Chicago 2016

Yay! Thank you.

Not coming to a town near you. That is, unless you live in Rio.
We sent the full strength of our star power and still came up way short. Maybe we should have sent Bush over there.

Rio 2016.

The Olympics are an INTERNATIONAL event. Since 1896, they have been held in the US EIGHT times: St. Louis, Lake Placid (twice), Los Angeles (twice), Squaw Valley, Atlanta and Salt Lake City. They’ve been held here twice as often as in any other nation. (France has hosted them four times and is in 2^nd place.)
The other contenders for the 2016 Games — Tokyo (Japan has hosted 3 Olympics), Madrid (Spain has hosted 1 Olympics) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil has never hosted the Olympics) — have obviously hosted them much less than the US. In fact, the Olympics have NEVER been held in South America or Africa. Five Olympic rings and two continents have never had them held there — that’s pretty sad.
There’s enough flag-​waving and jingoism wherever the Olympics are held, but a thousand times more when they’re held here. As an Olympic fanatic, I can do without hearing chants of «U-​S-​A! U-​S-​A!» ever again.
Good luck, Rio!!!

Did anyone else catch that the Olympic committee was in town reviewing Chicago this past weekend and the less than one inch of snow we got was plowed before sunrise? Bullshit, Chicago. You’re like the deadbeat parent that only brushes their kids hair when DCFS comes around.

Actually this city runs great and can easily manage the Olympics — I mean, maybe you personally can’t — most of the negative comments seem to speak to things that have no bearing on actual city governance.
Just to respond to a few of this sort of commentary — if you don’t like taxes and fees, don’t live in a major global metropolitan area — if you want to live with freedom, cows and no taxes — move to Wyoming. If you don’t like congestion, copy someone who also lives in Chicago who never has trouble with traffic at all, or recognize your bad traffic management decisions are not the city’s fault nor are they reflective of the relative competence of the city. Above all, the Olympics offers the city pretty much the only chance to spend a ton of money to address the very complaints of infrastructure raised here — it’s about as close as you can get to bulldozing the entire city and starting over, in the context of infrastructure development. So to base your complaint about the Olympics on city infrastructure and functionality is a classic case of cutting the nose to spite the face.

After careful deliberation, I’ve decided that I’m just not really into this idea. I thought I was, but I’m totally not.
If it happens, it happens but I’m not really going to push for the Olympics to come here.
CTA can barely function on a normal day. However, we’ve seen that it can function well when the entire world is watching (Obama Rally, anyone?) — we want to make sure we don’t fuck everything up for the entire international media to see. But doesn’t it irk anyone else to see that the city could care less about the functionality of its public transportation system until something «important» happens and the international media is watching? It makes me feel a little unimportant, for sure.
Also, do you think we’ll do what Beijing did during the Olympics? You know what I mean — kick all of the homeless/​vagrant/​laborer/​poor people out of the city and literally barricade them out with a wall? Realize that this Olympic City is going to be built right smack dab in the middle of one of the poorest neighborhoods/​housing projects in the City of Chicago. Do you think Mayor Daley will just erect a wall to keep all of the people in the ghetto out? And make sure no one ever sees them? It seems like this scenario is highly likely.
We could really stand to spend this money on much more important endeavors, like building better schools or funding heath clinics or anything that’s not the Olympics. I am especially unnerved by the Daley administration’s lack of compassion and understanding for the community in which he’s going to build Olympic City. I feel like everyone on the south east side of the city will just be blocked out with a wall and not allowed to enter — at least that way Chicago won’t look like it’s full of poor people. They’ll just be tucked away somewhere.
Yay, Olympics!

Amen to the one-​star reviews on this topic. I don’t think that I could add anything else to what’s been already written.
Having the Olympics here not only is a waste of money, Chicago just might end up like Ogdenville, North Haverbrook, and Brockway did in that Simpsons episode when the town of Springfield is convinced to build the Monorail. I know this most likely wouldn’t happen, but you catch my drift.
Marge finds a family of possums in the fire extinguisher closet of the monorail. Homer: «I call the big one bitey!»

