China's Olympic "Windfall"
- The area around Beijing’s massive Bird’s Nest stadium will be turned into a shopping and entertainment complex in three to five years, a state news agency said Friday.
Officially known as Beijing National Stadium, the showpiece of the Beijing Olympics has fallen into disuse since the end of the games. Paint is already peeling in some areas, and the only visitors these days are tourists who pay about $7 to walk on the stadium floor and browse a pricey souvenir shop.
Plans call for the $450 million stadium to anchor a complex of shops and entertainment outlets in three to five years, Xinhua News Agency reported, citing operator Citic Group. The company will continue to develop tourism as a major draw for the Bird’s Nest, while seeking sports and entertainment events.
[...] A symbol of China’s rising power and confidence, the stadium, whose nickname described its lattice of exterior steel beams, may never recoup its hefty construction cost, particularly amid a global economic slump. Maintenance of the structure alone costs about $8.8 million annually, making it difficult to turn a profit, Xinhua said.
Labels: olympics
posted by SCC at 12:01 AM
24 Comments:
History repeating itself...
I heard the liberals want to turn it into a modern gladiator pit after the Olympics. They want to throw conservatives into the pit with wild donkeys.
If this happened in Communist China, where labor costs are virtually free, imagine what is going to happen to Chicago.
This year, taxpayers will receive an Economic Stimulus Payment. This is a very exciting new program that I will explain using the Q and A format:
Q. What is an Economic Stimulus Payment? A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers.
Q. Where will the government get this money? A. From taxpayers.
Q. So the government is giving me back my own money? A. Only a smidgen.
Q. What is the purpose of this payment? A. The plan is that you will use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy.
Q. But isn't that stimulating the economy of China ? A. Shut up.
Below is some helpful advice on how to best help the US economy by spending your stimulus check wisely:
If you spend that money at Wal-Mart, all the money will go to China.
If you spend it on gasoline it will go to the Arabs.
If you purchase a computer it will go to India.
If you purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala (unless you buy organic).
If you buy a car it will go to Japan.< br> If you purchase useless crap it will go to Taiwan.
And none of it will help the American economy. We need to keep that money here in America. You can keep the money in America by spending it at yard sales, going to a baseball game, or spend it on prostitutes, beer and wine (domestic ONLY), or tattoos, since those are the only businesses still in the US.
SCC says-- "The stadium would be reduced down to a 40,000 seat arena that doesn't have a tenant lined up for post-Olympic use, leading us to wonder if it might follow the same fate as the 'White City' did after the World's Fair. That is to say, a haven for bums, miscreants and scrappers that eventually burned to the ground."
TOUCHE! Boy, are you on target here. I can't find my books on the 1893 Columbian Exposition right now, but, as I recall, it ended during a terrible economic downturn -- and the fires that destroyed the "White City" after it closed were often inadvertently started by people trying to stay warm while sleeping in the buildings over that winter. A lot of them were not "bums and miscreants" but simply the laborers and tradesmen who had come to Chicago to build the fair, and who could not find further employment after it was completed.
Ominous parallels all the way around -- including the current situation in China in which millions of people left the farms and came into the cities to work in the factories. Today's Depression has closed those factories and similarly stranded the workers in the cities with no employment to be found and often no way to get back home.
The Olympics? The Games benefited the local Chinese economy to such a great extent that the "scrappers" were hard at work while the Beijing Games were in progress, stealing manhole covers to sell for the metal. 47 people were killed and 10,000 were injured by falling into the open manholes, and the story didn't come to light here until a woman from Rockford was "mysteriously" killed.
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?
section=news/iteam&id=6326438
"Plans call for the $450 million [Beijing] stadium to anchor a complex of shops and entertainment outlets..." There is a limit as it is to how much existing large, purpose-built industrial property in the U.S. can be converted into loft condos and art galleries and "performance art centers" without constructing further even-more-unsuited huge white-elephant Olympic structures. "Paint is already peeling in some areas..." Yeah. It will.
None of this will make the slightest impression upon Mayor Cuckoo and the "bums, miscreants, and scrappers" in expensive suits who will descend upon Chicago for the 2016 Olympics at his behest, intent only upon lining their pockets and making a quick getaway.
All this misery for a couple of weeks of guys running like hell, throwing things, and hitting each other. You can see that for free any night on the West Side...
As long as my Chinese masseusse doesn't have a problem with me getting my "happy ending", I say "BRING ON THE OLYMPICS!".
Afterall, she loves me longtime, Joe.
Hey when the olympics is over we could use it for a homeless shelter and keep them out of our stations.
Daley's recent comments about how Chicago deserves to have two NFL teams like NY and LA amounted to nothing but a feeble longshot attempt to justify a new stadium expense. Da mare is grasping at straws there.
The 100,000 seat stadium that they want to build in Washington Pk can be turned into a collosium like they had in Rome. Pay $25 a head to watch the GD's and MC's war it out. Can have Hispanic Pride Day where it could be LK and 26'er fighting it out with knives.Every now and then you could throw a Hyde Parker into the ring to get the bloodlust going. Would have to have glass like they have for hockey, only bullet proof to protect the fans. We could work special employment where we sit in towers to shoot any of the young gang bangin' gladiators that may want to turn into a "running man," and not go along with the plan.
