June 2009 Archives

State historic preservation officials are withdrawing from the battle to save buildings on the Michael Reese Hospital campus, which is slated for development as an athletes' village if Chicago wins the 2016 Summer Games.

The decision is "extremely disappointing," said Jonathan Fine, executive director of Preservation Chicago. "But what's truly disappointing," he said, "is the haste with which the Daley administration and Chicago 2016 are rushing full steam ahead with this demolition when there are so many unanswered questions."

The city's $86 million purchase of the hospital site is expected to close Tuesday. Demolition contractors are expected to be selected July 14.

Plans call for reselling the site to private developers who would build an Olympic Village that would be converted to housing and retail after the Games. The city plans to move forward with a similar project if it doesn't win the right to host the Games.

The International Olympic Committee will choose a host city on Oct. 2. Chicago Tribune report 

City Hall's top internal investigator today urged more openness and public hearings in Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Speaking to the City Club, Inspector General David Hoffman said the bid committee's reluctance to fully reveal its Olympic financing ideas was "just the wrong approach for government." Chicago Tribune's clout street blog

The 10-member board of the United States Olympic Committee, which oversees and helps finance thousands of athletes in 45 sports, has chosen this delicate period to overhaul the top management. The abrupt changes have angered and confounded many leaders in American Olympic sports, who are especially upset that the board named one of its members as the chief executive. New York Times report

Chicago taxpayers will be locked into the city's first financial commitment related to its 2016 Olympic bid on Tuesday if the scheduled closing on the $86 million purchase of the Michael Reese Hospital site goes as planned.

This foray into large-scale real estate development comes three months before the host-city selection. The International Olympic Committee will choose between Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo on Oct. 2.

The acquisition of the Olympic Village site carries substantial risks, given the moribund state of the credit markets, which has created wrenching problems for Vancouver and London. Both cities have had to bail out their respective Olympic Village projects, which, like Chicago's, were supposed to have been privately financed. Chicago Tribune report

Mayor Richard Daley today attempted to dampen the political firestorm he sparked while overseas last week when he told Olympics officials that Chicago would financially guarantee the 2016 Summer Games.

His remarks this afternoon, however, only further confused the issue.

The mayor, back in Chicago and addressing the issue locally for the first time today, seemed to contradict his own statements in Switzerland, as well as the public remarks of Chicago 2016 chief Pat Ryan and International Olympics Committee President Jacques Rogge.

"We agreed to sign a host city agreement with the provisions of the city, state and the insurance policy as added on to the host city agreement. That's what it's going to be and that is our protection for the taxpayers of the city of Chicago," Daley said today with Lori Healey, Chicago 2016 president and the mayor's former chief of staff, at his side. Chicago Tribune report

Mayor Richard Daley today spoke locally for the first time about his controversial comments in Switzerland last week about the city's financial guarantees should Chicago land the 2016 Olympics. Lori Healey, a Chicago 2016 executive and Daley's former chief of staff, also answered some questions. Here is an edited transcript of his question and answer session with reporters:  http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2009/06/mayor-richard-daley-q-and-a-on-olympics-guarantee.html

Facing a credibility problem over his Olympics plans, Mayor Daley sought to assure taxpayers today that the games would not cost them any additional money -- despite his agreement to sign a host-city contract that could put them on the hook for losses.

"I do not want to burden Chicago taxpayers with the cost of the Olympics, I want to make that very clear," Daley said after a opening reception of the new MillerCoors downtown headquarters. Chicago Sun-Times report

EUGENE, Ore. -- USA Track and Field can expect a significant windfall if Chicago wins the rights to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

CEO Doug Logan announced Friday that USATF had signed a key sponsorship deal with Nike through at least 2013, with an option to extend it through 2017 at "a significant increase" if Chicago is the 2016 host.

"I'm more than cheering. I'm actively advocating" the Chicago bid, Logan said.

