The Blog

Oppose Chicago's Olympic bid and you're opposing opportunities for under-privileged kids. It's brilliant (in an "oppose the war in Iraq and you're opposing our troops" kind of way).

thanks for trying

is it just me, or does it seem as if no matter what is said/done/written these olympic plans will be advanced? as if the buzzing of flies will only disturb the busy giant, and not divert its attention from the task at hand? could just be me, but........ i'll try to remain optimistic. btw- doesnt pat ryan look like leslie nielson if leslie nielson was impersonating pat ryan? just a thought... "i miss you more than michael bay missed the mark.....when he made pearl harbor....." exodust.

"for the kids"? the lie gets worse every day.

RESOLUTION 06-R-290 Sponsored by Suffredin. Co-Sponsored by Butler, Claypool, Collins, Daley, Maldonado, Quigley, Sims and Steele. The following question shall be submitted to the voters of this county as an advisory referendum at the general election scheduled for Tuesday, November 7, 2006; “FOR THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF CHILDREN and the entire community, shall the State of Illinois enact a comprehensive ban on the manufacture, sale, delivery and possession of military-style assault weapons and .50 caliber rifles?” Approved and adopted this 12th day of July, 2006. John H. Stroger, Jr. President, Cook County Board of Commissioners. They will use the “FOR THE CHILDREN” excuse to try and take away our rights every time.

I remember them claiming the same thing about facilities build for UIC when they tore down the Maxwell Street district. Not to mention the research labs that were supposedly going to be built for a 3rd-rate school.

Yeah, the way they're handling this is pretty sleazy. Why not just say - yes, we're building a sweet sports facility that's going to cost 9 times what it should, but guess what, you get to use it eventually? I supported the Olympics until this attitude became common in the olympics. Being an architect, the same crap is happening on the southside where they are trying to tear down Michael Reese Hospital. It's a piece of architecture with a very important pedigree, and it would cost far less to reuse it for the games than rebuild it for the games, but instead they're choosing to bulldoze it and waste hundreds of millions of dollars doing so. And rumor has it they don't even have the money to build a decent Olympic Village - the costs they claimed to be able to build it for are looking too low, apparently - so the Olympic Village that's replacing it will be crappy anyway. But it's all about the contracts, so some developer can get rich building it, no doubt a friend of Daley's. Of course, they state it's all best for the community, and it isn't costing the public anything, which is of course crap because they just bought the site for $86 million. Very infuriating. I hate the Olympics now. I really wanted it to be good, something Chicago could be proud of... Oh, and fix the L while you're at it. Haven't heard anything about that, either.

I give up you guys caught me.Richie told me to lie. The money is not in the bank. The money is buried up at Grand Beach Michigan. Please don't force me to wear an orange Jump suit, I don't want the Olympics either.

Put the Olympic Village in Bensenville, in the acqusition area, than build a high speed train from Bensenville to the Olympic Stadium in south loop. The land is available and the high speed train to the loop can be incorporated to the O'hare exapnsion.

Didn't they grease the children's museum's into Grant Park "for the underprivileged kids", even tho we have a perfectly good children's museum, on the lakefront, for the underprivileged kids, right now.

everybody here knows cocopussy is just a tool of baby avila.

"providing recreational opportunities for underprivileged children in low-income neighborhoods" oh that's good. real good. the CEOs of the large corporations are the only ones who will benefit from these "games".

the 4 Daley brothers are the head of the irish mob. Just today, some nameless minion decided to wipe clean the records of all lazy scumbag Streets & Sans employees who are connected, clouted, and "somebody who somebody sent". The Daley's have locked up every way to make money in this state. They appear unstoppable. Fire Fitzgerald, he's a fraud, he'll arrest some small time idiot alderman for 5 grand, but not the Daleys', who make hundreds of millions. Oh, i forgot about the 21 billion capital project that Gov. "no backbone, no integrity" Quinn just signed. More money for the irish mob, since they're the only ones in road construction.

At a 2016 meeting in Lincoln Park this past winter, they gave the same spiel. When repeatedly asked what funding would be in place to implement programming for these magnificent new facilities after the Olympics, they couldn't give an answer. Underprivileged children don't need a kayak course downtown, they need a school system that effectively educates and a safe way to get home every night.

Lets lay all our cards on the table. Daley cut side deals with the trade unions. The two holdout Unions are the largest,the sellout unions represent a small number of city employees. Carpenters 13, Plumbers 130,Electricians 134 are not exactly Democratic Unions. They don't have to present Daley's payoff to their Leaders to the rank and file members. Many Union leader have friends and relatives in protected cushy jobs on the city ,county and other Government payrolls. Also, how many Union business Agents sell city and county jobs to their members. The Unions have a lot to protect and a lot to lose not going along with a pirate like Daley. Send this twisted little man a message No Olympics.

