Good News From The Big City

It probably doesn't matter much which big city you live near.  The bulk of the news coming from "the city" sometimes seems to be mostly some sort of body count.   At the beginning of each week, the newspapers often (usually) have articles counting how many gunshot incidents occurred over the week-end, how many people were injured, and how many were killed.   In Chicago, all too often, the victims of all this violence are young people.  It gets very depressing, and I don't even actually live in the city.   I can hardly imagine how this kind of carnage affects residents of the areas with all the violence.

That said, sometimes there is a glimmer of hope, a spot of sunshine in an otherwise dismal day of news.   There was such a glimmer in the news here the other day about a graduating class at Urban Prep High School (a link to the article is below.)  This school was created as a charter school in Chicago with lofty goals:

Urban Prep would be a charter high school. It would bring together some 150 boys from some of the poorest, gang-ravaged neighborhoods and try to set them on a new track.   They'd have strict rules: A longer school day -- by two hours. Two classes of English daily.  A uniform with jackets and ties.  And Urban Prep had a goal -- one that seemed audacious, given that just 4 percent of the Class of 2010 was reading at or above grade level when they arrived at the school in 2006.

In four years, they were told, they'd be heading to college.

So, here we are four years later.   Of the 150 teens who started at Urban Prep in 2006, 95 completed the entire four years and another 12 students transferred in to graduate with the class of 2010.   All 107 students have received at least one, and generally several, acceptance letters from colleges across the country.   I was struck by the fact that the article doesn't paint a "Pollyanna" picture, it discusses the trials and difficulties that these students encountered over the four years, including actually quitting, returning to a "public" high school, and discovering that they wanted, indeed needed, to return to Urban Prep.  The dedication and support provided by the staff at the high school is nothing short of amazing (60% of the faculty are black men).  The mentoring and modeling by the adults was clearly critical to the success of these students.   Both the students and faculty at Urban Prep deserve a long, hearty round of applause.

You should read the AP article in the Daily Herald.   The story is amazing and uplifting.  It's very good news from the city.

Rooting for Rio

It's perfectly curmudgeonly for me to wish Rio well in the race to be "awarded" the 2016 Olympic Games. I live in Chicagoland, and Mayor Daley wants the Olympics so badly he can undoubtedly taste it. I have been indifferent about it, but I've come to the conclusion that we'd be better off if the International Olympic Committee (IOC) selects Rio or Madrid or anywhere but Chicago. I just don't see the benefits to the metro area.

Much of the planned development for Chicago's Olympics appears to be temporary structures, so the long-term benefit to the City and region escape me. It's unclear how many low income Chicago residents will be displaced by The Games. What it seems to come down to is "bragging rights" and "civic pride." Neither of which mean much to a region that is already drowning in municipal red ink and regressive taxes. It would certainly be a better legacy for the current Mayor Daley than the 1968 Democratic Convention was for his father.

If the final decision by the IOC can be massively influenced by the involvement of President Obama and his wife, that also makes me wonder what on earth is going on. Initially, the President wasn't traveling to Denmark and was sending his wife to "represent" him. He was criticized by some for not being sufficiently supportive of Chicago's effort. He subsequently decided he would join his wife in Denmark for the IOC meeting, and he was criticized by others for focusing on the Olympics rather than our health care and financial systems mess. What can the Head of State and the First Lady possibly say in one on one conversations with the IOC members that would seal the deal for Chicago? Beyond "we have a Great Lake" (Lake Michigan), what does the President have to say about running an Olympic venue? I'm guessing not much beyond his obvious star power. If that's the case, the entire selection process seems to be just another sham of smoke and mirrors.

The biggest reason I'm rooting for Rio is that based on the media coverage of Chicago's efforts to this point, if Chicago is selected, it will be absolutely miserable place to be between now and 2016. This week we were subjected to hanging a ceremonial Olympic medal around the neck of the Picasso monkey in Daley Center. Several protestors were arrested for trying to disrupt the medal installation. The local "news" outlets (and I use the term "news" very lightly) positively gushed over the "cute" image of the statue with the medal. They're running "countdown" clocks to the IOC vote. Cripes.

There's no telling how obnoxious and ridiculous the media coverage can get over the course of the next seven years. If Chicago gets The Games, it can only get worse.

Edit 10/1/09: It's good to know that Tribune columnist John Kass agrees with at least some of my concerns: his 9/30/09 column.