of family members and cronies DON’T have an easy, easy way to give each other massive, cost-overrun contracts. They’ll be forced to do what needs to be done. Like paying for education and fixing the crumbling streets and bridges. Have you driven under a bridge lately, Eileen? Or do you just live under one?
Go Rio! Bwah-ha-ha-ha-HA!
Dear Darweed,
Glad to see your initial reaction to comments it to come out throwing insults.
Also happy to see that you’ve never misspelled a word. Good on ya’.
You seem to be under the impression that I fully supported the games, which I did not. But I truly did not hear any alternative ideas from the No Games committee as to what positive measures could be taken. And I still haven’t.
My concern is the number of people who jumped on this organizations bandwagon to oppose the games, yet do absolutely nothing to contribute to the immediate improvement of our city. People often show up to protest, but never to help. Now that the city did not receive the games, a Saturday afternoon protesting can now be spent volunteering at any number of places around the city that truly need help.
Chicagocares.org Check it out.
Just food for thought.
Oh, and BTW, I’m happy for Rio too. I hopefully will be able to stay with family members when I go. Will I see you there?
And what does “posting somewhere for the rest of your life” exactly mean? I don’t understand what you’re trying to convey.
Thanks, and please refrain from name calling.
Eileen,
You know? I apologize for the name-calling. It’s just so much fun sometimes. My bad. But, um, huh?? –>
“But I truly did not hear any alternative ideas from the No Games committee as to what positive measures could be taken. And I still haven’t.”
Eileen, this is the kind of thing that makes me doubt your intelligence. “What kind of alternatives?” What on Earth do you mean? Alternatives to having an Olympics in Chicago that would ABSOLUTELY cost the citizens of Chicago a zillion tax dollars when the Daley administration gets their hands on it? Excuse me?
We got the alternative: no games! Good for you and your volunteer spirit. Enjoy! But again, you’re kinda sorta missing the point here. Alternative? Push Daley out of office in a couple weeks, THEN get the games? Not sure what boat you’re rowin’ here. This is “No Games.”
— d
Now we need to get theses corrupt politicians out of office. Daley and his 50 puppets need to go. They gave him permission to write a blank check to fund those games.
Darweed,
You have no class. Instead of name calling and attacks, try adding something of substance to the discourse. Areas of the city just lost 10 year injection of badly needed infrastructure development! How is that good for our city? We also had by far the best bid in fiscal terms and that was validated by an independent agency. Let’s not even begin to discuss all of the folks that would have been exposed to the 2016 games who might never be able to afford traveling somewhere for 2 weeks in another country! Brazil sure seems bummed out about winning huh? Must be why 200,000 people gathered to party to celebrate!? LOL. You are just another cheap, selfish, self absorbed Chicagoan who does not have a clue!
How does the loss of the games lead to repair of our infrastructure? You seem jealous that you don’t have a relationship to Daley. I’m sure if you did, you would have been in line with the rest of them! The 2016 Games would have been great for Chicago & America! We lost countless jobs and a much needed stimulus for development on the city’s south & west sides. Anyone who is happy about this needs their head examined!
Eileen is right. What do you do to make things better? Most of you losers probably just sit and complain but don’t do anything to improve this city. If you all were not broke, you wouldn’t care about your tax nickels so much. You would just want Chicago to be the best it could be. We lost a great opportunity here. Those who are actually happy about that should be ashamed. They certainly must not love this city as much as I do. By the way, what’s up with the spell check comments? Are you an English teacher or just a complete tool?!
Blah. Blah. Blah. All that blather, and yet here’s another one — hey, look everyone! — who STILL can’t explain how on God’s green Earth the city of Chicago wouldn’t be faced with oceans and oceans of ballooning debt, debt, debt after the torch went out!
JRMD, I’ll say the same thing to you as I said to Eileen. Have you even LIVED in the city of Chicago? Do you even know the name Richard M. Daley?? Until you can explain how, FOR THE FIRST TIME, this city’s administration would not go wildly, crazily over budget because of the guarantee the City Council had to sign saying Chicago would cover the overages, you’re (like my dad always liked to say) as full of sh** as a Christmas goose. You will not reply to this with FACTS and DETAILS… because you can’t!
I would have embraced the Olympics with open arms. But not an open wallet. This city — and this MAYOR — would have emptied it for years to come.
Dillweed…I mean Darweed:
Fact#1: The Civic Federation gave our bid a solid endorsement. It was less than 1/3 the cost of Rio’s winning bid. The White House pledged to support the games to an unprecedented level.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chicagoolympics/chi090916olympic-tax_gfx,0,1405393.graphic
As you can see from the link above, the plan is pretty transparent. What none of you folks seem to get is that this would have resulted in a profound level of development for our city! I don’t think tax revenue would have really been needed very much but if it was, so what? Are you goof balls against investing in your own city?! Unlike you, I don’t live in the burbs. I actually live in the Douglas/ Bronzville area. Many of us were really looking forward to the jobs and infrastructure development that the Games would have brought to this area. Again, tax nickels be dammed. It’s an investment, get it?! You guys seem to have a personal problem with Daley and some of his wealthy friends. I think you should focus on holding local politicians accountable in other more constructive ways. The fact that you helped divert the games from Chicago has merely prevented us from a lot of upside and nothing more than fear of the improbable downside. As long as your pennies were insulated, you should have supported the damn Games. The fact that everyone in the world wants the Games makes you all look like idiots! If it’s such a bad thing, why does every country in the world want them? You are the one who has no facts. You only have fear and paranoia. I’m glad you saved a few tax pennies though. Thanks for your part in preventing an accelerated decade of development for our city and the countless financial & investment opportunities that would have come along with it! Strong work man….strong work.
