Chicago Loses, Nerds Win: The real story behind Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid

http://www.slate.com/id/2231173/

by brandnewlow • 17 years ago

54 48 17 years ago

brandnewlow4• 17 years ago

Hey HN. I wrote this for Slate today and wanted to share it with you as it breaks down the conflict in Chicago over their own Olympic bid, good-government geeks on one side, pro-tourism jocks on the other.

tptacek3• 17 years ago

Great article. I'd love to hear more about what it's like to try to get pieces in Slate, if you ever get bored and want something career-negative to write about.

I thought it ended a little abruptly, though.

brandnewlow4• 17 years ago

Much like Chicago's bid.

biohacker42• 17 years ago

What I found most interesting is the detailed analysis of the expect costs and benefits. What I strongly disliked is how it was cast in jocks vs nerds theater.

I understand that Slate's readership isn't HN's readership, and that just the facts aren't enough, that there needs to be some kind of emotional story to hold the reader's attention.

But is jocks vs nerds really it? Is that the most interesting thing? Wouldn't a more generic dreamers vs. hard nosed realists be something a wider audience can identify with?

Perhaps you're also looking for strong passion, not just the widest general interest? But even in that case, the jocks vs nerds cliche? Nerds hate any kind of sports related activity so much they won't even allow their home city to host the Olympics?

It just feels tired and forced. But the economic analysis was great.

scott_s• 17 years ago

I came here to say just that. It's a juvenile classification system that thoughtful people ditch once they leave high school. I had difficulty pushing my strong dislike of that characterization aside so I could understand the good analysis of the downsides of Chicago hosting the 2016 Games.

jacoblyles• 17 years ago

I wonder if the same people opposing the Olympics would oppose, say, an economically dubious high-speed rail line?

lurkinggrue• 17 years ago

The nerd angle seemed a bit forced.

brandnewlow4• 17 years ago

Great points!

I understand the dislike for "jocks vs. nerds" theater, however:

a) It's more immediate than dreamers vs. realists. Everyone can relate to jocks vs. nerds , even if it ticks them off (as in your case). Doesn't PG have several essays breaking down the jocks vs. nerds divide?

b) That's my read on the situation, having hosted dozens and dozens of debates about the Olympics over on my site, WindyCitizen.com. The whole jocks v. nerds angle actually originated in a thread over there. A few local bloggers picked up on it, which got me thinking about it as a great way to explain why both sides could say so much and yet hear so little.

c) It's funny. If you don't find it funny, that's perfectly fine. I and the editors there were busting up about it when I pitched it to them. Extending the metaphor out to include Obama was too perfect. Learning the head of the bid committee is part owner of the Chicago Bears made my day.

Thank you for reading the piece. I respect and understand it wasn't your cup of tea and thank you for telling me so on here.

chrischen• 17 years ago

> What I strongly disliked is how it was cast in jocks vs nerds theater.

I agree. I don't like those terms because well, they are labels. And in the article jocks and nerds were essentially, for lack of better terms, dumb and smart people.

projectileboy• 17 years ago

Nice work, but the attached photo gallery ("Olympic Village") is an absolute mess - the photos didn't follow the theme, and some of the pictures were downright horrible (the TV shot from the '84 Olympics - what was that??). You might mention it to your editor.

But again, nice article.

noodle• 17 years ago

p.s.: rio won the bid for 2016.

bilbo0s2• 17 years ago

I'm sorry . . .

But the comic in the right hand column of that Slate Article is awesome. That is SO Chicago.

tptacek3• 17 years ago

The comics rotate. Which one were you looking at?

bilbo0s2• 17 years ago

The one with Obama at the podium, flanked by two mafia guys with tommy guns. And he says something to the effect of, 'Like we Chicagoans always say, vote early, and vote often!'

edw519• 17 years ago

I'll become interested in the Olympics when they add programming to it. I've been an aspiring prograthelete for years, but alas, the Olympics still doesn't have the most grueling sport of all: the prograthelon, 36 consecutive hours of mind blowing competition:

  1. IDE Finger Gymnastics
  2. 100 Lines-Of-Code Dash
  3. Individual Text Editor Medley
  4. Regular Expression Datelifting
  5. Greco-Roman Webpage Translation
  6. Modern Compiling
  7. Databaseball
  8. Hackstroke
  9. Printer Throw
 10. Debugging Marathon

gaius• 17 years ago

You forgot race condition :-P

rikthevik• 17 years ago

Don't forget the longjmp.

tome• 17 years ago

Exception throwing.

dschobel3• 17 years ago

Interesting article. I wish it would have addressed the go-to stat of the pro-Olympics crowd here in Chicago, namely that no Summer Olympics has lost money since '84.

hughprime3• 17 years ago

Really? I heard that no summer Olympics in history had ever made money except for 1984.

