As reported online by the Chicago Sun-Times: The City Council’s Finance Committee today set the stage to remove the single-biggest impediment to Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid — by authorizing Mayor Daley to sign a host-city contract that amounts to an open-ended guarantee from Chicago taxpayers. Chicago’s reluctance to match the blank-check promise to cover Olympic …
Patrick Kissane of Chi-Town Daily News thinks that public subsidies of for-profit sports stadiums are rip offs. And he thinks the 2016 Olympics would be one, too… We live in a truly Orwellian place called Chicago. Guided by the mayor and the local Olympic boosters, we are being sold tripe about the economic benefits to …
As reported in today’s Chicago Tribune: Olympic opposition getting second wind as support in Chicago fades 47 percent of Chicagoans polled favor the bid, but that support had been at 61 percent in February Support in Chicago for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games has dwindled, with residents now sharply divided over whether the city should …
Mindful Metropolis’s Jacob Wheeler reviews the Olympic possibilities in the September issue: Will Chicago’s bid for the 2016 games adorn the Windy City in beautiful rings or lock it in handcuffs? Imagine two glorious weeks of summer when the entire world comes to nearby Chicago — which is our local city, judging by the number …
As reported in the Chicago Sun-Times: Mayor Daley’s chief of staff got a whopping 41 percent pay raise — to $250,000 a year — when she jumped off the City Hall merry-go-round to become president of Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid. Even with that $72,784-a-year pay raise, former chief of staff Lori Healey is not the …
If you’ve been to the 2016 community meetings as No Games Chicago has – you’ll recall hearing the claim that no taxpayer money has been or will be spent on the games. No Games has challenged that claim repeatedly – wondering how they keep failing to include the almost $200 million for the purchase, demo, …
The Civic Federation’s report looking at the finances of the 2016 Committee is out. No Games is going over it page by page and from what we’ve seen so far – despite being full of conflicts of interest and unchallenged assumptions, it raises new alarms for the people of Chicago. It seems that local news …
The mayor had another rough night meeting the public Tuesday at the South Shore Cultural Center. Here’s a gem from WBEZ’s coverage of the hearing. “The mayor didn’t answer that – or most – questions directly, instead asking his staff to meet people individually. A handful of speakers brought up the city’s 2016 Olympic bid …
As reported in today’s Crain’s Chicago Business: Chicago’s business weekly dumps cold water on the over-inflated and unsupported claims of Olympic economic benefits. As noted local economist Allen Sanderson says, “It’s a party, not an economic investment.” Watch the Crain’s Chicago video news report. Mayor Richard M. Daley’s prediction that the 2016 Olympics would give …