No Answer for the IOC
We get letters all the time, mostly from cops, but many from citizens readers. And sometimes from someone who can see behind the curtains. This is one of those times.
The IOC is making visits to a number of sites around the city and one of the members asked the mayor and his staff a question that wasn't anticipated:
The IOC is making visits to a number of sites around the city and one of the members asked the mayor and his staff a question that wasn't anticipated:
- ...for a city as large as Chicago, they feel that there are not enough engine companies, truck companies and ambulances as it is. How is the city is going to handle the Games with current staffing when approximately 1.5 million more people will swell Chicago's population. The mayor and his staff was taken off guard by this question and had no answers for the committee. They also asked about the number of police personnel...
Resources are stretched kind of thin at the moment. Regardless of what the mayor says, J-Fed says or the talking mouthpieces at City Halls say, we know what we're driving, we know what others are driving, we know what's in the trunk and we know the call volume. When 1500 hours rolls around, we're going into backlog and we aren't getting out until well past 1st watch starting times. No one thinks about the city and suburban population increasing by over 1.5 million for three weeks and the strain that's going to put on infrastructure, services and amenities.
Perhaps the IOC reads the blogs?
Perhaps the IOC reads the blogs?
Labels: olympics
posted by SCC at 12:04 AM
50 Comments:
CFD Captain/Neighbor told me that the city has numerous ALS and BLS ambulances sitting which will be refitted and man'd by Suburban Paramedics. The additional need will be filled by Superior Ambulance crews who are also paramedics.
I posted a response on one of the Tribune's stories regarding just that. Not only is the 'visitor' population going to swell for three weeks, but the temporary construction trade workers are going to tax our City services for years before the games.
I have friends in the trades who are already putting feelers out for labor pools to build the Games.
The construction lobby is pushing hard for this, but the upshot is we're going to choke on the influx of additional people PREPARING for the games, at a time we can't pay for our snow removal, our pothole repairs (wait til the heavy trucks tear our streets to hell), our mass transit or our public park maintenance.
We are going to PAY long before the Olympics get here. Can we afford all these extra non taxpayers?
For an administration that is crying poor with contract negotiation, the IOC should ask these question, How can you have the games when you have no money to pay your first responders? Where is the money coming from?
Mr. Fitzgerald, can't you rid us of this little fool? Can anybody help us or will we be doomed by his hubris?
God Save the CPD........
Retired in 2003........
There will be 6 million people in this city during the Olympics. It will take about 15,000 officers to handle the city and this event around the clock. Right now we are at about 8,000 officers. If we hired 1,000 officers for the next six years; with no retirements, we would still be 1,000 short. This is another point that FOP should be making. We can barely handle the workload now, and we will lose 600 officers a year and only hire 200 to replace them.
they couldn't even run a marathon and it was called off because so many guys were falling out. the culprit-- not enough water and admittedly extreme humidity. perhaps the ioc member who brought this up did his homework. TO ALL IOC PEOPLE-- WE CAN PROBABLY MAKE IT WORK HERE BUT DEFINITELY NOT ON THE SCALE THAT WE SAW IN BEIJING. IF WE LOSE MONEY GIVE IT TO ANYONE BUT US--
Caught off guard by this question. A question that any reasonable person could have anticipated. Caught off guard because at the end of the day, the I.O.C. actually has a job to do, and they do it. Mayor Daley can throw all the money that he wants to at their feet, and they will walk away smiling, because unlike the Mayor, money is not the only thing that they think about.
The IOC needs to be provided with information and video from certain incidents:
1.) The recent "wilding" at Ontario/Michigan where German tourists were abused by our fair burg's disadvantaged youth.
2.) The Youtube video of the tourist family from Tennessee showing the path of the bullet in their hotel room during last summer's "Taste" savagery is priceless and worth it's weight in gold.
3.) The video of stampedes and milling crowds of thugs from the taste last year.
4.) The video from the "Taste" murder on Michigan Ave. in 2005 was even scary for people who live here.
