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Obamas Go For Gold (With Limits)
The Betsey Johnson-Anna Nicole Makeout Session Is A Bad Mental Image


09/29/09
Most of us have spent 10+ years fine-tuning our bodies and minds with every spare moment, every spare dollar. We all have different reasons for choosing this path, but I do it because it empowers me as a woman to hear "you're not strong enough," and to respond with more weight, more repetition, and more sweat, knowing that it's an observation not a final judgment, and I can become stronger. It empowers me to view my body in terms of how it feels and what it can do, instead of my BMI or the circumference of my legs. We live in a country where professional male sports are king, marginalizing by default any athlete who is not a 6-foot tall man who enjoys hitting things. It may be easier to reject the opportunity to host the Olympics than it is to discuss the best way to host them, but by doing so we throw away our brief, quadrennial glimpse at other sports, other bodies, and other possibilities.
So, discuss whether Chicago is capable of hosting, question the increasing chintz-ification of the Olympic movement, and never stop calling out the mistreatment of vulnerable populations, but please remember that the effects of hosting the Olympics go far beyond the bottom line...or even the length your commute.
09/29/09
(Kiss Roger for me, please, if I don't get to go.)
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Any city that "wins" the Olympics doesn't have a half-decent activist community.
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Rio is building a giant fucking wall around its favelas [online.wsj.com]
All of these cities are going to do bad stuff to the homeless if they get the games.
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Heck even Vancouver activists fought and continue to fight tooth and nail against the Olympic juggernaut.
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I am sort of in love with it.
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I would love to attend a Chicago Olympics, but since I'm not from Chicago, I understand the misgivings residents of the Windy City would have. And there is a clusterfuck of corruption that comes to town with each Olympics.
Damn, I love me some flipping and twirling and swimming and figure-eighting, but the race to get the games to town makes me a bit queasy.
09/29/09
#saynotochicago2016
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@hortense: From what I've read it's taken Montreal over 30 years to clear their Olympic debt and most of the buildings are useless. It was the clusterfuck everyone quoted when London was bidding...
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It's a matter of many Chicagoans not being interested in having every street turn into the Mag Mile on a Saturday afternoon.
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There's speculation that an insider may have told him that if he shows up, the bid is a lock.
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Regarding the Chicago olympics: I don't think that I want them here. I think it would be a logistical nightmare. I don't think that the city has the infrastructure, I don't really want to think about what it would cost (I don't live in the city, but I do live in Cook county), and I am hating the idea of road/other random construction for the next 8 years. But the Olympics would do a lot for the city. If they can pull it off. Which I am doubting right now.
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Part of the problem was that it was abnormally hot, the race started late, and elite and fast runners (sub 3:30 crowd) were not only drinking the water/gatorade, they were dousing themselves repeatedly at every stop because of the heat, which led to there being no water for the slower folks who ended up running well into late morning when temps almost hit 90. There were plenty of cups. It was a cluster fuck but seriously not the norm.
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I do remember, however, that the Georgia DOT planted trees and shrubs all over the place, and they scattered wildflower seeds in the medians of all the Georgia highways. When I moved in 2000, the medians were still full of wildflowers.
** I was oblivious because I was about 9 when they began preparation.
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(Have fun at the 51st street green line stop, Olympic tourists.)
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Also? It's just a few weeks.
09/29/09
The U of C has been quietly gobbling up land parcels all around that CTA stop. Considering that it is pretty aggressive expansion is underway in Woodlawn, I can actually see the U of C hospital (which is hella cramped) slowly moving westward.
09/29/09
@Trulymadlyme: Sadly enough, that was one of the first things I thought. Though can you imagine the bitching if they were to start building something? Hilarity.
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UChicago's community relations have always been a shade festival. When I worked there, I heard an oft repeated rumor that nearly property manager south of 37th and east of Cottage Grove is actually owned by the University.
09/29/09
Washington Square has a substantial amount of lots that are essentially empty. And empty lots are bad for everyone (see Ickes). And while Hyde Park is more expensive, what I found interesting about the area is that the private rental market is indeed quite affordable if you're looking for a three bedroom flat (the kind a family would use) in certain parts of Hyde Park, Northern Kenwood or in Woodlawn along 60-65th Street.
It is well documented that in terms of infrastructure the South Side is seriously not given the same amount of resources as the Northside of the city. It would be nice to actually see in-fill on the Green line (cermak?), improved roads, increased police presence (which has indeed improved since they moved the HQ down to 31st street).
09/29/09
I agree with you to a degree about Washington Park, and I agree with you that the green line needs to be improved (and a Cermak stop would be awesome for South Loopers, because how is there not a stop there? But honestly? This city's resources are stretched as it is. It might help the area out, or it might be another opportunity for Daley to jack property taxes up again.
Ideally, the Olympics would contribute to the Hyde Park/Kenwood/Oakland/Bronzeville/Woodlawn/South Shore area, but nothing that this city has done since I've been here has led me to believe that it will conduct itself in any way other than one that benefits influential people, not needy neighborhoods.
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Come to think of it, they should just use existing vacant condos as the Olympic village.
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