would you want the olympics in your city?

[mopinko]

chicago is the us bidder for the 2016 olympics. people are either thrilled or pissed. me, i am thrilled. it will cause a lot less disruption here than many places, as we already have a great deal of infrastructure in place. there will be some displacement, obviously, but there will be a lot of improvements left behind. the olympic village would be built along the lakefront, but it will be decked over old train tracks.(as was millennium park, the new jewel in our crown) afterward, it will become mixed income housing, something we desperately need.


more info on the chicago bid-
http://www.chicago2016.org/news.aspx

da mayor swears taxpayer money will not be needed, but i know some will be spent. especially on transit projects that need to be done, anyway.
so how do you all feel?

[KitchenWitch]

1. I would love the financial boon that the Olympics brings to a city

But damn, southern California traffic is bad enough without the hundreds of thousands of people that descend upon an Olympics.

[kwassa]

2. Actually , traffic was better in Los Angeles during the Olympics

Everyone was so scared that they all took their vacations during the 1984 Olympics. It was a snap to get around town. There were plenty of empty hotel rooms, too. People stayed home and watched it on TV.

I saw parts of the men's and women's marathons live, because I couldn't afford tickets to the venues, back then, and the marathon was just on city streets.

[KitchenWitch]

3. Really, that is cool!

My husband had tickets to one of the events (I forget which one).

[mopinko]

4. we would be torn.

dh and the kids who are sports fans are holding their breath. but it would be pretty tempting to be a b'n'b for a month. send everyone somewhere else, and rent out their rooms.

[kwassa]

8. Many people who were expecting to make money didn't

so thinking about renting rooms or lawn parking might not be too productive.

[mopinko]

12. eh, it's just dreaming

although i have a big house, and we do, somewhat seriously, think about doing the b'n'b thing after retirement, and as something to hand down to the kids. right now it seems like the only way they will survive without us is if we hand them something. i underestimate them, i am sure, because that is how i am. but, with 3 teenagers, and one barely past teenage-hood, i wonder.

[SoxFan]

68. I believe it

Same thing happened in Boston during the 2004 Democratic Convention. The local media went into hysterics for a month leading up to the convention, so a lot of people apparently decided to spend the week on the Cape or Lake Winnipesaukee.

[KamaAina]

5. Believe it or not, there was actually talk about having it here after 9/11

Think about it. What could be more secure than an island? One with military bases covering about a third of it, no less. No non-Olympians (or ticket holders) could even get on the plane.

On second thought, :scared:

edit: header spelling

[mopinko]

7. i hate the fear.

i so, so, so hate the fear that permeates everything anymore. when you really take the long view, even considering the fascist takeover of our government, there have been a lot of worse times to live. and, i think, times when people took things more in stride.
i just read 'the devil in the white city'. that look back at the chicago of 100 years ago made me feel like a protected princess on a stack of feather pillows.

[Zuiderelle]

6. Only so that I could charge attendees a fortune to park on my lawn.

[UrbScotty]

9. Wouldn't mind it in Grand Rapids, but I don't expect it (nt)

[RebelOne]

10. The Olympics have already been in my city.

I live in the Atlanta area. There was no traffic. Everyone stayed off the roads because they thought the Olympic visitors would be clogging the roads. And Atlanta traffic is just about the worst in the U.S.

[cloudbase]

11. Hell, no!

The yahoos here in Houston wanted the olympics here. Can you just imagine a marathon run in Houston in the summer?

[mopinko]

14. well, i have an ex-husband just outside houston, so

i can't imagine setting foot in houston, really. he went there to escape child support enforcement, so my mental image of the place is not good.
we already do a marathon down lake shore drive. i think that is the plan. it'll look beautiful on the teevee.

[grace0418]

13. I have mixed feelings about it. I'm a Chicagoan and

I have a feeling that the build-up to the Olympics is going to make an already traffic clogged city even more of a nightmare. I know we need improvements (and I hope to GOD they improve CTA service, it's an embarassment) but I am a little worried about how much the improvements will really change the lives of Chicagoans after the Olympics are over. I remember when the Dem National Convention was here and they spent who knows how much money putting in red/white/blue star railings on the overpasses downtown. Cute and all, if you like that sort of thing (I personally think they're hideous), but hardly the best use of manpower and money.

