To hear some tell it, when Chicago was selected as the U.S. candidate for the 2016 Summer Olympic games a few weeks ago, the citizenry rejoiced. “Chicago sports fans cheer a victory unlike any other,” read a headline in the April 15 Chicago Tribune; the article went on to describe the joyous celebration at ESPN Zone in River North.
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“This all about moving people out, brother,” said Louis Carter, a softball player. “You know it and I know it–ain’t no sense beating around the bush.”
About midday I hooked up with a retired city worker who goes by the single name Bodhi. He was busy gathering signatures on a petition calling for Daley to stage the games somewhere else. “I know the odds are against me,” he says. “Our government is essentially a plutocracy –government for the rich. That’s what this is all about, a bunch of rich folks making more money.”
On weekends the parking lot off Cottage Grove is packed with cars. Over at the tennis courts just south of 51st Street there’s been a regular weekend game going on for at least 25 years. Many of the dozen or so regulars learned to play the game on their own. “I didn’t play in high school,” says Akins, a retired data processor. “I just picked it up by watching on TV and playing.”
Quigley the Brave
The last time Quigley moved to reform the program was last summer, when he proposed that the county at least reveal on your property tax bill how much money goes into the local TIF. The mayor dispatched several aldermen and aides to testify against it at a Cook County Board hearing, and it was embarrassing to watch as one after another of Quigley’s so-called reform allies scurried from the issue rather than upset the mayor. Commissioner Forrest Claypool wasn’t even on the floor when the proposal came up for a vote, and Larry Suffredin voted against it, arguing that too much information would only confuse taxpayers.
