What Will It Take To Get Chicago The 2016 Olympic Games?

What was Mayor Richard M. Daley thinking as he sat in the stands in Beijing and watched those dazzling, nationalistic, very expensive, opening ceremonies? I wish NBC had shown a shot of "Mayor Beautify". His jaw must have dropped at the display, mouth wide open enough for a Chinese acrobat to fly inside. How the heck can Chicago compete with that? What would Chicagoans say if Daley spent money like that? But money must be spent, and vision must be found to make a mark on the world scene.

You say China had more to prove, coming off of decades of also-ran status, and now hoping to show itself a leader on the world's stage? Well Chicago has been going in the other direction, dropping from an unquestionably world-class city to one with fewer corporate headquarters, fewer jobs in creative industries, fewer artists of world renown. Chicago must now prove that it can compete, not only with Beijing, but also with the other contenders for the 2016 games: Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will select a winner in October 2009. But for the long term, we need to demonstrate to ourselves and to all who would live here or open a factory or an office here, that Chicago is on the rise.

Start with a great stadium. Beijing's "Bird's Nest" blows the mind. We have never a stadium like it before. China is telling us it's a new world, and they are center stage. Are these walls? Is the steel woven? If it slants outward, how does it stand up? And, how can that stadium look so powerful and at the same time seduce me with its gorgeous sensuous curves?

Would anyone say that about the proposal for the Chicago stadium?

Chicago's proposed Olympic stadium, and it will surely be revised some, is a snooze. It may be elegant, but it heralds nothing new. The designers updated slightly the age old ideas of stadia by adding video screens to the exterior walls. If you've been to Times Square recently you've seen something similar. Don't think this will "wow" the IOC and make them want to give the games to Chicago. Especially when our competition in Tokyo are working with one of the world's greatest architects, Tadao Ando. Ando plans a stadium that would almost float, in harmony with thousands of trees he wants to plant. Hey, isn't he beating us at our own game? Isn't Mayor Daley - born on Arbor Day - the great planter of trees?

Chicago used to produce proud monumentality, for example in the tall, dark and handsome John Hancock building, but it's been a while since we've made the world look at us. Millennium Park of course is the exception, but I fear Chicago has not learned Millennium Park's real lessons: think for the ages, get the top design talent in the world, spend money on materials, and make the project appeal to the senses of people actually walking through it. That's how you make a great urban place.

China, we see, is brimming with "national pride." Do we need more national or civic pride? Is that partly why our urban areas are often lacking?

The new, temporary Olympic stadium proposed for Chicago gives the message "I'm practical and affordable, but hardly inspired." In that way it reminds me of Chicago's new Midway airport, compared to say, British architect Norman Foster's new enormous air terminal at Beijing's airport. Under Foster's feather-light, naturally lit roof, you enter into a whole new world of possibilities. At O'Hare we offer more aesthetics and pride than at Midway, but not to compare with several elegant new Asian and European airports.

And then there's the matter of getting from the airport into and around town once you're here. It's a good sign that Mayor Daley's first stop in Beijing was to check out their new subway lines. Since being awarded the games Beijing has built four new subway lines - lines, not stations! - for about eight billion dollars. Eight billion dollars for new subways in one city! And that's at low Chinese prices. I found them clean, safe, quiet, attractive, and almost always packed. Daley knows he has to improve Chicago's public transit system. He told the Chicago Tribune that he'd like Chicago Transit Authority President Ron Huberman and other transit officials to visit Beijing to see how they do it. Daley said about Chicago, "We've got the system all there. I mean, the 'L' goes right to the O'Hare field and right to Midway Airport, which is really unusual in most cities."

But it will take more than that. The "L' may look good on paper, but it's often unpleasant to use it. Our trains and buses need more flair and contemporary comforts, we need to make them speedier and quieter. We need express trains between the airports and downtown. Business needs quick and easy access. Ease of arrival and movement are ways in which cities compete today, not only for Olympic games but for long-lasting job-creation and population growth. Tokyo introduced bullet trains for the 1964 Olympics. They've served that city well ever since, and helped its economy grow.

Didn't "Make No Little Plans" kind of start in Chicago, as far as the modern world is concerned?

If Mayor Daley is serious about winning the Olympics he has got to offer grand, forward-thinking visions for his city. And the people will have to support the Mayor when he spends money on infrastructure. We haven't always done that, even when he has a good idea, such as adding nature with beautiful planters in the middle of Chicago's streets. China is said to have spent some 40 billion dollars in the run up to these games. They even have planters on the sides of expressway ramps. The opening ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics must have cost tens of millions of dollars.

