Friday, October 2, 2009
Politics / Clout City / News We Win!
Posted by Ben Joravsky on Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 3:20 PM
After spending hours in and around Washington Park, I finally found a resident who'd really, really wanted the Olympics to come to Chicago.
He'd just bought a building on South Michigan Avenue and was hoping to rent it out to wealthy visitors at godforsaken prices in 2016.
I was really nice to him. Didn't gloat. Told him I felt his pain and everything.
Other than that it was pretty much happy smiling faces everywhere I went on the south side.
No surprise here. The connection between Mayor Daley's Olympic plans and anything resembling a tangible benefit to ordinary Chicagoans was so minute as to be nearly non-existent. Despite all the manufactured hype of the 2016 committee, the mayor's office, and the mainstream media, the Olympics promises never really took hold here. There just wasn't a lot of grassroots support for bringing the games here, and the International Olympic Committee had to know it.
Earlier this morning the president and Michelle Obama told the IOC how hosting the Olympics would make them proud of their hometown.
Well, I sort of feel the same way today.
It's not as though Chicagoans actually did anything, with the notable exception of the No Games Chicago folks (take a bow, wherever you are). It's more the opposite—what we didn't do. We didn't jump on the bandwagon.
I know it's not much of a triumph. But some of us in this city are desperate for signs of independent thought, and you take what you can get.
By the way, not to rain on the parade, but we're still not out of the woods. Thanks to the mayor, we're the proud owners of the old Michael Reese Hospital campus, a huge white elephant that will probably take years and millions and millions of TIF dollars to develop, if it gets developed at all.
But that's a sad story for another day.
For the moment, let's keep it upbeat. Stand tall, Chicago. By losing, you won.
Comments (21)
Showing 1-21 of 21
The city owns a lot of vacant property around Washington Park, so I figured that they would sell off lots to Daley's pals for a buck apiece. I shed no tears for the real estate speculators who overextended themselves.
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When I heard the news my first thought was "Thanks, Ben Jarovsky!" Sometimes we can only articulate lousy realities. Once in a while we make some change with our reporting. I know you're to thank as well as the folks at No Games Chicago.
Of course I'm sure that the Fenger murder, another Daley Chicago horror, wasn't overlooked by the world and helped add to the Chicago disenchantment.
What a week for Daley's real Chicago to rear its head. I wonder how many people can connect the dots with how his crazy Ren 2010 program -- school closings, reshuffled kids, and fired veteran teachers -- has escalated the gang violence he doesn't stop.
at the end of the day, Ben still writes for a meaningless free newspaper teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. gloat about that
@Still Bankfupt [sic]
The Reader's out of bankruptcy, in case you hadn't heard. And even if it weren't, what bearing would its financial health have on the value of Ben's reporting and analysis? Both the Trib and the Sun-Times actually are bankrupt--does that in your view invalidate their boosterism on behalf of the 2016 bid?
I hope I needn't remind you who's taking the trouble to make shitty anonymous comments on the Web site of a "meaningless" paper.
What wonderful news. I truly hate the phrase "dodged a bullet" but Chicago dodged and atom bomb.
Do note that Rio de Janiero has crime that makes Chicago look like Paris or Munich or Tokyo.
Now we need to get rid of Dumb-Dumb Daley and all his pals.
I realize that's it's more arcane IOC politics than anything else that doomed this bid, but at least it doomed it. I just hope this will have some blowback on Daley, both to tarnish his "legacy" and so we can boot his ass. What pissed me off more than anything was the way they tried to ram this down our throats without making any attempt to build real public support. That and how they wanted to tear up a Frederick Law Olmsted masterpiece -- Washington Park -- for a stadium. Imagine the outrage if NY if the government had tried that with Olmsted's Central Park?
And to destroy the Michael Reese Campus -- how can Chicago claim to love its architecture when the powers that be can blithely commit to destroying the only work of Gropius in the US? And the Chicago Architecture Foundation and Friends of the Parks supported the bid! Chicagoans need to learn how to stand up to Daley.
Even more sickening was how the alderman just knuckled under to Daley -- what a profile in courage that was.
Thanks Ben, for your fantastic reporting on the Olympic bid and all the other obscure political dealings in this city.
