No Games Chicago: How A Small Group of Citizens Derailed the City’s 2016 Olympic Bid

Author:   Tom Tresser
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
ISBN:  

9781032734736


Pages:   228
Publication Date:   10 September 2024
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
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No Games Chicago: How A Small Group of Citizens Derailed the City’s 2016 Olympic Bid


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Overview

Promoted as a prestigious economic opportunity and often aggressively sought by local leaders, hosting a modern Olympics can in fact be a “city-killer” that racks up billions of dollars in over-budget expenses, degrades the environment, and shreds civil liberties. This book recounts the successful efforts of grassroots organization No Games Chicago to derail Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics in an entertaining case study of local activism with international reach. The group’s detailed strategies and tactics provide a much-needed playbook for scholars, journalists, and activists seeking people-powered alternatives to megaprojects and other tourism-centric economic development schemes. In a time when vital public services are being cut and curtailed, public spaces diminished, and civil liberties threatened by the over-policing of protests, America continues to dedicate billions of public dollars to private development and sports facilities. The activists of No Games Chicago broke new ground in their fight to represent the voice of the people among established local political powers in the decision-making process for Chicago’s Olympic bid. Their story resonates both nationally and globally – over 15 cities around the world have said “No Thank You!” to the Olympics since the success of No Games Chicago. Relevant to students and chroniclers of deliberative democracy, public policy, media for social change, community organizing, and the economics of sport, No Games Chicago is an enjoyable, practical addition to the literature of citizen governance, urban planning, and economic development.

Full Product Details

Author:   Tom Tresser
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.460kg
ISBN:  

9781032734736


ISBN 10:   1032734736
Pages:   228
Publication Date:   10 September 2024
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

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Reviews

"""Tom Tresser has completed a remarkable book, meticulously documenting every step of No Games Chicago's successful campaign to stop the Olympic juggernaut from taking over the city. The book will serve as a key guide for future anti-Olympic organizations, providing practical strategies for effective resistance."" - Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, Professor Emerita, University of Toronto, Author of Inside the Olympic Industry (2000), Olympic Industry Resistance (2008), The Olympic Games (2020) ""Citizens and taxpayers can fight back against these costly, wasteful Olympic bids when they get organized and marshal the facts. No Games Chicago gave us a template -- figuratively and literally -- for our success at doing so in Boston."" - Chris Dempsey, Co-Founder, No Boston Olympics “Tom Tresser, public citizen to his core, has gone to extraordinary lengths to document his role in leading a coalition of activists to oppose Chicago’s Olympic Games bid. Tirelessly, he has crafted a riveting story of the uphill battle to bring daylight and transparency to public policy, asking vital questions about an enormous event with dubious benefits for Chicagoans. The narrative is part David vs Goliath, part Saul Alinksy, and part Tresser’s own dog-with-a-bone persistence. Placing the events in context and with detail, Tresser reasserts throughout a “public interest” over private and public-private interests, a central political battle in our neoliberal age.” - D. Bradford Hunt, Professor and Chair, Department of History, Loyola University Chicago. Co-author of Planning Chicago ""No Games Chicago is the gripping story of the only organized group to fight the idiotic idea of a Chicago Olympic bid. It is the essential record of this important episode in Chicago history. That effort also seeded more than one reform effort in the city. Essential history well told."" - Ed Bachrach, Co-author of The New Chicago Way: Lessons from Other Big Cities ""What is dissent? The types of answers to such a question are debatable and can range from the highly academic to imaginative abstractions. But what is neither debatable, academic or abstract are the irreparable harms to the lives and spaces of the most vulnerable communities and neighborhoods in Chicago that was diverted (or at least delayed for the next fight) by the efforts of those engaged in No Games Chicago that are on full display within this book. So from just reading a few pages, the question that we should ask ourselves is not ""what is dissent?"" but what can come from it? - Prof. Rasul Mowatt, Department Head & Professor, Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism Management, North Carolina State University ""In sports, grassroots activists are often up against powerful sports associations and their political allies. These struggles determine the future of cities, communities, and sports itself. The good news is: sometimes, the grassroots win. 'No Games Chicago' tells one of these stories."" - Gabriel Kuhn, Playing as if the World Mattered: An Illustrated History of Activism in Sports"


""Tom Tresser has completed a remarkable book, meticulously documenting every step of No Games Chicago's successful campaign to stop the Olympic juggernaut from taking over the city. The book will serve as a key guide for future anti-Olympic organizations, providing practical strategies for effective resistance."" Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, Professor Emerita, University of Toronto, author of Inside the Olympic Industry (2000), Olympic Industry Resistance (2008), The Olympic Games (2020) ""Citizens and taxpayers can fight back against these costly, wasteful Olympic bids when they get organized and marshal the facts. No Games Chicago gave us a template -- figuratively and literally -- for our success at doing so in Boston."" Chris Dempsey, Co-Founder, No Boston Olympics ""Tom Tresser, public citizen to his core, has gone to extraordinary lengths to document his role in leading a coalition of activists to oppose Chicago’s Olympic Games bid. Tirelessly, he has crafted a riveting story of the uphill battle to bring daylight and transparency to public policy, asking vital questions about an enormous event with dubious benefits for Chicagoans. The narrative is part David vs Goliath, part Saul Alinksy, and part Tresser’s own dog-with-a-bone persistence. Placing the events in context and with detail, Tresser reasserts throughout a ‘public interest’ over private and public-private interests, a central political battle in our neoliberal age."" D. Bradford Hunt, Professor and Chair, Department of History, Loyola University Chicago, co-author of Planning Chicago ""No Games Chicago is the gripping story of the only organized group to fight the idiotic idea of a Chicago Olympic bid. It is the essential record of this important episode in Chicago history. That effort also seeded more than one reform effort in the city. Essential history well told.""Ed Bachrach, co-author of The New Chicago Way: Lessons from Other Big Cities ""What is dissent? The types of answers to such a question are debatable and can range from the highly academic to imaginative abstractions. But what is neither debatable, academic or abstract are the irreparable harms to the lives and spaces of the most vulnerable communities and neighborhoods in Chicago that were diverted (or at least delayed for the next fight) by the efforts of those engaged in No Games Chicago that are on full display within this book. So from just reading a few pages, the question that we should ask ourselves is not ‘what is dissent?’ but what can come from it? Prof. Rasul Mowatt, Department Head and Professor, Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism Management, North Carolina State University ""In sports, grassroots activists are often up against powerful sports associations and their political allies. These struggles determine the future of cities, communities, and sports itself. The good news is: sometimes, the grassroots win. No Games Chicago tells one of these stories."" - Gabriel Kuhn, Playing as if the World Mattered: An Illustrated History of Activism in Sports


Author Information

Tom Tresser is a Chicago-based civic educator and public defender. He has spent 50 years doing grassroots democracy, community organizing, and work in the defence of public assets and services. He has started or led 14 nonprofit enterprises in the arts, community development, and civic engagement. In 2008 he co-founded Protect Our Parks, which successfully fought the privatization of Lincoln Park. In 2009 he was a co-leader of the No Games Chicago campaign to stop the 2016 Olympics from coming to Chicago. In 2013 he co-founded the CivicLab, America’s first co-working and maker space for social justice. In 2016 he edited and published Chicago Is Not Broke: Funding the City We Deserve, which outlines $5 billion in progressive and sustainable annual revenue solutions for Chicago. Tom has taught community organizing, civic engagement, public policy, creativity, and nonprofit management classes at six Chicago universities.

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