The Chicago 2016 Committee will probably spend $100 million to promote the bid. There are dozens of heavy hitters on the committee. It’s going to take a broad, grassroots campaign to STOP this terrible deal from being dumped on the people of Chicago.
TAKE ACTION NOW TO BUCK THE BID!
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SUMMER NEWS FLASH:
CALL YOUR ALDERMAN – “NO GAMES! NO BLANK CHECK!’ ATTEND 2016 STAGED COMMUNITY MEETINGS AND DEMAND THE TRUTH!
TELL YOUR ALDERMAN TO VOTE FOR ALDERMAN FLORES BILL TO CAP THE OLYMPIC SPENDING. DOWNLOAD AND PRINT THIS PETITION AND GET YOUR NEIGHBORS TO SIGN IT. GIVE ONE COPY TO YOUR ALDERMAN (TAKE A PICTURE) – SEND THE PICTURE AND A COPY OF THE COMPLETED PETITION TO US AT NOGAMESCHICAGO@GMAIL.COM.
Get current schedule of 2016 staged community meetings.
DOWNLOAD A 8 1/2″ X 11″ (letter size) FLYER THAT SAYS “NO BLANK CHECK!”
DOWNLOAD A “NO BLANK CHECK” FLYER WITH A GRAPHIC OF A CHECK MADE OUT TO THE IOC
DOWNLOAD A FLYER THAT SHOWS HOW THE GAMES LOSE BILLIONS FOR HOST CITIES.
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JUNE FLASH:
CALL THE WHITE HOUSE AND TELL PRESIDENT OBAMA TO STAY HOME AND SOLVE OUR ECONOMIC CRISIS – NOT ADD TO IT BY THROWING A $5 BILLION PLUS PARTY WITH OUR MONEY.
CALL THE WHITE HOUSE AT 202-456-1111.
WRITE: THE WHITE HOUSE, 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE NW, WASHINGTON,DC 20500. Sample letter to the President.
SIGN OUR ONLINE PETITION TO THE PRESIDENT!
USE THIS FORM TO EMAIL THE PRESIDENT – http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/.
(1) Donate via PayPal. You can mail non-tax deductible donations to:
No Games
P.O. Box 6815
Chicago, IL
60680-6815
Call us at 312-804-3230, Skype: tom.tresser
(2) Sign our petition and leave a comment.
(3) Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/2016olympicbid
(4)
(6) Download, print and distribute our fact sheets:
– Cost Overruns – cost_overruns
– Myths & Realities – mythsrealities
– Why Chicago Should NOT host the games = fact sheet
– Five Big Lies – One sad Truth = 5_Big_Lies
(7) Send a letter to the IOC–Let them know the Olympic Bid Committee does not speak for you
Powered by CitizenSpeak.
To: International Olympic Committee
Chateau de Vidy
1007 Lausanne
Switzerland
Telephone: (41.21) 621 61 11
Fax: (41.21) 621 62 16
(8) Post a video! Tell us why you think the Olympics would be a bad idea for Chicago. How would YOU use the $100 million that will be spent in an attempt to lure the games here? [YouTube account required]
(9) Contact Senator Durbin. He’s leading the “Pick Chicago” effort. Tell him to put his efforts into getting us OUT of the financial mess we’re in – not INTO another giant money pit!
(10) Contribute! Donate via PayPal.
(11) Order tee-shirts and help us spread the word.
(12) Invite us to speak at your event, organizational meeting or community forum.
(13) Join us! We need help organizing and getting out the truth about the disaster that befalls Olympic host cities.
Email us at nogameschicago@gmail.com or call us at 312-804-3230.
(14) And did we mention DONATE…?
Why not have a letter-writing campaign to state legislators? Schools and infrastructure in many rural parts of Illinois are as troubled as the West and South Sides of Chicago. So it shouldn’t take much to convince representatives from these districts to vote against using state funds for the Olympics. Besides, these legislators don’t need to worry about reprisals from Mayor Daley and his cronies.
I think its a very good idea!
~lj
This Group and Action is SO on TIme I thought No One Cared about this Action!!!
It makes me sad to see the internet give a voice to such a bad idea as No Games Chicago. It appears to me that your issue seems to be corruption and/or graft within the local politcal arenas. I would urge you to focus your attention in helping create a positive change with that challenge. I view your efforts to block the Chicago 2016 Bid equally as harmful to the community than the level of political corruption occuring today.
Mr Latimer, you must work for the government. You sure mimic their ability to use many words to transmit ZERO information.
things you neglected to mention:
– Why you are sad
– why you think No Games Chicago is a bad idea
-Examples in your opinion of HOW our efforts are harmful to the community, nonetheless how our efforts are more harmful to community than the ineffecient oligarchical power structure in place today.
Re: T-shirts and the shocking lack of logoed baseball hats on the website store!!!!!
