I wasn’t among the naysayers. Honest. Yet I won’t say that I offered any kind of vocal support, because I definitely had more than my share of concerns, especially as a parent trying to raise two children in this beautiful city.
But it’s now official. Chicago won’t get its Olympics. Neither will Illinois. Neither will the USA.
It is my prevailing view that a unique confluence of issues contributed to the failed bid. Yes, we have our fair share of corruption in Chicago and Illinois, and it’s safe to say that we’re really in the cesspool of American politics. But let’s face it. Something really did do us in. And USA’s recent performance on the world scene certainly didn’t help us much, regardless of your political views. (For an interesting view of international concerns that may have been at play, see this Slashdot posting about USA border security.)
Let’s focus on the Chicago problem, since it is in many ways a separate state from the rest of Illinois, and the USA in general. I think when I first started thinking that something is seriously rotten in Chicago (ironically, brought to a conclusion in Denmark. Thank you, Shakespeare.) was the closing of Meigs Field. In many ways, this incident sheds light on what we observed in this town the past couple of years when it comes to the 2016 olympic bid. I’ll leave the details to history but in this unfortunate incident, our august Mayor destroyed this airport–the one I used to fly into or over on Microsoft Flight Simulator–in the middle of the night. Granted this airport was experiencing limited use, but it was used by the Tuskegee Airmen to provide free airplane rides to Chicago youth, something many youth never get a chance to do in their lifetime, owing to the challenging economic circumstances for many in this city, good economy or not. In any event, in a show of legitimacy, the mayor opted to bulldoze the airport in the middle of the night, in what was the beginning of increasingly autocratic and authoritarian behavior not seen since the rise and fall of some of the world’s worst dictators. It was the sort of thing you simply never expect to see in the USA in modern times.
So the brutal closing of Meigs Field (couched, of course, in the guise of Burnham Plan) was the beginning of the end for this formerly popular mayor. But wait, there’s more. For each item, I list the basic consequences to the residents, who always come out on the short end of the bargain (if at all).
- School violence: I’ve lost count but in many parts of Chicago, our kids cannot go safely to/from school, despite being relatively safe at school in most cases. The number of kids to die on or near school grounds is unacceptable. I still remember seeing Arne Duncan brought to tears as yet-another school student was murdered.
- Parking meters: The mayor had a brilliant idea: Lease the city’s “valuable asset” to a private company. Since then, parking rates are up by more than 400% in most parts of the city. I’m no fan of people, including mysellf, driving all the time and everywhere, but the reality is that this money is lining the pocketbooks of FOD (friends of Daley). Worse, now that the parking meters are replaced by vending machines, those with families, the elderly, or people with disabilities would be wise to park close to the parking pay station, if you are lucky to get a spot. You need to get out of your car (try this with 2+ kids), feed the machine, wait, wait, wait, and then (drum roll) put the ticket back in your car. Not much fun. It will be even less fun in winter.
- Property taxes: While the housing market was going down, you guessed it, the city was raising property taxes. While they ended up adjusting some downward but not far enough. With the booster shot of county tax increases, we’re really getting the hose job, and Chicago is becoming an increasingly unattractive place to live and do (small) business. It’s no wonder that most of the folks interested in the Olympics represent big business interests. It would be one thing if these raises were put toward anything useful (education, public transit, and public safety) but there seems to be no visible movement on this front and at least for the moment, these taxes are not resulting in better revenue, so the cuts will keep coming anyway.
- Skyway Robbery: We should not forget that the mayor’s great inspiration for parking meters came from the lease of the Chicago Skyway. It now costs almost $4 to ride on the bridge to nowhere. (Oops, that’s in Alaska.) I love Indiana but, please, it shouldn’t cost $4+ to go there from Chicago. Something is seriously messed up. I was going to add Midway Airport to my list (which he also wanted to privatize) but this appears not to have been successful, so I’ll spare you (the readers) the agony. Speaking of Indiana, we love going there, but adding $8 to the trip is a bad deal for everyone and probably deters some Hoosiers from coming to Chicago (bad for business).
- Potholes-r-us: If you like potholes and bad roads, you’ll love Chicago. In fact, it would be even worse if it were not for the stimulus. I can’t even go a few blocks without running into one of these sinkholes. It’s worse than when I was a graduate student on the south side in 1988. Worse, there are people constantly digging up the streets for one inane reason or another and, of course, the city could care less and has no regulations for how to patch things up. I’m guessing every city in America has road problems, but I don’t care. I live here and want it to be safer. We have some of the worst roads in America. You can only blame so much on the extreme climate.
I’m sure I have left a good number of things out. It doesn’t matter. I think what we are seeing is what happens to a city when leadership (no matter how well-intended) doesn’t change periodically. The current leadership has run out of ideas, and the Olympics was probably the last idea we’re going to see from them in awhile. There is no doubt that our mayor has done much good for the city. Some of his projects have turned out astonishingly well (e.g. Millennium Park). Even so, these projects show evidence of major cost overruns and the inability to stay on schedule, something that will not serve a host Olympic city well. I think the IOC did a big favor for us by saving us from ourselves.
In any event, as a lifelong fan of the Chicago Cubs, who play America’s pasttime (note, I did not say sport), or baseball, I would say, “Better luck next year.” But there will be no next year. Let’s just hope that Chicago can rebound and get back to a focus on the citizens who actually want to live here (i.e. me).
I’d be remiss if I did not conclude by saying that this is one vote that truly put Chicago at a huge disadvantage: the dead could not vote. And the living could not vote multiple times. Bummer, dudes.
