Door closes on Olympics, but window opens
Now city can direct its full attention to the marginalized
Wow. No one would have believed that Chicago would be eliminated in the first round of voting by the International Olympic Committee.
All that glitter.
All those promises.
All those pretty outfits.
It was widely seen as a tight race between Rio de Janeiro and Chicago. Even bookies were giving Chicago the edge.
My mouth fell open when the vote was revealed.
Still, when you think about it, Chicago's bid was always a long shot.
Although Mayor Daley managed to satisfy the IOC by securing a blank check, Rio had an advantage since the Olympics have never been held in South America.
Apparently, Daley's team underestimated the power of sentimentality and fairness.
In flaunting its powerful A-listers, Chicago may have unintentionally turned off voters. Some might have thought that bringing Oprah Winfrey, President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama to make a last-minute pitch made Chicago look a little like kings and queens in a court filled with peasants.
People lined the streets of Copenhagen just to catch a glimpse of Oprah.
Her superstardom completely overshadowed the Olympians who were in the city to promote their own candidate.
I also believe there are no coincidences.
It's no secret that Rio has a huge crime problem, and that was one of the criticisms that city faced from the IOC.
But Chicago painted a too-rosy picture when it came to its ability to host a world-class event like the 2016 Olympics.
During the same time frame that Daley and his team were jetting to Copenhagen, 16-year-old Derrion Albert was being beaten to death by a mob.
The brutal killing is now posted on the Internet and is being viewed as entertainment by many.
Derrion's death made international headlines. In fact, last week there were two stories about Chicago that dominated the news cycle: Derrion's brutal murder and Chicago's push for the 2016 Olympics.
The murder of two college students that weekend didn't make national news, but should have. Two cousins were gunned down while sitting on a West Side porch. Percy Day, 17, and Tyrone Williams, 19, were killed when an unidentified man opened fire.
Williams was home from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to pick up some clothes to wear to homecoming.
Percy was a student at DeVry University's Advantage Academy.
As yet, no one has been charged with their killings.
Just as Chicago's superstars put the spotlight on the city's world-class stature, these stunning tragedies revealed the not-so-flattering underbelly of the city.
Supporters of Chicago's efforts are hopeful that the mayor will not abandon the city's efforts to create more athletic activities for young people.
Dr. Conrad Worrill, director at the Jacob Carrothers Center for Inner City Studies and one of the people trying to revitalize track and field, says something positive can come out of the city's defeat.
"There are so many young people running wild in the streets, and they need to be redirected," Worrill said. "This doesn't happen to be the end. With a revitalization of track and field and other Olympic sports, a good number of people in Chicago could make the U.S. team."
After it was announced that Chicago was bounced in the first round, observers expressed shock and sadness.
But it just wasn't our time.
It is our time to find solutions to the youth crime that has claimed so many young lives.
It is our time to determine what works and what doesn't work when it comes to the myriad programs that claim to target the youth crime.
It is our time to revitalize a portion of the city that has been so marginalized, I doubt if many of the people who live there even knew what was going on in Copenhagen.
It is our time to confront the failing education system that has begun to turn out predators and killers instead of scholars.
Maybe after his short time on the international stage, Mayor Daley will come home and take care of business.