Chicago loses, yet wins

Wins in MY book, at least, which is kind of sad. Sad that I'm one of many many people who did NOT want the Olympics in Chicago. And it's not about the pedestrian stuff that people pull out to make us look like rubes, i.e. the increased traffic, the construction, the tourists.

No, it's about the fact that we're all sick and tired of the same little upper echelon of politicians - and their friends and family - in Chicago getting richer and richer, while we the taxpayers, and the city in general, go broke. Chicago has one of the highest property taxes in the country....yet we have so little money that the mayor sold off all the parking meters, in what's been a total fiasco of mismanagement. Our streets are horrible. Last winter the city decided to hold off on de-icing side streets, with the result that cars went sliding through intersections on sheets of ice. Brilliant.

Those of us against the Olympics know how truly corrupt this city is, know that the cost overruns would have been huge, know that the pals of Daley were already salivating at the thought of all the money THEY'D make, while the city went broke.


My one regret - I was really looking forward to seeing Chicago's version of the Opening Ceremonies, after Beijing set the bar so high. Though I'm sure the Jesse White Tumblers would have done a fine job, yes a damn fine job, of showcasing Chicago, very similar to Beijing.