I expect it's one of those creative accounting things where you can come up with pretty much any number you like.

pasbesoin2• 17 years ago

In all the commentary so far (e.g. on Chicago's WBEZ public radio, playing in the background), I haven't heard a single mention of the hassle it has become for many people to visit the U.S. I've seen this point made many places, including in comments on this site, particularly a year or two ago. I've heard it from friends and acquaintances.

I don't know whether it would have influenced the decision at all -- my ill-informed impression is that many of those decision makers don't travel in such a "plebian" manner. But I've been wondering. Given what I've heard, if I were a non-U.S. representative casting my vote, I'd take it into consideration.

Overall, but again without having paid particular attention, the Rio decision makes sense to me. South America has not seen much of the Games. Brazil is an up and coming power. Much of the world is weary of the excesses of U.S. hegemony (the excesses, as opposed to the entire role of the U.S.), even if it did in general take some heart in Obama's election.

Perhaps, also, this is a leading indicator of a decline in the need to kiss the U.S.'s posterior.

jvdh• 17 years ago

Even those non-US citizens who fly business class still have to go through the same line with the same stoic DHS servant asking the same questions they ask everyone in the same non-interested manner.

iohnuiob• 17 years ago

But they will throw out those billionaires that arrive on their own jet. http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/43

Remember HN readers you can't enter the US under visa waiver in your own Learjet, but we all knew that didn't we?

jrockway5• 17 years ago

US citizens have to do this too. Sometimes the US citizens line is longer than the other lines.

I always enjoy visiting other countries because the immigration folks are so pleasant (except Japan). It catches me off guard every time. The immigration inspector in Oslo actually smiled and welcomed me to their country! Amazing!

When I come back to the US, it is always a lecture about something. "Your handwriting isn't good enough," was my favorite.

(I have always wondered what would happen if I refuse to answer the questions. Will I be deported ... to the US?)

dschobel3• 17 years ago

Perhaps, also, this is a leading indicator of a decline in the need to kiss the U.S.'s posterior.

I'd say that started roughly 5 years ago. Say, right around early November, 2004.

hughprime3• 17 years ago

Sad to see this modded above zero.

brandnewlow4• 17 years ago

The IOC specifically asked the Chicago bid team about this last night during the Q & A following their presentation. The Chicago team was asked if its country would improve its accessibility to the international community.

The heads of the Chicago bid deferred to Obama, who they were fortunate to have in the room. The president's response, IIRC was "I know there's been a problem with this with previous administrations. I will make sure it's not an issue this time around. We see the games as an opportunity to return to being a friend to the world."

So it very much was on the minds of the IOC. Good catch.

santamaria2• 17 years ago

> "We see the games as an opportunity to return to being a friend to the world."

There's been a bully in the schoolyard all year, bigger than all the other boys; he's stolen your lunch money any number of times, given you a few black eyes and blood lips. In the last couple of weeks, a few other big guys transferred to the same school. The bullying suddenly stopped and now he wants to be friends.

jrockway5• 17 years ago

I haven't heard a single mention of the hassle it has become for many people to visit the U.S.

It is a hassle to visit China, as well, but that did not affect their Olympic bid.

carpo• 17 years ago

I've visited China many times, and it has never felt like a hassle. It actually feels more difficult re-entering my own country (Australia), as it takes considerably longer to get through customs and pick up baggage here.

JimmyL2• 17 years ago

Not really - you get a visa (which is a relatively plainless process), and when you actually land there is almost no paperwork. And you can bet that for all athletes and associated media/staff, the Chinese would either waive the visa requirement or make it ridiculously easy (you can change things on-the-fly like that when you're in a one-party state).

The US, on the other hand, is remarkably difficult to get permission to enter if you're not American. Getting appropriate visas takes some time and a lot of paperwork/documentation, and when you physically land at the airport you're photographed, fingerprinted, and questioned. While I bet the organizers would have found some way to simplify the process a bit, you can bet that they wouldn't have the ability to do a wholesale re-write of immigration laws like the Chinese did (or like the Russians do whenever they host major international events).

As for the IOC members not seeing it, don't forget that many of them come from smaller foreign countries that US immigration is traditionally very skeptical of. They may have had their visa applications completed and expedited by the Chicago organizers, but they still would have been in the same lines as everyone else upon landing, and would have read the same instructions that talk about the various forms you need.

balding_n_tired• 17 years ago

Denver actually bailed out of a commitment to host the Olympics 30-odd years ago: http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/millennium/1012stone.sht...

Chicago Loses, Nerds Win: The real story behind Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid

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