Boxing 'test,' transit warnings odd conflict

For the next 10 days or so the Chicago area will be under the Olympic microscope as it hosts the AIBA World Boxing Championships.

The head of the International Olympic Committee is expected to attend the event, a qualifier for the 2008 Olympics, along with a dozen other members of the IOC, which will make the final decision on Chicago's quest to host the 2016 Summer Games.

"If you're bidding to host … something as complicated as the Olympics, it certainly helps to show that you can organize something as simple as a world championship in one of the minor sports," IOC member Dick Pound of Canada said.

Indeed, there will be about 650 boxers in town from 120 countries, in contrast to the 10,000 athletes or so that an Olympic Games would bring. And one of Chicago's chief rivals for the 2016 games is Rio De Janeiro, which successfully hosted the Pan American Games this summer.

With the procession of athletes and opening ceremonies now complete, venues, accommodations and transportation arrangements will be tested along with the welcome of area residents.

And those residents might be just a little testy, given the notices they found on their Pace bus seats this week announcing route cuts and fare increases beginning Nov. 4, barring any miraculous solution from a largely paralyzed General Assembly.

The notices came as no real surprise, given such service cuts and fare hikes have been in the winds for months at Pace, the CTA and Metra. Legislators seem no closer to a solution than ever. But the notices do settle an air of inevitability on riders who had already seen the cuts and hikes delayed once already.

But they'll no doubt be wondering how the officials can provide luxury accommodations and special shuttle bus services for visiting athletes while they can't seem to find a way to assure that those who use public transportation to get to work will have a way to get there.

Our views on the public transit issue have been well-identified in this space previously. But we would remind city and state officials whose heads are filled with Olympic dreams that the first test of an Olympic Games is its ability to deliver basic services, most especially its ability to efficiently transport athletes and ticket holders to a variety of venues.

Take a look at metro-area highways at rush hour, O'Hare during a rain storm, the cuts coming in public transit and the political ineptitude in Cook County and Springfield. Tell us this is a metro area and state ready to host an Olympic Games.

The boxers? They're the lucky ones. The championships end Nov. 3, the day before the transit system begins demanding more for less.