The Return of The Chicagoist Reader Meet-Up
Cubs Combat Casino
Notre Dame Fan Takes It Too Far, Allegedly Punches Clausen
County Sales Tax Rollback Vetoed - Here We Go Again
PHOTOS: Peaches And Amanda Blank At Metro
Facing criticism for not having true community involvement, Chicago's Olympic planners have announced a new "Outreach Advisory Council", focused on engaging interests such as affordable housing, contract procurement and affordable housing.
A group calling itself No Games Chicago has tried recently to organize residents against the city's 2016 Olympic bid, beginning with a community forum held late last month. "Our plan for the Games has been a collaborative effort since the bid's inception with the City of Chicago and the local community, among others," Lori Healey, president of Chicago 2016 told ABC7. "We look forward to continuing our community outreach efforts to ensure the Games and its resulting legacy have a positive impact on our city and the local communities." Critics of the games say that the Olympics will have a negative impact on the communities around the events, and that the millions of dollars required to prepare the city could be better spent on more pressing local needs, such as education, health care and public transit.
The Chicago 2016 Outreach Advisory Council is made up of several close allies of Mayor Daley, including former CHA Chairman (and Daley's 2007 campaign manager) Terry Patterson and former public schools chief Michael Scott. Arnold Randall, the city's former chief of planning and development is heading the outreach effort.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
So, let's review:
Daley a few years ago, reversing his long-standing position, decides that Chicago needs the Games. No public debate, just a famous Daley changing-of-the-mind.
As expected, his weak-spined supplicants in the local business community, as well as all the trolls he has appointed to the City Council and various other agencies, can't clap loudly enough for Chicago's dictator. After all, the Games means contracts for the well-connected and their cousins. And--everyone knows this--the taxpayers will make sure no one important actually loses money on this event. And if you dare oppose, count on visits from inspectors, loss of any city business you might have, or unfavorable treatment come assessment time.
The plans for the Chicago game proceeds with only trivial public input, and much contradiction over the question about how much public funds must be put up to make Chicago's proposal as sound as these things can get. In the meantime, Vancouver and London face massive money holes because of their Games, a fact that Daley, in typical mumbling fashion, promises will not happen in Chicago. (He can do this because most of Chicago is populated by subjects too dumb or apathetic to do anything against Daley.)
Now--a few weeks after pro-Games people wanted to flood an anti-Games meeting--Chicago is offered the chance for public participation in this effort?
Bullshit PR, that's all this is.
Matilda's comment is both correct and a lesson for all of us.
Daley's flip-flop on pursuing the Olympic Games was at the same time he was in the midst of the Hired Truck Scandal investigations.
This sudden artificial effort for "outreach" is a direct smokescreen to combat the efforts to push the truth about the flaws, taxes and Daley-zation of the Olympic bid.
Nobody should be fooled by the Daley PR machine.
We encourage everyone to join the effort by No Games Chicago (www.nogameschicago.com)
We are also helping to spread the truth at:
http://2016olympicbid.blogspot.com
or www.twitter.com/2016olympicbid
This is the information I've been looking for!
Thanks for posting this!!!
For those who still think this dicussion contains propaganda, check out the story in the Trib today about boat owners afraid to question the Games lest they receive retribution.
I saw that, and when I read things like that it's hard to fight the apathy that starts to overcome me. Is it even worth it to get involved with protest.
Hence, the need for rage over apathy, Ingrid. We celebrate the rage our Founders displayed, don't we? What's the difference now? Trust me, our leaders don't fear us, and that is a dangerous thing.
I'm rarely one for donating money to political causes, I'd rather see it go to substantive aid, but I want to help you all in this with my money, time and all due powers. I think 2016 could be a catastrophe for the poor and working poor in this city. Just seeing how it's going to turn into a south side land grab is shudder-inducing.
I'm on board.
I hope that is the smell of fear coming off the 2016 hive-mind.
The state is 9 BILLION in the hole, Chicago is shedding city jobs (not the patronage monkeys, they are safe thank the lord) and we can't even keep mental health clinics open during a massive recession.
Yeah, fuck the Olympics.
As the city lays off people, who are most likely the ones actually doing work as the patronage jobs will stay 'til Daley goes, we are looking to take on a huge new liability? This city is going to become the municipal equivalent of a rusted out 1976 Caprice with AWESOME spinners.
