Our fight to protect Lincoln Park thrust one organizer directly into a much larger fight on a global stage!
In 2008 we wondered why SO MANY LAWYERS were in court trying to shut down our legal challenge to the Latin School Lincoln PArk Land Grab.
IN 2009 Chicago was one of the four finalist cities poised to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Mayor Daley was working full time on the bid and tasked his entire administration to get the games. He sent over senior staff and a few commissioners to the 2016 bid committee. We stumbled into this hurricane when we challenged the TRANSFER of public assets to a PRIVATE entity. The city was desperate to avoid a legal ruling that would’ve blocked or placed hurdles on such a transfer. It turned out, when Chicago’s bid was mad public in February of 2009 that ALL of the proposed Olympic venues would be in PUBLIC PARKS. So – if Protect Our Parks had won a decision instead of settling out of court, then Chicago’s bid for the games would’ve been cancelled before it was even made public!
So – Tom Tresser, one of the founders of Protect Our Parks, joined with several other anti-bid organizers to build and expand the No Games Chicago campaign. This campaign took most of 2009 and concluded on October 2 when the International Olympic Committee tossed Chicago out of the bid process on the first round of voting (getting 18 votes).