Two people familiar with the deal told The Associated Press it was valued at more than $10 million a year -- a 30 percent to 40 percent increase over the last sponsorship. They requested anonymity because the figures have not been publicly released. USA TODAY report

Tim Tresser is just a citizen of Chicago who believes politicians should be forced to listen to what the people they serve have to say.

Not all politicians agree with him. In fact, most, like Mayor Daley and Gov. Quinn, for example, think that the citizens don't matter at all and they do whatever they want whenever they want and if you criticize them, it's because of personalities, not issues.

But Tresser doesn't fall for that line of bull! Last week, Tresser, the publisher of NoGamesChicago.com, managed to get supporters to donate their air credits to purchase three round-trip tickets to Lausanne, Switzerland. Oh, they weren't going there for a holiday. Full story

BLUE MOUNDS, Wis. -- The first road cycling course proposed for Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid began in the city's suburbs and wound its way through some hilly terrain before building to a big finish downtown in the heart of the Olympic village.

It was roundly rejected as being too easy.

That sent former professional cyclist and Chicago-area resident Robbie Ventura back to the drawing board.

Ventura, who once rode as a teammate to Lance Armstrong, was playing a lead role in designing the cycling venues for Chicago's bid. He could think of only one place in the area fitting the difficult profile Olympic officials desired: the diabolically hilly rural roads that wind around and through a state park about 30 miles west of Madison, Wis. ESPN report

A local community group is calling for accountability on how taxpayer money will be spent if the Olympic Games come to Chicago in 2016.

Chicago Olympic planners have committed taxpayers to foot the bill if the Games experience a financial loss.

Communities for an Equitable Olympics, or CEO 2016, wants oversight on those public dollars. Organizer Shannon Bennett:

BENNETT: We have to have some kind of apparatus, some kind of structure to guarantee against misspending or overruns. That's scary to say if they're cost overruns, we're on the hook.

The city has also committed some property tax money toward the Olympics. CEO 2016 is calling for public hearings in neighborhoods where Olympic venues would be held.

Members are also pushing for city council members to demand an oversight committee.  Chicago public radio report
 
 

Several aldermen are demanding complete details about the city's proposed financial guarantee for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games so they can have them evaluated by outside financial analysts before signing off.

Those demands were made during private aldermanic briefings given yesterday and today by the 2016 Committee, a group appointed by Mayor Daley to make the city's bid for the Games, aldermen said. Committee Chairman Patrick Ryan said he would provide those details in late July or early August, aldermen added. Report from Clout Street blog of the Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO--A group called "Communities for an Equitable Olympics", known as CEO, says TIF funds are siphoning resources from the public sector to pay for undisclosed projects in neighborhoods. The organization released a statement today saying, in the 15 TIFs between the proposed sites of the Olympic Village and Olympic Stadium and Aquatic Center, there is $190 million in unspecified funds stockpiled.

CEO 2016 wants the City of Chicago to mandate the provisions of the Chicago 2016 Memorandum of Understanding if taxpayers' money is being used in Olympic related events.

CEO 2016 is a coaltion of community and labor organizations. Its mission is to ensure affordable housing and living wage jobs for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games if Chicago is the host city. This is full report from WGN-TV

Just two days after Chicago 2016 Chairman Patrick Ryan tried to put off public hearings with angry aldermen about plans for financing the Olympic Games, he came to City Hall on Wednesday to allay their concerns in a series of closed-door meetings.

As he tried to calm City Council members who complained Mayor Richard Daley was keeping them in the dark about potential liability for taxpayers, Ryan and a Daley spokeswoman denied the private briefings would prevent the public from knowing what aldermen were being told.

"There will be [public] hearings and there will be briefings before the hearings, so they're fully aware and informed before the hearings," Ryan said of the aldermen when reporters caught up to him outside the unannounced meetings. "We want to take any mystery out of this, there's no privacy going on, what we're really doing is explaining where we are, why we are where we are."

Ryan was trying to calm a political storm caused last week when Daley told the International Olympic Committee in Switzerland that he was ready to sign "as is" a standard host-city contract. That agreement gives Chicago full financial responsibility for the Games, which would make taxpayers liable if the Olympics expenses outstripped about $2 billion in public guarantees and private insurance.