YES! OH YES! PLEASE!
I want to throw more of my money at the political machine.
I want more of Todd Stroger’s relatives to get on the county payroll– at 6 figure salaries.
I WANT DALEY to come up with even more asinine ways to waste tax payer money.
I NEED to spend more than the allotted 25 million dollars on the Buckingham fountain redo!
I think that we absolutely MUST HAVE more flowers planted in the city.
The money we have planned toward PR consultants is too low, really. A city like Chicago needs to spend at LEAST 10 million on that a year. We should not have any in house– nope– consultants all the way. They are the cheapest!
Oh yes– and the extension of the lakeshore path that Friends of the Parks is trying to shove down the taxpayer’s throats– to the tune of over 300 million for 4 Miles is an EXCEPTIONALLY BRILLIANT plan!
After all–
Our School system is one of the tops in the nation. The buildings that we demand our kids attend school at are all up to date with technology, air conditioning, adequate bathrooms, and gym facilities. Not to mention, our teachers are given all the supports that they need! They never have to buy materials on their own, can attend conferences and professional development of their choice and have full input into the school and district improvement process.
Our CTA is a national model! OH yes– you can get anywhere– in such a short amount of time– you will not believe it! Getting to work on the red line and the blue line is a trip of your dreams! Our bus drivers are fantastic! Our buses never pile up, never have accidents. The best part about the CTA– it serves all parts of the city equally!
Our Police Department is also something that we can show off! No crime happens here! Our kids are exceptionally safe. Our officers are supported by the mayor and Jodi, as well as the citizens. They work together to solve crimes and have no jurisdictional issues.
Our fire department, libraries, cook county hospital, and other public institutions all have more money than they know what to do with! We are swimming in it!
We also have a top notch planning committee! They thought way in advance and reserved
website for the event. There is no need on their behalf to take anyone to court over the ownership of that site! BELIEVE me! These people have their act together!
I ABSOLUTELY cannot see why anyone would be against this plan. Chicago is a PERFECT CITY that has GAZILLIONS of dollars to throw toward something like this! No one here is struggling, hungry, working more than one job!
The Olympics will set us FREE! Free from any ability to ever have a hope of fixing the infrastructure of our city and making the city itself– not the people– something we can be proud of!

I think the city should have more reason to balance budgets rather than a short term fix of Chicago 2016 money and then spending tax payer money for construction projects and etc for the $$ who are pulling the strings of the city. If they can balance the budget and stop cutting service/​education/​jobs and etc… sure…let’s have the Olympics here! But its just not gonna happen. Let’s see long term reasons for the $ and reasons to have the Chicago 2016. Don’t fix buses and roads just for the Olympic bid, but just fix them to make it better for the taxpayers who pay your salaries please. It’s a money machine the city government and tax dollars, I get that, but let’s have some reasonable measures please!

Great for business but only over the short term. I kinda’ like Washington Park the way it is not to mention the other areas this will disrupt arguably for the worse.

It’s ON!!! Chicago is a 2016 Candidate City. Let’s make it happen!!!
Chicago 2016 needs gobs of volunteers to participate in building support and awareness for the 2016 Olympic Games.
There are all kinds of events coming up-​something for everyone! Sign up to be a volunteer today!

No thanks. As someone who lives in Chicago and pays Chicago taxes and is sick of Mayer Daley and his antics, I have to say NO WAY do I want the Olympics here. None of my neighbors and co-​workers do either. We all know better.
I do love the enthusiasm of the people that don’t have a Chicago address promoting the Olympics here, I think it should be in the suburbs somewhere. Keep it out of Chicago!
City dwellers that own properties, pay super high sales and property taxes, own small businesses and/​or have families with school aged children know that flower boxes and an 18 million dollar bean don’t make a city. Neither will a 47 million dollar Olympic village. Enough is enough with Mayor Daley and his lies and corruption. The Olympics will only bring more hardships to the people that actually live here in the city.
In the meantime, here’s a thought, how about enthusiasm for putting a little money into our public schools that are the second to worst in the ENTIRE country.
The City of Chicago is like the the crack head that whitens her teeth. They may look nice and bright white when you are looking from the outside at them. But if you take a closer look on the inside, they are all rotted out and in need of a MAJOR overhaul.