They Know What You Did Last Summer Olympics

By Matt Wood in News on Oct 12, 2006 11:42AM

If Chicago does score the 2016 Olympics, you can bet we'll have better TV coverage than any of the previous games held elsewhere. That's because Mayor Daley promised yesterday that by that time, "We'll have [cameras on] almost every block." Want fan reaction on Marion Jones' failed steroids test from the corner of Madison and State? Got it. How about a man-on-the-street opinion from the bum in the alley behind the Chipotle on Jackson? Bob Costas, stay in your studio, we already have a close-up shot from there. The Mayor says the video system would be the most sophisticated in the world, so that if something bad happens, at least we can find the tape of it happening three hours later.

If you're interested in just where all these cameras are going up around the Loop, check out the watchdogs at Open-Loop.org. The site is a collective effort to document the location of all public and private video cameras installed around downtown. Cameras visible from the street are mapped and marked as private, traffic or police, city, or government equipment, and matched with street-level pictures. Whether you're a bona fide tinfoil hat-wearing paranoid or just blissfully unaware, it's enough to make you think twice about picking your nose in public.

Camera image from Open-Loop.org. Thanks to E for the tip about their site.