Years ago, when we were younger and had more time, my buddy Michael Glab and I would wander around Wrigley Field, trying to score Cubs tickets from scalpers.
“We’re all for the idea of the Olympics,” says Jitu Brown, an education organizer for the Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization, a south-side advocacy group. “But there comes a moment… “
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Brown and other south siders realize that their moment is now: their leverage with Mayor Daley and his Olympic planners will never be stronger than in the coming months, as the city is finalizing its proposal to host the games. Chicago is one of four cities chosen to make final-round bids next February to the International Olympic Committee, which will pick a winner in October 2009.
One of the biggest fights will be over housing, particularly in communities like Douglas, Oakland, Kenwood, and Grand Boulevard—roughly the area known as Bronzeville. As many south siders see it, a Chicago Olympics would be an urban renewal project gussied up as a celebration of international sport. Its real purpose is to push new development (read: gentrification) further south, perhaps all the way to South Shore.
Community leaders also want to make sure some of their recreational needs are addressed. The city wants to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on temporary Olympic arenas while many neighborhoods face a critical shortage of park and sports facilities. The public schools still have no indoor tracks or batting cages—haven’t they heard we have winter in this town? And the Park District’s so broke—especially after agreeing to pay $22 million for its new Streeterville headquarters—that it’s forcing youth leagues and community groups to foot the bill for new fields and play lots, and instructional time at swimming pools has been cut.