Fuck you Ben. Yes I know you're probably just rolling your eyes at the vulgarity of that comment but it sums up nicely how I feel. So I'll pass along a few more, fuck you Reader and fuck you No games Chicago. While you wring your hands in self righteous worry about corruption, traffic and crime, myself and thousands of other laborers who were hoping, PRAYING for the Olympics will now have to take on second and third jobs to keep the kids fed and the roof over our heads. It's bad enough to watch what would have been work for maybe 6 years evaporate but to see some assholes gloat about "dodging a bullet" makes me vibrate with rage. so, in closing, fuck you. It isin't polite or pretty but it fits.
Seriously, what kind of pricks wouldn't want the Olympics in their city? Cities do well when they have projects that people do together. The whole cost-benefit argument of how most Games actually lose money is irrelevant. The Olympics is the greatest festival a city could have. It's great exposure. It's what living in a city is about.
To those who blame anyone who dare speak up to be included in plans by a City government for what happened in Copenhagen, please remember that the International Olympic Committee is an international body with internal politics. No Games Chicago and Mr. Joravsky only had opinions and attempted to let people know them. The International Olympic Committee had votes and they made the decision.
If someone convinced you that the vote was secured and that the Olympics were coming to Chicago, those people misinformed you. There was always a chance that Chicago would not be selected as the Host City.
I am sorry that you had your hopes dashed. I think that Joravsky is writing about the potential for the City to have been responsible for billions of dollars in expenses related to hosting the Olympics, which given the fragile state of our economy, would only make Chicago's financial situation even worse.
@Brian
I'm sorry you won't be able to get that government hand out (our tax dollars) you were so looking forward to. Cheer up though, you can probably get food stamps or some other entitlement you liberals are always lining up for. Ask your president for some of that stimulus money he likes to throw around.
@Palin 2008
Oh man. You fucking wingnuts really are stupid. 2008 is over, man. How about this: Palin 2012. I think that's something progressives and wingnuts can agree on. I would LOVE to see that vapid waste of skin get the nomination. You want to see an Obama landslide? Just run Palin in 2012.
Yet another cogent argument from a palin supporter. Tell you what asshole, you stay off the streets, never dial 911 or drink water or eat food that you haven't grown or raised yourself, never go to an emregency room or ever take medicade or social security. Then you can whine about tax dollars ..Yeah.. I didn't think so.
Now go cheer against America with your fellow travelers beck, hannity, and that obese, thrice divorced draft dodging junkie limbaugh.
Can someone do a quick Audit of TIF money in relation to whoever funded the Olympic bid/proposal?
There's something very fishy as to how Chicago dug up 70 million "without a dime of taxpayer money".
Some things just have to be experienced and the Olympics is one of those things. Some things are more important than money and if those important things are placed first then the money will follow. Ben you have done a great harm to Chicago. You are a small, resentful, little man who gets excitment out of others disapointment.
Brian, direct your anger toward Rich Daley and his minions who financially drained Chicago, and had no alternative vision for Chicago's future outside of the Olympics. While other American cities have been constructing bold but rational visions for their futures, Daley put all Chicago's chips on a 10-1 bet.
@ Brian:
Do you live here in the city, or are you in suburbs? I mean, come on. You think six years of work for a narrow demographic is worth tearing up a city treasure like Washington Park and the added tax burden to property owners for years after the three-week event has finished? Would you have been saving your added income from those six years to pay your increased property taxes for the 20 years afterward? Or were you planning on taking the money and moving as soon as the smash and grab was finished? And if you live in the suburbs, then you've just invalidated yourself. I, too, work two jobs and I'm thrilled we're not getting the rings. You, I, and all of us are much better off - IN THE LONG RUN - without this boondoggle. The only ones who really got rooked are the real estate speculators and inside-deal concessionaires. And I have no sympathy for them whatsoever. Neither should you. Can't find a job? Step up and volunteer to build something then. Let's all help make this city better in any way you and we can. Because we obviously can't trust the current powers that be to do it for us.
I live in the city and work two jobs just like everyone else I know so please, spare me this "Let's all pull together" bullshit and preachy tones about property taxes.
That "narrow" demographic you dismiss? Those are laborers, carpenters, electricians, Iron workers, tile setters, cement contractors, dry wallers, cab drivers, small business owners, hotels, bars, and restaurant workers. All of whom probably have people somewhere depending on them. And yes, if tearing up a park means six years of steady income for those people, then I'd gas up the bulldozer myself.
But none of that matters anyway. You got what you wanted. No games. So you can continue patting yourself on the back and cheering along with the rest of the noxious right wingers about the city's loss.
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