A question for you dopplerd, since you seem quite in the know (or a conspiracy nut?!?!) do you see anyone in the Daley mob stepping up to play Raul to his Fidel? So many yes men and obvious schnooks seems like it would be an open terrain.
I think the next Mayor would be JJJ. Which chills my blood.
there are perfectly legitimate arguments for and against the olympics and daley but when it devolves into this conspiracy theory anti-everything screed I just have to laugh. you do nothing for the public debate and are no better than the people you claim you put down. you draw your contexts with your own specific blend of facts and information which supports your own preconceived ideas. its an absolute joke.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the 2016 outreach committee.
How do we draw our own contexts? Do you know what words even mean?
When I think of all the cities throughout the world that have hosted the Olympics, it's never occurred to me,up til now, what the opinions of the citizens who live in those cities were. Were they bullied into it by clueless leaders as well?
When I first heard about it possibly being in Chicago I was immediately against it, but only for selfish reasons. My opinion has evolved into more than just selfish reasons.
But is it even possible to stop Daley when he is frothing at the mouth to get them here?
I think I read somewhere that support for the games was dwindling, but does that matter?
schwerve
What conspiracy theories are you talking about or are you just ticked off about people having educated informed opinion? Fear not, the Cubs season will be here soon and then you want feel so isolated, so buck up!
"educated and informed" my ass. the arguments presented in these comments exist as nothing more than propaganda. the idea that the negative opinion from the prevailing wisdom is somehow a better informed than the positive is simply idiotic. its a purposely drawn negative space informational context where you can have a little circle jerk on the internet. "look at me I can hate things too *splurg*"
an "educated and informed" opinion on the subject is one that is willing to grant certain arguments to the opposition and rebut them in kind. the rants in these comments do nothing of the sort they purposely distort the entirety of the argument to suit an agenda, hence propaganda. the olympics are not some unambiguously negative event rammed down are throats by "them", the evil cabal of people who hate you and everyone you agree with, but a mixed bag of risk/reward consequences for the city and you do nothing for the public debate regarding these by turning it into a 9-11 truther convention. I have no qualms with anyone who thinks that chicago shouldn't pursue the olympic games, there are a great many drawbacks, and there are many reasoned arguments against the games, but the key word in that statement is reasoned. This involves a understanding of not just the negative but positive impacts of the games and makes an argument that the negative outweighs the positive, not merely that something is universally negative. so you can have your "educated opinion" but maybe you need to look in the mirror the next time you laugh in stark unison at the hive mind on the other side.
Them=Pritzkers, Daley.
"Them" have a shit-ton of money and sway so their message, a bland appeal wrapped around an almost feverish lust for the BILLIONS of Olympic dollars, is dominating.
Is that a "conspiracy"? Sure, but not a secret one. You're trying to portray people bringing up actual factual issues (money could be better spent elsewhere, history or monetary corruption, lack of infrascruture) as the tin-foil hat brigade.
Curiously, your two posts are devoid of any facts or arguments (or capitalization) beyond "you're all crazy" and "it's a complex issue". Both of which don't cut the ice son.
because I'm not arguing for or against the olympics, I'm arguing AGAINST YOUR ARGUMENTS against the olympics. You can make a perfectly sane argument using things you just cited (money could be better spent elsewhere, history or monetary corruption, lack of infrascruture) but you don't, you use "thems" and "greed" and "evils" instead. that's not argument, that's absolutist logic, its tin foil hat brigade logic. your arguments become nothing more than a rubric; "I hate (insert thing) because (insert particular "them") has (insert particular power controlled by "them") and its brainwashing the people!". if you want to have a legitimate discussion on the positive and negative aspects of the games please do, I beg of you. there are major risks around these olympics regarding TIF money and expected revenues and they need to be discussed in the public forum but when you reduce these things to de-contextualized nonsense you do it a complete disservice and reduce yourself to nothing more than a paranoid nutjob.
But "them" is "evil" and "greedy".
How do you explain closing mental health clinics while throwing parties to drum up support for the IOC bid? How else to you look at the LITANY of corruption charges within the Daley administration and the IOC? How else to you explain 2016 siccing supporters on a site that opposes to Olympics in a bid to crash their servers?
Evil, greedy, them.
