Slipping away? Maybe that’s a good thing
Friday, Oct 5, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Maybe this is a good thing. Daley just hasn’t been the same since he ventured forth on this grand quest…
Chicago stands in “third or fourth place” in the race for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games and it’ll take Chicago-style politicking — including more involvement by the private sector — to turn that around, the chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee said Thursday.
* According to USOC Chairman Peter Ueberroth, Chicago is behind Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Tokyo, and the reason is apparently that the big boys and girls aren’t wining and dining the Olympics’ big boys and girls…
Ueberroth indicated Chicago’s private sector needs to be more involved in the bid, especially in the area of contact with IOC members. […]
“I expect all the [technical] bids to be terrific,” Ueberroth said. “It’s the relationship with members that will make the difference.
* And this is absolutely horrible news for ordinary Chicago citizens…
As for logistics, the USOC chairman insisted that the CTA’s financial crisis — and the possibility of fare hikes and service cuts without a Springfield bailout — would have no impact on Chicago’s chances.
“Any Olympic Games can make the adjustments in its transportation system for a three-week period in order to accommodate the world athletes. There are bigger conventions that come to this town,” he said.
Great. Just what we need. Daley and civic leaders should spend more time traveling the world instead of fixing dire problems at home. Perfect.
I am now leaning strongly against the Olympics.
* More problems that “don’t matter”…
* Chicago Mayor Richard Daley says the city can’t afford to hire more than fifty new police officers next year. In
* Daley Backs Georges, Secrecy
* Mayor backs city attorney’s decision to withhold names of cops accused of excessive force
* Tribune Editorial: (Dis)trusting City Hall
* An undercover video leads Chicago police brass to investigate allegations of misconduct
* Kadner: Schools should sue county assessor
* Stroger’s huge campaign fund may be cut sharply due to fines
- Arrogant Bunch - Friday, Oct 5, 07 @ 9:45 am:
The U.S. Olympic Committee should run like hell from Chicago. Look whose is in charge Daley and Blagojevich, hopefully they read this blog.
- Cassandra - Friday, Oct 5, 07 @ 9:52 am:
Maybe the Chicago police they have onboard now could do some actual work before they hire some more.
I live near one of the main arteries between Chicago’s Austin neighborhood (which some law enforcement officials characterize as the country’s largest drug market) and the western suburbs.
A common sight around here is Chicago police shopping and dining in Oak Park–for hours.
More security for us, I guess. But then….
Oak Park police spend a lot of their time
dealing with drug customers who park over here (too dangerous for them in Austin, I guess) to shoot up. Last month, we had a drug execution slaying out of Austin.
Maybe if they GPS them (Chicago PD) it will help.
But Chicagoans should see what the GPS tells them
before they use their property tax increase (yes, it’s coming, unless you stop acting like sheep) to hire more.
- Greg - Friday, Oct 5, 07 @ 9:54 am:
Someone please remind me, if not infrastructure upgrades, what’s the upside in the Olympics for Chicagoans? (Chicagoans other than travel agents and hot dog concessionaires…)
- Enemy of the State - Friday, Oct 5, 07 @ 10:08 am:
So far I have been right: Rooting for Rio, better swim suits, better facilities.
- Loop Lady - Friday, Oct 5, 07 @ 10:17 am:
Chicago does not need to be distracted from real issues it needs to deal with such as transportation, infrastructure and education with a feel good event like the that will put money in the pockets of the well heeled, cause gridlock, require massive amounts of security, and reek general havoc for those who work and live in the City…Hasta la Vista…
- Loop Lady - Friday, Oct 5, 07 @ 10:18 am:
sorry…like the Olympics…
- Jake From Elwood - Friday, Oct 5, 07 @ 10:46 am:
Kadner has it right. Houlihan is ignoring his ministerial duty of timely assessing properties and forwarding the data to David Orr. Several taxing bodies are being forced to go to TAWs because due only to this delay. If the delay continues, it will soon interfere with the tax levy process as well. So much for intergovernmental cooperation!
- B-no name nickname needed - Friday, Oct 5, 07 @ 12:03 pm:
i recall Tony Peraica running for office and posting the names off all Cook County employees and their addresses. a lot of those employees were afraid for their safety and now that we see the goons that Peraica hires we know why. Those cops who would have their identification disclosed would have the same concerns.