I certainly understand and appreciate the value of beautification projects, but I think there also needs to be substance along with the style. Millenium Park is absolutely wonderful, I am incredibly impressed with it and enjoy visiting it. But there is a lot of infrastructure that desperately needs fixing and I hope they don't snarl up the whole city for the next 9 years just to put some pretty frosting on a crumbling cake. And I hope the structures they build that will eventually become mixed income housing will actually be built with that in mind *more* than the visiting athletes. The athletes will be here for a few weeks but the housing will be here indefinitely. I

Of course, since we can't seem to find a house we can remotely afford in a neighborhood we enjoy, we're probably going to be moving to Evanston in the next year anyway. So maybe none of this should even matter to me. Except that I will be needing regular fixes of city life so I don't start suffering from withdrawl (I swore I'd *never* move to the burbs). :)

[mopinko]

17. come to rogers park!

good luck finding something in evanston. it is more expensive, and the taxes are quadrupled. there are a few hidden gems, if you can find them. and especially if you can hack a fixer upper.
but, yeah, affordable is hard to find. i am so happy i bought when i did. there are some pretty affordable condos around here, if you can stand that route.
as far as transit- have you seen the plan for the circle line? it is going to be great. they were aiming for 2010, but i dunno about that.
http://www.chicago-l.org/articles/CircleLine.html

[grace0418]

25. We've actually found quite a few places in Evanston we could afford, way more

than in Lincoln Square/Ravenswood/Andersonville, which is where we really want to live. We have a condo in Lincoln Square, we bought it 8 years ago before the neighborhood exploded with growth. Even with the substantial profit we should see when we sell our condo, it still won't be enough to afford a single family home. We actually wouldn't be selling at all if we had a bit more space and a yard because we absolutely love Lincoln Square. It's my favorite neighborhood in the city. But I plan to start freelancing and we may decide to have a baby soon, so we definitely need more space.

I heard about the circle line. It sounds intriguing, but it needs to be expanded. It's still pretty close in to downtown. If I wanted to take the Blue Line to O'Hare I would still have to go all the way down to Division to pick up the Circle Line to go back out of the city. It would save maybe ten minutes but still be a pain in the neck. In fact, it may not even save you any time because you'd be making two transfers instead of one. If you end up waiting a long time for both trains it may even cost you time. I love the idea though, they just need to go further out.

[AngryAmish]

27. River Forest is nice

on edit:

Old Irving and Portage Park are nice too.

I dislike Evanston. Too hard to get to.

[grace0418]

29. LOL! I was just going to say River Forest is too hard to get to! At least for us.

My husband works at Northwestern University so Evanston is really perfect for us. We love Oak Park (my brother lives there) but the commute would suck for him. I'm fairly open since I plan to freelance anyway, but I do enjoy the fact that we'd be close to the lake.

We lived in the Portage Park/Old Irving area for awhile when we first got married and absolutely hated it. No offense to anyone who lives there but it was definitely not for us. The houses were cute and it was easy to get to the expressway, but it was like mixing what we don't like about the suburbs (no restaurants, or coffeeshops, or bookstores, or shops, or galleries, or really anything to walk to) with what we don't like about the city (traffic, finding street parking, crime). We had several dive bars though, and a 7-11, and a terrible Italian restaurant. We couldn't wait to move out. I'm sure it didn't help that we did get burgled while we lived there. Ironic considering I've lived all over the city and that was the only apartment where I got robbed (we were told it was a very safe and quiet neighborhood).

Evanston certainly has some areas where we would have to drive to get to everything, but we're limiting our search to areas where we know we can walk to at least some things. We're so spoiled by our place now. I know we'll never have it that good again unless we win the lottery. We can walk everywhere. If I didn't have to commute my car would be parked for 5-6 days at a time. Plus we're close to the el and the Metra. There are easily 20 excellent restaurants within a 10 minute walk from our house. Plus a cute bookstore, several gift shops, a gourmet food shop, a CHEESE shop (yum!), several wonderful bakeries, a cooking school, and the super-fantastic Old Town School of Folk Music. Then you go into Andersonville and there are galleries, theaters, more restaurants and more shops. I just love it here so much.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions. We'll find something someday!

:hi:

[mopinko]

35. rogers park has it all.

it is still on the upswing, so there are still a few bargains here. there are actually a lot of single family homes with, gasp, actual yards. you can take a train or bus to most of the city, and most of the north and northwest suburbs.
there are a few really good restaurants now, and we expect more.
we have an alderman that called for the impeachment of george bush on the city council floor back when hardly anyone said the i word out loud. he has done a lot for the antiwar movement, too.
plus, we have congresswoman jan schakowsky, the 3rd (or 4th?) cosponsor of kucinich's impeachment resolution.
what more could you want?
(taxes are lower than evanston, and we have a couple of really great schools, too.)

