In Chicago? If they don’t have the infrastructure, who does? Immense airports, highways for days, several stadia and arenas, loads of nearby colleges from which to borrow sporting facilities … when you say “infrastructure”, what do you mean?
Fwiw, I’m not visiting the USA while the authorities want to fingetprint me for going there, either. Nor am I alone.
Well played, Rio!
I heard it on the news…although Chicago would be able to provide a fairly compact venue, the strain on the housing and transportation resources was a cause for concern.
Much of our public transportation system has seen better days. When an Italian friend visited me over winter break in college, his reaction was “Chicago is one of the world’s great cities. But boy, does the El suck!”
Meh. We have a great public transportation system, all things considered*, and the traffic is much better than places like Los Angeles (1984 Olympics). Still, I’m glad we don’t have to deal with the hassle now.
- OK, the El is old but a whole lot better than many other US cities.
I don’t blame you…but barring a big change of heart from a big segment of the population, the fingerprinting will never go away.
Really? I’ve ridden the Metro (or whatever the hell they call it) in Rome. I thought our El system blew it away.
I was wondering if the relative difficulty in flying into the US (as discussed on an earlier thread here that I’m being too lazy to look up right now) would have any weight in the panel’s decision.
Yay Rio!
The US paranoia and hassle of visiting for many foreigners (visas, fingerprinting, profiling) was surely a factor.
I haven’t ridden the one in Rome, but I’ve used the systems in Paris, St. Petersburg (Russia), Madrid, Moscow, Novosibirsk, New York, the Bay Area, etc., and all except Novosibirsk blew Chicago’s away. (My Italian friend was from Milan, not Rome.) It’s slow and clunky, and even though there has been a fair amount of rehab done since I was in college (the discussion mentioned above took place in 1987), it still leaves much to be desired. I mean for chrissakes, why do El cars break down in the winter because of the cold? Is it not a surprise that it gets cold in Chicago in the winter? And how come I never had that problem in the dead of winter in Russia?
Another Italian friend explained Rome’s problems with expanding its metro system; every time they try, they run into ruins and have to excavate them. That’s not such a problem in Chicago.
Hear, hear.
Eva Luna, U.S. Immigration Paralegal with far too many brown (and other) clients who are harrassed unnecessarily while going about their normal daily business
Japan also fingerprints visitors, this won’t hurt their chances next time around methinks.
Odd thing about the fingerprinting: I’ve never met anybody who wants it, or even wants the stupid (and completely useless) air security nonsense. I live in a pretty conservative/libertarian area. It’s buearocracy that put this idiocy into play, and its hard to fight.
I think that unfortuntely, Obama’s personal appeal may have backfired. I won’t say it was somehow morally wrong, but it’s a little tacky for the President of the United States to go ona special trip overseas to chat up his hometown. And apparently, the ICC is not very big on tacky (unless it’s expensive presents and free hookers.) I understand why Obama would want it - I’m not blaming him for his actions, per se. But I don’t think he made a very good impression. You don’t see Putin (or his lacky Medvedev) or Hu Jintao doing that; I expect it made him appear weak and overshadowed Chicago’s real advantages.
That said, I don’t think it ultimately made a difference other than to give Obama a black eye, so it’s hardly his fault Chicago lost. I think Rio was the judges’ favorite (although Madrid would have been very nice) for a lot of reasons.
I seriously think Duran Duran influenced the voting.
I thought I’d been hearing on the news that Putin started it and that these days the ICC pretty much expects the big guns to show up.
Two things leap to mind here.
-
This is the end of baseball and softball in the Olympics. It was on death’s door to begin with and either Chicago or Tokyo were needed to try and bring it back.
-
After this and New York’s bid last time around I think it’s time U.S. cities start asking themselves if these bids are worth it. Bids are expensive and take up huge amounts of effort. The New York and Chicago bids were as solid as they are going to get and neither one even made it to the final two. With Brazil hosting the Olympics in 2016 the games will likely go to Europe and Asia in 2020 and 2024. There really seems to be no reason to waste the effort on more bids.
But it’s ok for the other heads of state to go on a special trip and do the same?
Rio’s win is America’s gain. Now Oprah can’t use a Chicago win to re-up on her contract in 2011 just to hang around with her self-absorbed talkfest on TV.
The voting tallies were released a little while ago. I think the action was always Rio and Chicago - Madrid actually won the first round, but after Chicago was out, most of its votes went to the Rio bloc.
What? It’s become normal for heads of state to lobby the IOC, which I think is ridiculous, but it happened for all four of the countries involved this time. The King of Spain went to lobby for Madrid!
Also, the Olympics are possibly the tackiest thing in the world.
This Chicagoan was rooting for Chicago.
I just think it would’ve been cool, for one thing, and surely worth a couple weeks of crowds.
The El would undoubtedly have gotten some refurbishing, roads upgraded, neighborhoods cleaned up, etc.; we’d have been left with a stronger infrastructure than before.
A lot of those against the Olympics argued that all the money it would take should instead be spent on education, fighting crime, and so forth. A noble thought, I guess, but if anybody really believes the money that would have been used to host the Olympics will now automatically be available to fix all of the city’s problems, I’m afraid they are rather deluded.
That said, I can’t feel bad about Rio getting the Games. I hope they shine.