5.) Neighborhood "Festival" footage should scare the fuck out of anybody with 1/2 a brain cell operating. S. Side Irish, Bud Billiken, P.R. Youth parade on Division....show 'em all.
The IOC needs to know that these incidents are the result of an administration that can't say no to criminals and holds it's public safety workers in contempt.
On a normal hot summer night on zone 6 the CFD is spread thin. Got ambulances and fire coming from 43/ashland to 74/ashland to cover fires and EMS runs. Now add all the tourists coming in and we've got a problem.
Maybe Daley's arrogance towards CPD and CFD will finally catch up to him. Maybe his lack of attention to the infrastructure will hurt him. The IOC should pull another suprise and ask for a tour outside of the freshly-groomed olympic area. Take a ride through any neighborhood and see how bad the roads are. Maybe a flat or two for an IOC car. Granted, someone from Streets and San would be blamed and the driver would be screwed, but it would be funny. Picture members from the IOC stuck with a flat tire in roseland, austin or englewood. Daley would crap on himself. Then if one of the members got mugged and had to wait 3 hours for a car to do a report.....Let the IOC see the real chicago. The city with undermanned CPD, CFD, shitty roads, homicides galore and homeless everwhere. In other words, let the IOC see the Chicago that we see everyday. Hopefully the Mayors short-sightedness has caught up to his arrogant ass
Im a CFD Lieutenant. By our union contract, the city cannot staff our ambulances with suburban medics. And they cannot hire private ambulance companies, such as Superiour. The city lost in arbitration 7 years ago when they hired private ambos for the taste. What they CAN do, is call in suburban ambulances staffed by suburban guys through mutual aid, but it is highly doubtful the suburbs can afford to run that short handed for 3 weeks, for free. It would be cheaper to use our own guys. What would probably happen, is the city would have to pay overtime to medics and firemen to man all the spare apparatus and put them in service. We are extremely short handed as it is, and the city would have to change dispatch protocol. Currently, if some mope stubs his toe and 'cant breathe' (they know what to say so they get an ambo) and calls for an ambulance, the city sends 1 ALS Engine, 1 regular engine if that ALS engine is not close enough, and 1 ALS ambulance. Thats 12 men per mope, and thats all of the companies in their area. Which means if another call comes in in their still district, another districts companies handle that call, leaving their area short. And if the call is legit, such as chest pains, they get the same response. Years ago people took themselves to the hospital unless it was an emergency, and call volume increases every year. Are people even sicker now than 30 years ago? No way, they overreact and send these monsterous rigs screaming down the street for someone who thinks they will get wheeled right in the ER if they call an ambo instead of waiting in the waiting room. I hope I never need to call an ambo, those guys are so busy with nonsense calls that there never is one close enough if a real emergency arises. The CFD is EXTREMELY stretched thin as it is.
I posted a response on one of the Tribune's stories regarding just that. Not only is the 'visitor' population going to swell for three weeks, but the temporary construction trade workers are going to tax our City services for years before the games.
-------------------------------
Gangland had an episode about the infux of gang bangers and the huge increase in crime that accompanied the Atlanta olympics build up.
What was the city's reply?
Don't leave us hangin'.
4/06/2009 03:49:00 AM wrote...
1.) The recent "wilding" at Ontario/Michigan where German tourists were abused by our fair burg's disadvantaged youth.
I am the person who posted this comment originally and now I read this blog once a week, and I am still waiting for the guy that called me a liar to
1)contact me, if you are a higher police officer you have my number
2)anyone from the city to call me about what happened
They want it to go away.
Don't call me a liar if you are not man enough to do it to my face.
remember just two years ago the fiasco at the marathon when it was too warm? when it all turned to shit, the city's response was terrible.
Not to worry, we have MONTERREY security to run all the security for the Olympics. We dont need you stinking Chicago Police. Sit back and watch them take all your money. Hahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!
