S. Side revitalization shouldn't just hinge on Olympic Games

S. Side r
October 1, 2006
THE ISSUE: Revised Olympics plan by Daley administration calls for stadium to be built on South Side. Rep. Jesse Jackson urges Olympic Village be built at old USX site.

WE SAY: Bringing the Games to the South Side would provide a boost to the area, but action to revitalize rundown areas in the city and south suburbs can't wait until 2016. Chicago's proposal to host the 2016 Summer Olympics took on a dramatic new look last week when Mayor Richard Daley realized there are acres and acres of land well south of Roosevelt Road that are part of Chicago.

Daley and his aides announced that if the city is awarded the 2016 Games, the main Olympic stadium would be built in venerable Washington Park, an expanse of greenery that extends from 51st to 60th streets between King Drive and Cottage Grove Avenue. Daley, most certainly with an eye toward what figures to be an intense re-election campaign early next year, said that building the stadium on the South Side would inject a much-needed economic boost to the area. The stadium itself would be a temporary structure. It would be built to hold 95,000 spectators for the Opening and Closing ceremonies and for track and field events. After the Olympics, much of it would be disassembled, but a 10,000-seat arena for track meets and other events would remain -- as would, the city hopes, a gentrified Washington Park area.

Daley will try to take credit for the proposed move to the South Side, but in fact the city's hand was forced by the U.S. Olympic Committee, which made it clear it didn't like the city's original plan to build the stadium next to Soldier Field.

The city's new plan also calls for the Olympic Village, the area where athletes are housed and spend most of their free time when not competing or training, to be located along the lakefront south of McCormick Place. When the Olympics are over, the buildings would be converted into apartments and condos -- as if the area near and around downtown needed more of those.

U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-2nd), of Chicago, wrote a guest column published in Tuesday's Daily Southtown in which he urged the city to revise that part of the plan and instead build the Olympic Village about 10 miles farther south along the lakefront on the former but desolate U.S. Steel site. Jackson's idea makes sense to us, though it needs to be noted that he has a political agenda of his own as a potential opponent of Daley's in next year's mayoral race.

The massive site is just ripe for development. It's been sitting there for years waiting for some opportunistic developer to come along and turn it into what could be one of the city's biggest asset. It's lakefront property, for goodness sakes. There's nearby rail access. The land has been declared environmentally sound. If, as Jackson noted, Lake Shore Drive were extended south to the property, a trip downtown by car would take a matter of minutes. It's only a few miles away from Washington Park as it is. What's more, International Olympic Committee leaders look favorably on plans that help revitalize rundown or abandoned areas. The U.S. Steel site fits the bills.

It's appalling that someone hasn't already taken the initiative to develop that site. It seems that the politicians who are supposed to have the best interests of their constituents at heart aren't working hard enough to inject some life into the USX site and other locations on the South Side and in the south suburbs by urging developers to built there.

It shouldn't take the Olympic Games (no sure bet to begin with) to spark talk of South Side revitalization. All it should take is a journey to some of these needy neighborhoods to jolt leaders into the realization that the city is missing the boat on a site that has tremendous potential.

We support the city's quest to bring the Games here provided the taxpayers don't have to empty their wallets to make it happen. But there's a lot of time between now and then. The region's "revitalize the South Side" plan has to consist of more than just a possible Summer Olympics. It must include projects that will bear fruit a lot sooner than 10 years from now.