Why I'm in Switzerland (Trying to Meet the IOC)
I'm in Lausanne, Switzerland, seven time zones ahead of Chicago, with two other members of the No Games Chicago coalition. Our purpose is to meet with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at their headquarters in order to explain why we believe Chicago should NOT be awarded the 2016 Summer Olympics. We are here at the same time that the delegations from the four candidate cities, including Mayor Richard M. Daley and the leaders of the Chicago 2016 committee, are here to re-state their cases for being awarded the games. We are a self-appointed people's delegation. It's been a very long journey from home to here. Our traveling team has given up much to make this trip. Since No Games receives no funding, members of the delegation have had to go into debt to get here. Other members of the No Games team have also sacrificed time and treasure and will be working long hours to support the work of the travelers. As far as we know, no other group of citizens has taken this journey to Switzerland and the heart of the Olympic movement to present their protests directly to the IOC in defiance of the leaders of their city's bid apparatus. 
Why go? Very simply -- to preserve our city's future. To prevent the piling up of massive debt. To prevent the displacement of people from their homes. To protect our parks. To say "Enough!" to the back room deals and pin stripe patronage and to take meaningful action against the small group of arrogant officials who have been running our city as their personal fiefdom for decades. That's why we're here. That's why I'm here. To back up a bit, I have to confess that I'm a good government geek. I'm an unreconstructed idealist. A reformer. A believer in independent, honest, grassroots-powered government. I stubbornly believe that government should serve the people and be an instrument for sustainable and equitable opportunity. I get deeply frustrated and angry with the way Chicago has been run as a private ATM for a small group of politically connected families and their friends. I'm embarrassed and saddened by the parade of corrupt state and county politicians and convicted Alderman (30 in the past 30 years?), TIF-funded sweetheart deals for fat cats and venal public employees who steal our tax dollars for work they do not do. I was a co-founder of Protect Our Parks, which was started by a group of citizens outraged at the Latin School Lincoln Park Land Grab. This was a secret deal between the Latin School and the Chicago Park District to transfer a chunk of priceless lakefront parkland a bit north of North Avenue to the school for a song. We successfully sued to void the deal. You can read about this fight in an earlier post. One way to look at what was happening with the Latin School controversy was that the deal was another example of the city privatizing public assets under suspect circumstances. The deal was done in secret. The deal traded away priceless public assets for questionable revenue. The deal was deemed unquestionable and was defended by the Park District and 43rd Ward Alderman Vi Daley. My work for Protect Our Parks was a warm-up for participation in No Games Chicago. I see a number of similarities between the two schemes: 1) Top-down dictation. The Mayor and his appointees drive the policy. These initiatives were announced as a given with no public debate. All city agencies fall in lock step, including the Chicago Park District, the Chicago Plan Commission and the City Council. 2) Land grab, super-sized. The city was only trading away a few acres of Lincoln Park to the Latin School, but has much bigger plans for the 2016 Olympics. Most of the major venues are slated to be built in our parks, including Lincoln Park, Douglas Park, Jackson Park and Washington Park. In addition, several miles of the lake front and a number of public harbors will be turned over to the games. 3) The finances don't make sense. In the case of the Lincoln Park Land Grab the Latin School was simply fronting the park usage fees they would've paid any way and in return were going to get 20 years of near-exclusive use of the land and could've sold sponsorships and advertising on the facility they built there. In the case of the Olympics, you have a completely unbelievable plan that proposes to spend $5 billion with funds raised entirely from the private sector. The city has already broken that promise by spending $86 million to purchase the Michael Reese Hospital site. The city has also pledged $500 million in guarantees, and the state has promised to throw in another $250 million. In case anyone needs reminding -- the state is about $13 billion in the red and the city is running a $300 million deficit and just announced it was laying off 1,000 employees from the Chicago Public Schools and 1,500 city workers. And don't forget Chicago's stellar record in piling up massive cost overruns for big-ticket construction projects. No, this plan