Olympics loss forces Chicago to rethink plans

CHICAGO — Chicago's dream of an Olympics-size stimulus was dashed when the 2016 Summer Games were awarded to Rio de Janeiro, and the loss amounts to more than a bruised ego for the nation's third-largest city.

Officials can no longer trumpet the $13.7 billion citywide economic impact local Olympics organizers estimated would come of games-related jobs, construction, tourism and transportation. They'll also have no excuse for distraction in a city grappling with a mounting deficit and violence that has led to dozens of deaths of city teens each year.

The loss marked a stunning defeat for Mayor Richard M. Daley, who spent three years working to sell Chicago residents on the games, often highlighting job creation and a financial influx that would help the city emerge from a recessional slump.

"I just know so many construction workers who thought their next seven years were going to be full of work," said Jane Zefran, 63, a semi-retired Chicago resident. "Now, heavens only knows what will happen. It's such a shame."

Fresh off a plane Saturday from the International Olympic Committee meeting in Copenhagen, Daley said people shouldn't be disheartened about Chicago's future because the city lost the 2016 Summer Games.

"We have a great city," he said. "These are great people. We have a future just as bright as anyone else."

People around town seem doubtful the loss will scar Daley as he mulls whether to seek a seventh term in 2011 — at which point he will have 22 years in office and become Chicago's longest-serving mayor.

"I don't think he will be looked at like a loser," said Angela Byrd, 40, a teacher's assistant from Chicago.

Still, a recent Chicago Tribune/WGN poll showed Daley's approval rating had sunk to 35 percent in part because of skepticism over the Olympics and an unpopular deal to lease city parking meters to a private contractor. And the mayor was in Copenhagen as an unwelcome spotlight again shone on his city after a 16-year-old honors student was beaten to death while walking to a bus stop after school.

Back at home, one of the first big issues the mayor will have to deal with comes Wednesday, when U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan meet with school officials, students and residents to talk about chronic school violence.

Daley is likely to be asked yet again what can be done to address the issue.