When all the hype of the 2016 Olympics coming to chicago was occuring earlier this year, i got pretty stoked for the bid. I was seeing advertisements everywhere for the games, from highways to tee shirts. I was proud that my city that i live in is great enough to be a finalist for the future Olympics. As the hype went on, i started noticing that there was also hype to NOT host the olympic games. Why would anyone not want chicago to host the Olympics?
I felt relived when mayor Daley made the announcement that no chicagoan will be picking up the tab, meaning he wont be raising taxes whatsoever. He flip-flopped on this idea and apologized saying that yes, he will be raising taxes. Chicago already has extremely high taxes with our apparel tax at about 10% and our cigarette tax the highest in the nation, taxes i perfer not to pay but dont mind paying. These taxes go toward enhancing this wonderful city. In what ways, im not sure but i do know that the city's cleanliness and overall visual appearance has significantly improved since the 80s and 90s. Chicago needs to increase taxes for the Olympics? So be it. Transportation will be made easier and the city will look ultra swank and dolled up for the eyes of the world in 2016. I have also heard that Olympics bring in money to the city as well. You have to spend money to make money.
Whenever i asked adults in the know about the Olympic bid as to why they or other people would want the olympics to be located somewhere else, they gave me the answer that they do not want to pay higher taxes and because history states that some cities have been destroyed by the Olympics. Atlanta being the core example. Searching the web i havent found any information supporting the fact that cities go to ruins after their olympics. I have only found sites that say that cities go down and dont have any support on their claim. One website actually stated that Atlanta became a more booming city after the Olympics saying that the population rose from 2m before the Olympics to 4m in modern day and that the Olympics helped put Atlanta on the map.
With those two answers that i received shot out, why else would people not want the olympics in chicago? One of the only two answers that i found reasonable enough is that a lot of people get displaced from their homes. Even in china, the government pushed people out of their homes for the olympic bids to build on their sites. In Atlanta, they were giving homeless people one way bus tickets out of the city. The other reason is that all this money from the Olympics could be going to our schools, homeless, and people and neighborhoods that are in need. Every other reason given doesnt have to do with the Olympics in my opinion. Websites stated cities that should get the bid, as long as chicago didnt, with no explination why. Some stated Daleys mistakes of him being un-lawful in un-related situations. Some stated the negative cliches about the Olympics such as the steroid scandals, underage participants, high crime (which is general crime, not during the Olympics), cities bribing judges, and even bringing up the unfortunate terrorist bombing that occurred in Atlanta in the 80s.
I have found no good reason why i feel that chicago shouldnt get the olympic bid. Turned out that the only reason why we shouldnt is because USA has already held the Olympics a few times and South America hasnt. We live in an amazing and gorgeous city and im glad that is the reason why chicago got booted out of the race first.
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