Why Chicago Didn't Get The 2016 Olympic Games: The Dog Ate the Application
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The Dog Ate the Olympic Application.
I hate to admit it, but I was born in Chicago.
I used to work in Chicago, but not in a department store.
So far, I have overcome both hazardous experiences.
But lots of folks still have to live there, including El Presidente.
Recriminations are flying right and left in the wake of the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) decision trashing on the first vote Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Olympics.
U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, a Democrat, of course, said the rejections reflects "tattered relationships" left behind by former President George W. Bush.
President Obama has been blamed for not sticking around for the final vote, although he was jetting out to meet a general to talk about the war in Afghanistan -- obviously a far more important mission.
Chicago, because of its escalating violent crime, was probably cooked as far as the Olympic bid was concerned before Obama got aboard the plane to leave for Denmark, or wherever the hell it was the decision was made.
The dog ate the application for the Olympics is the best excuse I can come up with. Not that politicians can't come up with more creative thoughts about who is to blame.
Some pundits said Republicans had cooked up an anti-Olympics rally in Chi town just to embarrass the President. The rally supported Rio's bid for the games. If true, that's sick, and self destructive, but all's fair in politics and stupidity, as they say.
The rally explanation would be more understandable than the explanation put forth by Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), a south side Chicagoan. Rep. Rush blamed Obama's predecessor for the first-round loss in IOC voting on the host of the 2016 games.
"I believe that [Friday]'s action is just the latest example of the cultural breach that still exists between the United States and several leaders of the global community of nations," Rush said Friday.
"Friday's vote by the IOC members reflects the tattered relationships that remain after eight years of the catastrophic reign of the Bush administration," Rush continued. "It will obviously take some time for the Obama administration to continue its important work to repair that breach."
Nah!
Chicagoans barely supported the Olympic bid in a recent survey, 47-45 percent, that some observers think was a vote against Mayor Richard Daley. After all, the mayor has leased the parking meters to a company for $1.1 billion and the fees have doubled and tripled. A photo machine spits out $100 tickets for rolling right turns like popcorn, a device that has infuriated already short-tempered Chicagoans.
All kinds of other corruption, ala Al Capone, is rampant. Nothing has changed since I was a news reporter there, a cub on the Trib, as a friend put it. Told that if stopped by a cop I should palm a $10 bill under my driver's license, I brazenly tried it when busted for a wrong turn at the end of Lake Shore drive. Sure enough, the cop handed me back by license and told me to get on my way; the tenspot, of course, was in his pocket.
That was 50 years ago, but I understand that not only has nothing changed, it has gotten lots worse.
But I digress. About the Olympics, Chicago folks are ticked, and for good reason. Anything the mayor comes up with will find no favor in the Windy City. And, the report from Montreal was not lost on the Windy City: the Canadians took 30 years to pay off a $1 billion debt for the Olympics.
Besides, they could never have squeezed the Olympics into south side Chicago, near where I spent the first three years of my life (66th Street and Jackson Park). Heck, there's no room there. No wonder Chicago folks were dubious.
Time Magazine reported last April the Olympic Village was planned along Lake Michigan, just south of downtown. Washington Park was to be the site of an 80,000-seat Olympic stadium.
Word on the street was Daley had his cronies primed to get sweetheart contracts for all the construction. Even Chicago won't buy that kind of dirty pool, what with unemployment raging and folks stressed with taxes and living costs.
Irish lass Dolores and I recently rode for an hour from O'Hare Airport on Chicago's extensive public transportation network, confirming for ourselves it is aging, prone to delays and dirty.
Chicago people knew all that, better than anyone, and they knew the city couldn't afford the Olympics. No wonder they started a Chicagoans for Rio website.
The name of the dog that ate Chicago's Olympic application? King. Yup, King Richard Daley.
Probably the only place where people are worse off financially than Chicago was the winner of the games, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Poverty there makes Chicago look like a paradise.
What a wonderful world it is! ###
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Dave Rogers |
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