Chicago Tribune report

On Monday, the Chicago 2016 Olympics committee leaders balked at the idea of publicly briefing the City Council about a wrinkle that could put taxpayers on the hook for cost overruns, but today they're headed to City Hall to do it privately in a series of secret meetings with aldermen.

 Aldermen were notified today by Mayor Richard Daley's Intergovernmental Affairs Office that the meetings would start at 3:30 p.m. at City Hall, several aldermen said. Members of the 2016 Committee would do the talking, they said. Clout Street blog from the Chicago Tribune

After Mayor Richard Daley triggered furious reactions last week by saying the city would take full financial responsibility for hosting a 2016 Summer Games, he promised to bring the details to the City Council for further discussion.

But the head of Chicago's bid team said Monday that information about the city's revised financial guarantees may not be disclosed for two months while additional insurance coverage is arranged.

"We can't go to the City Council today," bid team leader Patrick Ryan said at a press briefing Monday. "We'd look like dummies because we don't have it all complete."

Ryan said the beefed-up plan will be shown to the Council in 45 to 60 days -- a timetable that added to aldermanic dissatisfaction on the Olympics. Chicago Tribune report

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Mayor Richard Daley's decision to place the full financial responsibility for the 2016 Summer Games on the city has touched off a storm at home. Chicago Triibune report

In Switzerland this week, Mayor Daley may have thought that he was far enough away that Chicagoans wouldn't hear he agreed to use taxpayer dollars to pay for any cost overruns associated with the 2016 Olympics. Luckily, the Tribune caught wind of the hushed deal.  Now, Ald. Manny Flores (1st Ward) is demanding that the City Council have a role in this decision.

Flores is challenging aldermen to assert their power over the city's purse strings by signing onto his ordinance that would "prohibit the use of any additional tax payer dollars to pay for the Olympics" -- beyond the $500 million guarantee on any operating overruns approved in 2007.  The measure won't be introduced until later this month. And council has some time to consider the issue, due to the fact that the mayor won't actually sign the "host city agreement" until October when the IOC meets to decide who lands the 2016 games. In the meantime, Daley has agreed to hold a public meeting with aldermen to explain exactly what the guarantee means. But as Flores sees it, the public has already put plenty of "skin in the game." "Enough is enought," he said on WTTW's Chicago Tonight yesterday, calling Daley's actions "irresponsible." Progress Illinois. Watch it (full video here):

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) -- With 3 1/2 months to go, Rio de Janeiro has picked up significant momentum in the race for the 2016 Olympics.

The Brazilian city emerged with the most buzz among the four cities during presentations Wednesday to International Olympic Committee members and could become the leading contender going into the Oct. 2 vote in Copenhagen against Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo.

"The feedback that we got was very positive," Rio bid secretary general Carlos Roberto Osorio said Thursday. "People really got our message. ... Rio offers something new and fresh. Of the four candidates, Rio is the novelty." Associated Press report

The Daley administration agreed Thursday to seek City Council authorization before signing an Olympic host-city contract that amounts to an open-ended guarantee from local taxpayers.

After the host committee lined up an additional layer of private insurance, mayoral press secretary Jacquelyn Heard insisted that Chicago taxpayers would be no more at risk than they were when the City Council agreed to a $500 million Olympic guarantee in March, 2007.

But, she acknowledged that political reality dictates that aldermen take another vote.

"If there are questions or concerns raised by the City Council, of course the mayor would be comfortable with them taking another look," Heard said.  Chicago Sun-Times

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- Faced with losing the 2016 Summer Games to competing cities offering full government guarantees, Mayor Richard Daley made an about-face Wednesday and said the City of Chicago would sign a contract agreeing to take full financial responsibility for the Games.

In a worst-case situation, such as severe cost-overruns or a catastrophic event, the agreement could leave taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars or even more, a scenario Chicago's bid team acknowledges but insists is far-fetched.

