Talk about buyer’s remorse! The cost of the 2010 winter games in Vancouver are spiralling out of control. The 2016 Committee says it will only cost $4 billion + to do the larger summer games seven years from now. Can’t you just see that screaming headlines “2016 Games – $10 Billion and Rising.” Wake up, Chicago – cancel this ticket before the city is buried in Olympic sized debt for the next 30 years!
Chicago 2016 wants the State of Illinois to increase its financial guarantee for Chicago’s 2016 Summer Olympic Games bid. Bid officials want the state to increase its financial guarantee from the $150 million in taxpayer funds pledged in 2007 by former Governor Rod Blagojevich to $250 million, reports CBS Chicago. And the Governor has agreed. …
A report by Prof. Victor Matheson, “Mega Events: The effect of the world’s biggest sporting events on local, regional and national economies” exposes the lies told to us by the 2016 Olympic Committee. They claim the 2016 games will bring in billions. In the report, published in 2006 by the Department of Economics at the College of Holy Cross, Prof. Matheson says “Not so.” This report is available for download at www.tinyurl.com/Matheson-2006.
His report concludes with this quote:
“The most important piece of advice that a local government can take regarding mega-events, however, is simply to view with caution any economic impact estimates provided by entities with an incentive to provide inflated benefit figures. While most sports boosters claim that mega-events provide cities with large economic returns, these same boosters present these figures as justification for receiving substantial subsidies for hosting the games. The vast majority of independent academic studies of mega-events show that the benefits to be a fraction of those claimed by event organizers.”
Sun-Times “On The Home Front” real estate columnist Don DeBat wrote in Friday’s paper: Chicago’s $4.8 billion Olympic Games bid features details about a new neighborhood that is planned to house some 16,000 athletes and officials on the current site of Michael Reese Hospital on the Near South Side. Preliminary Olympic Village plans, drafted by …
Ben Joravsky, the political reporter for The Reader, took a look at the 2016 Committee’s Bid Book and came way skeptical. Headlined “The $10.5 Million Mascot,” Ben fumes ” With its 300-plus pages of bright pictures and cheery quotes, the bid paints a picture of a city free from potholes, budget deficits, CTA meltdowns, murders, …
Former Alderman Arenda Toutman was sentenced to four years in prison on Tuesday for mail fraud and tax fraud. Troutman is the 30th sitting or former Alderman to be convicted of corruption charges over the past 36 years! Mayor Daley first appointed Troutman to her office in 1990. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is pursuing a corruption case against Alderman Isaac Carothers (29th Ward).
Do you trust our City Council to provide proper oversight and review for the Mayor’s crooked and insider development deals? Our City Council is asleep at the switch and no one is watching the cash register. Say “NO!” to the Olympics.
Wha’t wrong with this picture?
The Chicago summer games of 2016 are projected to cost less than the Sydney games of 2000?!
Remember, this is Chicago. Soldier Field renovations. Monroe Street garage repairs. Millennium Park overuns.
The great Block 37 Project that gives and gives to developers, including the CTA Super Station to nowhere.