Entries associated with the tag "Chicago Olympics":

Did you hear the news?

The Chicago Yacht Club hosted a regatta last week. I know all about it because the Chicago 2016 Olympic Committee sent me a press release.

The Olympic Committee frequently e-mails me--and apparently lots of other reporters in town--PR with the latest. Somehow, no matter what the news, it always involves the Olympics.

Did you know that the Olympic Committee is operating a booth at Taste of Chicago? Well, they are, according to their June 30 press release. Let's hope they're not serving up salmonella.

They're also asking "schools, churches and other community organizations to help increase minority participation" in swimming, according to a June 25 press release. That's nice. Let's hope that--having recently shelled out $22 million on a new Streeterville headquarters--the Park District has enough money to pay for instructors.

And the 2016 games will be "green-friendly" because the committee puts "great emphasis on environmental protection," according to another June 25 press release. Never mind the trees and plants that may be plowed over in Jackson, Douglas, Lincoln, and Washington parks to make way for Olympic arenas.

Oh yes, June 23 was officially "Olympic Day" in Chicago, according to yet another release. Silly me, I thought every day was Olympic Day in the great city of Chicago.

I expect that one morning I'll turn on my computer to discover an e-mail telling me the sun rose in the east, brought to you by Mayor Daley and Chicago 2016.

I have to give the committee credit. They've run an impressively relentless, upbeat, and sunny PR campaign, giving reporters and photographers an excuse to attend regularly scheduled photo ops featuring the happy smiles of local children. PR firm Hill & Knowlton works hard for its million-dollar contracts.

But what they don't tell you--what they'll probably never tell you--is that the games will costs hundreds of millions of property tax dollars that might otherwise go to schools and park programs for all those happy, smiling children. Mayor Daley still hasn't admitted that the Olympic Village will be built with TIF money--it took Fourth Ward alderman Toni Preckwinkle to let that cat out of the bag .

But no need to sweat the boring details of what the games will cost you, Chicago. Just don't forget to save the date: Chicago Believes, Chicago 2016's next fund-raiser, is coming up at Millennium Park July 14.

I'm going to have to start charging Mayor Daley for all the advice I've been giving him for free.

Last year, I wrote a story saying if Daley "really wants to bring the Olympics to Chicago, I suggest he move the site of the proposed equestrian center out of Lake County."

My point was that he was stirring up more local opposition than he could handle with his plans to stick stables, riding paths, a 15,000-seat stadium, and a barn in the middle of the Lakewood Forest Preserve.

Unlike the wimps here in Chicago, who take whatever beating the mayor offers and ask for more, the residents of Lake County don't mess around. They don't want Daley and his Olympics team paving over their forest preserve and they weren't afraid to say so. They created an organization (Voters for Preservation) and a Web site, besieged the International Olympic Committee with letters and e-mail of opposition, and, perhaps most significant, put up candidates to run against Lake County Forest Preserve board members who had voted for the Equestrian Center.

The result? This morning Chicago 2016 Olympic Committee, which is coordinating the city's bid, sent out a press release announcing that the proposed Equestrian Facility is being sited at Tempel Farms, a stable in Lake County. The release quotes Bonnie Thomson Carter, one of the Forest Preserve District members running for her reelection life, saying, "We were honored to have been considered as a potential site for the Olympic Equestrian Facility."

In a Sun-Times blog post on the move, Doug Arnot, Chicago 2016 director of sports and operations, says local opposition had nothing to do with the change of venue.

Right. I say if enough Chicagoans say no, we won't get the games and the higher taxes and loss of park space that comes with them. It's just too much of a headache for the International Olympic Committee to shove a project down the throats of people who don't want it.

Because Daley didn't take all of my advice -- he took the proposed center out of the forest preserve but kept it in Lake County -- he's still not out of the woods. When I told Jay Glenn, a leader of the anti-Olympics movement in Lake County, about the change he said, "I'm happy as far as Lakewood is concerned, but I don't believe one tax penny of taxpayers dollars should go to the Olympics."

So here's some more advice for Mayor Daley: Just forget about the Olympics. Spend the money on schools and parks and stuff that we really need. Folks will call you a hero. I'll give you all the credit. If anyone asks, I'll say it was your idea all along.