Chicago's Ambivalence of Hopes

By Clarence Page, Tribune Media Services on Oct 4, 2009

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Ah, well. Let the games begin -- somewhere else!

Even President Barack Obama's magic has its limits, it turns out. The International Olympic Committee rejected Chicago's bid to host the Olympics, despite the president's quickie trip to make the pitch in person.

In the end, Chicago was the first to be eliminated -- in the first round of voting and with fewer votes than fellow finalists Tokyo, Madrid and the eventual winner, Rio de Janeiro.

Sometimes the magic works, sometimes it doesn't.

In fact, Obama and the rest of Chicago's powerhouse delegation, which included his wife, Michelle Obama, Mayor Richard M. Daley and his wife, Maggie Daley, and the powerhouse Queen of All Media, Oprah Winfrey, was fighting an uphill battle all along.

Expectations were overinflated by all the media hoopla surrounding historic trip, as media hoopla surrounds everything Obama does. But as the final bidding indicated, the insider club known as the IOC has minds of its own.

Speculation runs wild as to why Chicago lost. Most of it follows a lot of personal agendas. The negatives that various analysts and critics bring up -- crime, corruption and cronyism lead the pack -- are hardly unique to Chicago and are certainly no worse than the problems faced by Rio.

Rio took an edge in less tangible yet viscerally felt ways. Chicago's presentation to IOC, despite the Obama glitter, was lackluster and disorganized compared to the colorful and passionate presentation delivered by Rio.

Brazil reportedly played the geopolitical card skillfully, holding up maps that showed South America to be the only region left without a single Olympics. This apparently touched the hearts of the IOC, which likes to think of itself as a groundbreaking force for international development and unity.

And how unkind but savvy it was for Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to use a certain Chicagoan's famous slogan when talking to reporters to promote his country's bid: "Yes we can!"

"For some countries, it is just one more sports event that they are going to organize," he said. "But for us, it is a unique and extraordinary thing."

That's more than you could say for a lot of folks back in Chicago, where a Chicago Tribune/WGN poll indicated that, either way the IOC decided, about half of the city would be happy or, at least, relieved. Only 47 percent of Chicagoans favored bringing the games here, according to the poll, while 45 percent opposed it.

That's a fair measure, in my humble view, of an intelligent Midwestern ambivalence, two warring attitudes deeply imbedded in the cultural DNA of Chicagoans when they are exposed to a deal that sounds almost too good to be true.

One of these attitudes is the boundless optimism captured in the ambitious slogan often attributed to the great Chicago architect/city planner Daniel Burnham: "Make no little plans."

Burnham brought the world such wonders as the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. His grand vision is constrained in today's Chicagoan only by a healthy skepticism, as expressed in the late Chicago City News Bureau's slogan: "If your mother says she loves you, check it out."

Visions of Chicago's great past triumphs danced in the heads of local folks. But, with one former Illinois governor in jail and another famously under indictment, so did the possibility of a grand, overpriced boondoggle with powerful elites stuffing their pockets and regular taxpayers left to foot the bill.

Political rivals of Obama and Daley stop at nothing to wage a partisan attack -- and in some cases boost TV ratings -- by smearing Obama's efforts to bring the Olympics to the United States.

And that's too bad. Los Angeles showed in 1984 that an Olympics can make a profit, if it's done right. It can create jobs, boost commerce and build civic pride and national unity. But that requires a sense of shared purpose that Chicago and our national politics aren't very good at pulling together these days.

Instead, Obama and his hometown's leaders hear calls to scale things back. Don't take on so much. Make only small plans. Little plans "have no magic to stir men's blood," said Burnham, "and probably will not themselves be realized." Burnham had a point, but small plans seem to be all that a lot of Americans want to tackle these days.

Someday, my Midwestern optimism tells me, the Chicago and the America that Burnham knew will be back. Until then, let the Games begin in a place that appreciates big ideas: Brazil.

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E-mail Clarence Page at cpage(at)tribune.com, or write to him c/o Tribune Media Services, 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, NY 14207.