Bid officials said they can offer the guarantee because they plan to add another insurance policy worth a minimum of $500 million to existing guarantees, which they think creates an ample buffer for taxpayers. Full report from Chicago Tribune

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- Chicago has come up with an additional $500 million in private insurance, clearing the way for Mayor Richard M. Daley to sign the host city contract if the city is awarded the 2016 Olympics.
Chicago announced the development Wednesday during a presentation to members of the International Olympic Committee, a key test ahead of the final vote in Copenhagen on Oct. 2.

USA Today report

LAUSANNE, Switzerland - In a major change of position, Mayor Richard Daley told the Tribune Wednesday he will sign the standard Olympic host city contract, which would give the city full financial responsibility for mounting the 2016 Summer Games. Report from the Chicago Tribune's Philip Hersh in Switzerland and Kathy Bergen in Chicago

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- The formal show is Wednesday, and the Chicago bid team spent several hours Monday rehearsing for its presentation to International Olympic Committee members who will choose the 2016 Summer Games host in October.

But the serious, informal work was, as usual, going on in the lobby and the Habana Bar at the Lausanne Palace hotel, where the IOC members are staying.

That work is the schmoozing and face time that each bidder invests in trying to win the confidence of the members.

Late Sunday, you could find Chicago 2016 Chairman Patrick Ryan and several members of his bid team at a table in the bar, and members of the Tokyo and Madrid bid teams at other tables. Rio bid committee officials were working the lobby.

Ryan expects many questions to focus on money matters, since Chicago is the only bidder without full government financial backing and the only one to have told the IOC that it will have legal issues with the standard contract each host city must sign.

The IOC responded to that, Ryan said, with a letter saying: "We expect everybody to sign the host city contract."

To questions about the financial backing, Ryan said he will maintain that the blend of public guarantees from the city and state and private insurance guarantees is a "new model, and we believe that balance is a benefit because it doesn't put the full burden on the taxpayers like a full government guarantee does. You can draw your own conclusions on any national government guarantee.

"The [IOC] voters will have to decide whether what we are offering is acceptable to them."

Phil Hersh's Globetrotting blog at the Chicago Tribune

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- Baseball officials told the International Olympic Committee they will do almost anything to create a schedule to put an Olympic tournament in the spotlight should the sport be readmitted to the Games for 2016.

Baseball was among seven sports making its Olympic case Monday to the IOC executive board, which in August will recommend two to fill the vacancies on the Olympic program created when baseball and softball were dropped after the 2008 Beijing Games. Philip Hersh writes in his Tribune globetrotting blog

TOKYO has vowed it is ready for a tough battle with its three rival cities as it makes its case for the right to host the 2016 Olympic Games this week.
The Japanese capital hopes to stage what it says would be the 'most compact and most environmentally friendly Olympics' but faces stiff competition from Chicago, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid. Strait Times report

The city of Chicago plans to build two new harbors on Lake Michigan.

The Public Building Commission approved moving ahead with the designs and construction. Rob Rejman with the Park District says the new harbors will hold more than a thousand boats.

REJMAN: Increasing recreational access to the lakefront is great for Chicagoans in general, and harbors specifically help improve our ability to accept the world and bring people to the region on the waterfront to our front door.

Rejman says the two harbors will cost more than $100 million. They'd both open up by 2012.

If Chicago wins the 2016 Olympics, that would give the city someplace to put local boaters pushed out of their spots by sporting events.

Chicago Public Radio report 
 
 

Hands on his hips, his vision trained on the batter, coach Billy Bean calls out, "Let's go, babe, let's go."

Bean paces and pauses, his head swiveling as he tracks the young adults' game on this softly overcast Sunday morning in Washington Park. The batter checks his swing on a wayward pitch, and Bean responds with, "Good eye, good eye."

This dance is second nature to the retired machine operator -- a ritual he has been performing in this South Side park since 1972. And it is one he fears losing.

