Not only has the city and pledged hundreds of millions to the games, not only are we promising to destroy priceless public parks and turn acres of land and lakefront over to a private organization, not only are we writing a blank check for security for the games, not only have we spent $86 million …
The New York Times reports today that although the city is $300 million in the red, it is proceeding with plans to purchase the Michael Reese Hospital site and tear it down for the Olympic Village. Just weeks after inspectors with the International Olympic Committee visited here as part of a bid for the 2016 …
Wendell Hutson writes in Wednesday’s Chicago Defender that the IOC Evaluation Commission has takens note of No Games’s objections to holding the 2016 Olympics in Chicago. After meeting with protest groups while visiting Chicago last week, members of the International Olympic Committee’s Evaluation Commission said they are concerned about possible displacement should Chicago win the …
Steve Chapman reports online the results of a recent economic study by scholars from the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. These authors confirm what No Games has said from the beginning, namely that grandiose claims of economic benefits from producing the Olympics is just another soap bubble …
Citizens are tired of waiting for the city to do its job of taking care of essential services and are taking matters in their own hands. A recent article in the Tribune documents a DIY road repair effort! Neighbors take to the street: Chicago wasn’t patching potholes, so West Sider’s became a DIY road crew. …
At a forum held at the Cultural Center on April 9, Friends of the Parks repeated its support for the 2016 summer Olympics coming to Chicago despite the many venues being planned for public parks all over the city. FOTP’s stated mission is “a designated park advocacy organization, dedicated to preserving, protecting, and improving Chicago’s …
Leon Depres was fighting city hall before most of us were born. The 101-year old former dean of the independent alderman took some time to give us the wisdom of his decades of dealing with the Daley machine, “Hosting the Olympics,” he says, “is an illusion.” One that will help a few businessmen and hurt …
From an online report, “Beijing’s Empty Venues reveal heavy Cost of Olympics” Post-Olympic financial problems are common for Olympic host cities, particularly for the host of the larger and more expensive Summer Games. Spending billions to host the two-week event, cities almost never make a profit and usually spend years paying off their Olympic-size debt. …
The Tribune’s Steve Chapman wonders if the Olympics will be such a treat for Chicago. Representatives of the International Olympic Committee arrived last week to get a firsthand look at Chicago, one of four cities still in the running for the 2016 Summer Games. If locals are lucky, the IOC team will admire our architecture, …