stinks and will certainly end up costing taxpayers a bundle and sinking the city deep in debt. 4) Privatize everything. Is anyone watching the store as the Mayor sells off or gives away public assets? He sold off the Skyway, downtown parking garages, the parking meters and tried to sell off Midway Airport. He admits the parking meter deal was disaster, but our Alderman slavishly approve every proposal he places before them. If the Olympics come to town, the Mayor and his allies will have a Olympian feast of privatization deals -- including the hiring of thousands of security guards. Of course, there'll be oodles of cash for consulting services, financial advice, engineering work, marketing studies, and plum of plums, billions of dollars in construction contracts. Who will benefit from all these private deals? I'm pretty sure it won't be me or you. 5) Cowardice of Chicago's civic sector. Protect Our Parks could find precious few allies who would stand with us to roll back the Latin School Lincoln Park land grab. It's been much lonelier fighting the Olympic bid. Where is Friends of the Parks? Where is the Chicago Rehab Network? Where is the Coalition for the Homeless? Where is the Chicago Center for Neighborhood Technology? What about the Metropolitan Planning Council, the Heartland Institute, the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs and the Sierra Club? These groups, and many more, have either endorsed the bid or remained silent. Have they all done due diligence and researched the scope of the games and the impact they would have on Chicago? Have they all independently concluded that the games would be a net benefit for the city? If they have, I'd love to see their studies and reports and read the minutes of their board meetings where they endorsed the games. Or have all these so-called civic watchdogs lost their bark and bite and all just going along to get along? Are they all simply afraid to challenge the Mayor for fear of being punished? I am saddened that so many groups that have done much good for the city have all become cheerleaders or silent accomplices for the bid. I feel that I have done my due diligence on the 2016 bid. I've communicated with people from other host and candidate cities. I've read academic studies on the real impact of the games and many, many investigative reports and articles documenting the mess the games have left in cities around the world. For example, the games displaced some 30,000 people in Atlanta, Montreal took 31 years to pay off its Olympic debt, Vancouver is on the verge of bankruptcy and the London games are $8 billion over budget. There's more. Much more. I've helped organize seven large public meetings about the bid over the past five months, attended by over 600 people. In addition, I've participated in three public forums organized by others. Members of the No Games coalition have organized or participated in many other public forums, attracting hundreds of participants. At no time were the many questions and concerns raised by citizens answered with solid information by the 2016 Committee. In addition, the No Games Web site has bountiful information and open forums for questions and comments. Thousands of people have signed our online petition, visited our Web site and left comments and questions. All this information and conversation and question-asking has convinced me that the bid for the 2016 Olympics is a terrible public policy choice. The games will bring us a mountain of debt and cause massive destruction of our public parks. They will cause years of disruption of the public way and lead to the displacement of poor and working class families from neighborhoods near the venues. The Olympic games would be the single biggest destructive force to hit Chicago since the Great Fire. I see no civic organization putting out the truth about the bid and the players behind it. So it became the duty and mission of a small group of social justice champions from across the city to raise the alarm. They are your neighbors and who've been fighting for decades for affordable housing, human rights, environmental justice, green space, nature preserves and good government. I count myself privileged to be among them. A few of these advocates are now in Switzerland bringing a Chicago shout out from the neighborhoods. We are saying "NO!" to the 2016 bid and all the corruption and bad policy choices that spawned it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more information on the No Games delegation to the IOC, visit our "We're in Switzerland!" page on our web site. Check out video updates, subscribe to Twitter updates and much more!
Follow Tom Tresser on Twitter: www.twitter.com/tomstee
Matt Farmer: Why 'Trust Us' Doesn't Cut it for the Olympics
The mayor who gave us the hired truck scandal, the parking meter debacle and the middle-of-the-night destruction of Meigs Field is asking taxpayers to take a great leap of faith with this Olympic venture.
