Chicago Gets Olympic Makeover

Chicago is serious about hosting the 2016 Olympics, and the city is doing everything possible to land the event, the Washington Post reports. The buzzword is "global": Chicago is entertaining foreign dignities, teaching new languages in its schools, and erecting public sculptures and buildings. But for the Windy City’s poor, the campaign carries a steep price.

To pay for the projects, the city has raised taxes and fees by nearly $300 million, and many fear a successful Olympics bid would displace South Side residents. “If the city put half the energy it has put into getting the Olympics into solving the housing crisis, we'd be a lot further along,” said one advocate for the homeless. (More Chicago stories.)