Sincerley,
The Dishonorable Mayor Richard M. Daley
"CFD Captain/Neighbor told me that the city has numerous ALS and BLS ambulances sitting which will be refitted and man'd by Suburban Paramedics. The additional need will be filled by Superior Ambulance crews"
That's a plan that should go into affect immediately. The neighbor Captain should work a 12 hr shift on a on-call basis. The City could save millions
Maybe they read SCC! Or maybe they are smart enough to realize daley is nothing but a criminal running the biggest criminal organization in the country! Patrick Fitz we know your guys read the blog,what do you need from us to put daley and the 50 stooges away? Let us know we would be happy to help!
"On a normal hot summer night on zone 6 the CFD is spread thin. Got ambulances and fire coming from 43/ashland to 74/ashland to cover fires and EMS runs."
The other 364 days of the year the CFD Crews still manage to get a solid 8 hours of sleep. The CFD's busiest day in zone 6 doesn't even come close to your slowest day on Zone 6. REMEMBER THAT!!
Daley will counter that the shortage in sworn personnel will be compensated by private secuirty contractors. These "contractors" will have "special homeland security" training. Which basically means to might DICK DALEY THE GAYOR in some darkened alley with a ton of cash.
They want to man the ambulances with private ambulance personnel? Are you nuts? I'm in my third decade C.P.D.. I've seen C.P.D. do some amazing things. They get the job done because they are experienced. Asking private ambulance drivers to step up to that level is like asking a mall cop to work the west side.
I'm not knocking the private guys, but it's apples and oranges with what they do. They don't handle the kind of trauma C.F.D. does everyday. These are lives that the Mayor is playing with...maybe yours or your families.
The pressure is on ....
Shortshanks is a prime candidate for a stroke.
Take a look at what happened at the LaSalle Bank run last year.
We had ambulances from every suburb responding here for everyone that collapsed on that hot day. We couldn't get through on the radio because our communication system sucks.
To 4/6/09 @ 12:16am....You mean they will have ambulances sitting for 6 years!!?? What a crock of shit...tell the Captain to get off the bottle..
National Guard.
I can only imagine the volume of lies that have been told to the IOC in the last few days. If they only knew the truth about Chicago.
Someone should ask the question as to how you have the money to support the games, but no money to give your police and fire a contract?
maybe when people call 911 because they have a headache the call taker should hang up.
Remember the Marathon - suburban ambulance crews didn't know where they were going and how to get there. Didn't a Michigan PO die as a result (although he had an underlying heart condition)?
There are fifty ambulances in the whole city.
Fifty for an anticipated 5 million people. That's one ambulance for every 100,000 people. That's also the city that has lead the nation in people shot for the last three years.
True Story.
Some relatives came into town to Chicago. Neither of them have ever been here before.
The first thing they said to me about the city...before any compliment. They said "I notice you guys don't fix the streets around here, a lot of holes."
Enough said.
And the answer is:
Basice we gots mores than enuff of them poleicees and firemans to get all of the Ohlimpicks guys to da housepitall.
Signed Mayor Mumbles
Oprah messin' in with the Olympics
Here, Oprah Winfrey, the Final-Authority-Without-Portfolio on absolutely everything under the sun, weighs in (no pun intended) on Daley's 2016 Follies --
"A Chicago celebrity who many believe shines brighter than an Olympic gold medal will be mixing and mingling with members of the International Olympic Committee Monday.
"Talk show host Oprah Winfrey has accepted an invitation to attend a Monday night dinner at the Art Institute of Chicago, said Patrick Sandusky, director of public relations for Chicago 2016.
"Oprah is a supporter of the Olympic movement...and she's one of the most iconic Chicagoans," Sandusky said. "It certainly made sense to have her at the dinner that celebrates both the Olympic movement and the City of Chicago."
http://blogs.suntimes.com/oprah
/2009/04/international_olympic_
committe.html
Displace God knows how many tens of thousands of working poor, then very loudly and publicly give one family an "extreme remake" house -- that's our gal.
You know, when I look at Oprah and her friends the Obamas, I don't see race at all. They're 'way beyond all that. They're just rich.
