I hear Rio de Janeiro is really lovely in the summer.

Okay, so the big news around here is the bid to bring the Olympics to Chicago in 2016.

At the moment, the "polls" (which I love the idea of since I've never been polled about anything in my entire life and I've never known anyone that's ever been polled in their entire life, but supposedly these numbers are meant to give us some sort of real indication of anything.) Well, these polls currently show that only 47% of Chicagoans support the bid, while the (albeit small) majority doesn't like the idea one bit.

I'm definitely in that majority.

The longest period of time that I've lived anywhere was, well, my childhood. I was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio and lived there until I was 18 and went to college in a small town in Northern Ohio. When I moved to Chicago in 2000, I felt very at home. This town is full of amazing opportunities, diverse people and beautiful culture. There are great restaurants, vast outdoor spaces, skyscrapers and close-knit neighborhoods all within mere miles of one another.

I've now lived here for over 9 years, and I really feel that this is my home. That said, a large city like this one isn't without its problems. We have the highest sales tax in the country (a whopping 10.25%). No one can seem to figure out how to make improvements to our mass transit system without screwing over the very people who use & need it on a daily basis. The city hides away the homeless and pretends that they don't exist, while a 1.2 million dollar house sits empty next door to our apartment, and landlords all over the city raise their rents. The South Side continues to be ignored and under-supported by the politicians who were elected to be their advocates. Children are being shot weekly because the city isn't focusing enough our money into programs and activities to keep kids off the streets and away from violence.

These are not new issues.

What is new, is the idea that Chicago is an awesome, put-together place that can afford to focus all of its energy on hosting a world event when we can't even finish the Belmont El station in under 3 years.

Millenium Park, which currently sits under-used and over-photographed, took 4 extra years to complete, and cost triple the budgeted amount. The Dan Ryan expressway has been under construction in some form or another since I moved here nine years ago... it's still not complete and has already cost the city twice as much as was originally projected. Yet, with all of this, we're still supposed to believe that the Olympics will somehow be an exception to this rule. That we'll remarkably come in at, or under, budget while reaping some amazing profit in tourism dollars... uh-huh, because that's happened with so many Olympic cities in the past (re: that opening image of a dilapidated Athens Olympic games, um, bridge?)

For me, it just seems ridiculous to spend $3+ billion (a low estimate) for an event that has consistently caused both financial & societal problems for its host city, when there are so many more productive ways of spending that sort of money. Instead, couldn't we lower our sales tax, lower our property taxes, give out tax credits to small business, help the homeless, bulk up our police force, better pay our teachers, adequately fund the Chicago Public Schools, lower the fares for our mass transit system and still have like 2 billion leftover for a big party?...

I'm just sayin'.