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

eliza.b.

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 15:00:51 -0600

maybe instead of hosting the olympics we could money towards mental health care/combating poverty/fixing up the project housing situations around the city? Blago would love to see the money go to anything but...

Stealth

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 09:16:47 -0600

Amen. Why don't they just put blinders on the committee like the do race horses to insure they see only what the city wants them to see. Ignore the man behind the curtain, indeed.

mikely1

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 08:38:12 -0600

The corner outside my building floods every time it rains. This is because the storm drain is in the middle of the street, which is convex. So water collects on two corners. During heavy rains, it flows over the curb and up onto the sidewalk. Cars send up 4-foot sheets of filthy water all day. It's impassable for pedestrians, who have to cross the street. This winter, the freeze/thaw has caused the area to turn into a huge pothole four feet long and about 7 inches deep. Cars slam into this repeatedly. so the pothole is growing. My neighbors say this corner has flooded like this for at least 12 years because there's literally nowhere for the water to go. Calls over the years to Daley-appointed Mary Ann Smith's office have been met with indifference. Apparently, there's nothing that can be done. Chicago is no longer a city that works. I wonder if it ever was. When I moved here, there were no pedestrian crossing signals at Lincoln/Addison/Ravenswood. It took a woman being killed in a hit and run and embarrassing letters to the alderman from the students at St. Andrews elementary school for them to finally put in modern-day crossing signals there. Maybe when a sinkhole forms at my corner, swallowing a car or drowning a toddler, Mary Ann Smith will stop advocating for elephants and voting to relocate the Children's Museum to address a nuts-and-bolts infrastructure issue in her ward.

kgvs72

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:30:38 -0600

I see what happened.

kgvs72

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:29:29 -0600

For some reason I can't reply to JessNevins' comment (WinXP FF 3.0.7) "To be fair, it's not like anyone lives outside of the future Olympic Sites. Most of Chicago is just prairie. Sincerely, 1718" That's hilarious.

homofascist

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:23:44 -0600

The problem beaureve is that the city is swearing up and down that they aren't going to spending tax dollars on this whole Olympic concept, and then we find out these things. And this is just the beginning if we are unlucky enough to get the bid. Go Rio!

JessNevins

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:17:11 -0600

To be fair, it's not like anyone lives outside of the future Olympic Sites. Most of Chicago is just prairie. Sincerely, 1718

Navin

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:07:52 -0600

True, But it shows what most of us have predicted. The Olympic facelift will only benefit the minority of Chicagoans who live around the loop or touristy areas. I would like to make the committee drive down one of the streets in my neighborhood that's nearly impassable.

Kittenpaw

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:07:28 -0600

I wish the Olympic committee was going to be driving down Grand Ave between Halsted and Desplaines. It's pretty much a dirt road at this point.

beaureve

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:04:18 -0600

This isn't really uncommon behavior. Every city wants to look its best for any event, and especially an event that will make the city money. You better believe Atlanta has a face lift during the Olympics.