If Chicago wins its bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, the northern 200 acres of this sprawling park along with a host of other prime parklands will morph into multiyear construction zones in preparation for 17 days of international competition followed by nearly two weeks of Paralympic contests. Indepth Chicago Tribune report

After seeing my earlier Blog, Chicago 2016 bid chairman Patrick Ryan wanted to clarify what he had said about Peter Ueberroth having no role in the city's Olympic bid.

``Let me be clear that Peter is someone that I have had a very good relationship for 30 + years, and have enjoyed working with him on the bid.  To in any way imply that he is not welcomed at Chicago 2016, or is someone that I personally have an adversarial relationship with over the years, is just plain incorrect.''

 My comment:  I appreciate Ryan's response, and I stand by the assertions in the earlier Blog, based on several conversations with sources familiar with the situation, that 1) there had been some disagreements between Ryan and Ueberroth and that 2) Ueberroth's hard-line stance on the revenue-sharing issue had affected his relationship with Chicago 2016.

 Check out Philip Hersh's Globetrotting blog n the Tribune

  I found myself bemused earlier this week when a Chicago radio station hyped an exclusive interview in which former U.S. Olympic Committee chairman Peter Ueberroth assessed the city's 2016 Olympic bid chances by saying, ``You are the leader.''
    My reaction owed to what I had been hearing since soon after Ueberroth stepped down as USOC chairman last October:  that the man who ran the enormously successful 1984 Los Angeles Games was no longer in the loop with the Chicago bid team, even though a significant role in the bid was to be part of Ueberroth's portfolio after his term as chairman ended.
    And Chicago 2016 chairman Patrick Ryan confirmed my information when I asked him about Ueberroth during a Wednesday morning interview about the city's presentation to several dozen International Olympic Committee members next week in Lausanne, Switzerland.
    My first question was, ``What role, if any, does Peter Ueberroth still have?''  Ryan answered that with a deft sidestep by noting that Ueberroth is honorary USOC chairman and ``a friend of the bid.''
    But when I asked next if Ueberroth were still playing ``a direct role in any way,'' Ryan did not equivocate.
  ``No,'' Ryan said.

   Read full blog posting from the Tribune's Philip Hersh

Chicago takes the top spot in the new edition of the Around the Rings Olympic Bids Power Index, but Madrid could be the city to watch as the race heads to a finish in four months. Full report

WASHINGTON -- As Chicago awaits judgment of international Olympics evaluators, the city's bid committee has been hard at work in Washington lining up White House backing and employing a well-connected lobbying firm to lay the groundwork for shaking loose federal dollars in the event the 2016 Summer Games come to northern Illinois.

The Obama administration recently highlighted its commitment by authorizing senior aide Valerie Jarrett -- a former vice chair of the Chicago 2016 bid committee -- to lead a White House push for the Olympics, which would features major venues in Washington Park, just a few blocks from President Barack Obama's Kenwood home. Chicago Tribune report

Chicago's bid committee has solicited students from nearly 200 colleges and universities nationwide, including the U., to showcase their support for the October selection for host of the 2016 Games, said Cameron Vakilian, the U. student who is organizing student support here. He said the campaign not only brings attention back to the U., which hosted opening and closing ceremonies for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, as well as other events during the 16-day affair, but "it would be great to have the Olympics back in the United States again." Deseret News report

Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Olympics moved to first place in a new online ranking of the four candidate cities released Monday. At the same time, a former top Olympic executive, who usually speaks cautiously about the city's chances of landing the games, thinks Chicago now has the advantage in the race for the 2016 Olympics.
 
"You are the leader," said Peter Ueberroth about Chicago's bid in an exclusive interview with WBBM.  "As I talk to people around the world, Chicago is now being considered very positively," he said. Newsradio 780 report

In Olympic events the best is unambiguous. The race goes to the swiftest, the match to the strongest.

