In a sweltering meeting room filled to overflowing, Bronzeville residents fired one question after another at Chicago’s 2016 Olympic boosters.
“If we can find these resources for an Olympics, why can’t we find them for year-round?” asked Kelly Saulsberry, a museum program coordinator, who said she found it “really troubling” that the city’s promises of youth sport programs and economic development were contingent on landing the Summer Games.
Her pointed question and comments, like many others aimed at the bid leadership during a 2 1/2 -hour session on the South Side, drew vigorous applause.
As the Chicago 2016 bid team winds down its 11th-hour sales blitz in the city’s 50 wards, it has become clear that the meetings have not doused the brush fires stoked in June when Mayor Richard Daley did an about-face, saying he would sign the host-city contract placing full financial responsibility for any losses on the city.
“People are just not buying into the spin coming out,” said Stephen Alexander, a senior research fellow at the Egan Urban Center at DePaul University, who has attended several meetings.
But just by enduring the grillings, the bid team may be helping its cause, observers say.
“While clearly there are some negatives coming out of it, I think … it probably has been good in terms of demonstrating some transparency and openness,” said public relations expert Jonathan Dedmon, a principal at the Dilenschneider Group.
The meetings also are likely to play well with the International Olympic Committee, which will choose among Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo on Oct. 2.
“This is somewhat a perception game that the bid cities are playing with the IOC voters,” said Paul Swangard, a sports marketing expert at the University of Oregon.
Indeed, IOC members and executives met with local opposition groups during their evaluation visit to Chicago this past spring, and in their exit press conference they urged the city to listen to the populace.
The ward meetings are the first systematic effort to hear from residents in every corner of the city. Some are saying the sessions are too little, too late for a campaign that has been more corporate than populist in tone, focusing its early energy on drumming up financial support in business, civic and philanthropic circles.
“Wouldn’t it have made a lot more sense to have all these meetings … last year or the year before or the year before to get all this out before we had to sign at host-city contract that will obligate to us to anything the IOC committee wants?” Joan Levin, a Lincoln Park resident and member of the No-Games Chicago opposition group, asked at a North Side ward meeting.
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As she spoke, Arnold Randall, the Chicago 2016 representative running the meeting, interrupted her repeatedly, urging her to be brief. Then he responded: “There have been meetings going on for at least three years. They have not been branded as ward meetings … but the reality is we’ve had staff, including myself, meeting with the public on a regular basis.”
The ward meetings represent residents’ last significant opportunity to speak up. And testy Chicagoans, already concerned about the financial strains facing city and state government, are voicing fears of costly overruns adding to their tax bills; contracts and jobs going to political insiders; neighborhoods becoming too pricey; and favorite parks being off-limits for extended periods.
Others oppose plans to demolish architecturally significant buildings to make way for an Olympic Village, and some have expressed anger that Olympic committee member Michael Scott has played a role in a planned residential/retail development near the proposed cycling venue.
In their road shows, bid officials say Olympics-based revenues — TV rights, corporate sponsorships, ticket sales and the like — would not flow into the city unless Chicago wins the Games. They cast the endeavor as the city’s best shot at reviving a moribund economy and reshaping its global image, and say those advantages far outweigh any financial risks to taxpayers, which they say are minuscule.
The Chicago bid team punctuates its presentation with a video clip of Shirley Franklin, mayor of Atlanta, which held the 1996 Summer Games. In the clip she addresses the biggest question that faces a host city. “You’re asking if there’s a downside? The answer is absolutely no.”
So far, the kinds of questions raised at the ward meetings are nothing new to the IOC. Committee members are accustomed to local dissent and to real estate dealings by bid principals that raise questions about conflict of interest, said Robert Livingstone, producer of GamesBids.com, which tracks Olympic bid contests.
For local machinations to affect the bid’s prospects, observers said, there would have to be something like a scandal of major proportions, or a refusal by the City Council to back Daley’s commitment to sign the host-city contract. And a council rejection looks highly unlikely.
Daley “will get what he wants,” said Ald. Joe Moore (49th). “The question is how many will vote against. It could be near unanimous, or a fair number could be against, if they are not satisfied with the numbers and the [back-up] insurance policies presented by the Olympic committee.”
The local controversy over government backing distinguishes Chicago from its rival cities, where full government guarantees are givens.
To be sure, the ward meetings also have attracted some supporters, and bid leader Patrick Ryan asserts support remains strong citywide. The most recent polling was done by the IOC last winter; no further polls are expected.
“We have no reason to poll,” Ryan told reporters after the Bronzeville meeting, which was a forum for residents of wards located near the planned Olympic Village and Washington Park, the proposed site of the main stadium and aquatics center.
Even within the ranks of supporters, many are challenging the bid team, seeking assurances that the organization will honor and even bolster commitments on contracts and jobs for minorities and women, on plans for affordable housing and on pledges that no one will be displaced by the games.
“In the event that we do get the Olympics, there are certain things that we just want to make sure that we get our fair share of,” Shadawn Morrison, owner of Mama Lou’s Comfort Kitchen, a gourmet take-out restaurant expected to open next month in Bronzeville, said at the meeting. She said she wants a fighting chance to bid on an Olympics-related contract and to secure reasonably priced tickets for opening ceremonies.
Ryan said the feisty sessions, coupled with the City Council-ordered reviews of bid finances and guarantees expected in the next few weeks, are good things for the bid, and that he has said as much to senior IOC members.
“If we win, and we have a very good chance of winning, to use a sporting metaphor, the wind will be at our back because people will know everything,” he said at the conclusion of the Bronzeville meeting. “Whether they agree or not, some won’t. But I think a significant majority will.”
His commitment to transparency went only so far, however. He reiterated his opposition to opening Olympic committee records to public scrutiny, much as governments must do, saying it would hamper the private non-profit organization’s ability to conduct business.
When asked if the ward meetings would trigger any changes in the bid plans or operations, the bid team offered a non-specific prepared statement: “We have been working with community groups across the city since the bid’s inception to ensure that our plan benefits the people of Chicago. … The ward meetings are no different, and we will continue to work with the community.”
What seems clear from the ward meetings, which are expected to wrap up Tuesday, is that many city residents want continued scrutiny of Olympic operations.
To date, the 2016 team has been slow to disclose certain key pieces of information, including its 2008 tax forms, which would detail revenues, expenses and compensation for the highest-paid employees and contractors.
South Side resident Kay Carroll called for independent oversight during the recent Bronzeville meeting. “Chicago doesn’t have a sterling reputation about making good financial decisions,” she said, citing the selling of valuable assets and a number of City Hall scandals.
Chicago 2016 bid President Lori Healey responded that a number of oversight mechanisms are in place, including a Civic Federation-commissioned review of the planned budget for mounting the games and legislation requiring the local Olympic committee to make quarterly reports on its activities, including the awarding of contracts.
“We believe we have the start of a very transparent process,” Healey said. “It will only get better as time moves on.”
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3 meetings left
Chicago 2016 has three more ward meetings left:
*6 p.m. Monday at the UNO Veterans Memorial School Campus, 4248 W. 47th St. (14th Ward )
*6:30 p.m. Monday at the Little Village Community Council Hall, 3610 W. 26th St. (22nd Ward)
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*6 p.m. Tuesday in the Empire Room of the Palmer House Hilton, 17 E. Monroe St. (42nd Ward)
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