JRMD, your comments about us having problems with Daley and holding local politicians accountable are core reasons with why this group exists. Even if the Bid was universally regarded as being feasible the city has zero track record at completing such a project on time, on budget, and without corruption tainting the whole thing. If you can point to an example that proves this statement wrong then I’d love to hear it. Nobody disagrees that investments need to be made in the city, but it needs to be handled properly, and that means transparency, proper bidding, proper project management, and accountability when things go wrong. As for your comments on “everyone wanting the Olympics” you should do some fact checking- every recent opinion poll put public support below 50%.
Try a little less name-calling and a little more fact-checking. Start with figuring out why this group came into existence in the first place.
I do not think the bid process was transparent whatsoever. Also, the fact that everyone in the world wanted the games is not entirely accurate. I think it remains a question. Are those who really want the games and rally hard for them entirely informed as to what kind of repercussions the games have brought many cities as of late? I doubt it.
Also, I think JRMD is onto something in his criticism of NGC. I think the group was so bent on all the negativity, they did not even think to start asking the necessary–and longterm–question, “how can the games even start to be beneficial to host cities?”
NGC just came off, to me, as a bunch of cranks prophesying the worst of all possible scenarios. It was “worst-ism” at its worst.
With a lack of a positive vision, NGC stopped short of creating an imagination for a better future–with or without the games.
Jon,
I did not start with the name calling, Dilweed did. By your logic, Chicago will never be able to do any civic project because it is so diseased with corruption! I guess we all better move!? What a lame posture to take! I’m a realist. I don’t give too much of a crap about corruption as long as our city’s infrastructure and resources are maintained as they should be. The Games would have done a lot in this regard and you people helped prevent it from happening. You have cost our city some very real development based upon fear. We have never had the Olympics so you can’t say how it would have gone down. It’s all speculative arrogance. Thanks again! Yes, everyone in the World wants the Olympics! I’m not talking about the idiots here in Chicago. The world got an opportunity to laugh at us yet once again. It’s friggin embarrassing . I would like to have believed that the people of this city could have used media scrutiny and other means of oversight to pull it off in a reasonable way. Daley is not the King of the world. You all talk about him like he’s the Wizard of Oz or something! You helped withhold substantial resources from many people who really need them here in your own city. You should apologize to everyone that you helped shaft. That’s real talk and you know it. Greed and fear ruled the day along with a healthy dose of assumption. 🙁
I don’t think anyone should move away. In fact I think just the opposite- I moved into the city from the burbs last year. You call the acceptance of the fleecing of the voting public being a realist? I call it being an enabler. Demanding accountability, integrity, and transparency from your elected officials is completely realistic and should be demanded of every single elected official and their staff. They work for us, not the other way around. And if someone is dependent on graft and corruption for a job then they need to find a new line of work. I owe them nothing but a middle finger for being a part of the problem.
I didn’t move into the city just to be another schlep who says “thank you sir, may I have another” every time the mayor asks me to bend over. I am happy that groups like NGC do what they can to encourage fair and honest government. The sooner more people grow a backbone in a similar manner the better off our entire city will be.
I agree and you can bite off your nose to spite your face. Sure, i want Utopia as well. Too bad every single city in the US has some element of corruption. Yes, we should not accept obvious fleecing but we also should not become overtly reactionary at the cost of progress. The Olympics would have been a boon in many ways! The agenda seemed to be civic corruption rather than how the Olympics could have been executed to help the city. What do groups like these do to actually help or change anything. To me, they are a bunch of cheap, selfish short sighted individuals who want to save a few tax nickels. I have an idea, make more money like I do and you won’t miss it. I guess we could just keep the city in infinite disarray because you don’t like the way the city operates. There is no Utopia Jon. Sweden & Denmark are the closest. Chicago is a great city and works better than many. We can agree to minimize corruption but Chicago was built on it?! It predates you and I and will continue long after we are gone. Thats reality my friend. Yes we can wish and hope for more but there is a time and a place…a right way and a wrong way! The 2016 platform was certainly not it!
Chicago needs to clean up the waste and pork here! Great job “no games”!!!
Also, help us stop another “pork” deal in progress. Read about it at stopthelandfill.org
Amazing work!!! Keep it up! We in Canada are supporting you! Please join the International Olympic Awareness Network. Our goal is to connect former, present, and future host cities to exchange ideas and experiences to put an end to the uncontrollable destruction the Olympics has caused. We want an International Olympic Inquiry Commission. Legal action needs to be taken against the IOC. Please contact us for ideas and ways to collaborate.
what is up with u! u guys suck balls! show some pride in the fact that the Olympic movement is still in play!
what part of the Olympic movement do you stand for? patriarchy? racism? corporatization? displacement of peoples? enviromental destruction?
i do agree with peace, harmony, and unity through sport, but is that what is really happening right now with the Olympics?
i argue that this blog and other related blogs do not “suck” for the simple reason that they are standing up for those that the IOC and corporate/government leaders fail to listen to or take seriously.
keep up the good work,”No Games Chicago”. keep truckin! here in Canada we fully support your movement and are interested in helping you in any way we can.
the olympic movement does not involve patriarchy, racism, corporatization, displacement of peoples, nor environmental destruction. i dont understand how u can take a huge honor of hosting an international event and complaining ohhh the taxes
the olympics connects the world, even in its most painful times. i dont get how some people in my hometown, Chicago can just diss that fact and complain about taxes.