Chicago? Rio? Madrid?

by VIII 44 Replies latest social current

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  VIII

  Chicago is the third largest city in the US. The metro area has over 10 million people. Chicago is very similar to New York.

  We are on the shore of Lake Michigan and the city has the tallest buildings in the US. You may have heard of some of them? The Sears Tower? (Now Willis) John Hancock buildings? We have a public zoo that is on the lake shore--Lincoln Park Zoo. Navy Pier. The Planitarium, Field Museum, Art Institute--I could go on, but, there is so much to see and do just in the downtown area, one week would not be enough.

  Chicago has Chinatown, Greektown, Koreatown, Rush Street area for major partying, the Magnificant Mile for shopping, State Street for all kinds of stuff. Water Tower for shopping, eating, and more.

  The Olympics were to be held all within 10 minutes of the lake shore. The land was already purchased by the city and was an old hospital site. Which would have been the main site. The other sites would have been park district sites. The city has lots of parks and pools, etc.

  As for unions and patronage, that is the Chicago way now. That would not change. But, people who are now unemployed and on welfare would at least be working and earning a living rather than sitting on their butts. The contractors and their politician buddies would still be lining their pockets. Just like now. Snow removal comes to mind.
• 

  BurnTheShips

  Brazil has never hosted, and they are a great country. I hope Brazil gets a shot.

  BTS
• 

  VIII

  OTWO, did you want them to come or not?

  BTS, Rio got them!
• 

  daniel-p

  Chicago is the third largest city in the US. The metro area has over 10 million people. Chicago is very similar to New York.

  We are on the shore of Lake Michigan and the city has the tallest buildings in the US. You may have heard of some of them? The Sears Tower? (Now Willis) John Hancock buildings? We have a public zoo that is on the lake shore--Lincoln Park Zoo. Navy Pier. The Planitarium, Field Museum, Art Institute--I could go on, but, there is so much to see and do just in the downtown area, one week would not be enough.

  Chicago has Chinatown, Greektown, Koreatown, Rush Street area for major partying, the Magnificant Mile for shopping, State Street for all kinds of stuff. Water Tower for shopping, eating, and more.

  The Olympics were to be held all within 10 minutes of the lake shore. The land was already purchased by the city and was an old hospital site. Which would have been the main site. The other sites would have been park district sites. The city has lots of parks and pools, etc.

  As for unions and patronage, that is the Chicago way now. That would not change. But, people who are now unemployed and on welfare would at least be working and earning a living rather than sitting on their butts. The contractors and their politician buddies would still be lining their pockets. Just like now. Snow removal comes to mind.

  I'm not saying Chicago isn't a large and vibrant city, but that beyond the city, what is there? International vacationers would look for more regional activities and destinations beyond just the city. They want an entire region to experience.

  Anyway, I think Chicago would do better to host another World's Fair, rather than the Olympics. The World's Fair of 1893 was, likewise, very expensive and didn't turn much of a profit, but it had such an extraordinary impact on emerging industry, technology, art, culture and entertainment, that we still benefit from the effects to this day. In one sense, it was the celebration of how far western civilization had come since the discovery of the New World.

  In contrast, the olympics are about sports, the supremacy of one nation's athletics over others, the generation of TV viewership, and commercialism.
• 

  Sad emo

  I was in Beijing four years before the Olympics and they were already tearing down much of the city and rebuilding it to "clean it up" (I never saw so many cranes in all my life). I wonder what will happen to Rio and its slums in the next few years.

  Good point Leolaia. I hope they don't 'disappear' whole communities like they have been doing with the street kids for decades
• 

  VIII

  I give up. Almost.

  What does any city in the US have other than a costal city?

  Chicago is on a coast. The lake coast. Lake Michigan is pretty big. You can boat, swim, surf, etc.

  As for what is there to do? What is there to do beyond downtown NYC? Beyond Atlanta? Beyond Madrid? Beyond Tokoyo?

  That is the point. There are all kinds of things to do. There are all kinds of things to experience that bring the American experience home.

  Plus, you can go to a taping of Oprah. They don't have that in Rio!

