By Dan Kolen | August 2009
Reaching out to local residents, the Chicago 2016 Olympic Committee visited Marshall High School’s auditorium on the West Side on July 14 in a meeting to discuss how the Olympics would affect communities if the City wins the Olympic bid.
The Olympics would provide an indoor track located in Douglass Park on the West Side, an Olympic Village in Bronzeville that would be transformed after the games into housing (around 30% affordable), and a “direct surplus to the City’s budget,” committee members claimed.
Many people who attended the meeting expressed concern about the Olympics, despite committee members’ rosy view. “They didn’t answer the questions, plain and simple,” said Maurice Robinson. “With the Olympics being here, the issues that are ahead of us — and thereare so many problems already — it’s hard to imagine what’s going to happen.”
Public transit
Concerning public transportation, the committee announced officials would arrange an additional bus system specifically for the people going to the games; no parking would be permitted around the games’ sites. Federal aid the City expects to get for transportation would “help immensely” to “permanently improve” the City’s transportation infrastructure, according to committee members.
“Both Atlanta and Salt Lake City benefited very significantly from federal transportation projects in their cities, so they would be ready for the games,” said Doug Arnot, the committee’s director of venues and games operations. “The existing system was improved in time for the games” and had a lasting impact, he noted.
Stephanie Patton, now a Chicago resident, lived in Atlanta in the lead-up to the 1996 games and said Atlanta did see a positive, permanent change in the infrastructure. For example, she noted, express lanes of certain thoroughfares were increased from three to five, although traffic still was massive.
“What happened was, though, during heavy traffic, the people of the city had to learn those back roads” during the games, she said. The 1996 Atlanta Olympics were held in a city growing and expanding, but Chicago is an already built-up city, with public transit plagued by frequent delays, fare hikes, and threats of service cuts. The comments by the committee therefore did not help calm the concerns many residents had about the permanent impact the games would have on public transportation.
“You certainly have your work cut out for you,” Lee Ford, a Garfield Park resident, said to Arnot, who expressed a negative view of “the public transportation access and the public transportation system in the City of Chicago.”
Public funding
On June 17, Mayor Richard M. Daley signed a contract with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) saying the City will take on full, unlimited financial liability for “planning, organization, and staging” the Olympics. The contract and issues pertaining to funding the games drew criticism from several attendees.
The IOC is “in bed with Mayor Daley.” Patton said. “If we get the Olympics, it’s going to be a travesty for Chicago. I feel strongly that with Mayor Daley’s leadership we’re going to have to go deep into our pockets.”
The committee members remained adamant that no taxpayer dollars would be used and that the City has not had to pay so far for planning the games. Despite the contract, the City “will not pay a dime for the games,” committee members asserted.
“No games since 1972 have lost money; all have turned a surplus,” said Lori Healey, president of the committee. “We also have additional insurance protection so we can cover costs on projects.”
Huge price tags are associated with many of the proposed structures: Olympic Village would cost $1 billion, a stadium in Washington Park just under $400 million, and the Douglass Park facility that would be converted into a permanent track and field center after the games would cost $37.1 million. The games’ total cost is estimated at around $4.8 billion.
To cover such massive costs, the City would receive more than one billion dollars from television rights, with private financiers paying the rest, committee members said.
“No taxpayer dollars are included in the budget,” Healey said. “We’re 100% privately financed. In fact, we expect to turn a $450 million surplus.”
Neighborhood impact
From reduced ticket prices for Chicago residents, to favorable vendor deals for locals, to World Sport Chicago’s (WSC) sports program for kids in Chicago, the committee outlined direct, positive effects of the Olympics for the community.
“It’s our commitment that World Sport Chicago grows and continues to grow,” Arnot said about the program that already has enrolled 30,000 of the 300,000 kids in Chicago Public Schools. The committee showed a short documentary during the meeting to highlight a gymnastics class for WSC. Those attending responded with skepticism about how much the program and committee really wanted to help the city.
“We had never heard of World Sport Chicago until today,” Patton said. “And with the games, we’re going to be made to feel like guests or prisoners in our own backyards.”
Some in attendance voiced support for the games, however.
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