The Blog

Could someone please tell me why the Olympics are so important to Mayor Daley? My God, he is so old he will die of a heart attack if he (note: I did not say Chicago) does not get the Games. Maybe John Kass had it right, it is all about the concessions. $$$$$$

"My bet is the city will finance a large chunk of the Olympics with property taxes taken from several TIF districts." -B. Joravsky, March 14, 2007 http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/theworks/070316/

Wow, Orion. You woke up at 4 in the morning to write that?

Mayor's Office press release May 10, 2006 Daley, Civic Leaders Meet with U.S. Olympic Committee Chicago would be an ideal location for the 2016 Summer Olympics, but the games must provide long-term benefits for the people of Chicago and must not burden taxpayers, Mayor Richard M. Daley said today. ... If Chicago is to pursue the Olympics, Daley said, " ... real safeguards must be in place to protect the city’s finances and our taxpayers. This effort cannot become a financial burden to the taxpayers of Chicago and Illinois. “We will not seek the Olympics if we think it will detract in any way from our ongoing efforts to improve the Chicago Public Schools, strengthen our neighborhoods, make our city safer and more affordable, or help those most deserving of our support.”

Ben, This tax increase is about libraries and kids. The Olympics is about a legacy and kids and physical excellence. Ben, Why do you attack the best Mayor in the history of Chicago?

Gutierrez joins Daley bandwagon Congressman once tied mayor to corruption Fran Spielman, Chicago Sun-Times, Feb 13, 2007 Nine months ago, U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) delivered a blistering critique of Mayor Daley before the City Club of Chicago that appeared to lay the groundwork for a campaign for mayor. Gutierrez talked about a mayor besieged by corruption who had been in power too long. He accused Daley of wasting time and money on Millennium Park and attracting the 2016 Summer Olympic Games at the expense of public schools. He called it "offensive" that only two of every 100 Hispanic freshmen in Chicago public high schools go on to college. ... Gutierrez said his on-again, off-again alliance with Daley was back on again after the mayor invited him to a Saturday morning breakfast about a month ago. Daley assured Gutierrez that no public money would be spent on a Chicago Olympics ... http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20070213/ai_n17221436

Ben has proven, once again, what a fucking liar Daley has been, is, and will continue to be. Also, let's not forget the MANY other liars who inhabit our governments, city, county, sate and federal. They all have one thing in common, namely, they are the INCUMBENTS. Does any citizen still have any doubts about: HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT Just Do It.

Hey, we got rid of Coconate, who do you want out next? Wow, the Honor-Guard story, now that is big time. I wonder who was behind that story? Hmmmmm... Lets fire more loafer deatbeat Chicago City Employees.

One thing I don't understand is, since Ben has proven himself to be capable of understanding exactly how those in our city and county governments waste, steal, misuse, mismanage and otherwise fuck over each and every citizen residing in this city and this county, why haven't we, the taxpaying voters, been offered the opportunity to elect BEN JORAVSKY as our Mayor, or our County Board President?

It's near the City and O'Hare Airport. It also is loaded with Chicago employees....

Steve Rhodes of the Beachwood Reporter notice that NY tried to pull the same trick on the taxpayers for their bid for the 2012 Olympics: TIF money is not PUBLIC money! TIF money is NOT taxes! Olympic Games West Side Stories Scrounging Up $3 Billion in 'New' Tax Money? Hey, No Problem. by Neil deMause, Village Voice, January 22 - 28, 2003 Councilman James Sanders couldn't help himself. No sooner had the chair of the City Council's Economic Development Committee warned fellow legislators at the December 17 hearing on the city's Olympics plan to hold off on questions about financing, than he was asking Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff: "And the city won't have to put any money in the plan?" Doctoroff's answer, as always: "No existing tax money will be used." That word—"existing"—was not chosen lightly. For Doctoroff's West Side dreams absolutely would require public money: at least $3 billion of it, for everything from an Olympic stadium to expanding the Javits Convention Center to—the big-ticket item—extending the No. 7 train to Eleventh Avenue. But in Doctoroff's vision, all this would be "new" tax money: funds that would be created by the very development they were helping to build. If it all sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Doctoroff's plan to use this "tax increment financing" (TIF) to convert the West Side's lofts and parking lots into a westward extension of midtown's office towers is raising eyebrows among development experts—and could yet deep-six New York's shot at winning the 2012 Olympic bid two summers from now, as IOC chair Jacques Rogge puts a microscope to cities' financial plans in the wake of Athens's disastrous preparations for the 2004 Games. "That would be the grandmother of all TIF districts," says California TIF expert Howard Greenwich, whistling in amazement at a project that would be 10 times the size of the largest TIF on record. And it's almost certain, he says, to cost taxpayers money—possibly for decades to come. http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0304,demause,41333,1.html

I cannot believe some of these comments. How in the hell can we move ahead,without showcasing our great city the the world. The benefits from an Olympic would be enormous. Daley has no selfish motive ,due to the probabily he will be dead around 2016.Investments and people would pour into Chicago,after the olympics.Maybe the Mayor want a statue after bring the Olympics to our great city,and he would deserve one indeed.

How about posting some VERIFIABLE data on exactly what benefits have been gained by the last, say, 10 cities that have hosted the Olympics? And by gained, I mean, NET gains, after ALL the COSTS have been subtracted from the gross gains. Instead of posting your feeble, whining, Daley touting crap, post the VERIFIABLE FACTS to support your claims of 'enormous benefits' and 'investments and people would pour into Chicago after the Olympics'. How about asking the citizens of our city if they want 'people' pouring into our city? How about detailing the likely nature of those 'investments'? How about sharing the nature of those expected 'benefits'? And the identities of those who expect to be benefited? I'm sure the mayor appreciates your expecting him to be dead by 2016. Will the rest of his cronies and pals, and their offspring, be dead by 2016 as well?

I command everyone to worship Daley right now!!

Ben, This tax increase is not about libraries and kids. The Olympics are not about a legacy and kids and physical excellence. Ben, Why do you attack the worst Mayor in the history of Chicago?

The Olympics are a smoke screen to make it look like this lazy Rumple stiltskin of a Mayor look like he is getting something accomplished. We,as a city deserve this clown for mayor, but for the Olympics, can you say Rio!