Today In No Sh*t: Olympic Sites Get First Crack At Pothole Repairs

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Mar 19, 2009 9:40PM

We all know about the massive potholes cropping up across the city. And we know how important the upcoming International Olympic Committee visit is to Mayor Daley's the City of Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics. And this is why we're not surprised in the least that proposed Olympic venue sites are getting first crack at pothole repairs. When the Trib writes, "The work raised questions for some who fear taxpayers will suffer as the city directs scarce resources toward impressing Olympic officials," our knee-jerk reaction is: Really? Who didn't see this coming? Transportation Department spokesman Brian Steele even admitted, "We wanted to hit some of the streets near the planned Olympic venues before the IOC visit."

And potholes aren't the only thing that are getting a spit-shine. Last week, we had a reader write in to tell us:

I work for a company who once a year has our sidewalks power washed before restaurants put up their sidewalk cafes. We just received a call that the company that does this for us would like to start Monday, but that instead of the 4 trucks they usually send they are only able to send 1. The reason is because apparently the mayor has hired nearly every truck in the city to power wash O'Hare, Midway and the entire downtown area from Oak Street to Roosevelt (!) in advance of the IOC meeting here next month.

The city is going to put its best foot forward, showing the IOC the gleaming, shiny buildings of the Loop and River North and the lushness of its city parks while trying to sweep the less savory citizens and neighborhoods under the rug, away from prying IOC eyes. ("Violence on the Southwest Side? We don't know what you mean, Mr. Swiss Representative. Say, did you know President Obama has a house in Hyde Park? Let me show you it.") We just find it amusing that given all the potential clusterfucks involved with the 2016 bid, it's potholes that gets the major media outlets all cranky. [Tribune, CBS 2]