Alden Loury: An Olympic Guarantee You Can Count On
Olympics have displaced more than two million people in the last 20 years, especially minorities and the poor. With or without the Games, we're witnessing the clearing of two miles of lakefront property.
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Thank you to all the people who have commented below. Some people object to No Games "speaking" for Chicago. Well, we're a group of citizens whose voices are just as valid and deserving to be heard as Pat Ryan or the many, many people on the 2016 payroll who used to work for the Mayor.
No Games has limited funds and faces the same constraints that any volunteer group face - limited time and bandwidth. But I've been involved in neighborhood and community activism for almost 20 years in Chicago and I've never seen the level of anger and outrage over the parking meter give-away, the closing of clinics, the layoff of city workers, the slipshod CTA service and the TIF-fueled sweetheart deals that funnels millions to the Mayor's minions and relatives PLUS the protest over privatization of public assets and the parade of corrupt officials - add it all together and top it off with the Olympic Follies and you can see that we are just not a small group of Daley-bashers or "No-sayers" but just the culmination of a long sting of civic protest over the way this city is being run and the way it squanders money on big projects that benefit a handful of people. So, maybe we do stand for and speak for the folks who HAVE HAD ENOUGH.
Tom Tresser
volunteer
http://www
"We are a self-appointed people's delegation"
Please! You fly to switzerland to bad mouth my city. You don't represent me or my interests. Loud mouths such as yourself who pull stupid stunts like this to get publicity are not a "people's delegation".
Enjoy your fifteen minutes of fame they are almost up!
Sorry you feel that way. We've heard from thousands of people since we started No Games Chicago. How much are YOU personally willing to pay for the Olympics? How much in debt are you willing to let Chicago sink for the games? How many parks have to destroyed for the games? How many city services have to be cut to divert funds to the games? You bet I have a loud mouth. I hope it's loud enough.
First, Athens doesn't count. They lost a lot of time and money because every time you put a shovel in dirt in Athens, you turn up an artifact and it has to be cataloged and analyzed. That's why the new subway built there for the Olympics took so long.
Second, this doesn't seem like an argument for not wanting the Olympics as much as it seems an "I hate Daley" rant. Look at the points made in that article. About half of them have NOTHING to do with the Olympics. I can understand why people would have a beef with Daley, but using the Olympics to push your "I hate Daley" agenda is lame.
I think it is more of an "I totally disagree with anything positive coming out of a Chicago Olympics" rant. I would have to agree with him!
I'm all for a little protesting, but No Games Chicago does not represent the city of Chicago. Do we even know how many people they ACTUALLY represent? I know I did not elect them and none of us got to review their case to see if it represents us adequately. Knowing most protest movements, it is probably more self-aggrandizing for the organizers than really promoting widespread views.
It's apparently easy to forget that the very people who are pushing for the games (Daley, et al) were ELECTED by a democratic process. Not happy with that, get us some real candidates to run for Chicago, Cook County, etc. But I hope that the IOC does not actually think that three people who have not been elected carry anything like the weight of those that WE have together chosen to represent us.
I don't love the Daley administration, but I do love democracy and I am a little loathe to cede my voice to this crew.
Well, Runner, you democracy lover, you. Civics 101 aside, who voted to try to commit more resources to this than Chicago has ever even had in one place before to host an Olympics?
Where did Daley get the authority to bind Chicago to a colossal debt that will be a crushing burden outlasting his lifetime, much less his administration?
When do we get to vote on the eminent domain proceedings that are required for Daley's plan? What plans exist for those who are moved out of their residences at the order of the court?
Did I miss the referendum that gave DaleyCo the power of Imperial Fiat, because under existing law, there is no other way for him to steal the parks and other public lands required for his "plan". I've actually read that "plan", and it is nothing but a gaudy sales brochure, devoid of operational detail concerning actual life in the city.
When did you OR ANYONE get to review the case for hosting the Olympics, much less vote on Daley's pipedream for actually attempting it?
