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Coming up next: South Side Together Organizer for Power (STOP) and others protest the closing of one of the University of Chicago's clinics, and discuss how healthcare and the 2016 Olympics relate.

Olympics bring inspiration, challenges, to Washington Park Consortium

If you ask Brandon Johnson, Washington Park has forgotten how beautiful it is.

“But now that it’s getting attention from some famous people,” he said, like a person who has just looked in the mirror for the first time in years, “The neighborhood is remembering it’s attractive again.” The famous people Johnson is talking about are members of the International Olympics Committee, and they may vote in October to place the 2016 Games in the park.

Washington Park is a small, urban community on Chicago South Side; it neighbors the University of Chicago and encircles one of the city’s largest greenscapes, a park designed by urban planning legend Fredrick Law Olmsted. But the area is also caught in a century-long economic decline that has left its 13,000 residents with some of the highest crime rates in the nation and median household incomes approaching $15,000 a year.

Nonetheless, with its 372 acres of park land and 20 minute train ride from the Loop, it’s little surprise to community leaders like Johnson, executive director of the Washington Park Consortium, that the blighted neighborhood has attracted international attention as the proposed site of the 2016 Olympic stadium in Chicago’s bid.

“When you’re in a depressed socioeconomic state, it clouds your perspective on where you actually are in life,” Johnson explained, “and I think the attention of the Olympics is again allowing Washington Park to see itself as a Chicago neighborhood with mainstream potential.”



Man fishes in a Washington Park lagoon on a Tuesday afternoon (6/23)

A Neighborhood in Flux

Johnson has seen the community change first-hand; he grew up at 55th and Cottage Grove just steps away from where the Olympic Stadium would be built, and now he is tasked with executing the Washington Park Quality of Life Plan, a proposal on how community members want to see their home develop over the next decade. The plan was created in a partnership between 20th Ward Alderman Willie Cochran, the non-profit community development organization LISC, and a steering committee of neighborhood volunteers that began brainstorming in the late 1990s, according to Johnson.

But Alderman Cochran thinks the prospect of the Olympics is exactly the inspiration Washington Park needs to turn the plan, which addresses senior issues, urban agriculture and schools, from a blueprint into reality.

Viewing the arrival of the Olympics and the Quality of Life Plan as the cornerstones of community revitalization, Cochran said at the plan’s unveiling in May, “Washington Park will be one of the best, most sought after, thriving locations this city has to offer.”

Besides improving schools and after-school programming for neighborhood youth, the plan is heavily focused on bringing businesses to Washington Park’s main thoroughfares, such as Garfield Blvd., State St., and 63rd St., and planting community vegetable gardens in empty lots on 56th and Indiana and elsewhere.

Johnson, whom Cochran appointed to lead the community revitalization efforts, is “for the Olympics.” But Washington Park has a history of adversity to overcome before it can play an active role in planning for the Games, he says.

“As long as Washington Park is viewed as a desolate ghetto, then [people will say] that any development is warranted, even necessary, whether or not the community has input. Until the neighborhood is perceived as self-sufficient and independent, the impulse will be to interact with us through kinds of missionary behaviors, you know, ‘save the natives kinds of stuff.’”

Johnson’s worries about how Chicago’s Olympics committee might transform the neighborhood are not unfounded. Past redevelopment initiatives from the United Center built west of the Loop to the White Sox stadium in Armor Square have raised housing prices in many of Chicago's low-income areas, displacing some residents and drawing criticism for “gentrifying” their surroundings.

Survival Mode

“People here are generally in survival mode, so 2016 seems like a long way away.” Facing high unemployment rates, high crimes rates, and a recession with no end in sight, Johnson said Washington Park has a great potential to be taken advantage of should the city begin development of Olympian proportions in the park soon.

Johnson’s advice to Chicago’s Olympics committee is to look to Washington Park’s history of hosting sports events and the World’s Fair—a source of pride for a neighborhood that has come to be defined by its historic parklands—and view the park’s neighbors as community partners, not low-income residents to be dispensed of.

