This morning we learned that Boston has made the United States Olympic Committee’s short list of potential host cities for the 2024 Summer Olympics, the Boston Globe reports.
Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. are apparently the other cities on the USOC’s list. And, of course, other countries will be in the mix as well to host so we’re still very early in the process.
Still, I’ve asked this question once before, but if Boston is selected exactly whose Heartbreak Hill will those Olympic runners be climbing anyway? So shouldn’t it be called the Boston-Newton Olympics?
And how would you feel about being in the middle of such a big event for a couple of weeks?
Hey maybe they could fund the DMU line (on the Worcester line) through Newton improving service, fund the rebuild of the commuter rail stops and accessibility of the greenline stations! It would be completely crazy if we got it but man it would be great!
Seriously, 128/90 becomes a parking lot when Obama visits. I can’t imagine the gridlock for two weeks. I seriously would rent my house and GET OUT OF TOWN!!!! How do the rest of us continue to work and live in such gridlock.
And renting your house for two weeks at well above market rate would be so awful because?
John, the Indigo line, West Station, and Grand Junction transfer is chump change. That has to happen without the Olympics. With the Olympics? Think Urban Ring, at a minimum. Not worth the pain of hosting, though.
Is the burning schooner really a campaign logo?
The Olympics have historically been an economic disaster for it’s host cities. Let’s hope San Francisco gets it.
What @Adam and @Terry said. I studied the Atlanta bid back in 94 (prepping for 96) and a friend of mine studied the Calgary bid. In both cases the host community significantly underestimated the investment required, and have never recognized the projected economic benefit.
I say bring it on … Shake this proper, buttoned-up, boring-ass town with some chaos, inconvenience and pomp. How fun is that.
What Terry and Chris said. Now that the Big Dig is behind us we are in search of new ways to blow taxpayer $?
Hoss is spot on about that logo. It may be graphically attractive… But a burning boat is a horrific image.
And by great I mean totally nuts…I don’t really care too much about traffic personally (cycling everywhere tends to do that) but it would create parking lots on the level of the blizzard of 78… unless they plan to build on the harbor it would be interesting to see the plans for facilities. I believe previous plans have involved using the college facilities in some way (Harvard Stadium for opening ceremonies anybody?)…Now Winter Olympics, that could work…
If Metro-Boston can’t handle predictable business interruption with a short-term Olympics and the commuting difficulties, we will be crushed if the unpredictable occurs. Case in point was Hurricane Sandy. Remember Obama and Gov Christie meeting in New Jersey viewing the terrible damage? Imagine if large parts of Boston’s Financial district, the Seaport District, North End and even areas near the Pru were for a time overtaken by floods. Metro Boston has for the most part prepared for major business interruption with increased capacity to work remotely. That CAN’T be an issue.
I lived in LA the year they had the Olympics. After predictions of disastrous traffic, etc. it actually turned out to be pretty cool. The influx of people was balanced by the lack of the usual tourists and business travelors, people chose that time to leave town for their vacations (and, as said above, rent them out for outrageous rates).
I’ll never forget the thrill of stopping for a light on my way to work only to find the Yugoslavian bike team next to me, out for a practice spin. And being at the men’s marathon, seeing spectators stay until the end to cheer on the stragglers – the last runner smiling and waving, getting big cheers for hanging in there.
So while I’m not thrilled with having the Olympics here, I’m not worried it will be Armageddon.
mgwa is correct. The whole traffic thing is just wrong. I was at Atlanta and Vancouver. No problems. The Summer Olympics are in July/August when all the students are not here. Most people don’t rent cars. It’s also spread out. Remember how crazy everyone got about the Democratic National Convention and it was a ghost town? Same thing. Traffic isn’t the issue. The issue is do we make money or not? I don’t know the answer to that.
While I lived in Northern California at the time, I attended the LA Games in ’84, and I’d have to say that city actually embraced fairly well and survived its Olympics. There were plenty of naysayers, if I remember correctly. I didn’t see extreme traffic… at the time, smog was more of a city-wide issue than the Olympics ever were. And Memorial Stadium has been used twice now for the Olympics (’32 and ’84), so I’d say that primary venue has been far from a waste for that city. Other than easily-predicted traffic for a few weeks, I fail to see any true, factual reason it should NOT be here (other than the usual NIMBY reasons any city wrestles with ad nauseum). Short of the city tearing down historical building or parks to create a “village” I’d be inclined to be excited for the world to see our home town for something other than the Red Sox or our now-famous marathon tragedy.
I think the logo looks like the olympic flame against an ocean wave. Perhaps Boston could be a plausible venue for this event with lots of college campuses and sports facilities. Why not?
I’m not worried about the traffic either, but only because we would have years to plan around it and either make accommodations or get out of dodge with a fistful of rental cash.
My main concern would be the economic impact, and whether it would be a boon for Boston or a waste of time – as stated above with the studies of Atlanta anf
I agree with those who aren’t terrified of traffic for a few weeks in the summer. Kim is right to remind us about how the predictions of traffic Armageddon failed to materialize during the DNC. Colleen is right about the logo.
The litmus test for me would be: Would we emerge with significantly improved infrastructure — especially mass transit and workforce housing — after the events are long gone?
STOP RUINING EVERYTHING NIMBYS
You oppose everything because of your damn taxes.
You oppose bike trails
You oppose casinos…that generate jobs and $$$ to the state.
You oppose anything in your backyard.
an olympics would be mostly in venues that already exist.
A new atheltes village between Allston-tolls , CSX yard and Harvard Stadium..could be built maybe on air rights over the pike….as well new greenways/bikelanes could be developed. City hall plaza could be redesigned…..- a olympic stadium could be built on the wide charles river basin with pedestrian ramps to the hatch shell area and MIT.
(charles MGH) station could be completed with the Blue-Red connector. Maybe even the North South Commuter rail link could be done. and/or a trolley or people mover between N-South Station..other olympic village housing could be UMASS Boston and Marina Bay Quincy by Squantum…park. with ferries to and from the city on a regular basis
a new ferry from watertown to museum of science with stops at some of the boathouses..could be built….
The biggest takeaway from the games would be fixing up the broken MBTA system and finishing projects like the medford green line or even extending to Anderson Woburn
which is better imho.
we would gain a lot more worldwide notariety and more people would visit boston
We could use the olympic stadium as a future fenway park and design it to look like a new fenway park….A new soccer stadium could be built in the area for the revs and the retractable roof stadium on the charles river could be shaped like a seashell…and could host a future superbowl.
we could use the olympics as an excuse to work on fixing up some of the urban areas….like roxbury , dorchester, etc etc.
a lot of good could come from the first big WALKABLE olympics……
walking and public transit could be encourage to mitigate traffic issues.
I think it would be w in win for all.
I was about to respond to “Jeff Dearman’s” post until I realized that there is no “Jeff Dearman” who lives in Newton.