There’s been much said in the past couple of weeks about Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympics, most of it surrounding President Obama’s support for the bid.
While I don’t mind him doing that, I don’t think Chicago’s a good idea for the Olympics. All towns have their problems, but Chicago’s a fairly large town with fairly large problems.
Debt
Let’s start with Chicago’s debt. According to the Huffington Post, Chicago is like many cities and is facing a rather large debt. This means cuts in city employees, likely cuts in services, and as in most places, likely cuts in school funding. Let’s have a look at Chicago’s schools. According to this article, they’re facing a projected $475 million deficit. Is this really the right time to spend massive amounts of non-existent money on sports structures that will likely lie unused after the Olympics leave?
Street Violence
Cities are often dangerous places, but Chicago’s had a special mention lately with the Olympic light upon them. This is the sort of violence often seen by swarming street children in Mexico. Have a look: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/vp/33063688#33063688
I know that makes ME want to hop a plane out to O’hare!
Questionable Practices
And finally, let’s look at some questionable practices that visitors might run up against. In this article from The Consumerist we see that something akin to extortion seems to be alive and well in good old Chicago. Reasonable people would think that if the charges are dropped against you, you would get your property back for free. They don’t charge a locker fee for your street clothes, right? But no, instead you have to pay to get your car out of the impound yard as if it was taken as part of a real crime.
Or how about the debacle with the parking meters? As seen in this article from The Chicago Tribune, the privatization of meters has lead to more problems than it solved.
Want more? How about Blagojevich?
Don’t get me wrong, but other places have their problems too. But given the economy maybe this isn’t the best time for Chicago to try to host an international party. I’m not the only one who thinks so either, have a look at this.