From Chicago Mag
"Never has the scrutiny on Chicago been so intense—and never have the stakes been so high for Mayor Rahm Emanuel. During the May 20–21 summit centered at McCormick Place, he has to keep 7,500 foreign guests, and the 2,000 journalists who will trail them, entertained, impressed, and, above all, secure. Past summits of this magnitude have been protest magnets. But despite calls for peaceful demonstrations, there is a combustible element. “These things have a life of their own,” says Kalle Lasn, the cofounder and editor of Adbusters, the Canadian magazine that spawned the Occupy movement.
If Rahm and his team—which includes organizer Lori Healey—pull off a smooth event, the city would benefit from international exposure and a multimillion-dollar payoff down the road. “These summits will help promote Chicago as a prime destination for travel, tourism, and trade,” the mayor told Chicago in a statement.
But if Rahm’s team blows it, they will find it hard to lure other major events here (a second shot at the Olympics, anyone?). And they’ll cause significant problems for Rahm’s old boss. This is a presidential election year, after all. The last thing Obama wants is to look foolish in front of the electorate, not to mention his international peers."
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