Protests could mar Olympic site visit

Mayor, City Council heard demands for ‘community benefits’

International Olympic Committee members making their final site visit to Chicago April 2-8 will face “demonstrations in the streets” unless the City Council approves an ironclad contract by then outlining community benefits, activists warned Wednesday.

The benefits they’re seeking include a guarantee that 50 percent of all Olympic construction contracts be awarded to minorities and women and that 30 percent of all units at the $1.1 billion Olympic Village built on the campus of Michael Reese Hospital be made affordable.

If Mayor Daley “wants to air his dirty laundry to the world, that is entirely up to him,” said Denise Dixon, executive director of Action Now.

“If he don’t want to see demonstrations in the street when they get here, then he better come up with something.”

Shannon Bennett, lead organizer for the Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization (KOCO), said it’s “not good enough” to have the promise of an agreement in April. It’s got to be passed before the IOC evaluation team gets here, he said.

“We know that game. We know stall tactics. We know reneging,” Bennett said.

Daley said he’s committed to hammering out an agreement that guarantees minorities in general and community residents in particular a share of Olympic largesse.

“We’re not displacing any people whatsoever, but we are cognizant of community groups and alderman and everybody else who want to participate,” he said.

But, the mayor said he’s not concerned about the threat to air Chicago’s dirty laundry, telling a reporter, “You do it every day.”

Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th) said the Finance Committee will hold a special meeting March 27 to approve the community benefits agreement hammered out in response to the ordinance she introduced in January.

The full Council is expected to ratify it April 22, two weeks after the IOC evaluation team leaves.

“It would have been preferable to do it beforehand,” Preckwinkle acknowledged. But, she said, “You never get 100 percent of what you want. The very fact we’re gonna get a document at all is a victory because that isn’t where we started.”