Mayor Daley remains composed in the face of widespread criticism
DAILY NEWS
Our trials and tribulations in the effort to once again start receiving the Mayor's schedule are still continuing. On the off chance that someone from the Mayor's press office is reading this, please start returning our phone calls. Come on, it's not so hard. You pick up the receiver, push some buttons.... well, you get the idea.
Sheesh... we love covering the Mayor for all you good folks, but sometimes it's hard not to feel jealous of this guy for instance.
DALEY NEWS
Coverage of the Aldermanic pushback (if one can even call it that) continues with this Tribune roundup. Dare we say there is a tone of disappointment being expressed here in regards to the resolutions being introduced to limit taxpayer liability for the Olympics?
Of three newly introduced measures, only one appears to have the potential to seriously damage the mayor's Olympic quest, and that proposal appeared to have only scant support in the council.
That proposal is being advanced by Alderman Manny Flores of the 1st ward. Before you go getting all excited though, you should know that the proposal only seeks to limit our financial liability to $500 million and when all's said and done, Ald. Flores says he still supports the bid. And of course that $500 million cap has already been voted on and approved by the City Council twice before. Maybe the third time's the charm in Chicago.
Nevertheless, observers say that a resolution of this nature could harm Chicago's standing amongst the other cities competing to win the Games and an official who was in charge of the Atlanta Olympics seems concerned on our behalf:
"You don't want to put a land mine in the ... middle of the road," said A.D. Frazier, who was chief operating officer of the Atlanta Summer Games in 1996 and is a Chicago 2016 supporter.
Heavens no. Not a landmine. Although we've got a few ideas on where it could be placed.
If you're getting the feeling that there's nothing on this earth, much less a landmine, that can stop the Olympics from coming here, you're probably correct. Mayor Daley certainly seemed unfazed by any of the grumbling according to this placid portrait painted by the Chicago Reader's Mick Dumke yesterday. Content with the state of things, the Mayor as usual delighted with some classic utterances like this one:
“Unions are good,” Daley said, and then added, “They’re not all evil.”
The Mayor was of course talking about the unions because the City Council had just approved a measure to force unpaid days off for non-union city workers. The Mayor is of course urging the unions to accept a similar deal.
Maybe those "evil unions" are the ones that are now reneging on an agreement for unpaid days off that are meant to avert mass layoffs. Incidentally, the amount that would be saved by such a layoff is $76 million per year. Quick, how much is that Olympic guarantee again?
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Anna Tarkov
What I love: my family, Chicago and Chicagoans, reading (mostly non-fiction), politics, media, discussing/debating almost anything, traveling, great TV shows like Mad Men, both films AND movies and fi More
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