Easy one, that. NEVER. No outside audit, no independent review, no perspective other than the egomaniacal mayor and his crew of sycophants and paid(off) minions.
This is your 'democracy'?
It is of no value to have someone "cede" their voice to either side of the issue, when they evince nothing but the most casual idea of what is really at stake.
How do you know what it will cost? Do you add in all the pluses, jobs created, infrastructure updated, tourist money spent? Not to mention the international stage it puts Chicago on, increasing tourism. If people see how great Chicago is, we could have tourism like NYC.
But these likely sports haters at "No Games Chicago" want to pull the plug on all that to make a few cheap political points against Daley.
Thank you Tom Tresser and No Games Chicago for everything that you have done to fight Mayor Daley on this Olympic nonsense. Keep up the fight!
http://wel
This is a perfect example of how this whole thing is NOT about the Olympics in Chicago, but about hatred of Daley.
In fact, this is why Daley's performance and the Olympics in Chicago are not separable. Daley's entire time in office has been a litany of failure and corruption. You propose it reasonable, or even plausible to view an Olympics in Chicago independent of Daley? A great city, laid low already. An Olympics here would be the death of international tourism. Chicago is not a "destination city" in international tourism terms. An Olympics hosted with typical Daley administration competence will not make it so.
Don't forget what Daley did to Mieg's Field under the flimsiest of pretenses (and the dead of night) and how his 90 year old mother was put on a board of directors so the company could qualify as a "woman owned" company in getting some very lucrative contracts. Ah, Chicago. I don't know if I miss it, but my spleen misses the daily venting even the most cursory glance at the new used to provide.
By the way, why isn't the city building more islands out along the lake shore as Daniel Burnham suggested and as a way to restore the original and ecologically vital system of lagoons and barriers that Chicago originally was. It would be far better use of the solid waster (after treatment) than those mountains of crap at the southern tip of the shore I used to see.
Bravo! Finally someone taking this to the top. The studies have been out there for years. You wouldn't believe the looks I'd get when I'd mention that every city who'd hosted the games in nearly the last century had gone into massive debt with no long-term benefits; you'd have thought I had three heads. But the numbers are there for anyone to see.
The city "leaders" sell it to the citizens on civic pride and the promise of big dollars; but it's always the same ones who pay: the poor and middle class.
Well, that's not true at all. Both L.A. and Atlanta showed a profit.
Quote: "This situation changed with the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, when Peter Ueberroth, president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee (LAOOC), created the "privately run" mode. It enabled him to make a profit of US $250 million without a cent from the government, thus making the Olympic Games a profitable undertakin
Others:
Olympic Games Profits Since 1984
1984: Los Angeles Olympic Games made profits of US $250 million.
1988: Seoul Olympic Games made profits of US $300 million, a record high for a government-run Olympiad.
1992: Barcelona Olympic Games made profits of US $5 million.
1996: Atlanta Olympic Games made profits of US $10 million.
2000: Sydney Olympic Games Organizing Committee generated an income of US $1.756 billion.
2004: Athens Olympic Games ended in a loss.
If you are going to post something, back it up with some facts.
Could you maybe mention which sites you found these "facts" at?
Funny you should mention Peter Ueberroth, and his self created legend the "privately run mode". Your unsourced "quote" leaves out a detail or two; NO other city agreed or bid to accept the 1984 games. Los Angeles agreed, late, and with the stipulation of NOT accepting financial obligation. You see, at the end of the Montreal Games, the 1980 Olympics were already set for Moscow, and NO OTHER CITY in the world was willing to take on 1984, the reason? The "Montreal Fiasco" Montreal's Olympic debt was $2.8 Billion, and it wasn't retired until 2005. Just debt service was a massive imposition on the citizens.
http://wvu
This just an extract. you can also see: The Financing and Economic Impact of the Olympic Games"
http://www
Try reading 'Holger Preus "The Economics of Staging the Olympics Games" Edward Elgar Publishing, 2003. Found at the Public Library, you might find it tough to get just now, as there are people who want to know what is REALLY going on.
