No Olympics in 2012!

The BBQ Pit
41

Hey! I take umbrage.

Why the hell would they “narrow it down” to two of the cities that could least accomodate the Olympics? S.F. and NYC are both, essentially, islands: cramped, crowded, no wide-open spaces. Terrible traffic even without the Olympics. Both terrorist targets, both hard to police and protect. Both business centers with lots of people who have to goddam get to work, outta my way, you idiot.

I plan to be dead by 2012 anyway, but if I’m not, I plan to get as far away form NYC as I can.

42

Sorry, I was thinking of the '89 World Series.

43

Eve, I didn’t think you drive to begin with.

Nevertheless, I see we’re on the same sheet of music, here.

44

I plan to be hiding in the woods in 2012. Mark my words, '12 will be a very bad year. You’ll have worse stuff to worry about than the Olympics.
My pet goldfish warned me about it. :wink:

45

Here is a link to the Houston Press parody of the 2012 olympics, if they were held in Houston.

http://www.houstonpress.com/issues/2002-08-29/news.html/1/index.html

46

Every Olympics ever held has lost money. All of them, except Los Angeles 1984 - and that only because L.A. was the only city that wanted to hold it and robbed the IOC.

Sydney lost billions. Atlanta lost money, Barcelona lost money, Seoul lost money, and Athens and Beijing will lose money (and a few Beijingers will probably get shot in the bargain.) Montreal (1976) is still paying the debt off.

If San Francisco holds the Olympics it (meaning the municipal and state government together) will lose BILLIONS of dollars. Not millions; billions. It would be a financial diaster, just as it always is. Yes, it’s a great party, worth a two week disruption. Do you really want to pay higher taxes for most of the rest of your life to pay for a two week party?

47

I was mildly concerned when the D.C.-Baltimore bid was rejected, but I got over it quickly. I read in the Washington Post that the reasons ranged from anger at the politicians’ eagerness for war with Iraq, the headaches and expense, and the fact that Juan Antonio Samaranch was questioned quite extensively about corruption in the IOC. I say good riddance; the officiating at the Olympics is a scandal anyways.

48

Add me to the list of San Francisco dopers who is rooting for NY.

Osiris, I understand that Istanbul is still on the potential bidders list for 2012.

49

Alright, time for a contrarian view.

I want the Games in NYC. I think the idea is fantastic. Really. Of course it costs oodles of money, and of course it will be inconvenient. But crowd management? People, NYC ownscrowd management.

A small example: two years ago, OpSail arrived in NYC for the July 4. My parents came from DC to see the ships sail up the Hudson, as did hundreds of thousands of other folks. And by dusk, every blessed one of them (it seemed) had trundled crosstown to the East River to watch the fireworks. (I swear to God, if Manhattan were floating that day it’d have capsized.) So this was one of the more intense July 4 crowds.

And after the fireworks were over, as I walked my folks around to see downtown’s lights, everyone disappeared in about 20 minutes. The folks couldn’t believe it. In DC, it’d have taken hours to move that many people away.

True, that’s downtown, which has ludicrously redundant transit service. But it’s important to realize that New York is actually among the few cities on earth that can handle ginormous crowds without really noticing.

Another lesson to remember is from LA in '84. Everyone predicted that the city would be complete gridlock. People wrung their hands for years over that one. In the event? Oh, not much at all. Traffic moved beautifully, because lots of Angelanos left. And that’s precisely what will happen in New York, provided they’re sensible and have the Games in late August when the city’s a ghost town anyway.

And I like it because it gives NYC an excuse for some needed projects. I’m not a big backer of an Olympic stadium on the west side - really, we could host it while building almost no athletic facilities - but hey, that’s part of the process. (I have no illusions about sports stadiums as money-spinners - they aren’t.) I do prefer having sports facilities in the city rather than New Jersey, which is the current option. Additional housing will finally develop Long Island City in the density that will really help. And an extended 7 train will serve a booming area on the West Side.

(Actually, if I really had my drothers - and I’m probably completely insane - I’d have plunked a Memorial Olympic Stadium on/near the WTC site. A lovely re-use, dedicated to internationalism…and great transit connections to boot.)

The idea that the money would go to other purposes instead is, I suspect, a red herring. Everyone would love to think that the money would be spent on their pet project, but the likelihood is - no. It’d sink down the drain for something else.

Besides, why not have the Olympics in the most international city on earth?

50

I repeat Oxy. Not from here. Crazy. Both.

51

go NYC!!!

we in SF will love to watch!

52

Go, go, go NYC! It’d be a nightmare here in the Bay Area.

(But here’s a local San Jose columnist explaining why she thinks neither city will get it.)

53

I may be crazy (OK, definately) , but at least I’m not scared. Come on! What’s an extra 2 million people to this town? I could ignore that many people twice before leaving my apartment in the morning.

I don’t go to Times Square on New Years (commonly referred to as hell on Earth), but I always have a great time in NYC on that night. I know where the tourists are gonna be, and I know how to avoid them. If I do run into them, I know how to ignore them. A New Yorker’s greatest tool is being able to totally disregard millions of other humans at a clip. It has nothing to do with being mean, it’s a practical neccesity. There aint enough time in the day to acknowledge everyone you come across. So the invisible masses will bulge at the side, their still invisible as long as I got my “Somebody else’s problem” field generator on.

Bring it. I aint scared.

DaLovin’ Dj

54

Well, You guys should ask for some help from ol’ Dick Lamm.

http://2002.ksl.com/news-3027i.php?p=0

Hehe sometimes I love my city. “You have won the Winter Olympics!” "Um, thanks, but no thanks, go talk to Salt Lake ". And fortunately the I.O.C. is still pissed off enough that we will probably never have to worry about having them in my lifetime.