Olympics or no Olympics, Chicago has a long road ahead of it to build and re-build infrastructure in order to remain competitive in the global economic market.  If they were smart, they would use this momentum that they have built up in the last several years and identify several key projects to still pursue and build their infrastructure to remain competitive in the global markets.

They set a strategic direction and have put away some money to buy and build things.  They can still be a winner by following through on several key infrastructure projects that would enhance the city.  State-of-the-art network infrastructure would be a good choice that has significant residual value with an impact on economic development.  A Ten Step Plan is outlined here. http://carliniscomments.com/archives/236-THE-CHICAGO-PLAN-TEN-STEPS-TO-GOLD.html

Several years ago there was an initiative to get high-speed connectivity into Chicago and it fizzled.  The CivicNet Project became CivicNot.

It fizzled because the strategic structure was wrong – it was committee-based.

Wrong people were put in charge and there was no one Tsar to spearhead the initiative.  It was a committee and committees don’t make drastic leadership decisions.  You need a General Patton-type that can lead the charge and not take no from subordinates and contractors.

CARLINI-ISM :  What you do after a success is easy, you party.  What you do after a failure is pick yourself up and come up with a better strategic direction.