No Olympics for Chicago: good or bad?

So it was over quick: Chicago will not be hosting the Olympics in 2016. I have to say, I'm not quite heartbroken.

The Olympics would have been a great image booster for the city. They would have showcased it to the world in a whole new way. But there were always nagging doubts about the specifics of the plan. Most attention focused on the money, but my question always was: How would this make Chicago a better city?

Would this be the Millennium Park of Olympics? Or would it be the Soldier Field of Olympics?

There was a lot of vague talk about public transit, for example, but the bid plan didn't actually include major permanent improvements to the CTA, Pace or Metra. The bid said that the stadium in Washington Park would be temporary, but in fact, the part left behind would have been a major permanent structure plotzed in green space in a Frederick Law Olmsted park.

The old Michael Reese Hospital site would have been redeveloped as athletes' housing, then sold for condos. That would have meant demolishing the old hospital campus--and although the whole complex (where my brother was born) isn't worth saving, it includes several notable buildings connected with Walter Gropius that are worthy of preservation.

There were a lot of tempting prospects in the Olympic bid: Better pedestrian access to the lakefront across Lake Shore Drive, for example. Getting Northerly Island finally redeveloped as parkland. Showcasing Washington Park and reviving the struggling neighborhood around it.

But those good ideas are still out there. Now the city can sort through the wreckage of the Olympic planning, pick out those aspects that really would make Chicago greener and better, and move on them--with its own interests in mind, not the IOC's.

If Chicago had the will to get this Olympic bid together in the depths of a recession, it has the will to do other great things. If Patrick Ryan figured he could raise all that private money to fund the Olympic Games, let him put that fundraising prowess to work to get other things built that will have a more lasting value.

He could start, for example, by raising money for an underpass to Buckingham Fountain visitors can get beneath Lake Shore Drive to reach the lake.

Got a garden question? I recommend you call or e-mail the Plant Clinic of The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, the Master Gardeners of the University of Illinois Extension or the Plant Information Service of the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe .

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