What would a Boston Olympics mean for Newton?

by | Jan 9, 2015 | Newton | 4 comments

How do you feel about the prospect of Boston hosting the 2024 summer Olympics and what do you hope/fear/think it might mean for Newton?

4 Comments

  1. Nathan Phillips
    Nathan Phillips on January 9, 2015 at 9:23 am

    Newton should make lemonade out of lemons. Push permanent transit/ped/bike infrastructure funding to mitigate carmageddon, an investment that will pay off way beyond the olympics. Also, make a big push for Newtonites to benefit from the transportation and housing sharing economy – car share, bike share, ride share, house share, parking share. No previous olympics had these tools, and articles like this don’t seem to recognize the impact of the sharing economy: http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/01/boston-olympics-2024-summer

  2. Sallee Lipshutz
    Sallee Lipshutz on January 12, 2015 at 7:08 pm

    Sorry Nathan…lemonade can be cloying! When in Rome, the Olympics would be closer to their Greco-origin and Massachusetts taxpayers wouldn’t be re-learning the reality that there is no “free lunch” to share! I, for one, hope we don’t win this one!

  3. Jerry Reilly
    Jerry Reilly on January 12, 2015 at 7:37 pm

    Bring it on! I’d love for Boston to host a world party.

  4. Nathan Phillips
    Nathan Phillips on January 14, 2015 at 8:41 am

    Yesterday I was on the Esplenade and Memorial Drive, near BU/Harvard/MIT. It struck me that closing down Storrow and Memorial, and opening up the entire riverfront to connect with the universities, Harvard Square, Kendall Square, Kenmore Square, etc. would be a wonderful “Olympic Avenue”. The spare student housing and sporting facilities too. In fact, permanently closing off Storrow and Memorial thereafter would be the single best thing to happen to transform Boston and Cambridge to orient toward people, not cars, around the Charles River and its banks.