  I'll fill in for Mayor Daley:

  http://www.choosechicago.com/Pages/default.aspx
• 

  Saoirse

  I heard that it's going to cost Rio $14 billion to host the Olympics. They said they plan to redo the area - I don't know if they are tearing down or fixing up the slums but that definitely needs to be done. I hope they will be spending some of that to help the slum dwellers and not just knock down buildings like China.

  Rio definitely deserves it since South America has never hosted the Olympics before. Brazil has actually done well despite the economic crisis that has affected everyone else. They are probably one of the few countries that can actually afford the Olympics right now.
• 

  Leolaia

  Leo, I was in Beijing in summer of '06. I found it rather depressing that they were wiping out so much history to replace it with glass and steel.

  Exactly the same thing is happening right now in Shanghai for the Expo 2010. I was there in July and took pictures of some of the communities being demolished.
• 

  OnTheWayOut

  OTWO, did you want them to come or not?

  No way. Sure, the jobs in construction for a few years would be awesome. There would be some low-wage jobs in demand as the games got closer- retail, hotels, restaurants, Olympics workers. Tons of patronage jobs would go out at higher rates, both in government and in the private sector.

  But, I believe in the long run that Chicago would be worse afterward. Money manipulation would mean that the taxes would have to go up to pay for the improvements to roads, trains, water and sewage, etc. Overtime for police would be huge. There isn't really much business in the areas they would tear down, but the fast food chains that open up would close and become new vacant buildings. Meanwhile, the poor people in the area would lose their homes and their neighborhood in the name of the Olympics, to be replaced by expensive housing from Olympic Village that the poor people can't afford. The lakefront would be taken over and the expenses to convert to Olympic events would be simply astronomical. The stadium would be okay, but hard to make money on afterward.

  A few people would make a mint, a bunch of people would get temporary work, everyone would be paying out the nose for it for years afterward and the poor people would get ousted. That's not so great. Protests would be banned right here in America, the homeless would be shuffled off to some hideout, perhaps warehouses or jail. New train lines would run where nobody wants to go- to the vacant fast food stores, but they will keep them running because of some promise made to the buyers at Olympic Village.

  In defense of VII, Chicago is a beautiful city with parks and museums and summer outdoor concerts. It is a lakefront city with one of the best skylines to see in the world as you cruise up Lake Shore Drive past Grant Park. The streets are much cleaner than decades ago and there are lots of cafes and restaurants that have such a charm. We have all the major sports of the USA represented here. We did have the world's tallest building, still USA's tallest.
  
  But Chicago does seem to have that USA charm and not the international charm. NYC or L.A. with Hollywood do seem like the choices for tourists from elsewhere. On the east or west coast, you can drive from one locale to another- NYC to Boston or D.C., west coast has even more to drive to. Chicago has nothing in comparison- Milwaukee or St. Louis. (Nothing wrong with them, but just not what an international tourist has on their list.)
• 

  Gregor

  I have worked in most major cities in the US. I have contracted with many exhibition venues for booth space and that includes the McCormick Place facility in Chi. Chicago has always stood out as the most expensive, union dominated place in the country, hands down.

  Typically, I ship my booth to the site. I show up a day or so before the convention. We go to our spot and open our crates and set up our display. We have already paid for carpet, electrical connections, booth furniture or whatever extras we have ordered. But in Chicago you don't dare open your own crates, set up your backdrop wall or even hang your photos or signage on it. You will be approached by a facility contractor and told to desist. They will do it under your supervision and they will charge you big bucks per hour. By the way, in Chicago they like to round off. 1 hour and 3 mins. would be billed at 1.5 hrs. etc. etc. I'll never forget a vender across the isle from me who had set up his entire booth before the union thug came up and said, we can take it all down and set it up again, or you can just pay us our estimate for 2 hours (about $380.00).

  I'll never forget the shuttle bus driver who picked us up the hotel always pointed out the famous Chicago gangster landmarks (On your left is the building where Al Capone's headquarters were located in the "30s... and just down there is where the St Valentines day massacre took place...)...Funny he never pointed out the massive Cabrini Green complex that is a monument to the failure of Johnson's Great Society program... Chicago sucks.