Since the summer, Communities for an Equitable Olympics 2016 (CEO 2016), a coalition of a dozen community and labor organizations from Chicago’s South and West Sides, has been pressing for a living wage and affordable housing agreement as part of the city’s Olympic bid -- so far to no avail. Today the group held a press conference in front of Mayor Daley’s City Hall office to once again to try to bring his attention to this issue. Not surprisingly, Daley didn’t emerge. But that doesn’t mean CEO 2016 is going away, according to organizer Amisha Patel.

“We expect real engagement around this or else the city’s all talk,” Patel told us. “We know this is a long-term fight.”

The community and labor activists did manage to get their message across to several aldermen this morning before the City Council approved buying the abandoned Michael Reese Hospital site -- marking the first major Olympic land deal. Despite a mayoral pledge that private interests will bankroll the games, taxpayers could be on the hook for the future Olympic Village site.

CEO 2016 members are now scrambling to develop an ordinance that, if adopted, would require the city to deliver affordable housing and living wage jobs before any more Olympic-related deals are cut. They’re counting on Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th Ward) to introduce the measure next month.

It’s not hard to see why the group is concerned that, without a legally-binding agreement, there are no guarantees. That the Michael Reese land deal is advancing while former hospital employees are still waiting on severance payments doesn’t do much for the city’s image. (More on that to come.) Nor does the reality that only six percent of Chicago 2016 contract payments made during the first nine months of this year went to minorities.