Not so in the voting for the Olympic host city. On Oct. 2 the International Olympic Committee will meet in Copenhagen to choose the site for the 2016 Summer Games. Chicago is among the contenders, along with Madrid, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro. Some would even say that Chicago is the favorite, assisted by Barack Obama's victory in November. So suppose Chicago is the best option for 2016. Does that mean it will necessarily be chosen? Don't bet on it. Forbes report

The City of Chicago, led by Mayor Daley and a vast and tumorous army of aldermen and bagmen and yesmen and opportunists and spineless, parasitic political-machine halfwits of forms never seen outside the roiling cesspool of governmental slop-trough greed, has proven itself unworthy of something as potentially delicious and fulfilling as the 2016 Olympic Games. Telander's column

Chicago and its three rivals for the 2016 Olympic Games will get an extra shot at wooing International Olympic Committee members later this month in Lausanne, Switzerland.

With bid cities prohibited from organizing visits for IOC members since the Salt Lake City vote-buying scandal, the international sports organization decided to create a new forum for finalists to present their cases to its members.

As with much of this competitive process, the sessions June 17 and 18 at IOC headquarters will be tightly scripted. Chicago Tribune report

Can a charismatic American president compensate for a shakeup in U.S. Olympic Committee leadership?

It might come down to that when International Olympic Committee members vote Oct. 2 in Copenhagen, Denmark, on the site of the 2016 Olympic Games.

Chicago is bidding against three other finalists -- Tokyo, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro. Ireland's Patrick Hickey, president of the European Olympic Committee and an IOC member, has said President Barack Obama could swing the vote for Chicago. IndyStar.com report

Odebrecht has become the latest major Brazilian corporation to pledge support for Rio's bid to host the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The R$3 million (US$ 1.5 million) sponsorship agreement will be in place until October 2009, when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will select the Host City for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The partnership is another illustration of the business sector's endorsement of the bid and commitment to bring the Olympic and Paralympic Games to Rio in 2016. Around the Rings report

Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics has major implications for historic Washington Park.

Billy Bean and Leroy Bowers couldn't disagree more on whether a stadium should be built in the park.  

Bean, 67, wants nothing to do with the Olympics. Bowers, also in his 60s, doesn't share his friend's sentiments. The vice president of the Washington Park Advisory Council welcomes the chance for his community to shine on the world stage Medill report

After 16 years of supporting Team USA, Bank of America Corp. is ending its longtime partnership with the U.S. Olympic Committee.

The Charlotte-based bank reached the decision over the last couple of weeks and notified the USOC within the past couple of days.

Banks such as BofA have faced increased scrutiny over their sponsorships due to the economic downturn and government support. But BofA says this decision was driven by insufficient return on investment from the sponsorship. Charlotte Business Journal report

 LAUSANNE, Switzerland - Moroccan hurdler Nawal El Moutawakel, a former Olympic gold medallist, will lead the IOC panel assessing the four bids for the 2016 Summer Games.

El Moutawakel, the highest ranking woman on the International Olympic Committee, was appointed Thursday as chair of the 2016 evaluation commission.

The panel will visit the four candidate cities - Chicago; Tokyo; Madrid, Spain; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - in the first quarter of 2009 and compile a report assessing the bids. Canadian Press report

W

It's no secret Chicago is charging full steam ahead to get the 2016 Olympics. One place in its path is the 37-acre Michael Reese Hospital campus on the South Side. City officials see the land as the site of a vibrant Olympic Village, if they win the Games. 

 But preservationists see something else -- the state's only known buildings that world-famous architect Walter Gropius helped design. And they worry it may be getting too late to save the structures and their history. An interview of Grahm Balkany by WBEZ's Lynette Kalsnes 

OLD MILL CREEK -- Just to the north of the public arena at Tempel Farms is a grass-covered hill that flows upward just high enough to conceal the oak-covered acres beyond it.

This summer, as Chicago boosters continue their efforts to land the 2016 Olympic games, Tempel visitors will have a chance to climb the hill and see the wide-open spaces that would welcome the equestrian events -- and the thousands of spectators they would generate.

"Almost 50,000 people will be able to fit here. It's going to be huge," said Tempel program coordinator Courtney Tripp, hosting the first such tour Saturday evening following a preview performance by the farm's famed Lipizzans. Lake County News-Sun report