Watching the U.S. Olympic Committee pass through town last week, it struck me as a shame its members don’t have a say in all of Chicago’s fiduciary affairs.
For the moment, Daley and the backers guiding Chicago’s bid contend that they’ll raise all the money from private investors–though none have been named–and by selling air rights, luxury skyboxes, and tickets and merchandise. To illustrate the fever of support supposedly building for the games, they breathlessly announced last week that they’d already sold 2,016 “Stir the Soul” Olympic T-shirts (only 300 left on the shelves). Sales had been so brisk that they were ready to start selling Olympic hats. “The merchandising program is really an opportunity for the average Chicagoan to make a contribution,” a spokesman for the booster group Chicago 2016 told Lorene Yue of Crain’s Chicago Business.
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Where’s the mayor going to get those funds? My bet is the city will finance a large chunk of the Olympics with property taxes taken from several TIF districts. An astute student of TIFs over at the county points out that there’s a portion of rapidly developing property–along Vincennes and King between 41st and 35th–that’s not currently in a TIF. The city could create one there to bring in money for the games.
The first round of aldermanic elections hadn’t been over for 24 hours when Jay Stone was on the phone, bragging about his predictions.
2nd Ward: Alderman Madeline Haithcock v. Bob Fioretti. “Fioretti got more votes in the first round–he’s going to win.”
21st Ward: Alderman Howard Brookins v. Leroy Jones. “Brookins had a 1,600-vote margin. I go with Brookins.”