"CFD Captain/Neighbor told me that the city has numerous ALS and BLS ambulances sitting which will be refitted and man'd by Suburban Paramedics. The additional need will be filled by Superior Ambulance crews who are also paramedics."
--4/06/2009 12:16:00 AM
...and all at "no cost to the taxpayers," they keep insisting.
I feel better now.
*
atlanta used the national guard in and around the olympic village.
"...but the temporary construction trade workers are going to tax our City services for years before the games.
"I have friends in the trades who are already putting feelers out for labor pools to build the Games.
"We are going to PAY long before the Olympics get here. Can we afford all these extra non taxpayers?"
--4/06/2009 12:28:00 AM
"Temporary construction trade workers" = "illegal aliens" today.
You should have seen some of the northwest side condo conversions back when the "flippers" were going hot and heavy. All the renters thrown out of a ten-flat which then turned into a bunkhouse for illegal Polish workers, living on the job among the dust and mess. I don't have to tell you what'll be coming from the south.
Taxpayers? Ha. "Envio dineros a Mexico..."
You can see where the Olympic push is coming from now that the residential and commercial real estate markets have died, poisoned by their own greed. The builders are just going mad to pour that concrete somewhere -- on top of who or what doesn't matter.
The funniest part about the IOC visit is that while the brass is ferrying them around in SUVs and putting on dog and pony shows, the IOC have their own operatives checking out every corner of the city, peeking under the rugs and behind the curtains.
The Olympics is a snow job that occurs once every four years, and this city would be better off not even attempting it.
Cost overruns, corruption...in the end they'll have to do what Denver did, and pass it off to another city.
Vote for Pullido, 5th Congressional District!
NW siders, send a message!
It dosent matter it's like an election they will tell them anything and everything they want to hear 35,000 police 1000 ambulances roads paved with gold.
After it's a done deal they go back to stealing everything that they can . Don't sweat this bullshit people. It just dosent matter all your crying nobody cares.
Sorry but you assholes are still out writing movers and parkkers and making onview arrest
"Some relatives came into town to Chicago. Neither of them have ever been here before.
"The first thing they said to me about the city...before any compliment. They said "I notice you guys don't fix the streets around here, a lot of holes."
"Enough said."
--4/06/2009 03:20:00 PM
This is not the city's fault. It's your family's fault.
"Why did they come to Chicago in, in, in the first place if they're going to spend the whole time looking down? Heh heh. This costs, it costs, it costs money. Costs a lot of money. You spend a lot of money and you have people looking down." the Mayor would say.
They are not supposed to be looking down. They are supposed to be looking up towards the colorful banners saying what a great place Chicago is.
Malcontents.
What an upset to the Machine if can elect a Republican to take Rahm Emmanuel's seat while the IOC is in town.
This would send an international message that the CPD,CFD and the citizen's of Chicago are disgusted.
Please vote for Rosanna Pulido tomorrow.
It will take only two minutes as the expected turnout is to be only 10% and there is only one person to vote for.
STANDUP AND SOUNDOFF TOMORROW,
VOTE,
SEND SHORTSHANKS ANOTHER MESSAGE,
WE AREN'T CHUMPS!!!
Anonymous said...
The pressure is on ....
Shortshanks is a prime candidate for a stroke.
4/06/2009 10:29:00 AM
hope soon, the fedeal subpeona would be great and do the job!
"I'm a CFD Lieutenant...if some mope stubs his toe and 'cant breathe' (they know what to say so they get an ambo) and calls for an ambulance, the city sends 1 ALS Engine, 1 regular engine if that ALS engine is not close enough, and 1 ALS ambulance. Thats 12 men per mope, and that's all of the companies in their area...call volume increases every year. Are people even sicker now than 30 years ago? No way, they overreact and send these monstrous rigs screaming down the street...those guys are so busy with nonsense calls that there never is one close enough if a real emergency arises. The CFD is EXTREMELY stretched thin as it is."