Now that Washington Park has a clear set of collective goals, Johnson said he would like to see a freer flow of information between Chicago 2016 and residents on the Olympic bid—rather than the organization's current emphasis on attracting the IOC's attention.

“I’m not impressed by their community outreach or their community vision so far,” he said, leaning back in his desk chair inside Alderman Cochran’s office on 63rd and Cottage Grove.

Does Johnson foresee Chicago 2016 heightening its community outreach after the city has secured the bid?

“Yeah, I think so. I hope so.”

Olympics News Roundup: 6/24

ESPN covers Olympic Day in Washington Park from a different angle than my story ...

... And Chicago 2016 Chairman Pat Ryan promises to brief the city's aldermen in 'the next 60 days or so' about the insurance plan to finance the Games ...

While Salt Lake City, Grand Rapids, and Pocatello, Idaho, mayors show their support for Chicago's bid.

Friendship (and sun) shines in Washington Park as Chicago 2016 kicks off Olympic Day celebration

Washington Park youth and paralympians Joshua George and Amanda McGrory wait for the start of the Olympic Day "Fun Run."

U.S. Track star Jackie Joyner-Kersee was more worried about making sure no one got hurt than introducing herself at Washington Park’s Olympic Day celebration.

“Right now we’re all on each others heels,” she said to the neighborhood youth crowding behind the starting line. “We don’t want to paw all over each other and hurt each other as I start this race.”

Joyner-Kersee honked her bull-horn, kicking off a short race beside the Washington Park Armory, and a full day of city celebrations in honor of the anniversary of the 1896 Olympics.

Members of Chicago 2016, the city’s Olympics organizing and fundraising body, looked on as several hundred local children in bright "Kids Back the Bid" t-shirts sprinted down the road.

Pat Ryan, chairman of Chicago 2016, marveled at the community enthusiasm. “It’s wonderful to see all these young people out there. Many of the kids who ran here could actually be Olympians some day,” he said in an interview.

The youth “Fun Run” was a welcomed bright spot for Chicago 2016, which has faced mounting criticism over its nebulous plans to finance Chicago’s bid for the International Olympic Committee. The IOC requires cities to sign an agreement fully committing themselves to insure the Games against financial losses.

Ryan insists that the bid will not over-burden taxpayers—and critics of Chicago 2016’s plan should take a closer look at the numbers.

The critics “have never called; they never asked to go over the numbers with us—We would welcome that, particularly some of the [University of Chicago] economists like Mr. [Allen] Sanderson,” he said. “They got the numbers, but they haven’t had the explanation; you’ve got to go through it and discuss it.”

Despite the push-back from local opposition groups like No Games Chicago and South Side Together Organizing for Power (STOP), Ryan is enthusiastic about the opportunities the Olympic Games could bring to the park and surrounding neighborhood. “Lots of volunteer jobs, and real jobs will be created in the neighborhood [if Chicago wins the bid]. It’s really a stimulus financially and emotionally.”

“For the next six or seven years a kid will grow up watching this area get built, and he can say ‘hey, I played there. I played there in that exact same park. I watched them put those bricks down.’ That’s pretty awesome,” said April Holmes, a paralympian who competed in track and field for the U.S. at the Para-Olympics in Beijing.



Children race in Washington Park on Olympic Day


Paralympian Joshua George, who also competed for the U.S. track and field team in Beijing, thinks the Games can play a unique role in inspiring children. Like Holmes, George and his fellow teammate Amanda McGrory were invited by Chicago 2016 to speak at the Washington Park “Fun Run.”

“I’ve gotten the privilege to go into a few schools around the city as well,” George said. “It’s going to be huge, because by the time the games come to Chicago [these students] will be 18, 19 years old. Some of them will be athletes, and some will probably be spectators.”