Why is Fran Spielman Helping Daley to control spin regarding a fire Procurement Chief.former city Purchasing Director Montel Gayles,at the center of the Minority contract fraud quickly resigns from his post. The story was printed on the lateeditions only to be removedthe next day. Is FRAN Spielman up to her old protect Daley tricks? Daley's chief procurement officer abruptly resigns Comments July 14, 2009 BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter Mayor Daley’s $169,020 chief procurement officer abruptly resigned Tuesday, spinning the revolving door in a department that has struggled to boost black contracting and weed out minority fronts. Montel Gayles was appointed in January 2008 to replace Barbara Lumpkin, who resigned after two years on the job. Less than three months later, Gayles embarrassed and infuriated Daley with kid-gloves treatment of James Duff, head of a mob-connected family that became the poster child for minority business fraud in Chicago. Gayles banned Duff from doing business with the city for just three years, even though Duff pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining $100 million in janitorial contracts earmarked for minorities and women. When Daley and African-American aldermen raised the roof, Gayles switched the punishment to a lifetime ban. Shortly before his about-face, Gayles had defended the three-year penalty, telling the Chicago Sun-Times, "I don't know the Duffs from the Diffs." Daley made no effort to conceal his anger and kept Gayles in the doghouse for months. Nevertheless, Gayles remained on the job for 16 months before resigning. City Hall insisted that he was not forced out. Now, a mayor who has changed chief procurement officers six times in the last eight years without solving the black contracting problem that infuriates African-American aldermen will have to fill the hot seat once again. “I wish him well in his future endeavors,” Daley said in a press release announcing Gayles’ decision to “pursue opportunities in the private sector.” Gayles, former executive director of the Daley-chaired Public Building Commission, did not return repeated phone calls. On Friday, Gayles testified before a City Council committee and disclosed numbers that have become all too familiar to African-American aldermen: only 7 percent of all city contracts awarded during the first quarter of 2009 went to blacks, compared to 14 percent for Hispanics and 35 percent for Asian-Americans. Ald. Ed Smith (28th) believes the constant turnover at the top of Procurement Services is impeding the city’s efforts to bolster black contracting. “I thought he was on the right track. He worked with us. He tried to put mechanisms in place to improve these numbers, but he didn’t have a chance to make a case for himself. He was not there long enough,” Smith said. “I’m just concerned that we’re losing some key people from our community in these spots. The person who proceeded him was also black and she ended up leaving also. I don’t know what happened [to Gayles], but I’m really concerned to find out what happened.” Gayles’ departure comes at a time when the Daley administration is laying the groundwork to renew a construction set-aside ordinance that’s due to expire Dec. 31.

Maybe he left because he was about to be outed for some of his shadiness? No one leaves a stable job in this market to pursue other interests. He's been a con man since his CHA days, if not earlier. Lived on the coattails of Terry Peterson, who has long since fallen from grace. Carried his shenanigans to the PBC where he was forced to leave because of overruns at Kennedy King and issues with privatizing city jobs at a greater cost. Hoffman must have finally squeezed him on his relationship to some of his "preferred contracting" firms. Mark my words: You'll see more about his reason for leaving if Mayor Mumbles can't control the City Hall spin.

Maybe Gayles resigned becuse he was tired of covering up the illegal multi-million dollar contracts Picardi gave out that benefitted the "chosen ones" and not the taxpayers. Remember, the city's own engineering reports failed the streetlights from The Will Group, but Picardi bought them anyway. Twenty-five million dollars down the drain!

Contract Fraud possibility The Will Group. President Stephen Davis Vice President Matthew O'Brien www.thewillgroup.com

Mike Sullivan, When Brian Murphy was at Streets and San, did he have The Will Group install designer street lights at the Firehouse Resturant?

IS IT TRUE WALSH CONSTRUCTION PUT NEW ROOF ON JARDINE PLANT 5 YRS AGO AND SIX MONTHS LATER IT LEAKED AND WALSH CHARGED THE CITY TO FIX IT? JUST WONDERING SOMEONE WHO KNOWS.

Montel Gayles former Building Dept official,encouraged inspectors to do political work for the 17th ward organization. Also involved with shady dealings in the Building Department.Procurement chief handling all the Minority contract fronts,for the Daleys 7/14/2009 9:00 PM CDT on suntimes.com

You guys are right Maggot Daley just laid off 400 people savingthe city 24 million. Daley spent 25 million to purchase and install unnessary street lights,to enrich his friends.