According to an article by Philip Hersh in today’s Tribune, Chicago’s Olympic bid is on shaky ground because the head of the U.S. Olympic Committee unexpectedly resigned yesterday.
“Now Chicago must waste time and energy before the [International Olympic Committee] Oct. 2 vote for the 2016 host in trying to explain why the USOC once again has a new CEO,” writes Hersh.
Well, if that’s what it takes to save our parks and taxpayers from these games, so be it.
But you’d think the city’s shaky finances and sleazy politics would do the trick. For instance, in today’s Sun-Times Fran Spielman writes that the city’s budget is already about $60.5 million in the red only three months after Mayor Daley “balanced” it with “420 layoffs, slow police hiring and $52.5 million in taxes, fines, and fees.” The problem is that the city overestimated — big surprise here — its yield for the sales tax and real estate transfer tax. And this is the same mayor who says — don’t worry, we have folks lining up to pay for the Olympic Village, it won’t cost you a thing.
Meanwhile over at the patronage trial of former Streets and Sanitation commissioner Al Sanchez, the big news is that the city sanitation worker who drove her truck into a coworker in 2003 got her job thanks to clout and test rigging. And according to various reports, the electricity bureau in Streets and Sanitation “was dubbed Madigan Electricity because it was perceived as house speaker Michael Madigan’s patronage arm.”
I wonder if the IOC is paying attention.