In short, the economic realities for hosting the games are grim, and easily found by checking economic sources, not the tourism bureau or Sports Illustrated.
Uh, Moon, two things; only picking "facts" that support your position and pretending others don't exist is not honest, and if you haven't cited it, it is not a fact.
Privatize everything. That's the single goal behind it. Those guys simply don't care whether this will result in a high debt for the city. You can make sure that their buddies will make a nice profit in form of bonuses for the executives.
privatization means loss of human rights.
Lookup Michael Shapcott and the "bread not circuses" coalition, which is credited with sinking Toronto's Olympic bid a few years back. It's clear the IOC was monitoring the local political climate, and did not want to be anywhere in which there was a likelihood of bad press.
Paul Henderson (not the canadian hockey player; he was an ex Olympic yachtsman) was the man in charge of the bid, and after it lost he launched a bitter tirade blaming the defeat on the local activists. They didn't mind.
Great job. excellent points...w
I will never forget sitting in Grant Park and listening to the Chicago Symphony practicing in the old days for free.... I am appalled at the idea that the wonderful parks in Chicago could be ruined....
Well, congratulations on your trip to Switzerland. But please do not attempt to speak for all Chicagoans. If you wish to express your challenge to the Olympics bid in terms of what you believe may eventually harm the city and its residents in terms of taxes, disrupted transportation, displaced citizens, by all means, please do so. But I am so tired of the attacks on the bid based on dirty politics! Don't you see what hypocrates you are? You claim Chicago doesn't deserve the Olympics or can't handle the Olympics due to its corrupt politicians. Really. Please. You truly are saying you don't want the Olympics because Chicago is a corrupt place and the Olympics are so pure that they can't possibly trust the event to us??? Seriously, if you want to oppose the bid; fine. But do so intelligently, not like a character in Al Capone movie.
Chicago can handle any challenge it faces. And to compare the Olympics to the Chicago Fire? Well, you may remember, though tragic, that the fire occurred spurred hundreds of thousands of Chicagoans to rise to the call to rebuild the city better than it was; a city that grew exponentially in not only population and pride, but commercial success. Don't underestimate the rest of us; those who love and care for this city. I want the Olympics. I think hosting the Olympics will finally help turn around this negative image of Chicago that you seem dedicated to propagating around the world.
Well, there, Trish, lived in Chicago long? "Chicago can handle any challenge it faces..." Not so far, and not by a long shot. Let's see the city handle say one or two of its current challenges.
How about education? $475 million shortfall, 1000 public school jobs at risk. For a pathetic system
Public transit? The system can't begin to meet the needs of the people who rely on it most, yet manages to find the money to install plasma TV displays on El platforms? The second largest public transit system in the country, and it relies on "doomsday" threats for budgeting? Service cuts every year?
These are the people you trust to make a commercial success out of hosting the Olympics?
The highest sales tax in the country? Paid a water bill lately? Property tax bill? We STILL live in a city losing a million dollars a day.?
You bought into Daley's carefully crafted image as an everyman, "one of us". He isn't. Our mayor is a child of privilege. He has NEVER had to put a roof over his own head, shoes on his own feet, bread on his own table, or even faced a consequence, never, the slickest political operator this country has seen, raised and educated on the inside. These Olympic delusions are a monument to "da mayor's" ego.
That "negative image" of Chicago, "propagating around the world"? more from visitors who leave feeling burnt, than from a local activist, a realist, who pays attention
Great post, shocktreatment! I would just add that I, and many other people who love Chicago, are dead set against the Olympics!
So, instead of working against the Olympics, why don't you work FOR getting more funding for the things you want.
A successful Olympics is likely tp HELP with funding for these other needs.
