IOC Committee Met by Police, Protesters
By Kevin Robinson in News on Apr 7, 2009 3:20PM
Have you seen the new wing of the Chicago Art Institute? Yesterday evening the International Olympic Committee, along with city officials and visiting dignitaries got a private, behind the scenes tour of the venerable institution's Modern Wing as part of the Evaluation Committee's visit to the city. Besides meeting with such luminaries of Chicago as Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama confidant Valerie Jarrett, the IOC was greeted by an angry crowd of about 50 protesters from No Games Chicago and Little Village Environmental Justice Organization. The group of community activists met up at the Bean in Millennium Park and, escorted by a group of (not unsympathetic) Chicago police on bicycles, headed south east to the rear entrance of the museum, where media were lined up along a barricade next to a red carpet, awaiting the arrival of Patrick Ryan and other Olympic boosters.
"This will hardly be the greenest Olympics," said one protester, pointing out the Crawford power plant's status as one of two coal-burning power plants in Chicago that are exempt from the Clean Air Act due to their age. Amid chants of "Pat Ryan is a liar," the Chairman and CEO of Chicago's Olympic bid addressed the press, and a trolley filled with traveling media covering the IOC's visit pulled up on the west side of Columbus Drive. As much of the traveling press debarked and headed into the museum's modern wing, Ikuo Shimoyamada, sports writer for Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper headed accross the street, camera in hand, to see the commotion first hand. "Chicago is a beautiful city," he told me. "The lake, the city, the people are so nice!" What about opposition to the Olympics in Tokyo? "There is not so much, like here, not so organized. In Beijing, they tried to clean up the opposition, move them out of the way. But here, people say no. This is a good thing, what is good about your county."
Today is the last day of the IOC's visit to Chicago.