Friday, October 2, 2009
Chicagoland / Politics / Sports 2016 Olympics: more post-mortem
Posted by Whet Moser on Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 12:38 PM
Things that I think are true but can't prove:
* To be a bit of a homer for a minute, if you were skeptical of or against the Olympics, or just wanted an earnest pushback on Olympics Fever, I think it's worth noting that Ben Joravsky and Mick Dumke did a remarkable job of driving that sentiment. I put together an archive of their work on the Olympic bid over the past couple years, and reading through it, I can't help but be amazed at how much work they did, and think it was an overwhelmingly important part of the process.
* Not to mention that their reporting on the parking meter fiasco has been Daley's albatross in the months leading up to the decision.
* "Olympic defeat a setback for Obama": Oh, please. He showed up and gave a speech. The decision to give it to Rio may be as simple as the fact that South America has never hosted an Olympics; their presentation also seems to have been the most favored. A "setback" is silliness. Health care and Afghanistan are the setbacks to watch out for.
On the other hand, it's an enormous setback for Michelle Obama ().
* A setback for Daley? That's a much more interesting question. I think the failure to land the Olympics, insofar as you can blame the city's mixed feelings about the event, is actually a setback for the mayor - but it's more a symptom than it will be a cause.
In other words, I doubt anything that went on in Copenhagen was a referendum on his leadership, but the local debate on the games very much was. And I can't imagine Daley doesn't recognize that.
What that will actually mean I can't begin to guess. On one hand, the relative unpopularity of the bid in Chicago combined with ongoing budget problems and his low popularity has to make him nervous. On the other hand, there's no organized political opposition, and the City Council's fealty towards the mayor during the bid process demonstrates his power:
"Robert Fioretti, Scott Waguespack, and Joe Moore, for starters, have all told me the mayor made it clear he would never forgive or forget anyone who came out against the games. He wanted an unblemished vote, and he got it."
Obviously, there are lots of reasons for him to come home and take action - but I'm not convinced there are enough.
Update: I think commenter Dienne at Eric Zorn's blog has a good point here:
"As far as winning, I think he's still a popular mayor. I think people feel he's done a lot of good for the city - the city certainly does look a lot better than it did when I came here in the late 80s. Sure there's corruption and sure Daley's probably up to his armpits in it. But frankly I think that's something that Chicagoans expect and accept - it's not like there's any great shock every time some new investigation/indictment is announced."
The whole comment is worth a read.
Showing 1-6 of 6
Reeeee-oh! The outright rejection of Chicago’s Olympic bid reveals a number of cold realities, political and otherwise, that powerless Chicagoans, long hip to the cracks in City Hall’s façade, have come to loathe. We never had a dog in the fight. Our “leaders,” knowing the plan was rotten, as usual, waved their back-the-bid pennants out of fear and retribution of the mayor. As usual, Daley’s grandiose scheme was reckless, pie-in-the-sky kingmaking. Fiscally irresponsible and unwanted by a near majority of residents, the busted bid shows Daley—who likes to throw red-faced tantrums, tear up airports in the middle of the night, and sell off city assets to balance his broken budget—is actually a big fish in a little pond who is unable to bully those on the international stage. Kudos to the Reader for delivering fine, responsible reporting on this and other important, under- or never-reported current issues.
Gary Johnson
Hey, I noticed the Reader deleted my comment. What I wrote wasn't offensive. Does the Reader have written guidelines for people to post comments? If so, where are they?
Abe,
I'll look into it. Dunno why that would have happened.
Setback for Daley? I think it was, but in a sense that was not discussed above. Sure the lack of support for the bid among the common people is something to worry about, but past elections have shown that Daley's ability to get out the vote, combined with the lack of any organized political opposition, make him a safe bet to win re-election. As long as he can bring home the bacon for his supporters, they will stay loyal and organized enough to get the machine vote out on election day. The real problem is that the Olympics would have brought enormous patronage opportunities which Daley would have controlled. The contracts for building the Olympic facilities, providing services and concessions during the games, and the jobs created by the games are the currency of politics Chicago-style. Having the power to distribute these benefits would have given Daley a lot of power; without the Olympics, he has an ever-shrinking pie of city spending to divide among his hungry followers. An mostly overlooked story during the last year or so is the growing crisis in the city budget due to a widening gap between spending and revenue since the collapse of the real estate bubble. It seems to me that the parking meter deal was a way of deferring that crisis until the Olympics would start providing cash for the city. Now that there will be no Olympics, what treats does Daley have to keep Burke, Mell and the rest happy? I think an early indication of how this plays out will be seen in the fate of the former Michael Reese site which was to be the Olympic village.
"the city certainly does look a lot better than it did when I came here in the late 80s"
I'm so sick of this argument. What city doesn't look better than it did in the 80s. Almost all US cities were in their deepest pits then and have just recently been experiencing growth for the first time in decades. This has less to do with Daley's leadership and more to do with national social and economic shifts that have ushered in an urban renaissance in the US. I agree Daley has done some great things for Chicago and helped get us to a healthy place, but I don't think he is capable of taking us to the next level. If getting the trash picked up consistently is all that you expect from your city, then by all means, keep voting for Daley.
"As far as winning, I think he's still a popular mayor. I think people feel he's done a lot of good for the city - the city certainly does look a lot better than it did when I came here in the late 80s. Sure there's corruption and sure Daley's probably up to his armpits in it. But frankly I think that's something that Chicagoans expect and accept - it's not like there's any great shock every time some new investigation/indictment is announced."
Herein lies the problem. Expect and accept.
Anyone who would accept corruption (theft) from their government is either a fool, part of their club, or a coward.
Whatever is the rational, it needs to change, for that is how a society becomes oppressed.
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