Despite a slick multi-media presentation from the bid committee, complete with a virtual tour of the city’s potential Olympic venues, skepticism was high among the South Shore crowd, which filled the Cultural Center’s ballroom for the latest community forum on the bid.
At the meeting, the fifth to be hosted by Chicago 2016 in the wake of rising concerns over how the city will pay for the bid, Chairman Pat Ryan and President Lori Healy promised that the Games could only benefit the lakefront community. And as Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th Ward) noted in her opening remarks, City Hall and the Chicago Park District were responsible for renovating the spacious, turn–of-the-century country club—and would be equally attentive to other community needs should Chicago win the bid.
Some residents of the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th wards arrived early for the Chicago 2016 community forum, which filled the recently renovated South Shore Cultural Center almost to capacity on Wed. evening
Community members nonetheless lobbed questions and criticism during the Q&A concerning tax-money, displacement, and whether or not they could trust the committee. The seated crowd chanted at the moderators at one point to return the microphone to a man who tried to ask a negative follow-up question about how the bid will be funded.
Chicago 2016 officials repeated at length throughout the evening that their organization was receiving no public funding, and had little connection to Mayor Richard Daley.
“To say that this money will be diverted from other programs is a false choice,” Ryan said. The $4.8 billion pledged to the bid “only comes in to play if we win.”
“We are very fortunate that we have the lakefront, that we have the United Center,” Ryan said, arguing that such existing resources should reduce the amount of additional investment needed for the Games. “I want to be clear that we do not need to acquire any land for our venue plan. There will be no displacement of city residents through this plan.”
Even so, protestors turned out from No Games Chicago and Save Michael Reese Hospital, both oppositions groups formed around the bid, soliciting attendees as they entered the center, located at 7059 S South Shore Dr. Members of Housing Bronzeville also stood around the entrance to the Center’s lobby with their leader, Bob Gannett. They voiced concerns that housing prices in Bronzeville, a South Side neighborhood near the proposed site of the 2016 Olympic Village, could rise if the bid succeeds.
“We’ve been working on [bringing affordable housing to Bronzeville] for five years now, so our concerns are not just something that sprung up because of the Olympics,” said Gannett, a community organizer and director of the Institute for Community Empowerment. Nonetheless, he said Housing Bronzeville will be attending every community planning meeting to express worries about how the Olympics might displace current Bronzeville residents and make the historic community even less affordable.
“We want to tell [Chicago 2016] that they need to step up and listen to the concerns of the community,” he added. “And Chicago 2016 should use their influence with the city of Chicago to get the city to respond—but that’s a stronger nut to crack.”
Attendees were no less critical inside the meeting hall:
“I just want to say this city doesn’t belong to the 2016 bid committee,” said one attendee, who identified herself only as Rhoda, during the Q&A. “If we wanted to go out and use the land, we would have to go out and pay fees.”
Other protestors passed out No Games Chicago stickers, and carried banners with the opposition group’s slogan, “No Blank Check,” but declined to be identified as part of No Games Chicago.
Local critics of the bid aren’t taking into account the amenities and commerce it will bring to the South Side, according to Shirley Newsome, who represents the 4th Ward (Hyde Park and North Kenwood) on Chicago 2016’s bid committee.
“There’s the idea of having an actual performance venue in Washington Park—something that their advisory council has been trying to get for years; the idea of improved infrastructure; funding for security during the Games [from the federal government],” she said.
Newsome also cited job training as another perk of the Games. “We’re preparing people for employment pre and post Olympic Games. These jobs will be in services, professional sectors, any number of areas—not just construction, because we all know those jobs are temporary.”
Newsome said she is perplexed by the outcry from organizations like Housing Bronzeville, and others who fear the Olympics will displace the South Side’s poorer residents. “I’m trying to figure out where [people would be displaced from]. No people live at Michael Reese. No people live in Washington Park. No people live on the lakefront.” And as for housing prices going up, “the community’s been going through gentrification for the past ten years already,” she said. “That’s nothing new.”
Long-time Hyde Park Resident Joni Jackson is excited about the bid, but wary of Chicago 2016's message
Joni Jackson, one attendee, said she would like to acknowledge the bid’s positives, like increased funding to improve transit and parks, but is most concerned about the economic impact on taxpayers – an issue she feels the bid committee has not sufficiently addressed.
“We are currently facing the highest sales tax in the country,” she said. “I love living in the Chicago area, and I would like to be able to remain here.”
Jackson, a graduate of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and educator from Hyde Park, said she came to the meeting to hear Chicago 2016 answer tough questions from community members. “I saw news snippets of the past meeting [at McKinley Park] and it didn’t appear that [Chicago 2016] was answering questions at all,” she said on her way out of the meeting. “I would love to believe what they’re saying but I don’t. I’m highly skeptical.”
Additional Coverage of the community forum: More Chicagoans say no to Olympics at the Examiner.
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