President Obama - Don't Support the 2016 Olympic Bid

Mayor Richard M. Daley is set on Chicago hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics. No Games Chicago is a grass roots coalition of social justice activists from across the city who believe this is a terrible idea for our city.

We see three major reasons to oppose the Olympic bid:

(1) Financial - the Federal government, State of Illinois, Cook County and the City of Chicago are all broke. The games loose billions for the host city. Montreal hosted the 1976 Summer Games and took 31 years to pay off their debt. London is hosting the 2012 Summer Games and are already $9 billion over budget. Chicago is famous for corruption, incompetence and massive construction overruns. The Olympics would bankrupt the city.

(2) Environmental - The venues for the 2016 games are slated to be built in our public parks. We don't want priceless public parks destroyed and taken off line for years for the sake of a private party. We don't see the sense of building almost $1 billion in sports facilities and then tearing most of them down. Chicago needs more open land and park space, not less.

(3) Moral - We see the Olympics as a massive land grab and an effort to gentrify the near south and west sides of the city. Poor and working class families who live near the proposed venue sites are worried about land speculation, gentrification and loosing their homes. They should worry, because that's what happens when the games come to town.

Learn more at http://www.nogameschicago.com.