[grace0418]

37. You should be a Rogers Park spokesperson! LOL! I can be the Lincoln Square spokesperson.

We've looked at a couple of places in Rogers Park, so far nothing has really caught our eye. But it's still an option. I have to admit I don't love the neighborhood at night. I used to work at Greenleaf and Clark and when I worked late I had more than a few bad experiences while waiting for the Clark bus. I have a couple of friends at Lunt and Sheridan that have also had some issues. But there is a great arts community there and some nice restaurants. And definitely some beautiful old houses. We're at an in-between place right now because we're ready to move into a single-family home (please, god, no more upstairs neighbors who walk like elephants) but we can't afford a very big place. Some neighborhoods seem to offer either condos or really large single family homes. There are lots of cute little bungalows in west Rogers Park but that's pretty far from the transportation and the lake. Andersonville and Lincoln Square are the same way. Either you have $1MIL single family homes or you have condos.

That's why, after lots of looking around, we're probably going to be in Evanston. There are a few sections that have cute little houses with yards that are almost in our budget. The taxes are comparable to Lincoln Square (you should see how much our taxes have gone up in 8 years! WOW!), and we can walk to the shops and restaurants on Central Street. My husband can walk or ride his bike to work and I'll just go upstairs to my new office!

We'll keep our options open until then, though. Thanks for the advice.

[greatauntoftriplets]

41. Also, River Forest costs the earth.

Good luck in Evanston!

[grace0418]

63. Thanks hon! I didn't realize River Forest had gotten that expensive. Well, yeah,

if I'm going to spend the cash I want to be close to the lake. Hopefully we'll get a good price for our condo so we can make the next move.

[greatauntoftriplets]

70. Million plus dollar houses.

Much flossier than most of Oak Park.

[tjwmason]

15. I'm thinking of going to Paris for 2012 and I don't even live in London

I think that the benefits which are claimed are over-rated (as well as being somewhat nebulous), the whole selection procedure is corrupted...the games are a good thing (though I'm not personally interested in them), but a city winning them is little more than a ego trip for the politicians concerned.

As case in point I give you that bloody idiotic "logo" for the London Olympics.

[Bjornsdotter]

16. I love the idea!

Chicago would perfect for the Olympics. I don't think it would be that big of a deal getting around because the events would be spread out.

We attended the Olympics in Salt Lake, saw most of the figure skating events and getting around, parking , and hotels were no problem at all. The worst part was the wait for the restaurants.

As for me, I would take the train in...

Cheers

[azmouse]

18. I'd LOVE to see the Olympics in Phoenix!

Great masses of people passing out from the sizzling heat would provide endless amusement! :7

It's bad enough that the '08 Super Bowl game will be held 5 mi from where I live.

[Strawman]

19. I think it would be great for the city

Probably zero chance of it happening though.

[mopinko]

22. if ritchie is still around, i think we will get them

if the thing works on favors, bribes, coaxing and cajoling, i think we are in. he is a master at all that.

[Strawman]

23. I think Chicago will get them

and deservedly so. I love to visit Chicago.

I live in Detroit. It would be fantastic for the region. It would force the city and suburbs to come together on issues that have festered for far too long, most importantly public transportation. But it will never happen. Fairly or unfairly (Detroit did a great job with the All-Star game and the Super Bowl---granted the Olympics are much much bigger obviously), I just don't see the IOC ever being persuaded to make their games late night talk show monologue fodder by hosting them in Detroit. Not in the near future at least.

[Bjornsdotter]

31. We have a friend

....who is a member of the IOC, they are watched very carefully...especially after Salt Lake. As it stands now we are looking good.

Cheers

[mopinko]

34. that's great news.

thanks for sharing it. tell your friend they are absolutely right.

[likesmountains 52]

20. I remember when we voted NOT to host them in Colorado...I think we were

the only site that refused to host them after being chosen...

[Oeditpus Rex]

21. DOG, no!

We had enough chaos a few months ago when the city council (Al, the barber) started talking about putting in our first traffic light.

:scared:

[rbnyc]

24. There's a business on our North Brooklyn waterfront...

...that employs hundreds of people in the neighborhood. They provide great pay, great benefits, educational opportunities, child care, and so much more. Many of their employees used to be on Welfare. They employ people whom are difficult to employ and have great success in transforming people's lives.

If we had gotten the last Olympics, their business would have been torn down--imminent domain. What a huge loss that would have been to our community.

I knew at the time that I didn't want the Olympics here, but I just recently learned the above.

We really lucked out not to be picked.

[RubyDuby in GA]

26. I've already had the Olympics in my city - no thanks

[mopinko]

28. yeah, you had a bad one.

i can understand your perspective. don't blame you.

