Morning Round Up

Kass thinks Olympics will make Daley King.  Hard to disagree, though isn't he already?  If we get the Olympics won't it be more like Moscow 1980 than LA 1984?

New CTA stop at Morgan and Lake on the Green line in the West Loop.  Being built with TIF money.  See TIFs aren't always bad.

Also apparently about people were protesting and ripping down Olympic stuff at Daley Plaza and then tried to burn it in the eternal flame there.  I would say most people here in Chicago either don't want them or don't care.  And when I say most, I mean like 65%.  Daley has every company (even the Tribune!) flying Chicago 2016 flags and backing the bid.  But it's the most unenthusiastic backing one could imagine. Compared to a year ago when the City had Obama fever... this is nothing.  It's all fake I'd even say.  Most of the support is coming from people who don't live in Chicago... people form the burbs.

BTW, if/when Chicago doesn't get the Olympics, the tragic and horrible beating death of a Chicago Public School student will be the reason why.  This story won't go away and went INTERNATIONAL.

And the 2016 team is literally making stuff up now about the Olympics and Chicago support for it.  They've got the media wrapped around their fingers, I know, but where is all this support they're talking about?  They have money, sure, but where is the actual support?

We're not stupid, we know how this will work.  We know that their $4.8 billion bid (the lowest of the four bids) is a pipe dream.  London is already over budget.  Vancouver, VANCOUVER, CANADA, is over budget. How is Chicago, a town that is still ripe with graft and clout, going to be on budget?

Think about this for a second.  Vancouver is $400 million over budget. Their original budget was $1.2 billion.  That means they are 33% over budget.  London's 2012 budget is currently... $15 billion!  Chicago's big is about a third of that price.  And a 33% increase on Chicago bid would put costs at $6.4 billion.  This is going to be a disaster if Chicago gets the bid.

Only 50 odd hours to go until they make their decision.  I'll break down how I think the vote will go one of these hours...