- RBD - Friday, Oct 5, 07 @ 12:58 pm:
My experience working with City employees is that they are in it for the infrastructure money.
What I took Ueberroth to mean is that more of Mayor Daley is not going to help; it’s the biz leaders that are missing. This makes sense since the IOC knows that the political leaders are likely not to be in office 9 years from now but the business executives, or at least the corporations, will be.
I think more hands-on involvement by the corporate executives in day-to-day Chicago would be a huge improvement. I’m an election judge in the Gold Coast and Old Town neighborhoods. The voter turnout is miniscule. Last February I went out to the street to talk to residents as they were returning home at the end of the day. They refused to vote; they didn’t want to be “involved.”
If the heads of banks, consulting companies, electronics firms, etc., had to start explaining to the world why Chicago cops are seen on Youtube beating up bar patrons, etc., such activities might get some attention within City Hall. But the people out there talking to the world about Chicago have to come from companies with a worldwide reputation – Citibank, McDonalds, Motorola, IBM, Xerox, GE……. Just sending out more of the local usual suspects (the Valerie Jarretts) won’t cut it.
Thus, while I really don’t care about the Olympics, I think there are some valuable aspects that can be used to benefit Chicago.
- Agony of defeat - Friday, Oct 5, 07 @ 1:01 pm:
The Olympics would have been bad for th city and region, an excuse for land grabs and scams with little long term upside from the short term influx of business.
- Doha? - Friday, Oct 5, 07 @ 1:16 pm:
More wining and dining? It seems not that many Olympics ago that accepting too much personal attention got Olympic officials in hot water. I think the work “bribe” may have been used.
- Up North - Friday, Oct 5, 07 @ 1:54 pm:
The enforcement of Illinois’ campaign finance disclosure laws is a joke!
- NimROD - Friday, Oct 5, 07 @ 1:55 pm:
That’s not a ‘bribe’; that’s hospitality….the Chicago way. Just like Al Capone did it 80 years ago.
- Ivory-billed Woodpecker - Friday, Oct 5, 07 @ 3:01 pm:
“[C]ompanies that do business in countries with IOC members need to get more involved in the politicking, in part because they’re free to lobby in ways that Chicago 2016 members cannot.”
I still think the Olympics could be a great party. But if that S-T quote does mean the Chicago establishment is not sufficiently “wining and dining” the Olympic “movement” (what does that mean, anyway?) establishment, not providing enough all expense paid travel, not droppng off sufficiently gilded gift bags at the hotel, not bestowing some of the other favors that so embarrassed Salt Lake City in 2002, then bully for Chicago. And bully for the deterrent value of past investigations, indictments, and convictions.
- Squideshi - Friday, Oct 5, 07 @ 4:09 pm:
What is the Mayor’s argument against a civilian police review board?
- fed up - Friday, Oct 5, 07 @ 10:17 pm:
cassandra you are usually complaining about all the nonviolent drug offenders being locked up in jail and now you are complaining the police arent doing enough you are a typical liberal it is always someone elses fault. Its the police fault that all these drug offenders are in prison and its the police fault you nieghborhood has drug crime. Maybe just maybe its the people who live in you neighborhoods fault you have drug crime. The police are wrong in your eyes for making arrests and wrong for not making arrests people like you deserve the service you get or dont get.
- Angry Chicagoan - Monday, Oct 8, 07 @ 9:10 am:
Rooting for Rio at this point. About time South America had the Games.
As for Ueberroth saying the CTA doesn’t matter, he’s got his head wedged in a very dark place. London very nearly blew it through problems with transportation, and had to basically promise to deliver Crossrail and a proper transit hub in Stratford in addition to sorting out the PPP projects on the Tube — we’re talking several tens of billions here — in order for things to happen. And their rapid transit and bus are indisputably in better shape than ours, and their commuter rail is at the very least directly competitive.
But if that’s the USOC’s attitude, the US, not just Chicago, deserves to be ignored for a very long time.
- Marathon - Monday, Oct 8, 07 @ 3:22 pm:
I can’t imagine the marathon over the weekend helped Chicago’s Olympic bid