By Steve Rhodes
“The NATO summit at McCormick Place cost Metra $800,000 in lost revenue from customers who stayed away and extra security expenses like bomb-sniffing dogs, the commuter railroad agency said Wednesday,” the Tribune reports.
Oh, they’ll make it back through increased tourism down the road.
“The South Shore Line, serving northwest Indiana, also expects a loss of about $100,000, General Manager Gerald Hanas has told officials of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District.”
Add that to the (long) list.
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What NATO Did To Us.
“It was like this all (Saturday) afternoon,” [Ina] Pinkney told the Tribune.
On Friday, “people were taking the day off, treating it like a vacation day, so business was OK,” she said. “This morning there was no start, no energy and then it totally dropped dead.”
“None of the delegations are going out,” she said. “One of our servers does room service at (a downtown luxury hotel), and he says the top delegates are going to special dinners, and the security details are ordering room service. No one’s going out.”
“This whole week has been the quietest ever,” she said.
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And don’t forget: Corporate Chicago laid out $36.5 million for the summit.
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But remember the breathless, credulous pre-summit reporting?
“The NATO summit coming to Chicago later this month will give a $128 million short-term boost to the city’s economy, according to a projection released by the head of the host committee Monday,” the Sun-Times reports.
“That does not count any long-term benefits of raising Chicago’s profile.”
To paraphrase John Maynard Keynes: In the long-term, the Metra and Ina’s will be dead.
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It’s hard not to give Jim Tobin his due on this one.
“Chicago’s hosting of the May NATO meetings was an expensive ego-trip for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his fellow politicians, charged Jim Tobin, President of Taxpayers United of America.
“Emanuel and his press flacks claimed that holding the NATO meetings put Chicago in a favorable light in the eyes of the world, and that as a result, Chicago’s reputation as a world-class city will move up a few notches in the list of great world cities,” said Tobin. “He’s got to be kidding. Does he honestly think the world views Chicago as being in the same league as New York, London or Paris?”
“As far as the world is concerned, Chicago is the capitol of flyover country.”
“On Friday and Monday, downtown businesses were ghost towns – the last thing they needed in this recession. LaSalle Street was empty according to reports, major employers asked their employees to stay home, and receipts in shops and restaurants were down sharply.”
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We’ll be seeing a lot more of this, too.
“Charges were dropped Tuesday against a California man arrested on drug charges last month in Chinatown while in Chicago to protest the NATO Summit,” the Sun-Times reports.
“Michael E. Lowe, 24, of the 100 block of West Morris Avenue in Fresno, Calif., was arrested and charged May 16 with one felony count of possession of a controlled substance and one misdemeanor count of possession of less than 2.5 grams of cannabis, police said.
“Prosecutors said he was found with heroin.
“On Tuesday, Lowe appeared in South Felony Court (Br. 48), where charges were dropped after a finding of no probable cause, Cook County State’s Attorney’s office spokeswoman Tandra Simonton said.”
Oh, but there was probable cause:
“Lowe and fellow protester Danny Johnson, who had charges of aggravated battery and obstructing traffic charges dropped, educated inmates about the Occupy movement and had ‘teach ins’ and ‘sit-ins’ during their incarceration, Johnson said.”
Where are their free baseball tickets?
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First, George Washington. Now, Queen Elizabeth.
Memo to Chicago pols: A world-class city does not act like this.
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Thank you, Ald. Waugespack.
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Previously:
* NATO Notebook I
* NATO Notebook II
* NATO Notebook III
* NATO Notebook IV
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Comments welcome.
Posted on June 7, 2012