When government officials play the Olympic lottery, taxpayers lose. That has been the disastrous experience of host cities around the world. (Forbes magazine even dubbed the post-Olympic financial burden the "Host City Curse.") So, why are President Obama and his White House entourage headed to Copenhagen, Denmark, this week to push a fiscally doomed Chicago 2016 bid? Political payback.
Bringing the games to the Windy City is Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley's "vision." The entrenched Democratic powerbroker -- in office since 1989 -- would like to cap off his graft-haunted tenure with a glorious $4 billion bread-and-circuses production. The influential Daley machine backed Barack Obama for the presidential primary. Obama lavished praise on Daley's stewardship of the city. Longtime Daley cronies helped pave Obama's path to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Now, they're returning the favor for their hometown boss.
Senior White House adviser and Obama consigliere Valerie Jarrett is a Daley loyalist who worked as his deputy chief of staff, deputy corporation counsel and planning commissioner. She hired the future first lady of the United States, then-Michelle Robinson, as a mayoral assistant. Jarrett went on to serve as president and CEO of The Habitat Company, a real estate firm with a massive stake in federally funded Chicago public housing projects.
One of those public-private partnerships, the Grove Parc Plaza Apartments, was run into the ground under Jarrett's watch. Federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex a bottom-of-the-barrel 11 on a 100-point scale. "They are rapidly displacing poor people, and these companies are profiting from this displacement," Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle of Southside Together Organizing for Power, a community group that seeks to help tenants stay in the same neighborhoods, told the Boston Globe last year. "'The same exact people who ran these places into the ground,' the private companies paid to build and manage the city's affordable housing, 'now are profiting by redeveloping them.'"
Coincidentally enough, Grove Parc -- now targeted for demolition as a result of years of neglect by Obama's developer friends -- sits in the shadows of the proposed site of the city's 2016 Olympic Stadium. Jarrett served as vice chair of Chicago's 2016 Summer Olympics bid committee before moving to the White House, where she has helmed a new "White House Office on Olympic, Paralympic and Youth Sport" with an undisclosed budget and staff.
It's not just taxpayers in cash-strapped Chicago who should be worried about this field of schemes. Crain's Chicago Business reports that Jarrett and Chicago 2016 committee member Lori Healey met this month with federal officials at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development "to discuss financing options" for the estimated $1 billion Olympic Village.
The door is open, and the administration is "willing to meet and listen" to any federal subsidy proposals, Jarrett said. Hey, what happened to Obama's tough rules on interest-conflicted lobbying by his administration officials?
A majority of Chicagoans who live in pay-for-play-plagued Cook County oppose public funding for the Olympic party. The city has more than a half-billion-dollar deficit -- and just received word that its Olympic insurance policy will cover only about $1.1 billion of the $3.8 billion operating budget drawn up by Daley. Cost overruns, fraud and union-inflated contracts are inevitable. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs defended Obama's all-out campaign for Chicago's 2016 Olympics bid by claiming America will see a "tangible economic benefit."
But as is always the case with sports corporate welfare disguised as "economic development," an elite few will benefit far more than others.
Take senior White House adviser and Obama campaign guru David Axelrod. He's been a Daley loyalist since 1989, when he signed up as a political consultant for the mayor's first run. Axelrod's public relations firm, Chicago-based AKPD Message and Media, has pitched in work for the Chicago 2016 committee. It is unknown how much AKPD has received for its services -- or how much they'll make in future income if the bid is successful. AKPD currently owes Axelrod $2 million.
The head of the Chicago 2016 bid committee is Patrick Ryan, chairman of the Aon Corporation and a co-chair of Obama's deep-pocketed presidential inaugural committee. Also on both of those committees: Obama confidante Penny Pritzker, who, in addition, chairs the Olympic Village subcommittee and is president of Pritzker Realty Group -- a mega-developer in Illinois that could reap untold millions in project work if the Daley machine/White House campaign succeeds. Former Pritzker executive and Obama campaign treasurer Martin Nesbitt is also on the bid committee -- and serves as Daley's chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority.
Another bid committee member, Michael Scott Jr., is "trying to develop a for-profit real estate project that would sit within feet of the cycling venue if Chicago wins the 2016 Summer Games," according to the Chicago Tribune.
It takes a crony-filled White House to raise a Chicago Olympic village. Daley and Obama will get the glory. America will get stuck with the bill.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009 By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=54762
The first lady left on Tuesday night, while the president will leave for Denmark on Thursday night.
Taxpayers will pick up the tab for both jets ferrying the president and first lady separately to Europe.
“Everything they do, whether it’s signing pieces of legislation or flying around the world, everything is costing the taxpayer,” David Williams, vice president of policy for Citizens Against Government Waste, told CNSNews.com. “The taxpayer is picking up the tab for everything.”
The White House announced on Monday that the president would be joining his wife on this European trip, despite indicating earlier this month that the first lady would head up the U.S. Olympic Committee delegation to Copenhagen while Obama remained in the United States to continue pushing for his health care reform plan.
Back on Sept. 11, the White House announced that the first lady would travel to Denmark but not the president.
“President Obama informed IOC [International Olympic Committee] President Count Jacques Rogge today that the fight to pass health insurance reform keeps him from committing at this time to travel to Copenhagen on October 2, but he will continue to work to support Chicago’s bid along with the First Lady and Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor to the President, who will accompany the First Lady to Copenhagen,” the Sept. 11 announcement said.
