It Takes an Olympic Village

With the mayor’s Olympic Village plans in limbo, we here at Division Street Labs have learned of alternate sites being considered by the Chicago 2016 committee.

* Welcome back, Cabrini-Green!

* That giant ferris wheel planned for Navy Pier fits at least two to a car.

* Sending the Sox on a long road trip while Olympians camp out at The Cell.

* O’Hare’s concourses are already equipped to house long-term visitors.

* The Brown Line is converted to sleeper cars.

* Local pols say Oxford, Wisconsin has acceptable facilities.

Bensenville Boot

“A DuPage County judge says Chicago has a green light to tear down more than 500 homes in an adjoining village that are in the path of a $15 billion O’Hare International Airport expansion,” Crain’s reports.

A) That’s what happens now when you don’t pay your parking tickets.

B) The city offered to move the homeowners to the Midway neighborhood as compensation.

C) The Bensenville Liberation Army issued a statement over Radio Free Bensenville vowing to resist imperial Chicago forces.

Stained Glass

“At a time when airlines are struggling to stay alive and O’Hare Airport needs $1.5 billion in capital funding, Chicago cannot afford to spend $2 million on an elaborate airport display of stained glass cabinets, a top mayoral aide said today,” the Sun-Times reports.

That doesn’t mean the city will forego the exhibit though; it will just scale it down.

“I don’t necessarily believe it’s a terrible idea,” said Aviation Commissioner Richard Rodriguez. “I’d like to do a little something. I just don’t know what percentage we could afford.”

How about 100 percent of 0?

Terminal Politics

“The Daley administration is forging ahead with planning for a new western terminal at O’Hare Airport – though it doesn’t yet have the money to design or build it and is not sure exactly how it will be used,” the Sun-Times reports in “City Seeks Ideas For New O’Hare Terminal.”

“City Hall has issued a ‘request for qualifications’ that asks design firms to plan for a range of possibilities for the new terminal.”

Here are some of the early front-runners:

* Millennium Park West. Frank Gehry will team up with Helmut Jahn to create a tribute to urban planning.

* Obama’s Midwest White House. Tony Rezko will be asked to buy the rest of neighboring Bensenville to seal the deal.

* The International Olympic Committee Terminal. Serving only members of the International Olympic Committee.

* The Legacy Airlines Museum. Preserving United and American in amber for posterity.

* Clout Terminal. No gates for planes, just McDonald’s and Connie’s outlets.

* O’Harrah’s. Loosest slots in the Midwest.

Early Departure

“Nuria Fernandez knows how to manage big projects and big organizations, while maintaining a high quality of service and giving top priority to meeting customer needs,” Mayor Daley said on April 26, 2006.

*

“But under Fernandez’s tenure, the city has failed to close the deal with United Airlines and American Airlines on financing the second phase of expanding O’Hare,” the Tribune reports.

“O’Hare also continues to suffer some of the worst flight delays and cancellations of any U.S. airport, an embarrassment that hurts Chicago’s chances of being selected to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

“Efforts to fill some retail concession spaces at O’Hare also have lagged during Fernandez’s watch.

“Daley had a series of meetings with Fernandez in the last week, culminating in his call for her resignation, said the sources, who all requested anonymity. She submitted her resignation Wednesday effective immediately, the sources said.”