Come on down, grab a beer,a hot dog and cheer on your favorite shithead gladiator at the New Obama Center....
The Olympics proposal is a disaster for Chicago. It's a boondoogle to keep US Equities, McDonough, Walsh, and the other favored patronage contractors rewarded with large contracts, and it's an ill-fated memorial to the hubris of Daley. Hosting cities are always caught in huge cost-overruns and enormous ancillary expenses associated with physical property and labor associated with hosting the Olympics. There isn't a city which has had a net benefit from hosting the Olympics, only a staggering bill left for the tax payers.
The lack of organized public protest against Daley's Olympics hopes are a clear indication of how uneducated, ill-informed, and apathetic the average Chicagoan truly is. At most, we get agitated by parking tickets and a drive-by shooting nearby. So long as the garbage gets picked up and the basement isn't flooded, we're placid victims of Daley's botched minstrations.
Now the employement base in Chicago is seriously erroding due to the failing economy. 2009 will bring far worse economic news. Coupled with massive lay-offs, wait for owners of Chicago's trophy buildings, such as Water Tower Place and Sears Tower to fail in their efforts to refinance their massive billion dollar portfolios of commercial real estate. Much of Chicago's large commercial real estate base will soon be at risk for foreclosure, and likely non-payment of real estate taxes. Coupled with the significant number of home foreclosures, and unpaid real estate tax for those homes, real estate tax revenue will be down sharply.
Instead of pursuing Olympics, Daley should be trimming his municipal budget and hunkering down for a prolonged (if not permanent) downcast local economy. Think Detroit, in magnitude of residential abandonment on south and west-side neighborhoods. But Daley is like Nero fiddling as Rome burned, unaware or unconcerned that his "Empire" will decline and fall abruptly.
China couldn't make it work with slave labor from its concentration camps, whats gonna happen here?
An Olympic Stadium here could be used for Public School Gladiator Exhibitions. Beyond that, useless.
Califate Barack Obama Bin-Laden says---
The economic stimulus is simply part of the jihad to make this country an Islamic state.
It will bankrupt America. Then, my brothers-in-Allah will come in droves, bringing their oil money and buying everything they can.
This country will become the Islamic States of America without firing a shot. It is the will of Allah.
Change you will be forced to believe in.
That birds nest, it's one big f*ckin eyesore according to today's trib. Soon to be a section 8 site for the Chinese bust-outs.
But hey, Dickie Daley can do anything, he can even sell you a bridge (oh my god he did---the skyway). Hey Dickie how about putting in a few large X's into the landing strips of Meigs Field, say maybe about midnight? OMG Dickie you schmuck, you did it again!! What the f*ck, you are somethin else. hey just wondering Dickie what did you ever do with those huge large X's you planted on the Meig's Field landing strips? I mean hey, were those your personal landing strips you destroyed under the watchful eye of (was it Huberman or Harris or Bozo) or the city's property? Just wondering 'cause you seem to destroy or sell off things on your own like it is your own private property. What the f*ck is that all about?
And what's with the "night- of- the- living -dead" alderthieves who are like bobble-heads who bob their heads up and down every time you want to sell city property or propose some tax hike for your "Mayor Daley's Olympics". I mean, did you give me a call or any other Chicagoan for that matter and ask us if we wanted to sell the skyway? What if I told you, "hey Dick, you silly schumuck, that's not a good idea." Did you call any city taxpayer and ask them if they mind if you took bulldozers to Meigs Field and mark 'em with an "X"?
Perhaps you can sneak into China and sell the bird's nest for the Chinese or bring in some heavy-duty equipment after midnight and throw a few large X's (in
Chinese, of course) on the nest 'cause you are great for selling or destroying stuff.
Speaking of schmucks, wait, isn't schmuck jewish? oh well. Short Irish guys with dishelvled appearances can be schumucks who tweak the word "cuckoo" every once in awhile can be schmucks too, just like "merits" in the CPD. You are our very own merit schmuck.
Dickie, oh Dickie, my dear silly shortshanks, you are the master merit schmuck of Chicago. You gotta wave that wand of yours Dickie and make it all go away...really, I mean can you make yourself go away? Immediately? I mean like f*ckin pronto!
Signed,
A dismayed Chicagoan
"The Olympics proposal is a disaster for Chicago...Instead of pursuing Olympics, Daley should be trimming his municipal budget and hunkering down for a prolonged (if not permanent) downcast local economy. Think Detroit, in magnitude of residential abandonment on south and west-side neighborhoods."
--2/01/2009 11:02:00 AM
Excellent, clear appraisal of the situation...and if you want to see exactly what Detroit's "residential abandonment" looks like from space, go to --
http://detroityes.com/webisodes
/2004/13-UrbanPrairie/St-Cyril.htm
Very graphic comparison; moving your mouse over the satellite photo changes it from 1949 to 2003, illustrating the formation of what is now called an "urban prairie" where, within living memory, working people once lived.
