Boston Is Already Saying ‘Hell No' to the 2024 Olympics

[KamaAina]

http://m.thenation.com/blog/190137-boston-already-saying-hell-no-2024-olympics

As someone who has reported from most of the Olympic sites since 2002, I have written—often—that these games, so treasured by athletes and fans, operate off-camera as a colossal scam. It doesn't take Naomi Klein to see that the games arrive with a shock doctrine of debt, displacement and militarization of public space. This has always been the case, but since 9/11, as the security needs for the Olympics have exploded alongside the profit margins of private security and tech firms, it has become an utter disaster for host cities. In fact, staging the games has become so burdensome that the only countries which seem to want the them are places that have a more, let's just say, dictatorial method of handling cost overruns and dissent among the general populace....

In Boston, they are already erecting the political barricades. An organization called No Boston Olympics has launched an effort in advance of the USOC's December decision as to which city will represent the United States in the bidding process. One of their members, Chris Dempsey, responded to my query by e-mail:

The core of No Boston Olympics is a group of young local residents who believe that an Olympics would be a costly distraction from more important and pressing civic priorities. Our grassroots campaign is focused on three priorities: (1) direct outreach to USOC members to make them aware of independent public polling that shows Massachusetts voters do not support a Boston bid, (2) educating civic leaders and citizens about the substantial downsides of an Olympic bid, and (3) exploring opportunities to provide the public with a voice in a process that has otherwise been conducted behind closed doors.

Here is hoping that activists throughout the city of Boston are successful. I spoke with someone connected to the International Olympic Committee who told me that Boston has rocketed to the top of their consideration list because of how the city was able to shut itself down after the Boston Marathon bombing. Few things expose the disturbing thought processes of the IOC quite like this logic. The post-marathon paralysis of police and surveillance and the frightening exercise of total power that was whipped out as quickly and lethally as a switchblade would become the Olympic-norm for three weeks. Anyone who felt a particularly neon-bright target on their back in those chilling days, because of their religion, their dress or the color of their skin, would have that affixed to them like a semi-permanent tattoo for a full year in the lead-up to the lighting of the Olympic torch. A city that brands itself as a cradle of liberty would be defined by drones, thousands of new cameras and a level of military hardware that—based upon what I saw in Rio for the World Cup—has to be seen in order to be believed. Imagine August 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, except with fleeting glimpses of Olympic horse dressage, seen through the haze of military-grade tear gas, and you can understand why No Boston Olympics is fighting back.

"Boston has rocketed to the top of their consideration list because of how the city was able to shut itself down after the Boston Marathon bombing."

[Dawson Leery]

1. Marty Walsh is trash.

I will not support him again.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/10/06/walsh-and-olympians-paralympians-make-pitch-for-games/HBN7zSbJ8zqGYmzQT4QrqN/story.html

[Warpy]

2. Has anyone on the committee ever been to Boston?

There is no place to build an Olympic monstrosity except far, far out in the exurbs. It would likely be easier to take a bus from NYC than from Boston to get to it. When the Patriots got too cramped in Harvard's stadium, they had to go all the way out to Foxborough on the I-495 beltway, a road so remote that it's mostly used by truckers on their way to NH, Maine or Canada.

Bostonians might have been compliant with police after the bombing but that's because the bombing pissed them off. Boston's a tough town and wouldn't be nearly as compliant about the massive disruption having thousands of tourists come through on their way to a remote Olympic Village would cause, even if they could find a farmer in the exurbs with enough land to sell for it and the willingness to sell without hardassed eminent domain threats.

I doubt many people in or around the city want this.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

5. I always love it when they show Boston on TV during a Patriots home game.....

.....which is NOWHERE NEAR Foxboro.

[KamaAina]

7. They show NYC during Giants and Jets games

assuming either of those teams ever gets on TV , and presumably SF during Niners games, which now take place 40 miles away in Santa Clara.

[Warpy]

8. Yeah, it's a much easier trip from RI than it is from the city

They're not fooling many people in Boston.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

10. They keep talking about getting a Super Bowl

Well, Providence would have to host it.

[Warpy]

12. Oh, I dunno, Foxborough might be OK

They just couldn't expect anybody from the city to get to it, not with the crush of traffic from elsewhere. Also, people would be ticked off that the hotel infrastructure is in Boston and Providence, not much around Foxborough but a few seedy places catering to truckers and local philanderers.

[Little Star]

19. Unless they build hotels out near Foxborough..

Maybe they could pull a Putin.

Seriously, I wouldn't mind seeing some decent hotels out Foxborough's way.

