Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Alderman Flores and the Olympic Bid

The Provocateur ^ | 08/15/2009 | Mike Volpe

[fiscon1]

A couple weeks back, Alderman Manny Flores (1st Ward) did a very bold thing in Chicago politics. He took on the mayor. In June of 2007, the mayor was able to extract from the city council a commitment of $500 million as a cushion for the Olympic bid. This was supposed to be a cushion because the mayor insisted that the games would pay for themselves and could be financed entirely with private funds. Then, in May of this year, the Mayor lead a delegation of Olympic bid supporters to Copenhagen. After meeting with the IOC, the Mayor proclaimed that in order to secure the bid he would need to sign a contract that would make the city, and by extension the tax payers, responsible for any and all costs that they Olympics would incur above and beyond what would be agreed upon before hand that the IOC would contribute. The problem of course is that signing on to such a commitment would mean that Daley couldn't guarantee that the $500 million already allocated would be enough.

[KarlInOhio]

I just read that they are building a temporary stadium for the opening and closing ceremonies. The words "temporary" and "stadium" should never be paired together.

I hope Chicago doesn't get it because it will cost this country billions, and that's just in graft and bribes before even one overprised load of concrete is poured.

[Perdogg]

They will because the IOC is in love with zero.

[KevinDavis]

For the record, I know that both liberals and conservatives does not want the Olympics... Well except for the mind numb union-bots...

[fiscon1]

Not only are they building a temporary stadium, but that stadium will be built in a beautiful park, Washington Park, and thus destroy the park. I can’t remember the name of the architect of the park but it’s the same architect as the person that designed Central Park in NY. He’s one of the greatest in history and they are going to destroy the park he designed.

[fiscon1]

that’s because it isn’t ideological. Liberals say that the money could be spent on schools, homeless, etc. Conservatives say that we simply don’t have the money. The city is broke and now they will take on the Olympics. It’s pretty scary.

[Erasmus]

I’m not sure, but you probably mean Frederic Law Olmsted, the landscape architect of Central Park, and also of the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893.

BTW, Daniel Burnham was the chief architect of the latter, and other notable Chicago landmarks, such as the lakefront downtown.

[fiscon1]

I think you’re right. In any case, it was a very famous architect and it’s a total travesty that this beautiful park would be discarded for a stadium that would be up for two weeks.