This particular web site used to simply be called "The Fabulous Ruins Of Detroit;" all of that material is still there, thousands and thousands of photos of the city's destruction.
http://detroityes.com/0tourdetroit
.htm#The_Fabulous_Ruins
I guess that the arty crowd felt that the cold facts were too negative and shattering a portrayal; over the years, they've changed the site's name to "Detroit Yes," and the gushing boosterism has really gone over the top. These are the people who live in those loft condos, who feel that hanging a colorful hand-painted banner on a destroyed factory is some sort of great "event."
Any "revival" in Detroit is along the lines of what has been discussed here about the Lake Street corridor -- white Yuppies in their loft condos in an endless battle with the black gangbangers from thirty miles around who come in to the "clubs" at night. That's the top and bottom, but the middle -- the taxpaying manufacturing base
-- is all gone. I posted some old Lake Street factory addresses to point that up.
Ignore the emotional overflow on "DetroitYES" and look with horror on what has happened there -- on what is happening here.
As the copper said after the election, when the streets filled with the ignorant riotously "celebrating" the "change," "Obama ain't gonna give Joe shit."
So too with these Olympics...
"The lack of organized public protest against Daley's Olympics hopes are a clear indication of how uneducated, ill-informed, and apathetic the average Chicagoan truly is. At most, we get agitated by parking tickets and a drive-by shooting nearby. So long as the garbage gets picked up and the basement isn't flooded, we're placid victims of Daley's botched ministrations."
--2/01/2009 11:02:00 AM
The working poor -- the people who will be hurt the most by the Olympics -- don't protest much. They're busy -- well, working.
The West Side/South Side "revs" and pols and other advocates for the unemployed militant are being bought off by Daley to keep ACORN and so forth on a leash. "When international officials tour Chicago in April, just about the last thing Olympics boosters want them to encounter is community protests.
"With that political reality in mind, local activists are pushing while their clout is greatest...Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th) said Thursday she plans to introduce an ordinance at next week's City Council meeting calling for expanded minority contracting requirements and affordable housing goals for Olympic projects.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/
local/chi-city-olympics-minority
-contrjan09,0,3711904.story
"Hey when the olympics is over we could use it for a homeless shelter and keep them out of our stations."
2/01/2009 07:05:00 AM
Why not? It worked at the Superdome during Katrina...
Like the days of past (ie. railroad days), can't we just ship a bunch of Olympic experienced Chinese workers over here to help build the venue? It would save us a ton of dough. Just a thought.
The 5 rings of the Olympics:
1. Pandering
2. Squandering
3. Suffering
4. Bribering
5. Harboring-funds
Anonymous said...
Califate Barack Obama Bin-Laden says---
The economic stimulus is simply part of the jihad to make this country an Islamic state.
It will bankrupt America. Then, my brothers-in-Allah will come in droves, bringing their oil money and buying everything they can.
This country will become the Islamic States of America without firing a shot. It is the will of Allah.
Change you will be forced to believe in.
2/01/2009 04:35:00 PM
SCC: Do you read this crap before posting it ? Obviously someone thinks its cute, but it appears perilously close to a visit from the Feds, no ? I don't know, I'm just sayin'
"....but it appears perilously close to a visit from the Feds, no ? I don't know, I'm just sayin'
2/01/2009 09:41:00 PM"
We're already being visited by the feds, you know, one of those visitors who has overstayed his welcome.
"That is to say, a haven for bums, miscreants and scrappers."
That's a pretty apt desciption of the CPD Command Structure.
i figure the south and west sides will be akin to the back drop from escape from new york... as time goes by people will decline employment with the city because we're at the tipping point where there is beginning to be no benefit whatsoever being a municipal employee (except for firemen in the trades) so the vaunted middle class city workers (or their children) that anchor 016, the west end of 008 and 022 will sell the family homestead for a loss or do the unthinkable & go section 8 to generate income so they can get the fuck out and move to the south west. (there will be water wars in the next 20 to 50 years as more people lower the water tables in that part of the country)... we are thinking get out of chicago but hang near the great lakes water shed or finding a sheltered rural redoubt with a source of sweet water... whatever the case the aftermath of getting the olympics will drive out the middle class leaving the very wealthy, the poor & the dead... shortshanks shining legacy to himself as chicago turns into port-au-prince, haiti. i imagine the mayor for life being disinterred from the family crypt ala "poppa doc" duvalier and paraded around for the people to point & laugh but shortshanks will be grinning in return because he won...
Califate Barack Obama Bin-Laden says---
"...it comes periously close to a visit by the feds..."
I would never trust the feds to weed out whatever opposition I may have. My mindless followers and the mindless media will do that for me.
Chris Matthews gets a chill up and down his leg whenever I speak. What more do I need? Over half the nation is brainwashed already, the rest will be easy. It is the will of Allah.
Change you will be forced to believe in.
http://www.chicityclerk.com/headlines/2009/2016_0lympic.pdf
Want to fight back?
www.nogameschicago.com
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