London will host the summer games in 2012. They plan on spending just a quarter of what China has spent, yet after Beijing's opening night London's Olympics Minister said, "We should not be intimidated. We will do something just as wonderful and just as extraordinary." The head of Chicago's Olympic bid, Patrick Ryan, said of this week's unforgettable spectacle, "It was appropriate for Beijing and the people of China, and ours would be appropriate for the people of Chicago and the people of the United States." That sounds awfully status quo. We need to reach high in Chicago, as we did when we built the John Hancock.

Of the many highlights in Beijing, one that stood out were the hundreds of blocks with artists inside moving them up and down, undulating across the field, to symbolize the wind. NBC's China expert told us that Confucius said, "The virtuous leader can pass across his subjects with the ease of the wind." The Windy City is our home! Are you listening O wise and esteemed Emperor, I mean Mayor? Inspire us! Provide vision! You were dazzled by Beijing, as we were.

Comments

[hv112221]

Chicago has nothing to prove while Beijing has tons to whitewash.

[RoseyB]

Years ago City of Chicago employees started talking about the need for a BIG event to get the federal money to fix CTA. Their belief is that the only way any major city gets to the top of the funds distribution in DC is to get the Olympics.
The people who specialize in whining like to miss this detail every time it is mentioned.
The IOS has been very clear in their desire to have a city demonstrate how to hold an Olympics without ending up with facilities that are little used afterward. They believe that is the only way an African country will ever be able to carry out an Olympics, which is an IOS goal. That’s the reasoning behind the way the Chicago facilities are designed.
Chicago has huge events several times a year that do not inconvenience many people. I’ve heard people hypothesize about the horrible crowds destroying the City at the very moment 100,000+ people were five blocks away at Lollapalooza --- and the whiners didn’t even know it.
Now that Chicago is the US contender, it is in our best interest to win. We will gain out of it tens of thousands of new jobs –for people who spend their money here and pay local taxes (and help keep yours from going up [except by Todd Stroger]). Atlanta’s Olympics created 50,000 new jobs.

[ChicagoDMT]

CHICAGO IS KNOWN AS THE CITY THAT WORKS...

We who live here knows how it works. Olympic contracts will be awarded according to whom is best able to fill political coffers. Family and friends of powerful politicos will be financially enhanced even if their only contribution is sitting at home and watching the event on television. Chicago residents will have their lives disrupted for months on end while construction takes place. Traffic, which is already a daily nightmare, will become apocalyptic.

The best part, after bank accounts and resumes have been padded for a select few, is that the citizens of Illinois will end up being saddled with a huge bill, forcing up tax rates which will never come down.

When schools continue to be so grossly underfunded in Illinois, why are we even thinking about spending an obscene amount of money on a two week event that doesn't benefit its citizens at all?

One of the things I love most about Chicago is its midwestern sensibility. Why don't we leave big mistakes to places that are accustomed to them, like Crawford Texas.

I vote No Olympics in Chicago.

[chickeyd]

I think it would be great for tourism in 2016 and beyond for Chicago to win the Olympic Games, but I agree, we need to fix the transit system, big time. And that 11.5% sales tax is awful hard to swallow...

[GeminiMoon]

Make no small plans. If the Olympics are to be in the great city of Chicago, we have to reach for the stars and blaze brand new trails. I agree. The renderings for the would be stadium are bland and uninspiring. Chicago can and should do better.

[tea in the harbor]

Careful what you ask for, Chicago. The Olympics have saddled every city they've been in for twenty years with massive debt, huge inconveiniences both during the construction phase and the games themselves, then left them with huge buildings not suitable for much else.

Of course, like any good public servant, your city leaders will happily spend several billion of your dollars to enhance their own importance on the world stage, but before you commit to such a massive debt to massage their ego's, give Atlanta a call and get the facts!

[LeftRight]

How about we stop trying to get the Olympics. This city cannot handle an event such as that, not by 2016, not by 2020, maybe not even by 2024! Daley is FREAKING INSANE by trying to bring the Olympics to Chicago! If I had a choice I would be out of town during that time frame in 2016 (assuming that he somehow pulls it off!), but unfortunately I work in Aviation, so would HAVE to be here!

[delphillips]

More than anything, Daley, Blago (let's get rid of him though) and Maddigan need to get their acts together and fix the transit system. No way does the IOC want to see athletes showing up to events late because the CTA was delayed (as many Chicagoians have to deal with when trying to get to work).