Thoughts on the Chicago Olympic bid

Dear Lake Meadows Management,

I object to the "we back the bid" sign on the front of the 500 E. 33rd st. building.

I don't back the bid.

Many of us in the building do not back the bid

Yet the sign implies that we do.

I've had enough of my tax money being used to subsidize the elite and the rich - which is what this "bid" is proposing to do. It would also make considerable space and resources here on the south side off limits to regular people and instead the exclusive preserve of elite athletes and the rich insiders and celebrities close to them. The Pro-Olympic Flash presentation here: http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/04/chicago-olympics-games-demonstration-protest-evaluation-committee.html
makes that abundantly clear. Statements like "through the broad plaza of their exclusive entrance the athletes will enter their own private world." make that clear. The entire Olympic Village will (of course) be off limits to regular Chicago residents. "Private Sky Terraces?" only for the athletes and the insiders. The "state of the art polyclinic?" that will not be for the health needs of south side residents. The "village center", which is the "great crossroads of our design?" It won't be a great crossroads that the residents of the south side can enjoy. The "promenade leading to the lakefront?". Like everything else, it will be for the exclusive use of the athletes and insiders. "The wide expanse of the village promenade will become a popular destination of it's own, putting athletes on a visual pedestal overlooking the lake". That pretty much sums this up. They are up on a pedestal and we pay for it.

No, I don't back the bid.

But the worst thing to me is yet to come: "their own private beach." Currently I am able to enjoy the lakefront unencumbered. I often ride my bike from here to 31'st st beach and then north to my office on the north side or south to promontory point or Hyde park. I won't be able to do that anymore. The plan will give much of space of the lakefront near here to exclusive use of the athletes and insiders. Us regular residents will be locked out.

I was watching the basketball game between Orlando and Cleveland the other night and the commentator mentioned that tthat Dwight Howard will be a "first team USA team player". Dwight Howard currently makes 17.5 million dollars a year (5 year contract at 87 million). My tax money will be going to further enrich Dwight Howard if this "bid" goes through. I don't think Dwight Howard needs my money. I think he has enough already.

I am every bit as opposed to my tax money going to bail out rich CEO's and Wall St. types but thats really another discussion. The common point is that somehow subsidizing (or bailing out) the super elite is often packaged as good or even necessary for the rest of us. I don't believe it. I don't believe it for one second. I think it's class warfare. Class war perpetrated by the elites on the rest of us.

Which gets us to the winners in this thing. Property owners (some of them anyway), people like Sam Zell and Oprah. The higher you go on the income/wealth/prestige scale the more likely you will be to come out a winner. The working poor are pretty much guaranteed to be losers. They stand to gain nothing, they won't be able to afford to see the events and they (like the rest of us) would be arrested if they tried to enter the Olympic Village. But their (sales) taxes will go to subsidize it.

Those of us who oppose this bid are not opposed to our city. We are not somehow "unpatriotic". Our attitude would be different if a) it did not need to be subsidized by tax money and b) it was not so narrowly focused on serving the needs of an elite group.

The Chicago Worlds Fair of 1893 comes to mind. Something like that would be great. No subsidy was necessary or asked for and the event was open to everyone. There was no private "olympic village", or "private beach" type things that were off limits.