Yes — every movement needs T-shirts, but, I don’t wear movement T-shirts. I do wear movement/logo baseball hats. So–my #1 recommendation– add No Games Chicago baseball hats – to your web-sales room. #2 Recommendation — if you’re only going to stock one model of hat– then, stock the non-structured, one size fits all hats with the METAL sizing buckle, and quality cloth material. #3 Recommendation – if you’re going to stock several models of hats, then stock hats at several quality levels and prices ($12 to $25) — also be sure to stock at least one model hat (the most expensive-?-yes) that has JUST the No Games logo – nothing else – (high end supporters and the cool people will like these best). Why all this flibber-d-jibbit triviality about hats, you say, impatient to engage with the REALLY BIG ISSUES OF CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY VS. THE EVIL INTERNATIONAL SPORTS EMPIRE? Well, my impatient paladins, it’s because apparel items -especially HATS — are easy to grasp as a movement endorsement, or, at minimum a low end commitment of at least fashion solidarity in the cause. Plus logos and slogans on apparel are very cheap advertising vs. say a 30 second ad on Chicagoland TV channels – in neither place can you explain the CRITICAL SUBTLIES – both are blunt shout-outs and caricatures– let the passionate and the reporters read your 40 page critiques and point papers. Success for the apparel campaign would be – creating a widespread demand in Chicagoland (and beyond?) — maybe even a fashion spike among the cool hip fleckless young (again the passionate kiddos will be memorizing tax rate curves and the mini-max cost stats, is there a Masters Thesis in Sports Management aborning here?) – for wearing and displaying the NO GAMES logo hat. Like, yo, it’s cool; it’s anti-establishment, but, not too threatening, I can wear it to the school assembly and even to the sports bar on Friday night – look Ma, I’m being brave in Chicagoland. Ultimate apparel success, would be a temporary but severe inventory SHORTAGE of the logo hats reflected in soaring prices on e-BAY and Craig’s List and journalistic curiosity (e.g. Craig’s list ad: Will trade Cubs double header tickets for 2 logo only hats; SunTimes headline — Who Is Hoarding the Logo Hats – Fed Inquiry Is Vital – Gas Distributors Suspected, Again!). Finally and selfishly, I just like hats. Good luck. P.S.– If the No Games logo ever appears as graffiti in the Cubs and Sox bathrooms, you’ll be at least wining hearts and minds. And, good luck.
Keep it up, I don’t want a fifth start on our flag to remind us of this 2 week circus and economic fiasco for the rest of my life. This is not an event on par with the Worlds Fair or the Century of progress as some have said – it will leave no enduring legacy such as the University of Chicago, the L, or the museums.
Chicago IS on the map! And if you don’t think so why not put us on the map as the first city with a %100 emission free public vehicle fleet, or the most effective recycling plan, or the best public schools in the nation? It seems to me if we want to make out mark on history in this generation that is the way to go.
Lets leave something behind for those yet to be born Chicago school kids to read about when we are gone, like Burnham, Sullivan, and Fermi did before us.
The Olympics, a Con-test to see which country is best at gym class.! What a waste of money.
Hey, how about a boycott of any establishment displaying a “chicago 2016” banner?
I lived in Montreal during the 1976 games. The Olympics is like a binge-drinking night on the town. Great fun and then you’re left with a major hangover. Montreal was bankrupt after the Games and had to be bailed out by the state. It took 20 yrs to recover. The people who promote this always grossly underestimate the cost and overestimate the returns. It’s a license for Daley and Co. to give lucratif contracts to the well connected. Chicagoans beware!
If we do get stuck with this freak show, may I suggest a way to save a couple billion bucks: Use the Chicagoland Speedway as the track and field venue. It has all the ingredients and already exists: A grandstand for the fans, a nice oval track, and an infield, plus equipment to determine a winner! And a winner circle for the podium. “Gentlemen, start your legs!”
Is anyone from your group attending the 2nd Ward meeting tonight at 6PM? I just found out about the meeting (from your site) and am not sure if I can attend on such short notice. I certainly do not want to attend if it a Chicago 2016 selling session. Do you know if there will actually be an opportunity for the opposition to be heard?
Keep up the good work. We appreciate your efforts.
Michelle
The olympics will forever divide the city of Chicago.
There is an aspect of Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympics that needs to be brought is. That is, the approximately 35 acre site currently occupied by Michael Reese Hospital and proposed to function as the Olympic village is a hazardous waste site.
Michael Reese has occupied the site for over 100 years. For much of its history Michael Reese was a large, major medical center with over 800 patient beds (large by hospital standards). As a consequence tens of millions of radiology procedures were performed at the hospital over the years. During this long history Michael Reese, like all hospitals of its era, used toxic chemicals to develop radiology films. Also, after these films were no longer needed (usually after several years of storage), valuable metals such as silver were extracted from the films before they were destroyed. Again, as was common practice during the majority of the hospital’s history, toxic chemicals were used during the extraction process, and the process itself produced toxic by-products. Prior to strict enforcement of environmental safety standards (i.e., for most of the hospital’s history) Michael Reese, again like most hospitals disposed of these various chemicals in the most convenient way possible. For Michael Reese, this meant that much of this toxic waste was disposed on it’s sprawling campus.
Over a period of years the EPA issued multiple violation letters to the various owners of Michael Reese Hospital related to hazardous levels of toxic materials on its campus. These letters were delivered as recently as earlier this decade. There is no evidence that the owners of Michael Reese engage in any meaningful remediation efforts as a result of these citations. Thus, it is very possible that, the site being proposed as temporary housing for the world’s premier athletes, as well permanent residences for a great number of individuals, is, in fact, hazardous to their health.
I wish nothing but absolute failure upon your attempts to keep this great event out of the city of Chicago. The last three Games held in the US have not ended in a deficit, but in a surplus of varying degrees. The Olympic Games have served to enhance the international stature, civic pride, and infrastructure of almost every city to have ever hosted them. Just ask the city of Denver who was awarded, then declined to organize the 1976 Winter Games about the envy they felt when their neighbors in Utah but on a wildly successful 2002 Games. These games will be great for Chicago and America as a whole. Come Saturday you all will have to find some other cause to rally against because, face it, you people don’t want to get real jobs.
Thanks for nothing group. It’s sad that you can’t dream with the rest of us. Maybe you should put your efforts into helping rather than hurting.