NEW YORKERS RELIEVED WITH NYC2012 OLYMPIC ELIMINATION

Subject: NY'ers Relieved with Olympic Elimination
Date: 7/6/2005 7:56:04 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: kitchen@hellskitchen.net
Sent from the Internet (Details)


NEW YORKERS RELIEVED WITH NYC2012 OLYMPIC ELIMINATION

Many NYC residents are relieved that NYC2012 has been put out of its
miserable existence. If they had won, then every single city need --
whether education, health care, housing or transportation -- would become
secondary to the games.

We can only hope that Mayor Bloomberg sticks to his word that 2012 will be
the ONLY time for a NYC Olympic Bid. New Yorkers have tired of
misrepresentations and platitudes masquerading as bad real estate projects.
Whether it was the stadium on Manhattan's West Side, the Ratner Arena in
Brooklyn or for other venues, the Olympic bid was used as a stalking horse
for bad development and bad public policy.

Over the years, the Olympics have lost sight of sports, instead becoming an
excuse for cities to assume gargantuan debt, create massive displacement
and become marketing machines. "Stronger, Higher, Faster" (the Olympic
motto) no longer applies to runners, swimmers and gymnasts.

In 1996, approximately 30,000 people were displaced in Atlanta. In 1992,
reportedly 720,000 people were moved in Seoul. So far in anticipation of
Beijing's 2008 Olympics, approximately 300,000 individuals have been swept
out of the way.* Displacement and human rights violations also occurred in
Athens and Sydney. Thirty years later, Montreal is still paying off its
Olympic debt. The Athens games have put Greece in a precarious financial
position.

Whichever city ends up with the games, the IOC must take responsibility for
the burden it creates around the world by creating unreasonable social and
legacy expectations. Sports can be wonderful, but should not justify bad
government. Nor should bad government officials (Mayors and Council members
alike) use sports as justification for bad policy.

While both Paris and Madrid recently held Olympic celebrations with over 1
million attendees each, New York could hardly muster a few hundred
supporters. New Yorkers may love sports, but were not impressed with the
Bloomberg/Doctoroff fiasco. Let their dream stay a dream. (and with
condolences to London)

* Source: Center on Housing Rights and Evictions.


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