[RubyDuby in GA]

46. Well, if you want to think about it like that...we only had one bombing

But hey, at least ours was paid for by the time it was over - our city is the only one that didn't go into debt.

But then again, we did have to see this every fucking day for years leading up to it:


There's nothing quite like looking up and seeing an Atlanta Police Dept car go by with a blue sperm farting stars on it's side.

[mopinko]

49. a bad logo is crime against civilization.

we had a really cool one, but they said we can't use it. not sure what the status of that is right now.
can't seem to link images. but you can see it here, if you desire.

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=chicago+2016+logo&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2

i trust da mayor to drum up the money. he is good at that. we have several large music festivals every year that started out paid for by the city, and he squeezed his hot shot buddies to sponsor them all.

[grace0418]

53. Our logo was soooo cool. I was so disappointed when I found out we couldn't

use it anymore. I bet the designer was as well.

[mopinko]

59. yeah, the poor designer.

graphic designers don't get enough respect, i tell ya.

[grace0418]

61. I heard that! Everyone at my office seems to think they're graphic designers.

Meanwhile the actual graphic designers get absolutely no say or input into our designs. Can you tell I hate my job?

[mopinko]

64. you haven't really been to hell

until you design a logo for free. we could drink a whole pitcher of beer while i tell you stories about that.

[grace0418]

65. Oh, maude, I've done a million.

It would be much easier to count the *paying* freelance jobs I've had over the years. And easier still to count the jobs where I got paid my full fee.

I've found that the pro bono clients can often be the most demanding as well. They don't seem to understand that my time is money and that "taking concept A, tweaking the color, adding the bottom of concept B and the typeface from concept C" is actually an entirely NEW concept that will take hours of my time.

:eyes: I'd venture a guess that it would take more than one pitcher. :)

[mopinko]

67. well, we'll have to do that sometime.

somewhere in rogers park! like the red line tap.

[grace0418]

69. No! Lincoln Square!

;) Just kidding. Maybe we could meet in Edgewater, somewhere in the middle. LOL!

[mopinko]

72. goose island?

my home away from home. not too far from you.

[RubyDuby in GA]

58. That's a really cool logo

Truly representative of the city meaning naturally they can't use it! It's not embarrassing in any way. Duh. :)

[SOteric]

30. The Olympics are in our state,

and I don't think you could move 'em if you tried.

[Nikia]

32. My city is way too little

There isn' enough infastructure and if it were built just for the Olympics, I don't know what would be done with it afterwards.

[mopinko]

33. that's why i want them here.

we already have so much of the infrastructure, and most of what is proposed will be a permanent benefit.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

36. We are getting the Republican Fucking National Convention next year.

I'd rather have the Olympics any day.

[Zookeeper]

39. Good point, Ocelot, but....

it will be more fun to protest the presence of Rethugs.

In truth, I'd be happiest with neither.

[HEyHEY]

38. Beware of the Olympic promise - it is coming to my city soon

Politicians, business people... all of them will say whatever it takes to get public opinion. Because they know, once the games are coming, they're coming and they then don't have to keep promises. A good example is the Cambie corridor. They promised they would tunnel for the new skytrain line to the airport... after the games were approved it suddenly became too costly to tunnel and they have caused havoc by not tunnelling. As well, they have displaced shitloads of impverished people in sneaky ways. All of this just so the Olympics can make money off our backs. It's a hell of a scam.

[grace0418]

44. That's EXACTLY what I'm afraid of in Chicago.

And I'm pretty sure that's exactly what's going to happen. In the end we'll probably have a couple of nice show pieces but the city's infrastructure will be just as bad if not worse. Call me a pessimist, I guess.

[T_i_B]

40. No way!

I've never supported London 2012 for one.

Basically I just think it's a colossal waste of taxpayers money.

[greatauntoftriplets]

42. I hate the idea of what they are proposing to do to Washington Park....

Also, how much housing will have to be destroyed around Washington Park to provide parking? No one has yet answered that question.

[grace0418]

45. Very true. Plus, imagine what they'll do to the surrounding neighborhoods to make

sure that no crime infiltrates any Olympic venues. The local residents will be in detention camps whether they've committed any crimes or not.

[mopinko]

51. i worry about this, also, but

at least in chicago there is a large infrastructure of npo's that watch out for the poor. even a certain amount of a free press. i think this is a battle that has been waged enough times here that everyone is lawyered up and ready. so, hopefully, it won't be toooooo bad. the jobs that will be created will help that situation, as well.

