Tuesday, October 9, 2007
News / Clout City Mayor Nice Guy
Posted by Ben Joravsky on 10.09.07 at 08:24 PM
Apparently, the best way the U.S. Olympic Committee can get its message to Mayor Daley is to use the press.
If you recall, when they wanted him to break his promise to use no public money to pay for the 2016 Olympic games, Olympic committee vice president Bob Ctvrtlik went to the media.
"We definitely want the government to have some skin in the game," Ctvrtlik told reporters on March 7. "We had been assured by the mayor that this is the case with the city of Chicago."
Within a week Daley not only reversed his long-standing pledge not to use public money but had slammed through the City Council a Rube Goldberg financing scheme likely to cost taxpayers at least $500 million if, God help us, we get the games.
Last week Ctvrtlik's boss, UOC chairman Peter Ueberroth, came to Chicago and told reporters that if Daley doesn't improve his act, the International Olympic Committee will award the games to another city. "You have to care about and develop real friendships globally if you're going to be successful in the Olympic movement," Ueberroth said.
In other words, Chicago has to start making nice to IOC shot callers.
This may not be so easy for Daley to do. It's one thing for the mayor to sign on to a plan to waste public tax dollars -- he does that all the time (think $40 million handout to the Merc). But it's another thing to actually get him to be ingratiating or solicitous. Daley doesn't suck up to people, people suck up to Daley. If the mayor wants to do something, he just does it -- to hell with the opposition (think the destruction of Meigs Field). In the case of the Olympics, Daley probably figured all he had to do was invite the IOC to McCormick Place, feed them deep-dish pizza, take them on a bus tour of the city, and the games were his.
Now he knows better. We're number four.
Comments (17)
Showing 1-17 of 17
Here's Daley's chance to show just how much he loves Chicago. Dig DEEP into your OWN pockets, fat boy, pony up for the international extortion experts. You know how it's done, albeit, only from the taking side of the coin. Make those calls, to ALL your so-called 'friends', see how forthcoming they'll be, when the swag is coming from THEIR pockets. You DO want the windfall of swag the 2016 Olympics 'would' bring, don't you? It ain't so bad, this is just one of those times when even YOU and your cohorts will have to PAY TO PLAY.
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Jon Burge got the security contract for the Olympics in Chicago. Just keep him away from the African athletes.
What wrong with the Olypmics coming to Chicago. Shouldn't the Mayor look out for the interest of his citizens,by bring the Olypmics to our great city. Look at all the jobs,and increased property values, these are only the few by-products. Nothling is free in this world,including the Olypmics.We will eventually get our casino too.Grant park is for the people, no one monkey(Reilly) can stop the show. Cindy Priziter is right, the Children need the space.
Great! Happy to hear you haven't jumped ship on mayor mumbles. So, can Richie count on you to pony up, say, $10k+ towards meeting the bribery demands of the 'officials' who run the UOC? I figure that if each of you clout monkeys come up with at least that much, in cash, of course, fatboy should be able to swing the deal.
Now, we all KNOW you've GOT to be good for AT LEAST $20k+ on this one. You will have the cash in hand by the end of the week, won't you? Richie's depending upon you. Buddy.
Hey I just tapped into Frank Cocohead's website. Talk about one self centered individual. He seems to forget the issues and talk solely about himself. I can clearly see why he is a party of one. I wanted to leave a message,but his board was out. I will leave the message here GET A LIFE AND A JOB.
"Talk about one self centered individual. He seems to forget the issues and talk solely about himself." You mean like Richie?
11th man, Jerry Joyce, the REAL Mayor,designed my website. The mesage board is working, you must be pressing the wrong buttons. 11th man, did you get that name because you followed the 10th man in sleeping with John Daley. If anyones interested, my website stated 3 months ago, after the mayor asked the taxpayers for $500 million, that we should not let the Daley Administration manage the Olympics. As you can see with everything the mayor touch's it is always over budget because jerry joyce has to get his end.
He's the son of the banjo player in Deliverence and the banjo Players brother Jerry Joyce in " Battling Banjo's" Also a special thanks to ben J....The Mayors News letter is finally giving you credit on TIF's! Mark Brown is a class act!
Chicago's 'hidden tax increase' County commissioner's TIF tiff with Daley in the spotlight October 11, 2007 BY MARK BROWN Sun-Times Columnist Excerpt: The guy who really knows how to explain TIFs is Ben Joravsky, the columnist from the Chicago Reader who has made it a personal crusade. Check out his past columns on the subject if you're interested in learning more right away. I promise I'll try to do more. More... http://www.suntimes.com/news/brown/598514,CST-NWS-brown11.article http://www.chicagoreader.com/tifarchive/
Does anyone truely know the cost of anything. Being a city Attorney, I have first hand knowledge how much it takes to run a modern world class city.When a pot hole appears ,it is usually filled within days. When building is vacant, it boarded and razed within weeks. When a building is without heat an Inspector, arrives within 24 Hrs,to provide service.The demands from the citizenry to expand the scope, and reach of government,necessitates increased tax burdens upon the masses.The city would slowing die without maintaining a high level of service .
You have GOT to be kidding. "Does anyone truly know the cost of anything."? Well, I know that the CITIZENS do know the cost of just about everything, as THEY ARE PAYING FOR IT. "Being a city Attorney, I have first hand knowledge how much it takes to run a modern world class city." Would you be so kind as to inform us which 'modern, world-class city' you work for? 'Cause you aren't saying you work for the city of Chicago, are you? "When a pot hole appears ,it is usually filled within days." Now I KNOW you don't work for the city of Chicago, or live within this city's limits. "When building is vacant, it boarded and razed within weeks." Now why would a building, a piece of private property, be demolished, merely for being vacant? What buildings are you referring to? And who would the owners of these buildings be? And what was their reaction to their private property being destroyed? "When a building is without heat an Inspector, arrives within 24 Hrs,to provide service." Once again, where is it that you work and live? "The demands from the citizenry to expand the scope, and reach of government,necessitates increased tax burdens upon the masses. The city would slowing die without maintaining a high level of service." And you claim to be a trained attorney, working for this city? After reading the last 2 sentences of your post, I'm beginning to believe you just might be.
$40 Million to the Merc/BOT merge deal. TIFs to developers for $400k plus condos. When is Patrick Fitzgerald going to do his job to fight corruption and extortion.
The Feds are only interested in slam-dunk cases, ones where there is no lack of hard evidence. Since the DOJ is effectively influenced by the politicians who appointed their directors, politics plays an important part in the 'who' and 'when' of all their actions. The many honest employees of the DOJ have to deal with being put 'on hold' when they're involved in politically 'sensitive' cases. Apparently, violations of state law don't rise to the level of interest for the Feds, and grey-area 'maybe' violations of state law don't even merit investigation. Give Mr. Fitzgerald a bit more time, say, 5 to 10 years or so, he'll get around to Richie, Mikey, Emil, Roddy, Toddler and the rest one of these days.........
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