A group opposed to spending money on the Olympics rather than on basic needs such as housing and education, held a rally at downtown Chicago Thursday when the International Olympic evaluation team arrived to inspect Chicago's bid for 2016 summer games.
A group calling itself "No Games Chicago" says the city should be spending money on schools and housing, public transportations and improvement of environment.
"We don't want Olympic Games, we want houses, we want schools, we want clinics", the protesters shouted.
Babara, who is working in a financial institute in Chicago, told Xinhua that she is opposing the Games, because "we have budget crisis, we are under economic downturn, we want the money to be used for our housing, education, public transit." she said Chicago should not follow Athens Olympic Games which lost more than 8 billion U.S. dollars.
Another protester named David said that he lives in the south of Chicago near the Washington Park, but the Chicago 2016 plans to build a Olympic stadium in the park. He questioned the legacy of an Olympic stadium in a park he considers his lawn.
"Such a plan will damage the green environment and lead to decrease of properties and hike of prices of properties", he added.
Chanting "no contract, no Olympics," more than a thousand off-duty Chicago police officers formed a picket line ringing the Chicago City Hall in the late morning to demonstrate their anger over troubled labor negotiations with the city administration.
Asked about the prospect of protests during a press conference, mayor Richard Daley said "Everyone has the right to demonstrate. Let them demonstrate."
Independent observers say protests have become quite common when cities are preparing to bid for or host Olympic Games.
Chicago is the first stop on the evaluation committee's itinerary. It will visit Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid in the coming weeks, and the full IOC membership will select a host city from among the four finalists on October 2.
(Xinhua News Agency April 3, 2009)
