Chicago coalition worries 2016 Olympic hopes overlook community needs
Members of Communities for an Equitable Olympics rally at Michael Reese Hospital Thursday.
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As the city develops the South and West Sides in the hopes of winning its bid for the 2016 Olympic Summer Games, the Communities for an Equitable Olympics (CEO 2016) rallied today to ensure every Chicagoan will benefit.
Members of CEO 2016, the newly formed coalition of Chicago community groups and labor organizations, held the rally to encourage the city to enter into a community-based benefits agreement that would protect housing and jobs for low-income families.
CEO 2016 is not opposed to Chicago’s Olympic bid, but fears that low-income residents will be priced out of the neighborhoods in which the Olympics will be held and not share in the economic benefits that the Summer Games could bring to the city.
“We are here today to break new ground in the city of Chicago to create the political will that it will take to make sure that the people that are here when the Olympics start are the people that are here when the Olympics are done,” said Jay Travis, the executive director of Kenwood Oaklawn Community Organization (KOCO) and CEO 2016.
To highlight their concerns, CEO 2016 held its rally at the historic Michael Reese Hospital, which recently announced that it will be demolished and redeveloped as an Olympic Village for the 2016 games.
Beneath an old hospital Emergency sign, Joe Smith, a member of CEO 2016, said that competing for the Olympics “will be a great opportunity to showcase our city to the world, but residents of these communities must not be an afterthought as we rush for the gold.”
Smith’s concerns are based on the past experiences of cities that have hosted the games. A 2007 study by the Chicago Urban League, for example, found that both the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles and the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta resulted in the loss of low-wage jobs and destruction of housing for low-income people.
CEO 2016’s attempt to secure a community-based benefits agreement with the city is unprecedented.
Even if the city fails in its bid, CEO 2016 leaders fear that the bidding process will be used to speed up gentrification and school closings that are already taking place in the South and West Side of the city.
“What people don’t realize about the Olympics,” said Jitu Brown, an organizer for KOCO and CEO 2016, “is that it can be used as a tool to eliminate a population that the city doesn’t want here right now because of what they say the land value is.”
South Side resident Dollie Perkins-Moore, who is also a leader with KOCO, agrees.
“Right now there is no place for us as a whole to even be a part of this," she said. "How can you bring the Olympics here when my boys go to Doolittle Elementary School, and they don’t have a computer lab, they don’t have a music room? The Olympics is not going to do anything for my boys right now. I need a computer lab, I need a music room, a library – we have none of that on 35th street.”
Brown said he is hopeful that the publicity of the city’s Olympic bid and CEO 2016 organizing efforts will bring attention to what is happening on the South and West Side of Chicago and create the conditions for change.
“We believe that this is an opportunity,” he said. “We recognize that it’s very important that Chicago get the bid. We support Chicago getting the bid, but not on our backs.”
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Comments
Good article. Very informative.
CEO 2016 may not be opposed to holding the Olympics in Chicago in 2016 however there are many Chicago residents and others who are VERY opposed.
For example:
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3795/chicagos_olympic_dreams_undeser...
"For nearly 20 years, a former Chicago police commander named Jon Burge and detectives under his command routinely tortured more than 100 black males, claiming they were criminal suspects. Several independent investigations and court decisions confirmed these systematic crimes, which occurred from 1972 to 1991."
The latest evidence was a 292-page report issued two years ago by court-appointed special prosecutor Edward Egan that concluded Burge and his men used many torture techniques, including electro-shocking genitals, suffocating people with plastic bags and burning skin on a hot radiator.
But the statute of limitations prevented prosecution.
Thus, none of the cops involved has yet to pay any legal cost.
Groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International condemned these crimes, which violate domestic laws, the victims’ constitutional rights, as well as international treaties banning torture.
In May 2006, the U.N. Committee Against Torture sharply rebuked the United States for failing to hold the offending police officers accountable."
If this is the case, then on what grounds can Sen Obama make the following statement as per this article:
http://www.chicago2016.org/News/Pages/ObamaAttendsRalleyinDaleyPlaza.aspx
"Speaking to a crowd gathered in Chicago to celebrate Chicago’s elevation to Candidate City by the International Olympic Committee, Obama said, “Bringing the Olympics to Chicago will be
a capstone of the success that we’ve had over the past couple decades
in transforming Chicago to become not just a great American City but a great world city.”
He noted that he lives only a few blocks away from the proposed site of the Olympic Stadium in Washington Park. “In 2016, I’ll be wrapping up my second term as president, so I can’t think of a better way than to be marching into Washington Park alongside Mayor Daley, alongside Rahm Emanuel, alongside Dick Durbin, alongside Valerie Jarrett, as president of the United States and announcing to the world, ‘Let the Games begin!’”
What success is Sen Obama referring to? I do not ask this question in a facetious manner- I am serious. I want to know. Thanks...
Thanks for your comment. For all the good things one can say about Chicago -- and there are a lot of good things to say --there is a dark side too. And as Jitu Brown suggests above, a lot of those good things have been achieved on the backs of poor people.
Related to this point, check out this story from The Citizen on why Chicago is not on a roll: http://www.windycitizen.com/2008/07/things-i-didnt-get-to-say-on-chicago...
John-
Thank you for your well written article and thank you for pointing me to the article titled "Why Chicago is Not on a Roll.
You guys are doing a great job on this site. Thank you so much.
John-do you have the web link for part 2 of the article you refer to above. I read Part 1 but can not locate part 2. Thank you.
Part 2 is still forthcoming......when you're the publisher you can be creative with deadlines now and then ... :)
Not to worry. We will be patient. Verification & accuracy are worth the wait...
Keep up the great work!