--4/06/2009 08:18:00 AM
You guys are the * GREATEST * -- I have dealt with angry firemen and disgusted firemen and tired firemen, but I don't think I've ever met a bad one. I especially keep in mind your patience and decency in helping those who desperately need your help, like the senior citizens -- even if it's just another "pot of meat" or lost pair of glasses.
This is why I get so mad when I see and hear what you describe -- stories like this --
9 patients accounted for nearly 2,700 ER visits at hospitals in Austin, Texas, area
AP
Apr 1, 2009
(AUSTIN, Texas) Just nine people accounted for nearly 2,700 of the emergency room visits in the Austin area during the past six years at a cost of $3 million to taxpayers and others, according to a report. The patients went to hospital emergency rooms 2,678 times from 2003 through 2008...
"The average emergency room visit costs $1,000. Hospitals and taxpayers paid the bill through government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid...
"Eight of the nine patients have drug abuse problems, seven were diagnosed with mental health issues and three were homeless. Five are women whose average age is 40, and four are men whose average age is 50..."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/192031
I know of someone right in this profile -- a 47-year-old crackhead woman, diagnosed psychopath and "M.I.C.A." -- "mentally ill chemical abuser." She's having the time of her life "making the rounds" of every detox, clinic, rehab, and ER in her town, between stays in the county jail. She isn't "overreacting" when she calls 911 for herself -- it's just something to do. Lights! Sirens! Excitement! Plus, the hospital will give her a big shot of Dilaudid and admit her for the night just to shut her up. All of her Medicaid prescriptions for "psychiatric medication" are sold off for cash to buy crack. It's a career path.
I could go on for hours just on this one, but you get the idea -- and, like they say, "whatever you subsidize, you get more of."
The last time I used a washroom at a "high-class," northwest side hospital -- eight feet from the admitting desk -- there was a belt laying there and a fucking bent spoon on the sink.
*
You know the feeling of trying to get back out of there using your elbows only...
This is the base line today -- and we're going to add 1.5 million people? Keep in mind, too that they're not all coming on the same flight, staying for three weeks, and then leaving. It will be an incremental increase as the place fills up with "construction managers" and "liason officials" and "representatives" of this and that -- plus the inevitable illegal alien labor force, not to mention the army of hookers and pickpockets and everything else that follows conventions and such.
The effects, before and after, will last for many years. It strikes me that we are mail-ordering ourselves something equivalent to the magnitude and expense of a major earthquake.
In Re the IOC checking how much police and fire capacity we have here -- "...at the end of the day, the I.O.C. actually has a job to do, and they do it. Mayor Daley can throw all the money that he wants to at their feet, and they will walk away smiling, because unlike the Mayor, money is not the only thing that they think about...."
--4/06/2009 03:01:00 AM
More than one of those city-supplied Martinis must have gone into the nearest potted plant. These folks have got to be experts by now at surviving being plied with liquor and wooed with dancing girls and light shows...I'll give them that much, but I sure didn't see any of them unsupervised "in the neighborhood" asking questions of ordinary people. That crowd that "spontaneously" greeted them as they went up the steps of the Art Institute looked about as carefully-screened as it gets...
Anonymous said...
maybe when people call 911 because they have a headache the call taker should hang up.
4/06/2009 01:06:00 PM
Call taker would be fired.
Until the city starts charging them for bull$*it, it isn't going to stop. Take it out of the public aide check and then you'll see a downturn in the bogus (typical) calls.
I actually heard Valerie Jarrett comment, and say that if Chicago is chosen, that the White House will appoint someone to coordinate out of the White House for the Olympics. So I would expect, that if Chicago is chosen, police and fire from other large cities, and states, along with ISP and the National Guard will be brought in to assist.
remember tho IOC has a history of taking bribes.DA CHICAGO WAY.
HEY 925 A. M.STOP BITCHING ABOUT THE FIREMAN AND HOW MUCH SLEEP THEY GET.IF U DONT LIKE YOUR JOB JEWEL IS HIRING.
Feeling "stretched thin" there, First Responder?