Patronage is a problem for Chicago, in a much more profound way than it is for other places in the U.S. You can't even get a vending machine in City Hall without a well-funded donation to the right politician; and therein lies the problem. Since you've obviously been living under a rock, it's called "Pay to Play."
And if you want to know how the Olympics will help or hinder Chicago, try looking at the O'Hare expansion/vendor contracts. And you'll see that that's how the Daley administration makes all its decisions: friends and family reap the rewards, along with campaign/union contributors. And sometimes the reward trickles down to the lowly taxpayer or Chicago citizen. But never to the extent that it could.
My prediction? If the "games" come to Chicago, it'll be great for "inside" contractors and labor unions. But they'll push the buck to the property owner and generate other "fees" to pay for everything. Then in 2016, maybe we'll see the results. But alot of people will suffer for the six-and-a-half years leading up to it.
And if you rent an apartment, of course the Olympics are great. But if you're a property owner, it's the worst thing that could possibly happen.
Trish4Hillary - He’s not saying Chicago’s corrupt; he said frustrated, angry, saddened by elected officials. The only people who will benefit from the Olympics are cronies tied to city hall.
I was ambivalent for a long time to Mayor Daley's reign. You know, "The flowers are so pretty....
One reason for our budgetary problems is money is being hijacked into TIF funds. (Tresser is an expert on these)
There’s never enough money to cover the budget. Why? More than 50% of the city is TIF’ed
Don't believe me? Information is available. Go to www.cookct
In 2007 over $555 million went to TIF funds, controlled by Mayor Daley. Remember “No tax dollars will be used for the Olympics?” Every year this sum grows, and the % of taxes available to take care of the city shrinks.
It's sickening and maddening!! Spread this information to your neighbors, friends and families. We can curb this by removing certain elected officials. They are robbing us of services, and bankrupting our city.
We can't afford these games. I love Chicago as much as all you 2016 supporters. We are already a world class city, filled with civic pride. We're not propagating a negative image in the world. Stop living in a bubble and get the facts.
So, why don't you rail against the problems with TIFs and patronage, etc and leave the Olympics out of it? Why ruin the Olympics for everybody in the city just to push your own political agenda??
Well, be sure to send a committee to the White House too as well as plenty of emails. Mr. President is supporting the Olympic bid for Chicago, and has selected Valerie Jarrett to head the effort, while putting an equally corrupt public official from New York who basically did the same thing (but for the Yankee stadium) in charge of urban affairs nationally.
It says alot about Obama, doesn't it?
If this doesn't stop, the left will start to revolt, like Bill Maher did last Friday on healthcare reform. I'm tired of all the self rightous lip flap, from both Obama's including Michelle, the new Marie Antoinette, who lectures about public service (wearing $540 tennis shoes) but in reality has made a very good salary all her life, done very little, but managed to wrangle exclusive jobs, including a $200K raise once Obama was elected to the Senate.
Congrats on standing up to the White House. Obama has apparently developed selective amnesia that government is supposed to protect citizens from big corporate interests, much less NOT be the direct road to his personal gain after the Presidency. The man I voted for promised reform of Wall Street, the healthcare system, and corporate energy, not to stab his core constituencies in the back , that he's apparently too good to even support or meet with now that he's in office. Not to mention support a very corrupt political oligarchy he promised to reform but is doing exactly the opposite.
Change you can't believe in!
I do hope some country that wants the games so bad encourages you to come in and present your case. To me overall the whole 'Olympics' are nothing but a big scam. Too many top competitors in many sports are cheating doping up their bodies, too many cities are willing to sell their souls for the payoffs to a select few for the games, too much money is paid by the USA networks meaning massive amounts of unneded commercials and delayed and played out presentations of events most here want to see live. Then you had China hosting the games - a country with horrible human rights as well as a future winter games in Russia. I do hope you succede.
I keep saying that the next Olympics should be held in a country that has never hosted them. Cuba, Brazil, Namibia and India are my nominees.
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