In the Chicago Sun-Times today, "Mayor Daley portrayed the 2016 Summer Olympic Games as the economic salvation for Chicago, but warned Wednesday that it could lose the bid 'if people keep throwing darts.'"
Daley said, "I would never bankrupt the City of Chicago."
He added, "This is the best economic engine we have going. I have nothing [else] up my sleeve."
Now, as much as my gut is inclined to trust a politician, especially one from Chicago, I still felt compelled to do a little Olympic economic research of my own.
Although host cities often predict a post-Olympics tourism boom in the afterglow of hosting the Olympics, many studies refute this.
A study by Giesecke and Madden from the Centre of Policy Studies at Monash University in Australia shows that tourism to Sydney after the 2000 Olympics grew less than tourism to Australia as a whole.
According to "Bidding for the Olympics: Fool's Gold?" by Baade and Matheson, "There is no economic residue that can be identified once the Games left town."
In "Olympic Cities: Lessons Learned from Mega-Event Politics" by Andranovich, Burbank and Heying, "The long time-frames needed for planning, the use of public-private partnerships to design and implement Olympic development, and the absence of general citizen participation during this process add up to an extended business-as-usual theme in urban politics behind the rhetoric and symbolism of the Olympic movement."
There's just no convincing evidence that allows one to believe that hosting the Olympics will be good for the People of Chicago.
Mayor Daley is putting all the City's eggs in one basket, and admits to having "nothing else up his sleeve."
The Olympic bid and the Word of Mayor Daley: Two things I throw darts at.
Daley said, "I would never bankrupt the City of Chicago."
He added, "This is the best economic engine we have going. I have nothing [else] up my sleeve."
Now, as much as my gut is inclined to trust a politician, especially one from Chicago, I still felt compelled to do a little Olympic economic research of my own.
Although host cities often predict a post-Olympics tourism boom in the afterglow of hosting the Olympics, many studies refute this.
A study by Giesecke and Madden from the Centre of Policy Studies at Monash University in Australia shows that tourism to Sydney after the 2000 Olympics grew less than tourism to Australia as a whole.
According to "Bidding for the Olympics: Fool's Gold?" by Baade and Matheson, "There is no economic residue that can be identified once the Games left town."
In "Olympic Cities: Lessons Learned from Mega-Event Politics" by Andranovich, Burbank and Heying, "The long time-frames needed for planning, the use of public-private partnerships to design and implement Olympic development, and the absence of general citizen participation during this process add up to an extended business-as-usual theme in urban politics behind the rhetoric and symbolism of the Olympic movement."
There's just no convincing evidence that allows one to believe that hosting the Olympics will be good for the People of Chicago.
Mayor Daley is putting all the City's eggs in one basket, and admits to having "nothing else up his sleeve."
The Olympic bid and the Word of Mayor Daley: Two things I throw darts at.
No games have ever turned out to be profitable, except for LA in 1984. Who wants to take bets that Chicago will end up more broke than Montreal in 1976?
at $3.4 billion, the Chicago economy will be fine as long as each chicagoan can shit out a gold brick.
"I would never bankrupt the City of Chicago." .... "This is the best economic engine we have going." Are you f'n kidding me? Does Daley LIVE in Chicago? This city is one of the most in debted cities in the country...right now. He has already bankrupted the city. Our roads are in shambles, our public trans is even worse, and i wont even begin to talk about education and crime. Daley is either totally nuts or an even bigger piece of shit than i gave him credit for.
The roads in and around Phoenix are a delight, haven't seen a pothole in a week.
What a nice change of pace for you. Phoenix doesn't have the bitter cold weather found in Chicago, though. Part of the reason our roads are so bad is because of the extreme temps here. But still, other parts of the midwest have nice roads, so what the Eff?