Along the lines of the 9 people who made 2,700 emergency room visits--
http://www.newsweek.com/id/192031
--here's more on who's using up medical and social services.
That guy you see staggering around all the time pretty much "(runs) up more than $4,000 per month in costs for jail, detox center use, hospital-based medical services, publicly funded alcohol and drug programs, emergency medical services and the like...Each of them (costs)state and local governments an average of $86,062 per year."
http://www.reuters.com/article/
healthNews/idUSTRE52U7GZ20090331
This article, touting the "new concept" of "Housing First," claims that allowing drunks to keep on drinking while providing them housing and complete wipe-your-behind-for-you services is less expensive than leaving them on the street.
This is just an extension of the methadone-program blackmail in which people are essentially paid not to commit crimes. It typifies the new social doctrine of "equal results without equal effort" -- or in cases like this, superior results without any effort.
"Housing First practice dispenses with decades of trying...to reward people with housing for achieving some pre-determined clinical goal," like being able to keep your pants up, recognize up from down, etc.
Just keep sucking that 40-dog and bellowing at cars -- it's the pathway to a free apartment right in the heart of things downtown, with catered meals and medical care, while the guy working two minimum-wage jobs sleeps in his car outside.
Of course, the inevitable has ensued --
Alcoholics' apartments generate many aid calls
By Stuart Eskenazi
Seattle Times staff reporter
"Nearly every other day, the Seattle Fire Department responds to an apartment house for chronic street alcoholics to administer emergency medical aid to an ailing resident."
"The $11.2 million housing project...puts to test a unique concept in housing homeless hard-core alcoholics because residents are allowed to drink in their rooms."
Failure is the goal here. Look at the entrance qualifications. "Residents of 1811 Eastlake are homeless chronic alcoholics who have been addicted for at least 15 years and failed at treatment at least six times. With virtually no chance to achieve sobriety, they are given an opportunity to rent a nice studio where they can drink until they pass out."
Maybe the 2016 Olympic Village can be converted into one of these centers once the Games are finished...
maybe when people call 911 because they have a headache the call taker should hang up.
4/06/2009 01:06:00 PM
Call taker would be fired.
4/07/2009 04:54:00 AM
Oh, no. Call takers do indeed argue -- at least with polite, clear, exact, native-English-speaking callers, they do.
In one case I'm aware of, they refused to send an ambulance for an on-view bleeding injured elderly person staggering around after his car was struck by a fleeing stolen car. In another, they refused to dispatch fire to a going fire alarm in a large senior citizen building -- and there was a problem there. Got a whole bunch of these.
Telling them, "OK, this is all on tape, it's in your lap if the (person dies, building burns, etc.)" usually does it.
This does not happen a lot, but one time can be too much.
Perma-backlog. Hard road to travel, hard call to make sometimes when, as the fire Lt. here said, all the idiots are calling up yelling that they can't breathe, just to get a trip to the ER which is their personal baby doctor, detox, obesity clinic, etc.
Now here's one who might well be fired...
Dispatcher failed to warn slain cops about guns in home
"CNN) -- A dispatcher who took a 911 call regarding a domestic argument at a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-area home knew that there were weapons in the home but did not notify responding officers, three of whom were fatally shot, an official said Tuesday.
"The officers died Saturday in a gun battle as they were responding to the call...
"...our call-taker did not follow through with the appropriate training that she had received and [make] the appropriate notation that there were weapons in the house," Bob Full, chief of emergency services for Allegheny County, told CNN affiliate WTAE."
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME
,/04/07/pitt.officers.shot/
"...Chronic alcoholics are given a studio apartment to rent where they can drink until they pass out..."
Sounds like my entire neighborhood.
"Sounds like my entire neighborhood.
4/07/2009 11:39:00 PM"
Cheers!! (hiccup)
"Cheers!! (hiccup)"
--4/09/2009 01:07:00 AM
"WHERE E'RYBO-O-O-DY KNOWSSSH YER NA-A-A-ME!" (out window at top of lungs at 4 AM)
(hurf, gag, splat)
See. Now you got him started.
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