Chicago 2016 Games Bid May Hinge on Infrastructure

A roar went up in Chicago following the recent announcement that the city had jumped over the next-to-last hurdle for consideration to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. It now competes with Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.

But the finish line is a long way off for the city as it draws up infrastructure plans. Published reports say the city’s application calls for $27 billion in highway and transit projects by 2016 but lists only $2.7 billion in actual work. The Chicago 2016 Organizing Committee declines to provide details on transit upgrades or other construction.

Chicago’s creaky transit infrastructure was underlined in the weeks preceding the announcement in part because of two derailings of Chicago Transit Authority trains. Both incidents were blamed on operator error, and there were no major injuries. CTA has been under pressure recently to fix the system.

“Our recent transit problems could be seen as a liability without more aggressive public investment,” says Joe Schwieterman, transportation professor and director of the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development at DePaul University.

Bob Berland, a Chicago 2016 board member and silver medalist in judo in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, thinks differently. “The derailments happened, and they were unfortunate, but the infrastructure is solid and improvements are being made,” he says.

New rail lines would likely not be needed, but new stations and track configurations probably will, Schwieterman says. Some $153 million in federal funds the city received in early May for a bus-rapid-transit pilot project could be a harbinger of Olympic plans, Schwieterman says. The city also could expand a dedicated, trench-based busway buried between the downtown Loop and the McCormick Place Convention Center, where several athletic events would be held.

Chicago now will submit a bid book in February, and officials with the International Olympic Committee will visit the city the following spring. The Chicago Organizing Committee will make presentations on plans to Olympic officials in Luzon, Switzerland, in summer 2009 and in Copenhagen, Denmark, the following October. The host city will be announced Oct. 2, 2009.

“Our goal is to engage the entire country because we're representing the entire U.S.,” says John Murray, chief bid officer.

Illinois Economy Slowest in Nearly Four Years

The University of Illinois Flash Index, an indicator of the state's economy, is continuing its downward trend.

A reading of 100 is the dividing point between economic growth and decline. In May, the most recent available, the reading fell to 102.3, a drop of five-tenths of a point from its reading in April.

Two components of the index, individual income tax and sales tax receipts, were down in real terms from the same month a year ago. Corporate tax receipts, the third index component, were higher.

The 102.3 Flash Index reading in May has reached its lowest point since September 2004, when it was at 102.2.

It is also 4.3 points lower than a year earlier. This drop from 106.6 suggests a continued and substantial slowing of the Illinois economy, said U. of I. economist J. Fred Giertz, who compiles the index for the university’s Institute of Government and Public Affairs.

The index, however, remains above the 100 level, which is the dividing point between economic growth and decline.

“It is still touch and go as to whether a recession can be avoided,” Giertz says. “There is some optimism that the worst may be over, but over the past year, every sign of optimism was followed by another new problem for the economy.”

The Flash Index has not been below 100 since March 2004.

DuPage School Receives $90K Stormwater Grant

Lace Elementary School in southwest suburban Darien was recently awarded a $90,154 grant from the DuPage County Stormwater Committee for the construction of a green roof and rain garden.

The 2,800-sq-ft garden roof will help protect the environment and is part of a building redevelopment project.

Lace Elementary intends to make the project an environmental showcase for students, visitors and the community.

The rainwater will land on the roof. If it is not absorbed and evaporated by the plants and soil, the rain will come down to the ground and channel back to the earth within a rain garden.