[mopinko]

50. maybe i am stupid and naive

but one thing that i trust ritchie on is stewardship of the parks. i don't trust him on everything, but that one- i do. with the amazing architectural and engineering talent that in this city, i think, well, let me be conservative and say, i think we have the best chance to doing this with little bad impact, and possibly good impact, of any city there is.

[huskerlaw]

43. It would be a serious pain in the ass...

I work down by most of the Olympic venues (the old ones, anyway...and they were talking about revitalizing them if LA had won the bid) and my job doesn't allow me to work from home. So it would have been horribly inconvenient. I'm kinda glad LA didn't get it.

Plus, I take the subway to work, and the thought of sharing my commute with all of those tourists... :scared: :nuke:

[Orsino]

47. I guess. Atlanta's sort of prepared now.

But many other nations and cities should have a turn.

[Zavulon]

48. No fucking way.

I was in Montreal for the 1976 games, in Lake Placid during the 1980 games and in Atlanta for the 1996 games. Great to visit, but I felt very sorry for the poor saps who lived in those places at the time (I was living in Montreal in 1976 and I learned a lot of obscenities from my parents during the summer).

If I were in Chicago and the city won the bid, I'd make plans to be on vacation during the games. I'd probably stay and watch, but I wouldn't want to have to go anywhere when time is of the essence - work, for instance.

When the smoke clears, cities lose money on the Olympics, and the hassles the locals have to endure are enormous. It took Montreal 30 years to pay off the Big Owe (Olympic Stadium), it was finally paid off last year (http://www.cbc.ca/cp/sports/061219/s121949A.html).

I don't even want the Olympics in the country, much less my city. No fucking way.

[grace0418]

54. And doesn't it seem like the Olympics were more popular in the 70s and 80s

than they are now? I mean, sure, there are still tons of people watching but it doesn't seem like any one event can hold our collective attention that much anymore. When I was little, I remember that *everyone* I knew was watching the Olympics when it was on. Now it seems like half the people in my office are like "Oh, are they on again? Hmm."

So it seems like there is potential for the huge debts brought on by the host city to take even longer to pay off if the Olympics as a whole aren't as popular as they used to be.

[Zavulon]

60. Utah lost money, big money. And Italy just took a real bath in those winter games.

I wish I knew a source that showed profit and loss of all Olympics. Like you said, Grace, interest has waned in a major way.

I, for instance, don't give a rat's ass about the summer Olympics, but even my beloved winter games have been sullied by stupid new events such as snowboarding. Now I watch hockey and the skiing events, that's about it. I used to pay passing attention to figure skating, but the 2002 scandal put an end to all that.

I would not want to foot the bill as a taxpayer for the Olympics and inconvenience myself at the same time. Thanks, Olympic Committee, but no thanks.

[greendog]

52. No. It'd be the last gasp for "the last best place".

The real-estate vultures would love it.

[Gen. Jack D. Ripper]

55. We had the Olympics here

I thought it was great, a lot of fun.

[Jimbo S]

56. Not in Milwaukee where I am, but Chicago is close enough.

[grace0418]

62. Yeah it would be perfect for you! You could hop on a train in Kenosha and be

in downtown Chicago in no time. Maybe I'll move to Milwaukee for the duration if Chicago gets the games. :)

[Madspirit]

57. I think it would be cool!

I vote YES...
Lee

[Dastard Stepchild]

66. I'm thrilled it might be in Chicago...

I love a good party. I really enjoyed having the Gay Games here. It was a blast.

[mopinko]

74. that is a crazy little pic you got there.

i can't wait, myself. and my DH will probably burst with joy.

[CottonBear]

71. The 1996 Olympics came to my city (Athens, GA)

It was good and bad.

Good: watching the womens soccer final (USA v. China. USA won the gold medal!) in Sanford Stadium as part of the largest crowd ever to that time to have seen a womens soccer game. The gold medal ceremony was thrilling.

Good: Watching mens soccer semi-final: Argentina v. Brazil and the finals. (Nigeria won!)

Good: We also hosted rythmic gymnastics and volleyball.

Bad: Corporate ticky tacky take over of our fair academic city on a hill by Olympic sponsors who managed to smother Athens with corporate logos, decorations and crap. Assholes who tried to make maoney by creating uneeded parking lots way out of town and trying to renting houses and apartments for waaaaay too much money to foreign tourists.

I'd never been to an Olympics. Lucky for me, it came here!

[ceile]

73. I would love it!

When I was a kid, Houston hosted the Olympic Festival which as held about 18 months before the actual games. The men's volleyball was played across the street from my neighborhood. It was awesome-went to every game!