Repeated calls and e-mails to the first lady’s press office to confirm whether she is traveling on her appointed aircraft or will use the second presidential Boeing 747 were not answered as this story went to press.
As reported earlier by CNSNews.com, a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report cited two cost estimates for an hour of air travel by the president, vice president and first lady. One estimate comes from the White House Military Office, the other from the U.S. Air Force.
Using the CRS cost estimates and the inflation adjuster from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost for the one-way 7.5-hour trip from Washington, D.C. to Copenhagen on the first lady's plane would range from $29,532 (White House Military Office) to $107,717 (U.S. Air Force).
The cost for the president to fly Air Force One on the one-way 7.5-hour trip from Washington, D.C. to Copenhagen ranges from $343,448 (White House Military Office) to $567,089 (U.S. Air Force).
When asked by CNSNews.com why the president decided to travel to Copenhagen, a White House spokesman said Obama did not think the short trip abroad would harm his efforts to promote health care reform.
“The president decided to make the brief trip to Copenhagen when it became clear that he could do so without negatively affecting his efforts on health care and the other important challenges facing this country,” spokesman Joshua Earnest told CNSNews.com.
According to the White House, the President will return to the United States on Friday afternoon. But it was unclear from the White House advisory when the First Lady would return.
When asked by CNSNews.com why the president and first lady are traveling on separate planes, Earnest said: “Mrs. Obama is leading the delegation to Copenhagen, and leaves with [White House senior advisor] Valerie Jarrett on Tuesday evening. Mrs. Obama will speak during the presentation on Friday, and will make a deeply personal appeal to the voting members before introducing the president.”
“She will spend Wednesday and Thursday lobbying individual IOC members in Copenhagen,” Earnest said. “The president will be in Copenhagen on Friday morning and will add his voice to the formal presentation to the IOC.”
Also joining the president and first lady on the two planes are Chicagoans Oprah Winfrey, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
Chicago joins Madrid, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as the four cities being considered by the IOC.
Obama is the first U.S. president to make an in-person appeal to the IOC, but other world leaders have appeared before the committee to pitch their country as an Olympic venue. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair traveled to Singapore in 2004 when the 2012 games were awarded to London. In 2007, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin went to Guatemala City to win the 2014 games for the Russian city of Sochi.
Obama previously sent a letter to the IOC in support of Chicago, saying that the city would promise a “spectacular Olympic experience for one and all.”
Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Richard M. Daley, who is already in Copenhagen, said he was thrilled that the president and first lady would be joining him.
“President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama symbolize the hope, opportunity, and inspiration that make Chicago great,” Daley said in a statement, “and we are honored to have two of the city’s most accomplished residents leading our delegation in Copenhagen.”
Wednesday, September 30, 2009 By Don Babwin, Associated Press http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/54786
The opposition is not as visible as the "We Back the Bid" signs plastered across town. But in a city all too familiar with stories of public corruption and problems with public services, there is serious concern the games can only mean more troubles -- and bills -- for residents.
"I know it's going to cost us money somehow," said Joseph Patrick, a 51-year-old stay-at-home dad. "The government doesn't have a job (so) the only place they can get money is from us."
A new Web site -- Chicagoansforrio.com -- is the talk of the town and features the game "Match the Olympic host with its estimated budget overrun." About 170 protesters marched outside City Hall on Tuesday night, many insisting that no matter organizers say, the games will push people from their homes, trigger more corruption and raise taxes.
"I don't believe anything the city and the 2016 committee says," said Larry Rivkin, who grew up in Chicago.
At least one person was later arrested for trying to interfere with workers erecting Olympic symbols in a downtown plaza.
"There's no downside, only upside," Mason said.
Others note protests routinely accompany Olympic bids.
"The Olympics always galvanizes all sorts of opposition," said A.D. Frazier, chief operating officer for the 1996 Atlanta Games.
In Chicago, though, the opposition seems to be getting stronger.
A poll released this month by the Chicago Tribune showed residents almost evenly split, with 47 percent in favor of the bid and 45 percent against; that's a drop from the 2-1 support the newspaper found in a February poll.
The 2016 bid committee said its own poll last week shows support from 72 percent of Chicagoans. But even that segment has concerns.
"A Cubs game turns my commute to chaos," Blaine, 51, said. "You're belly button to belly button."
For others, concerns about taxes have only intensified since Mayor Richard Daley flip-flopped in April, telling the IOC he'd sign a contract promising the city would take full financial responsibility for the games after long maintaining he wouldn't.
"For a lot of people that was definitely a major moment, when they said, 'Wait a minute, we're going to be ... on the hook financially for a very large amount,'" said Anna Tarkov, who writes The Daily Daley blog and opposes the bid.
Organizers have tried to allay such fears, but it can be a tough sell at a time of headline-grabbing corruption cases, the biggest one involving former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich -- a Chicagoan accused of trying to sell President Barack Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder.
"I just think that the history of corruption sets the stage for a brutal series of events like misuse of funds and insider dealings," said Brian Hayes, 53, of Chicago.
Frazier, of the Atlanta Games, doesn't think the opposition matters to the IOC.
"They will probably be disappointed if there wasn't anything," he said.
Members of a group called No Games Chicago hope he's wrong. They're headed to Copenhagen to tell the IOC that Chicago is in such financial straits it cannot afford the games and is such a hotbed of political corruption it doesn't deserve them.
"We are bringing materials to back up our claim that Chicago is not fit to host the games," said Tom Tresser, an organizer for the group.
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