Now is there more to it? Sure. But I look at Richie Daley and his posse as a bunch of clever thugs who have rigged the system (go take a look at the aldermanic maps some time and figure out how anyone can even hope of beating all but the most lame of incumbents) and sucked at this city like ticks for decades. Greed, evil.
But again, you don't offer specifics, you just attack the wording. It's a sad old game, the right-wing has played it to great advantage, mock outrage at phrasing does wonders to obscure an argument.
So do play on, but your game is quite weak.
you simply don't get it. its not about phrasing or particular words its about logic, plain and simple. "evil" and "greed" are not logical terms, they are contextual consequences of particular systems. it is possible to take any particular set of premises and draw them into a system in a way so that you can leverage those interpretations into coloring the system as a whole a particular way. its not an argument, its a technique of propaganda.
you're the one making absolutist statements about complex issues, you're the one creating evil beings bent on your destruction, you're the one who picks and chooses facts for particular play. I've only argued about how you (and other commenters) are using bad logic, not for or against any particular cause or premise. I have yet to even state my position on the olympics in all this (I'm marginally pro for the record).
Taking a wild guess here, but you really have no clue about how Chicago works, do you?
My rant at the top is based on facts that you free to research yourself.
And, if you go into previous comments, you will see that a great many commentators here have made what you would consider "reasonable" arguments against the Games.
Listen, the Games do some cities some PR good--Barcelona and Atlanta come to mind--but at great cost. Despite that, and your ramblings (are you approaching mid-terms in some logic and linguistics course, by the way? I asked because you speak the language known to many as academy-ese), there has been no meaningful public debate on bringing the Games to Chicago--WHICH IS THE FREAKING POINT OF THIS WHOLE ITEM HERE ON CHICAGOIST, AND MOST OF THE REACTIONS THAT FOLLOW.
Perhaps you missed that part. After all, you've likely been up studying all night.
Anyway, thanks for the brain tickle. It was fun.
oh.. I see I'm naive to how chicago works.... of course...
because I've been arguing that chicago politics is a place of fairies and unicorns where everyone does what is best and nobody ever screws over anyone else. how naive of me.
look I'm not the one turning this into a bad guys vs. good guys argument. that would be you, and if you're concerned with public debate on the olympics you should try and have one instead of this naive BS logic about the evils of daley. you initial post is not public debate, as has been my point all along. what you did is propaganda and is an impediment to having an actual debate on the olympics. I've had generally reasonable arguments with you in these comments before on this topic but that's not what you did. its vitally important that we do discuss the pros/cons and hold these officials feet to the fire. we can't do that when there's children running around screaming that the sky falling down. grow up and have a debate or shut up.
Propaganda, you say? All my points are based on fact. Feel free to refute them.
Having an actual debate on the Olympics? Where? By whom? That's the whole point--there has been no meaningful public debate on whether the Games are good or not for Chicago because our public officials and business leaders have already decided they are, hence the bid, and hence my complaints at the top of this post. Are you really this dense?
Hold whose feet to the fire? The same officials who--and you can check out the timeline and facts on your own--who rammed this idea through without any meaningful public debate, whether at the City Council level (like that would happen with Daley having appointed or taken control of most of the aldermen--check out the history and the various votes on Daley's programs, as well as campaign funding data) or in forums.
This is a good guys vs bad guys argument, in my view--a largely unaccountable local leadership that decides, with no meaningful debate or public input--that Chicago will bid for these Games, and that city leadership will take control of certain lands and certain fund to support the Games.
Please, dispute these facts if you feel I am in error. If you can't, quit calling this propaganda.
This is fascinating. First, you don't seem to know that sentences begin with a capital letter. Which for someone making an argument about the finer points of argument is kind of ironic.
Second, I think you're quite mad. You seem to be arguing that we should have a formal debate about the Olympics. But you offer nothing in the way of substative points. You want to either have a debate on some ideal terms or "shut up"
Considering your lack of verbal skills and substance, asking other people to play by your nebulous rules takes some serious sack. Good on you.
Matlida, like Maxwell House schwerve is bringing us together, so a cyber beer for you and as always AlbanyParkour for looking down to argue with schwerve. because all/she/her hears is
radio ga ga
Radio goo goo
Radio ga ga
All she/her hears is radio ga ga
Radio goo goo
Radio ga ga.
Spook out
p.s just rereading her/his comments is just a complete waste of time