On February 12, after two years of planning and about $50 million raised, Mayor Daley and his Olympic committee turned in their official bid for the 2016 games. And what exactly does it reveal? Well, not much—except that the mayor and his planners still haven’t come clean about what residents actually stand to gain and lose from this risky venture.
Well, by my count we’re already on the hook for at least a few hundred million. In 2007 the City Council, at Daley’s urging, committed $500 million as insurance to cover any Olympics cost overruns. Last December the council agreed to borrow $86 million to buy and knock down Michael Reese Hospital so it can be turned into a 7,500-unit Olympic Village. Then it agreed to turn over unspecified millions of dollars in tax increment financing funds—property tax revenues by another name—to cover sewers and other infrastructure enhancements at the Reese site. And the city still hasn’t determined who will pay the $1 billion it will cost to actually build the village.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Really? It’s not like Daley’s going to throw this party on the site of an abandoned steel mill or something (even though I’m pretty sure we have such properties available). He’s putting it in the parks. And the last I looked everyone from dog owners to Little Leaguers was clamoring for more, not less, park space.
In fact, the bid is based on the premise that it can take facilities away from Chicago youth as it needs to. It notes that the Park District, school system, “and other public authorities have provided guarantees allowing the use of the public parks, Soldier Field, schools, and other non-commercial facilities as competition and non-competition venues for the games at no rental costs” to the Olympics.