[VScott]

3. NO FUCKING WAY...

would I even begin to consider supporting having the Olympics here.

Whatever real or imagine benefits it would bring to the city (improvements in infrastructure and
public transportation most often cited), is just not worth the nightmare, hassles and costs it
would bring here. Geographically... it's an awful area to host it.

Of course the main impetus for this BS is coming from developers... most notably Bob Craft
(owner of the NE Patriots and Revolution), whom is scheming to get a downtown soccer stadium
out of it once the games are over.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

6. Bob Kraft is scum

In these parts you get stoned for saying that, but it's true.

[Little Star]

4. Has anyone on that committee ever tried to....

drive in or out of Boston? It's not easy, even after midnight, on any day. The trains aren't much better, busy, busy, busy at least where I live.

They gotta be out of their minds.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

9. It takes an hour to get through the O'Neill tunnel even at 10 o clock at night

I detest driving in or thru Boston. I will cut across to 95 to get around it if I'm going to New Hampshire.

[Retrograde]

15. Ah, but if you're on the IOC you have special lanes

reserved just for you and your buddies so you can zoom right past the masses. This was one of the requirements that made the Norwegians say no thanks.

[hifiguy]

11. Why not always hold the Summer Olympics

in Athens? They had them not long ago and it IS rather in keeping with tradition.

[olddots]

13. you are correct

The Greeks started it and they would probably benifit from the games returning to Athens although Walpole Mass might be a good site .

[GreatGazoo]

14. +10

If not Athens, then some other permanent host city which can re-use the venues every 4 years.

The Olympics have left debt and devastation in their path for decades. The stadium in Sarajevo is now a cemetery. Montreal is still paying for the 1976 games and has an empty stadium that costs them money just to keep standing.

[Angleae]

21. Because Greece can't afford it and no country is willing to pay for it if they can't host it.

[hifiguy]

22. They already have all the facilities.

They were built not ten years ago.

[Angleae]

23. Several of the facilities are abandoned and in disrepair and the security costs are enourmous.

http://summergames.ap.org/article/8-years-later-athens-olympic-venues-decay

[Odin2005]

25. That is what I think, too.

Winter Games should be at Lake Placid or in Switzerland.

[amandabeech]

26. Lake Placid is far too small for the modern Winter Games.

It was really tight for the 1980 games.

Now, you need more rink space for women's ice hockey and short track skating, and more snow space for the snowboard and specialty skiing events.

Some places in Switzerland can still hold the games. Salt Lake City was a good place, and many of the venues are in regular use for the public or as training sites for the U.S. team. And unlike many sites, there's always a lot of snow.

[davidn3600]

16. The demands that the IOC make has gotten completely ridiculous

These IOC members have gotten nuts. The demands they now make of host cities is insane. These people basically want to be treated like royalty and be pampered to with no expense spared.

It's no wonder the egalitarian-focused cultures of Europe are saying fuck off to these folks. Now the 2022 games only has China and Kazakhstan left.

[Wounded Bear]

17. I wonder why anybody would want to host the games, but...

then I remember that the Games are an excercise in competetive/cooperative back scratching by the .1%ers more than anything else. Nobody involved in the organizing really gives a shit about the games, it's all about the back-room money exchanges and boondoggles.

[Blue_Tires]

18. Why should Boston get it anyway?

I'll oppose that bid just on principle...

[TheCowsCameHome]

20. What the heck,

if you're going to be gridlocked in traffic for hours every day, why not make it days and days.

[Odin2005]

24. Olympics = Corporate shit-fest

[Logical]

27. Two teenagers shutting down a whole city is a positive point??? nt

[amandabeech]

28. Maybe the Olympic Committee is getting the message.

Here's an article from the Times indicating that some changes may be coming.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/20/sports/lack-of-suitors-for-winter-olympics-prompts-ioc-to-change-bidding-process.html

In its bid to make hosting the Olympics more enticing, and to avoid potentially difficult choices — off to Kazakhstan or back to Beijing in 2022? — the I.O.C. basically has become a salesman in an expensive suit asking, “How can we help you walk away with an Olympics today?”

The I.O.C. president, Thomas Bach, told me that it was nothing specific that prompted his organization to make public potential changes to the Olympics and Olympic governance that would, among other things, make bidding for the Olympics less daunting by making it cheaper and easier.

Bach said the 40 reform proposals the I.O.C. announced on Tuesday — which included changes to the bid process and an Olympic digital channel that could give Olympic sports broader exposure online — show that the organization is just trying to keep up with the changing times and protect its brand.


No details on whether the requirement for an exclusive traffic lane for the Olympic Committee would be eliminated, however.