Barack Obama is making a mistake in pushing to bring the Olympic Games to Chicago, but not for the reasons the right-wing is offering. His trip to Copenhagen was far less of a distraction from the hard work ahead than the various vacations George W. Bush took over the course of his disastrous eight years.
His mistake lies in the myth of the Olympics as urban renewal. As Dave Zirin points out this week, the argument that the Olympics will create jobs and help Chicago and the nation be more competitive in the world economy is belied by the failures the games have left in their wake.
There is only one problem with this argument: the history of the Olympic Games almost without exception brands it as a lie. As Sports Illustrated’s Michael Fish – an Olympic supporter – has written, “You stage a two-week athletic carnival and, if things go well, pray the local municipality isn’t sent into financial ruin.”
He adds that
To greater or lesser degrees, the Olympics bring gentrification, graft and police violence wherever they nest. Even without the Olympic Games, Chicago has been ground zero in the past decade for the destruction of public housing, political corruption raised to an art form, and police violence. Bringing the Olympics to this town would be like sending a gift basket filled with bottles of Jim Beam to the Betty Ford Clinic: over-consumption followed by disaster.
Elizabeth DiNovella offers a similar argument:
The Olympics could be a financial disaster for the city. The range of taxpayer-linked costs runs in excess of $2.1 billion, reports the Chicago Tribune. The bid committee says much of the costs would be paid by federal tax dollars, but ultimately Chicago “taxpayers would be on the hook for any huge cost overruns.”
Huge cost overruns are a way of life for city projects. Just look at Millennium Park. The park, which is a hit locally and internationally, opened four years behind schedule. “Originally estimated to cost $150 million when plans were unveiled in 1998, the price tag ballooned to about $490 million by the time it opened in 2005,” the Tribune reported in March 2007. “Private donors covered roughly $220 million of the total, the city the remainder.”
Plus, it is rare that the expected redevelopment — and subsequent increase in business and taxes — actually happens, especially when public dollars are invested in the project. The money goes out and into the pockets of developers and neighborhoods are uprooted, but the tax revenue generated never makes up for the initial outlay.
The Olympics are just not a good deal for anyone but the people who already have the cash. Let them go to Spain.
Hank Kalet 