Mayor touts security base
MCCORMICK PLACE | Daley says new command center aids bid
Mayor Daley on Thursday took the wraps off a $6.5 million security command center in the bowels of McCormick Place -- just in time to bolster Chicago's final pitch to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
If the mayor's Olympic dream comes true, McCormick Place will house 11 sports venues as well as the international broadcast and press centers.
A $1.1 billion Olympic Village will rise on air rights over the convention center's truck staging area.
The nerve center that will monitor 450 surveillance cameras positioned around McCormick Place and its soon-to-open west addition was in the works long before Chicago became a finalist in the American leg of the Olympic sweepstakes.
But the timing of the public unveiling couldn't be better. It's another piece of the puzzle that Daley and Chicago 2016 Chairman Pat Ryan can put on the table Saturday when they make their final pitch to the U.S. Olympic Committee.
"It helps us tremendously. ... We're one of the few that has this system going in. It not only affects all the property inside McCormick Place. [It covers] outside as well. That's the idea -- how safe it is. That's very important because of the incident that happened many, many years ago in the '70's," Daley said, referring to the kidnap and murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.
The command center has five permanent workstations that resemble those at Chicago's 911 emergency center.
They face a video wall that alternately displays images from around the convention center. If a fire alarm goes off or a defibrillator is used, the lights dim and a red warning light goes on.