Olympics News Roundup 6/22

Members of No Games Chicago returned from Lausanne, Switzerland, where they flew last week to protest the city's bid to members of the International Olympic Committee ...

... While Hawaii celebrated the international air travel that the Chicago Olympics would bring to the state's capital ...

... And President Obama gives America the "it-factor" that might push the second city ahead of its competition.




Volunteers for Chicago 2016 pass out "Olympic Rings" wristbands in Federal Plaza (6/18)

Tuesday is Olympic Day, and Chicago 2016 is hosting a morning of speeches and athleticism in Washington Park. Check back here for updates.

Aldermen, analysts, wary of Chicago’s new plans to finance 2016 Olympics

Mayor Richard M. Daley announced Wednesday that Chicago will take on full financial responsibility for the 2016 Olympics, a plan that may drive the cost of hosting the Games beyond the $500 million in private insurance already bracketed by City Council.

5th Ward Alderman Leslie Hairston learned of the new guarantee plan with the rest of Chicago—on the news.

“It was a shock,” she said. “The deal is something that should have gone before the city council …[it] shouldn’t have been made unilaterally.”

The city has already put forward $450 million in "rainy day funds,” close to $375 million in IOC cancellation insurance, $500 million in insurance coverage, and another $500 million guarantee of taxpayer money from the city to be used as a “last resort.” City officials say the guarantee will be financed through the city’s organizing committee, Chicago 2016.

Daley’s promise, made at the International Olympics Committee meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, will make the city fully responsible for any financial loses the Olympics may incur on top of the $4.8 billion projected cost of hosting the games—a plan that diverges from previous talks about pioneering a limited-guarantee plan for the city.

“The benefits of the Olympics are great,” Hairston said, but she would be more comfortable with the deal if Mayor Daley had presented the Council with transparent research on the guarantee’s possible financial impact on the city first.

“From everything I’ve heard, Chicago stands to do really well, but I would still like to see the numbers…and that hasn’t been provided yet,” she said.

4th Ward Alderman Toni Preckwinkle echoed Hairston’s concern that Daley did not brief the city’s aldermen before announcing the decision—but she wasn’t so surprised to hear the news.

“My understanding is that cities have all signed the agreement in the past,” she said, referring to the host city’s agreement that all bid candidates will be required to sign two days before the IOC announces its decision on Oct. 2. The agreement makes Olympics host cities completely responsible for the games’ financial loses.

According to Preckwinkle, the city council signed an ordinance earlier this year giving the Mayor the power to sign contracts on behalf of the city at the IOC, including the host city’s agreement. Though the promise of a financial guarantee will make the city a much more viable contender against Tokyo, Madrid, and Rio de Janeiro, the new plan faces skepticism, especially over how much Chicago taxpayers will be on the hook to cover the losses.

“The more you put on the line, the more you’re going to lose,” said Richard Taub, a sociologist at the University of Chicago. “As far as we know, the Olympics in Atlanta and the Olympics in Seattle ended up costing a lot of money, and it didn’t make money for those cities at all.”

Taub, author of There Goes the Neighborhood: Racial, Ethnic, and Class Tensions in Four Chicago Neighborhoods and Their Meaning for America, compares the city’s approach to the Olympics to the way American cities have approached sports stadium-building.

“When a city uses tax dollars to build stadiums, they never pay off for the city or the people in the city. If you’re going to put [tax dollars], at risk then you’re going to get in trouble,” because individual citizens do not stand to gain from the Games, he said.

Preckwinkle is more optimistic; “The reason Mayor Daley has chosen to pursue this so energetically is because he wants to raise Chicago up on the international stage,” she said.

“I think when people think of the U.S. internationally, they think of New York, they think of L.A., maybe Disney World,” she said. “But Chicago is a really beautiful city and I think [Daley] believes this will really benefit us.”

More news on the full financial guarantee:

*from the Chicago Tribune: "Olympics funding: City Council in no mood for games."

*from Chicago Public Radio: "Alderman Wants to Cap City Spending on Olympics."